Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

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revinor
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by revinor »

Full Bleed wrote:Though I think I'd prefer it if they stood upright/perpendicular to the battle mat (like coins standing on edge.)
Quick prototype (one of the left has cursor over it, so it has 'hover over' effect).

I have made them to always face the camera - in other case, they look very strange from the side (in real life, you have stereo vision, so you always see something, here it is possible to just get thin line/nothing). Still of course, if you look from very top, you will get nothing...

Image

Yes, tile-resolution for FoV would mean that entire square (tile) would be visible or not visible, instead of exact field of view as done by MapTool. On the other hand, when I think about it, as long as I would assume that map is flat for the needs of FoV, I could probably directly reuse maptool logic, draw the resulting 'fog' area on texture and apply the texture as kind of decal on the map. Anyway, this is still long way ahead - I don't even have per-tile terrain type for movement computation, no square/wall blocking for movement, so FoV is not going to be there for a longer time...

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aliasmask
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by aliasmask »

Again, very cool... and fast.

As a side note, and I know you're still in dev, but I noticed the Q and E keys, which I assume is used for camera rotation, are essentially the same. Both are showing clockwise rotation.

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Full Bleed
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by Full Bleed »

revinor wrote:Quick prototype (one of the left has cursor over it, so it has 'hover over' effect).
I have made them to always face the camera - in other case, they look very strange from the side (in real life, you have stereo vision, so you always see something, here it is possible to just get thin line/nothing). Still of course, if you look from very top, you will get nothing...
Looks very nice.
Yes, tile-resolution for FoV would mean that entire square (tile) would be visible or not visible, instead of exact field of view as done by MapTool.
Ok, that's what I was thinking, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't connected to something like "map tiles". Seems like it would be be a useable solution. 4E people might not even dislike it as everything is "blocky" for them.
On the other hand, when I think about it, as long as I would assume that map is flat for the needs of FoV, I could probably directly reuse maptool logic, draw the resulting 'fog' area on texture and apply the texture as kind of decal on the map.
That would be the coolest implementation and would work fine in a 2d map world.


Out of curiosity, how hard would it be to place other 2d "layers" on top of the main you currently have with your current implementation so that you had virtual map layers? I've been recently working on a map in MT of a manor where there is a huge chunk on the second floor that's cut out and allows for the area below to be seen (balcony type area circumventing a banquet hall and gardens.) In MT, I faked a blurry copy of the map below in the cutout, but it's obviously not a view of what's actually below.

If the layer a token was actually on was always the floor (with regard to zoom) for players, it seems like it would be kind of cool that they could still see what was below them in some fashion through cut out areas (though it might need to be slightly darkened or blurred.) This would also work well with rooftops, etc.

On the GM side, you could allow them to zoom through layers or maybe just hide layers so that they couldn't see them all at once if it was unmanageable. Still, being able to zoom out and see the entire layer structure in 3d would be totally workable for smaller maps.

Planar 3d games like 3d chess would be possible too... ;)

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Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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skester
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by skester »

Extremely cool.

For "Walls" I'd put in something small, about "knee" high - just let you know that there is a wall there. Maybe have it acting as a vision and/or movement blocking layer.

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patoace
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by patoace »

Amazing :shock:

I'd definitely pay for this. Heck! I'd even invest in it.

It will be ready in few weeks, you say?
Last edited by patoace on Wed May 11, 2011 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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skester
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by skester »

How do us non-programers download this and play around?

Any instructions? Or is it still in the stage of development where only people who know what they are doing can play?

This looks amazing

Skester

revinor
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by revinor »

At the moment, it is not really packaged in ready-to-use form - main difficulty being the models. There is certain set of resources from NWN which are required for it to run at the moment and I don't feel like redistributing commercial stuff - so I will have to clean this up to provide community-only models.

On top of that, there is not that much you can do right now - move models around, look at their animations, throw dice, modify terrain height... not much of the 'game' itself.

I hope to get something runnable out of webstart (or at least with simple installation) for an interactive showcase within few weeks - but there is also Witcher 2 coming out next week... ;)

revinor
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by revinor »

I have created small program for designing dice sets. You can get the details at
http://blog.virtual-mat.net/2011/06/dic ... ditor.html

No webstart version for now, but I suppose that maptool veterans will be able to run standalone jar while I fight with keytool ;)

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skester
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by skester »

Nice!

I keep rolling the d20 off the map. lol

Skester

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Azhrei
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by Azhrei »

Doesn't seem to work on OSX 10.6.7. I get the attributes window, and a window with color settings, but the preview window never appears. I'll try opening the Java console next time I play with it...

revinor
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by revinor »

Yes, my fault with Mac OS. I have uploaded dicedesign-0.3.jar, hopefully should work for Mac. No other changes than that.

You can find it at
https://www.assembla.com/spaces/vmat/documents

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skester
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by skester »

How goes the development? I'm looking forward to any updates you have. I see from your blog that you've been working on this (*thank you*).

Just wondering how it's going?

Skester.

Telarus
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Re: Virtual Mat - bit like MapTool, but with 3d

Post by Telarus »

Pretty cool. I've been looking at making something similar using the UDK (and posted a link to someone who already has a basic battle-mat running in UDK in the General forum).

This is definitely good inspiration.

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