Official D&D projector table Project

[xTimx]

Final thoughts:

yesterday we rushed to get the table done. and made it just in time. i didnt get any pictures but i'll just show the video of last nights session.

couple of things went wrong, which was expected for the first time running everything. the MAIN concern was the wii mote set up with the IR LED item i made. we had sooo much trouble trying to calibrate it. and its still glitchy at times so i'll have to re-do the IR LED and make it into a pen.

another thing was that there were 2 sessions of MTs running on a laptop, ontop of a few other programs running, which kinda bogged down the laptop, so moving the tokens was kinda laggy at times. It got to the point where i even had to move the tokens for the players instead of using the IR LED.

another thing is that when the players were using the IR LED thing to move their characters, they are taking over my mouse cursor and i am useless to do anything on my end. but only when they move their own characters.

also i had alot of trouble again with tokens getting into shady areas and the token would disappear from the players view sometimes and i would have to fish it out, it was kind of a nuiscence but i got it going.

aside from those small problems, it was a slow first session of getting used to all the new things, we didnt have time to do trial runs and such. it was pretty fun too, to continue on with our current adventure.

I guess if i have any suggestions or hints or advice.....is that if your gonna be building a projector table like mine or someone elses. take your time on it, dont rush things and make sure you finish the table and do trial runs between your sessions.

next weeks session will be different i hope.

for now...here's the session that was done last night.

http://www.justin.tv/xtimmyx/b/297190689

[Bone White]

No suggestions or hints, but a round of applause from me! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread, and was always checking for new posts. The table looks fantastic, and I'm rather jealous. Glad to see it in action as well - I'm sure you'll iron out those bugs / smash them with a hammer / cast magic missiles on them.

[Notsonoble]

Looked great, my only suggestion would be that if your going to build a dedicated table, and go through this much, get a little net-top or mini-pc to run the instance of mt for the table. This'll resolve the mouse, and response issues.

[rgwynnjr]

As Notsonoble said, you need a seperate PC for the MapTools running in player mode with the WiiMote software and use you laptop for Maptools in server mode. I also suggest another monitor connected to your laptop in extended mode so you you can have MapTools on one screen and other info needed on another.

I DM for remote sessions with MAPTOOLS for the interaction with the players on one screen and DMGenie on another for running everything else. In person session though we dry erase tiles instead of the maptools and I just run DMGenie but still use the extra monitor with my laptop.

I would love to do it your way though and still use the ton of minis my friend has to put on top of the tokens on the screen. Minis for added visual for the player characters and the main monsters with just MapTools tokens for the rest of the monsters.

[xTimx]

thank you for all the kind words, tips and tricks!
for now i think we'll have to stay with this situation tilll we can get some extra money together to make a separate system for the projector.

for now it'll be improving the wii mote system.

[lmarkus001]

Another input option could be a Logitech wireless mouse. If you get one with a Universal wireless USB adapter, then you can get another cheaper mouse and bind both to the same adapter. Then you can just pass the mouse around.

Look for the red star (*) symbol to see if it is compatible with their universal adapter. I use a Performance MX (a great wireless mouse that comes with a universal adapter) and a m305 (very inexpensive wireless mouse).

[Dvdthedrgn]

I would love to have a setup like that one. Very nice!

[xTimx]

Another input option could be a Logitech wireless mouse. If you get one with a Universal wireless USB adapter, then you can get another cheaper mouse and bind both to the same adapter. Then you can just pass the mouse around.

Look for the red star (*) symbol to see if it is compatible with their universal adapter. I use a Performance MX (a great wireless mouse that comes with a universal adapter) and a m305 (very inexpensive wireless mouse).

that is a very good idea but i'm just worried about the distance between the laptop and the end of the table, considering our table is 100"s long and another thing..will windows consider having 2 mouse pointers going at the same time? can someone confirm this?

[Dvdthedrgn]

Windows itself can not do two mouse pointers. TeamPlayer (by Wunderworks) might be a good program to look into though.

[jfrazierjr]

that is a very good idea but i'm just worried about the distance between the laptop and the end of the table, considering our table is 100"s long and another thing..will windows consider having 2 mouse pointers going at the same time? can someone confirm this?

not independently. You can have multiple mouse working, but if you try to use more than one... well... things get interesting in where the mouse pointer is located on the screen... and not in a good way. Really, the "only" viable solution (IMO) is to have a separate machine for the player display vs the GM machine. Do any of your players (who are consistently present!!) have a decent laptop (or a small easily accessible(meaning they can unplug it fairly easily) desktop)? I play with a projector and most of my gaming group has laptops, so finding someone to connect as a client is fairly easy...

[JonathanTheBlack]

You can have two mice attached to the same system. The key is to only move one mouse at a time.

[Sydious]

Thanks for sharing this. I to look back for new posts often. This is something I would like to tackle someday. I have enjoyed watching the progress you lucky ducks!

[lmarkus001]

Yeah, the mouse option I mentioned was for 2 mice controlling the same pointer. But that gives the GM and players each a mouse (and as GM you can whack your players if they mess with you)

Range should not be an issue, I just tested my mouse from 12 feet away and it worked fine...

[Notsonoble]

CPNMouse is still available (but not actively maintained) for winxp (vista and 7 are apparently too different)
MPX comes in Xorg now, but I'm not sure how to activate extra devices...

[Azhrei]

MPX comes in Xorg now, but I'm not sure how to activate extra devices...

Interesting, I didn't know that. Probably just another entry in the xorg.conf file, and if both mice were active when the system was installed the install routine would probably find them and configure them automatically.