What i'm looking for is a digital game system whereby i can connect a second monitor to my laptop, and turn the monitor to face the players. Then on the laptop screen i see the "DM view" where i can setup the next room etc. and the second monitor only shows the "player view" which includes fog of war and light sources etc.
Has this question been answered? I'd sign up for DDI in a heartbeat if this was going to be posible 
Seems like Maptool does this, but i havn't figured out how yet. I'll have to keep plugging away at it.
What i'm looking for is a digital game system whereby i can connect a second monitor to my laptop, and turn the monitor to face the players. Then on the laptop screen i see the "DM view" where i can setup the next room etc. and the second monitor only shows the "player view" which includes fog of war and light sources etc.
Has this question been answered? I'd sign up for DDI in a heartbeat if this was going to be posible
Seems like Maptool does this, but i havn't figured out how yet. I'll have to keep plugging away at it.
Well, currently the Game Table has been put on the back burner in favor of getting the monster/campaign builder finished. There is no ETA for the GT. So it might do that once it has been finished, but it is nowhere near being released soon.
I'd try working on Maptool more, as it should do what you want.
edit: http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7221&start=0 seems to address what you want to do.
What you want to do to pull this off with maptool, assuming you've got the tv as a second monitor setup all worked out, is open maptool, open your campaign file, and start a server as a GM. Then open maptool in a second window and connect to server as a player. You should be able to find your server on the LAN tab.
Specifically, open a second instance of MapTool, to connect to the first. I did this to run Khyber's Harvest for a bunch of friends a couple months ago; worked like a charm.
What i'm looking for is a digital game system whereby i can connect a second monitor to my laptop, and turn the monitor to face the players. Then on the laptop screen i see the "DM view" where i can setup the next room etc. and the second monitor only shows the "player view" which includes fog of war and light sources etc.
Has this question been answered? I'd sign up for DDI in a heartbeat if this was going to be posible
Seems like Maptool does this, but i havn't figured out how yet. I'll have to keep plugging away at it.
While the Game Table is not currently in development, the last available information we had on the topic was:
Yes it will support dual-monitor use - opening maps (one for the DM, one for the players, for example) in separate windows that can be dragged onto additional monitors.
That said - WotC has learned a hard lesson in the way of "overpromising" - so please be aware that while this is what was planned and has even been demonstrated, anything might change between now and the final release.
It's my personal opinion that this would be an odd feature to lose, however, so I feel pretty confident that we'll see it in the final version.
While the Game Table is not currently in development, the last available information we had on the topic was:Yes it will support dual-monitor use - opening maps (one for the DM, one for the players, for example) in separate windows that can be dragged onto additional monitors.
That said - WotC has learned a hard lesson in the way of "overpromising" - so please be aware that while this is what was planned and has even been demonstrated, anything might change between now and the final release.
Was that statement made during or after the VTTs outsourcing tenure with Radiant? If it was made prior, it probably isn't relevant to any putative future VTT, should it ever be picked up again in the future.
While the Game Table is not currently in development, the last available information we had on the topic was:Yes it will support dual-monitor use - opening maps (one for the DM, one for the players, for example) in separate windows that can be dragged onto additional monitors.
That said - WotC has learned a hard lesson in the way of "overpromising" - so please be aware that while this is what was planned and has even been demonstrated, anything might change between now and the final release.
Was that statement made during or after the VTTs outsourcing tenure with Radiant? If it was made prior, it probably isn't relevant to any putative future VTT, should it ever be picked up again in the future.
I'm wondering if anyone could post the history of the VTT (virtual Tabletop) / GT (Game Table) so we could have a clearer idea of what happened with all the layoffs, outsourcing, and other things that happened.
I'm wondering if anyone could post the history of the VTT (virtual Tabletop) / GT (Game Table) so we could have a clearer idea of what happened with all the layoffs, outsourcing, and other things that happened.
This is largely cut and paste from previous posts of mine.
