Video as Map Background.

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Full Bleed
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Video as Map Background.

Post by Full Bleed »

I saw this requested/mentioned on the FG site and thought I'd carry the idea over here for discussion.

I've never thought of or seen this idea before... probably because it's not a particularly practical idea without content. But someone has taken the bull by the horns and is producing animated content.

Take a look at it in practice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkVVLYdJ8oM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSAasp4IQAk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKgYgt96myc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyTwHBfzBA


I have to think that if there was more support for it in the most used VTT's, more content will come. Heck, screen-capping top-down videos from various games, for example, could be used if the application(s) supported it.

Anything like this possible in the current MT engine?
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aliasmask
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by aliasmask »

I've put web based gifs in frames but doesn't work for maps or tokens.

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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Full Bleed »

aliasmask wrote:
Mon May 21, 2018 7:57 pm
I've put web based gifs in frames but doesn't work for maps or tokens.
I know it won't work with MT as it is now... I was just wondering if there might be some possible support, architecturally, for a video underlay that would allow for animated maps.

Here is another sample:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veq9PZBOV7E
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Phergus »

They are pretty.

The Patreon page.

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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Full Bleed »

Phergus wrote:
Wed May 23, 2018 11:38 am
They are pretty.

The Patreon page.
Hard to justify supporting the product if I can't find a VTT that can use it. ;)

But given how well his Patreon is doing, I'd say that there is definitely a demand for it.
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Phergus »

At the base level you get still images for VTTs. Not bad at $1 a piece. Says they are 35x20 grid cells in size.

I didn't realize there were that many people out there using a TV as their gaming tabletop and are just displaying images with some image viewing/painting app.

While I think the video background would be cool I doubt there would ever be enough general variety to meet the map needs of a GM that creates his or her own adventures. Essentially you would be limited to creating adventures to match whatever maps he has created.

I guess if there were one or more VTTs that could use them then more content creators would arise to fill that need.

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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Jagged »

That's a strange grid size. Is there a reason for that? Something to do with TV format?

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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Phergus »

Jagged wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 3:18 am
That's a strange grid size. Is there a reason for that? Something to do with TV format?
Probably. The videos are 1920x1080 (1.77 aspect) and 35:20 is pretty close at 1.75.

He mentions Roll20 on the Patreon page and I think their default is 70 px/grid which would make for a reasonable map size.

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Re: Video as Map Background.

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Jagged wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 3:18 am
That's a strange grid size. Is there a reason for that? Something to do with TV format?
Yeah... it's TV focused right now. VTT support might change that. But that's not so far off the ratios used in traditional poster maps and map packs (which tend to be rectangular.)
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Oryan77 »

I was actually just looking at these maps the other day. There are two different companies doing this that I'm aware of.

This guy from Reddit also created a concept engine just to show that it is possible to use these maps in a VTT environment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqL_sNQMb70

I was wondering how much juice you would need to actually run something like this if you were to use lighting with FoW. It's difficult enough as it is to run a high res static map with lots of objects and VBL.

Those maps certainly blew me away though. I love the little added details like birds flying around.

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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by JamzTheMan »

Ya, it would be pretty cool to add videos as a background map........
Spoiler
Image
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Full Bleed »

JamzTheMan wrote:
Tue May 29, 2018 11:44 pm
Ya, it would be pretty cool to add videos as a background map........
Spoiler
Image
:shock:

Oooo... That's just mean! ;)

You gotta give us more than that!
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by Jagged »

JamzTheMan wrote:
Tue May 29, 2018 11:44 pm
Ya, it would be pretty cool to add videos as a background map........
Cool.

Would we need to support grids with weird ratios?

Also, did it zoom and pan okay?

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Re: Video as Map Background.

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Jagged wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 11:53 am
Would we need to support grids with weird ratios?
If the creators use squares I don't see why we would... MT doesn't support maps that use "weird ratios" beyond offset adjustments.

That said, I bet the creators could easily make these maps without grids (confirmed: they do)... though it is appealing seeing some objects over the included grids (like the tree tops, etc.)
Also, did it zoom and pan okay?
This is probably the rub... is the video image treated exactly as a background image or are there some caveats?

For example, I wouldn't be surprised if we could not use "free size" (which would, if it could, address aspect ratio issues.)
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Re: Video as Map Background.

Post by JamzTheMan »

Currently, it sits under the "map" and I had to make the map transparent (which means no grass outside the video yet). That was the 'easiest" to get it up and running, so tokens/grid/etc worked normally over the video.

I didn't get it to zoom/pan yet, since it was it's own panel. I'm not sure how much work it's going to take to get there yet. I was sort of curious if, A. I could get the FX component loaded into the swing frame ok, and B. how much CPU it was going to use up. I need to find some higher rez/larger videos and see if I can get it to load via URL. I can't imagine sharing a 200mb (or 2gb!) video will work outside of local lan situations...

RE grids, I'm not going to touch that. We'll use what is in MT already. From what I have seen, they almost always come with and without grid.
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