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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5866170" data-attributes="member: 20741">Ok. I would answer that I feel well qualified to answer this question. I currently play in 3 Pathfinder Adventure Paths via Skype and run another. In three of the APs in which I play, the game is hosted with some players live and at least two players who are remote. In the game I run, all five players are remote.We have been doing this now, multiple times per week, for two years.First off:The Broad Brush Strokes 1 - Use Skype. Don't mess with Google Hangouts, Teamspeak or Vent. Overall, Skype is the best service for this application.2- No, you are not going to run any of this wirelessly if you plan to do this successfully over the long haul. If that's your plan -- stop right now.  Gaming remotely is a high bandwidth application and this requires a wired internet connection on both the host and player's end. There is no persistent margin of error here. Run a Cat 7/RJ45 twisted-pair LAN cable to the table. If you want good fidelity audio +high res video, then make sure this is a wired game or just don't bother, okay? 3- You will require a decent omnidirectional microphone at your table. I recommend the Blue Snowball or, better still, the Blue Yeti II set in omnidirectional mode. 4- You require not simply ONE Webcam, but TWO webcams. You should be looking at getting two Microsoft Lifecam Studio cams. While they each have 1080p sensors, with default software they will run at 720p. Newegg has them for about $45 each.5- You need a 6 foot tall microphone boom. You will NOT be using this for a microphone, you will instead use it to mount a webcam over the table to view the battlemat. You want a boom as this allows you to pull back and put the camera in close to the action as required. DO NOT attempt to do this any of this without a microphone boom as you will be very unhappy with the results and might say something inane like "don't try to use a battlemat as it doesn't work".  Yes, it works BRILLIANTLY but you need to put the effort in -- and you need the hardware and software to do it, too.You can eBay a microphone boom for less than $20 or get one at a local musician's supply store for under $30. Either way, it's essential gear. You NEED this, I can't stress it strongly enough.6 - If you want more than one person in the videoconference, someone will have to have a Skype premium account. As it sounds right now, it's just you and the remote player so Skype is free. That's a plus.The Other Techie Considerations Now, we get to the techie part. This sounds intimidating but it actually isn't. Take a breather and read the below a few times. It's actually pretty easy. Here is the deal: In order to do this effectively and successfully, it requires 2 cameras and two video feeds on the host's end as well as a camera boom and an omindirectional microphone. It should also have one monitor at the table and a computer with a fair bit of VOOM. If you have an additional computer with moderate computing power (even a laptop will do) then your broadcast machine will not need that much voom. (As you will use the weaker machine for Skype and the stronger machine for Xsplit/encoding). A robust i5 or i7 machine is capable of doing both simultaneously.You need two cams and a monitor at the table because without it, it isn't like the player is there -- for you or for him/her. But using two cams allows you to use ALL of this together to make your game work.Camera #1On Camera #1: You use one of your 720p cameras which will be broadcasting the entire table of players over Skype video + audio to your remote player. His or her cam will be broadcasting their cam to the monitor placed on your tabletop where all the players can see him or her. When you talk to the remote player? You look at their monitor and see their face all zoomed in at 23" resolution. It's just like he or she is there.Skype does not permit more than one camera from the same location. While you CAN attempt to hook up another computer with Skype and broadcast as a third person in that video conference, this is sub-optimal. Firstly, Skype will not work with 3 members in the video conference without Skype Premium and even if you have Skype Premium, when you are trying to send multiple video feeds from the same IP, it will start to compress your signal. You don't want that.Camera #2So here is what you do. You create a free broadcaster account on one of the following three services: Justin.TV/Twitch, Ustream or on PWN3d.  I would suggest Pwn3d as a 1st choice, Justin/Twitch as a second and Ustream only as a last resort.  All three of these streaming services are FREE and do not cost you anything. The best overall picture quality is Pwn3d and the worst is Ustream. Twitch can be made to be pretty decent.What you will broadcast to that streaming service is the video feed (and you can send the audio feed too if you like for a non-participant's/viewers use, but no actual participant in the game should ever be listening to the streamed audio - *always* mute it) from your cam mounted on your microphone boom over the battlemat. Your remote player will have that feed running in a window (or better still, on another monitor hooked up to their computer).So, from the player's perspective, ideally, they see on one monitor the video feed of all of the players in the game like they are there at the table via Skype. You can mount the cam either up high or just on top of the monitor looking over the table as it they were sitting there. They will spend most of their time looking at that Skype video conference feed while they are looking at the rest of the players. It's just like they are there.On the second monitor, they will simply look at the cam mounted to the microphone boom over the battlemat. This cam will provide a GREAT view of the action and is, in fact, a BETTER view than if you were there physically at the table if you use your boom correctly. (I have done this for two years multiple times a week -- yes -- I'm dead serious).Die rolls are all on the honor system. You roll the bones and read em as they fall. The end.The Incredible Power of XsplitThe picture quality you stream to Twitch/Pwn3d  will be in HD resolution if you use a free software encoding tool to do this for you. It's currently in beta and it is called Xsplit. The power of Xsplit is awesome and the learning curve on the software is surprisingly flat. In about one hour, you will know all about the software you will ever need to. Thereafter, when you game, you fire up your machine(s), make the Skype call, fire up Xsplit, hit broadcast and you are done.  Then you just game. The only real change you will have with your gaming style is having to periodically adjust the camera boom over that battlemat.  Otherwise, everything else will work as you normally game without too many difficulties. There is no real lag-time or quality issues using Skype - even internationally -  as long as both of you are on broadband, using WIRED connections and your upload isn't being throttled. Hiccups will happen from time to time, but it's no biggie.  There can be some lag time with the streaming service video cam, but if you are not recording the session using Xsplit, the delay is about 5-7 seconds, tops. You get used to it. You will find that your live streaming to Twitch using Xsplit is near 720p HD in quality and will be rock solid.    The picture quality is jaw droppingly good. The Results: In a word AWESOMEI play like this in all of my AP games now and the only gaming I do face-to-face is now at PFS sessions. Frankly, I prefer gaming remotely. I don't have any travel time issues at all. I am able to game at home during weeknights (not just weekends) with minimal disruptions and the quality of the game is just like I'm there. It's not "like" real gaming -- it IS real gaming. I see more of the battlemat and "the mini game" than if I was there in person. Yes, *really*.The only real downside is that I can't throw in $5 and share the pizza. That is, literally, the only downside. I smoke in the comfort of my basement at my computer desk when I want and there is no non-smoker issues involved for me at all. My wife isn't wondering where I am or complaining that I wasn't there when this, that, or the other things came up. I get up with my wireless headset and go off to tuck the kids in bed when I need to. I can step away and throw laundry in the dryer when I need to and best of all -- when the game is over? I'm *home*.  I didn't rush around to clean up the place for people coming over, I didn't spend 1.5 hours to and from the game. I play from my computer room -- which is where I would probably be if I wasn't gaming, anyways! If I'm hosting the game, after the game is over I take down my folding table and put the camera boom back into the upright position. That's it; that's all.  Ta-Da! Gaming this way, I actually have enough time to game multiple times per week like I was in high school again and it was 30 years ago! It takes some time to do this properly and it does take an investment of a few hundred bucks in gear. A good microphone plus a boom is about $100 to $130 and two good webcams will set you back another $100.  Assuming you do not need to add more computer gear after that, you are golden.I cannot recommend this setup highly enough and I am a HUGE fan of this type of gaming. It doesn't simply work -- it ROCKS.</blockquote>

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