I'd like to let everyone know about DiceCAM, which should be very interesting to the maptool/dicetool community.
The DiceCAM is a device that lets you use real dice in your computer games. It is a hardwood dice box with a custom webcam installation. When you roll dice into the box, the DiceCAM interprets your roll, and passes the results to your game. DiceCAM works with standard dice and with polyhedral dice as well. If you have non-standard dice, you can train the DiceCAM to recognize them.
Check out our website or our facebook page. We'll be launching a kickstarter project in the near future, and I'll update this posting when that happens.
Cheers,
Eugene Girard
DiceCAM Inventor
DiceCAM
Moderators: dorpond, trevor, Azhrei
Re: DiceCAM
That sounds kinda cool... How does this interface? Does it simply produce a series of digits? Is there some way to teach the software that those digits should go into MapTool's chat window?
Re: DiceCAM
Not that I'm a stickler for this, but it would be neat if it could interface with Maptool in a way that verified your dice roll (rather than just typing it into the chat window). It's not that I don't trust my players...I just don't trust my players. 
Re: DiceCAM
@Azhrei: That's a good question. Since MapTool is open source, we could "teach" DiceCAM to produce output any way we want;) The simplest, as you mentioned, would be to add rolls to the chat window... "Gene rolled 18[D20]". Simple, easy.
The DiceCAM could also provide an image of the die, or a video feed of the die roll (for those who are suspicious, like @VHex;) This could be displayed into a custom window, or show up when you hover your mouse over the "18[D20]" text in your chat. (I expect that some extra code would be needed to make the chat window understand tooltips or roll-overs, but that's not too hard.)
But the approach I want to see is for rulesets that implement the whole game, so in a 4E game the rule-bot can figure out that my attack is D20+8vsAC, against a dragon with AC24, and doing D8+4 damage. After selecting the attack, I can roll my D20 and my D8, and the system figures out that I did indeed hit the dragon for 7 points of damage. That would be sweet;)
The DiceCAM could also provide an image of the die, or a video feed of the die roll (for those who are suspicious, like @VHex;) This could be displayed into a custom window, or show up when you hover your mouse over the "18[D20]" text in your chat. (I expect that some extra code would be needed to make the chat window understand tooltips or roll-overs, but that's not too hard.)
But the approach I want to see is for rulesets that implement the whole game, so in a 4E game the rule-bot can figure out that my attack is D20+8vsAC, against a dragon with AC24, and doing D8+4 damage. After selecting the attack, I can roll my D20 and my D8, and the system figures out that I did indeed hit the dragon for 7 points of damage. That would be sweet;)
DiceCAM lets you use real dice in your computer games.
Re: DiceCAM
It's official! We're ready to roll... (pun fully intended)
As of today, you can order a DiceCAM from our Kickstarter project page. There are big discounts on these orders, and we would really appreciate your support. There's also a nice video there that shows the DiceCAM in action.
Check it out, and if you feel inclined, please share it with your friends. We're also on Facebook.
And, thanks for your support.
As of today, you can order a DiceCAM from our Kickstarter project page. There are big discounts on these orders, and we would really appreciate your support. There's also a nice video there that shows the DiceCAM in action.
Check it out, and if you feel inclined, please share it with your friends. We're also on Facebook.
And, thanks for your support.
DiceCAM lets you use real dice in your computer games.