Microsoft Surface used for D&D

[Hawke]

I know it's slow now, but I would imagine that's what happens with a proof-of-concept... I imagine dice would be optional and much faster/cooler in the initial release... as well as the multiple people using it at once being fun/cool looking.

If you saw the original surface demo, I bet you could just print off identifying stickers to place on the bottom of any of your existing minis and immediately use them in game.

The Rouse find employment with them????

 

[El Mahdi]

That looks really cool, especially for just a proof of concept. Not bad at all.

Now, if it could have an electronic paper surface so it doesn't look overly video-gamey, that would make it just about perfect.

Well, maybe if it also had 3D holographic display of terrain, buildings, figures, etc. - then it would be perfect. Something like an arcade video game I saw in the 90's (just can't remember what it was called).

(Does anyone remember the name of an arcade game in the 90's that had a horizontal surface and an almost holographic, 3D display? It actually looked like the characters in the game were walking around on top of the display surface, and you could almost pass your hand through them.)

 

[darkwing]

Though the question might be what happens if you fall off the table?

Your gaming buddies will laugh at you.

 

[AllisterH]

Replace the dice roller and miniatures with actual dice and physical miniatures and this speeds up the thing quickly.

Hell, get rid of the actual movement of the dire wolf and you get even more speed savings...although you might want to keep that due to fog of war/invisibility

 

[Relique du Madde]

Tooo bad it's not GSL compliant. The people who made the video should have used OGL rules that way Wizards can't give them a Cease and Desist.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Replace the dice roller and miniatures with actual dice and physical miniatures and this speeds up the thing quickly.

Hell, get rid of the actual movement of the dire wolf and you get even more speed savings...although you might want to keep that due to fog of war/invisibility

This, though it would be cool if by the time this kind of tech is cheap enough for general retail use the dice and minis would be enabled to interact with the computer.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

For just being a proof-of-concept exercise and not intended as a saleable application all the nitpicking is quite meaningless. The very concept is Hell-On-Jets cool. The first time I found out about the existence and development of this technology I said that it was where the future of RPG's was at. WotC has been aiming at this repeatedly (and falling short unfortunately) since thier initial description of what E-tools was intended to be.

Seriously, this thing is like the Scarlett Johansson of gaming technology and you guys are whining that you hear she eats crackers in bed.

 

[falcarrion]

The stickers on the minatures and the cubes used on the video have fiducials printed on them.
If you take the maptools and add the fiducal for the mapping and minatures and you have a great gaming tool.
Take a look at the you tube videos on the surface table to see what the the fiducals can do. I like to refer to them as fids...lol


Something fiducal this way comes.

 

[Dannager]

And, of course, it turns out that Penny Arcade was behind it all along!

Penny Arcade - A list of things

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

And, of course, it turns out that Penny Arcade was behind it all along!

Penny Arcade - A list of things

That does not surprise me. When those two say something, there are a great many people who start taking notes... Mostly tech and creative people who are working on the bleeding edge.

It looks very nice but... why don't we just play a videogame? We can't feel the roll of the dice, it becomes harder for the DM to adjust things on the fly (let's say a player decides to use a power to blow down a wall, this becomes a lot harder to adjust then a plain old board).

The DM screen seemed to be color-coded in some way. Specifically, I think it was terrain variation and walls. I'm willing to bet you could change how a given square in the grid was treated on the fly. Changing the graphic would take longer, unless there are icons you can overlay or something like that.