Project Sigil Project Sigil Updates: D&D's 3d Virtual Tabletop

Project Sigil is the upcoming 3D VTT from WotC. From various Gen Con reports --

• Creative Mode lets you prep on the fly or modify pre-made content
• Assets from Baldur's Gate 3 are included, such as the characters as digital miniatures
• Minis have multiple poses but are not animated
• Spells are animated though
• Uses Unreal Engine 5 (or 4, I've seen different reports)
• Launch on PC, mobiles and consoles later
• Closed Beta this fall--sign up here
• DDB subscribers will have greater access

This is the 'creative mode' toolbox, apparently!​

 

[mamba]

You forgot what the asset import tangent was about from back in post 8. It wasn't about an "exact mini".

no, I am aware of where it started, I replied directly to that post, and we are only two or so posts removed from that reply…

Having the "exact mini" is an appeal to players not the gm & those players have zero influence or effort in choosing using or actually running the VTT at the table.

well, if it is an appeal to the players while it is the GM selecting the VTT with zero influence from the players, then not having an import feature is a non-issue…

 

[sevenbastard]

Guys we are getting way off track here. The one feature that will make this the most successful VTT ever is super powerful scheduling software.

I want AI driven integration that tracks my groups movements, monitors text messages, emails, and phone calls to identify potential conflicts and solve them to ensure a weekly game hapens.

I'm taking next level invasive. If it notices Sarah is still at work and traffic is bad it orders a pizza for her kids so she can hit game time without making dinner. If it sees Joe is making progress on a dating app it send his date humiliating photos to ensure he stays single, if Jane is worried about her family in a conflict zone and too distracted to play it figures out world peace so she can make Wednesdays game.

 

[bedir than]

The Chromebooks issued to my kids are so locked down that they would never be able to play with the VTT on them regardless of whether they would otherwise be capable of running the system.

It's not that I expect the school computers to not be locked down.
It's that school use of Chromebooks has brought them towards the mainstream. Many are now familiar with the cheap system that's fine for browsing, office duty and light gaming.

I'm also selfish. I'm on Lenovo Duet 3 (with the RAM upgrade) and it's been fine for DnD Beyond and Arena.

 

[tetrasodium]

no, I am aware of where it started, I replied directly to that post, and we are only two or so posts removed from that reply…


well, if it is an appeal to the players while it is the GM selecting the VTT with zero influence from the players, then not having an import feature is a non-issue…

It's a gigantic issue because without that feature the gm is incapable of importing tokens∆ from sources other than the wotc store and wotc is coming incredibly late to the whole VTT thing.

∆you know the term used by actual vtts and their users for years. Just like it's used o describe bundles of those tokens for years in humble bumbles like this this and more. The term token is used to differentiate from minis because some vtts actually include the potential of using physical minis at the table in conjunction with those digital tokens...

Spoiler: like so

 

[mamba]

It's a gigantic issue because without that feature the gm is incapable of importing tokens∆ from sources other than the wotc store and wotc is coming incredibly late to the whole VTT thing.

minor hickup at most, also I thought we were talking 3d models, not 2d. 2d is a no-brainer.

Also, it was talking about minis, not tokens. Did use the word assets but in context it is clearly about minis

If it doesn't allow some form of asset import to cover custom or non-MM monsters, I suspect this will be DOA.

If they were really smart, they'd be working with Wizkids to have all the digital miniature models for D&D ready to put into this thing

seems like I need to remind you of what that post actually said

 

[tetrasodium]

minor hickup at most, also I thought we were talking 3d models, not 2d. 2d is a no-brainer.

And yet such a trivial feature confirmation aimed at the dm equivalent of balmer's developers push is utterly absent and all we have are player focused stuff.

Also, it was talking about minis, not tokens. Did use the word assets but in context it is clearly about minis

minis" are a physical object &not something that can be imported

seems like I need to remind you of what that post actually said

"Digital miniature models" might as well say .STL files(from WizKids), but that too would be another VTT user/operator (the DM) focused feature that doesn't fit with the exclusive player focus we have seen for this VTT.

 

[mamba]

And yet such a trivial feature confirmation aimed at the dm equivalent of balmer's developers push is utterly absent and all we have are player focused stuff.

they show off the 3d features of a 3d VTT, not its ability to import 2d tokens and maps, that already is a given

minis" are a physical object &not something that can be imported

I guess that is why they were called assets and digital miniatures in the OP. If me abbreviating that to minis in my reply causes confusion to you.... it should be obvious that you cannot import physical minis, so not sure what you are even complaining about at that point

 

[Cergorach]

minis" are a physical object &not something that can be imported

"Digital miniature models" might as well say .STL files(from WizKids), but that too would be another VTT user/operator (the DM) focused feature that doesn't fit with the exclusive player focus we have seen for this VTT.

Minis are 3d objects, thus 3d objects can be properly 3d scanned, and with some work converted to STL files.

There are also a TON of 3rd parties, kickstarters, patreons and STL sites that provide high quality STLs.

Now, getting those STLs from something to print to something to use in a 3D VTT might take some work, quite a bit of work actually. How much you spend on it, will translate to the quality. And then we also have an unpainted 3D model... You need to 'paint' it digitally (or import it in color via an expensive 3D scanner)...

This explains how to convert an STL to a 3D file useable in the Foundry VTT 3D module...

Why am I explaining this? Because you can do all this yourself for use in your own game, you just can't share it. So just getting a small range of STLs (or 3D scanned minis) into a 3D VTT is going to take oodles of time. Especially because the average DM/player isn't all that familiar with STLs and Blender...

As you see, the quality isn't that great, especially not compared to what you see from BG3... You need to buy the original files, spend time converting/painting it. How much is your time worth? At what point do you go: "Here have my money!" for a bunch of official HQ 3D files for your D&D 3D VTT?

And you can say: "We'll just reuse mini X for mini Y! It'll be fine!". Then why the heck are you playing in a 3D VTT? Just go 2D, you can make tokens easily from just the art of the monster, heck there are HUGE 2D token packs out there. Official ones for Pathfinder, etc.

 

[ECMO3]

They also have the people from DDB and hired significant staff. So it's more likely to be successful.

Had .... I think most of the people that WOTC got when they bought DND Beyond got laid off or left.

 

[ECMO3]

Uhh... No .. 110% of the work involved in preparing for and running the VTT tends to fall exclusively on the GM's shoulders on top of the GM's usual responsibilities just for running the game. This is a VTT made for players.

I don't think this is necessarily more work.

I use maps and the encounter builder quite a bit and I find it takes less preparation time than doing that stuff on paper right from scratch.

Now if the new 3D VTT is not simple to use you will be correct.