The answer to this one is available without anyone having to break an NDA, because it's public knowledge. The design studio that developed Gleemax and the yet to be released VTT, visualizer, and dungeon builder was an outside design studio known as Radiant Machine. They were a spin-off from SolutionsIQ. The DDI and Gleemax were the first projects the group had ever done as a distinct group. After WotC brought development back in-house around the time that Gleemax was officially declared DOA, Radiant Machine folded. The partnership with SIQ/Radiant was hyped quite a bit when it was launched, but the subsequent drop and fold was pretty low-key for all involved, but again it's still out in public if you dig around.
And this is probably available if you dig deeply enough, but as far as I've been told, there's only one developer currently in-house with WotC that was part of that original group from SIQ. Once things moved in house, as it was described to me (as I recall) it was more or less a case of 'you have a team, a budget, and six months time, please make something that can be released'.
Ever since things moved in-house when Radiant Machine was dropped as the outsourced design studio, they've been losing developers from the project through the various rounds of announced layoffs, and then as a side effect of the Hasbro-wide hiring freeze they've been unable to hire replacements. Additionally, a number of developers and testers were originally hired on a contract-to-hire basis, and when their contract was up, WotC couldn't keep them due to the hiring freeze. They're getting gimped both by the outsourced turnover which was apparently behind schedule and buggy, past management decisions and priorities *cough*Gleemax*cough*, and the hiring freeze. Perfect storm unfortunately.
I would give some credit to the in-house developers though, since they put out some decent material (character builder) that more or less salvaged the project from where it was from the original outsourced work, and given the amount of money that was spent on the outsourcing (I was told a number, which was obscene). They aren't in an enviable position, and seem woefully short of resources (for instance, there are currently more managers than developers on staff - in a back post I gave a listing of the positions working on the project, which was current as of around April or May, and as far as I know the hiring freeze is still in place). Again I'd give the actual developers in-house some credit for what they've released, but personally I wouldn't bet on the VTT and visualizer anytime remotely soon (if ever).
Was that statement made during or after the VTTs outsourcing tenure with Radiant? If it was made prior, it probably isn't relevant to any putative future VTT, should it ever be picked up again in the future.
I don't have the clear-cut timeline, but it was a mentioned feature from the latter "half" of the GT's known development, and was in the demo version displayed at GenCon '08.
I'm not that clear on/privy to the development timeline, but that it was a working feature that late in the development, I have faith.
Even if I assume the worst (It was a Radiant feature, and the GT has to be started over from scratch) - it's a fairly obvious feature to include in a new "from scratch" version.
Even if I assume the worst (It was a Radiant feature, and the GT has to be started over from scratch) - it's a fairly obvious feature to include in a new "from scratch" version.
In addition, unless the program is very demanding on the graphics card the same solution as with maptool should work. That is, just open the dm app and the player app on the same machine, and link each to a different screen.
In addition, unless the program is very demanding on the graphics card the same solution as with maptool should work. That is, just open the dm app and the player app on the same machine, and link each to a different screen.
Agreed, FantasyGrounds works the same way. Being a windowed application it isn't that hard to spawn new windows - and if your OS supports multiple monitors/screens you just choose where to display what window and viola!
In addition, unless the program is very demanding on the graphics card the same solution as with maptool should work. That is, just open the dm app and the player app on the same machine, and link each to a different screen.
i doubt wotc will ever bring something out that challenges the newest generations of computers that much. every 200$ off-the-shelf computer ships an onboard gfx card that is way better than what we used to have in the past - gfx is no problem whatsoever with the kind of app they are doing. total memory might be problematic, but let's face this: it's a no-brainer again. 20-100$ and you're up 1-4 GB.
20-100$ and you're up 1-4 GB.
Actually I probably need to do that...
Actually I probably need to do that...
well, the decent system size starts out at 4GB these days... pretty strange that i can also remember having a full megabyte ram as the second of my mates!
Heh... my first PC (a 386) that I had I splurged and got the 2 MB of RAM upgradable to 4! Whee! (as opposed to the 1 upgradable to 2) Ah, those were the days... Wing Commander and Pools of Radiance. Good times.
@Lokiare... I always suggest boosting RAM. It's cheap now, unless you're using DDR3 memory, but even the price of that is coming down if it isn't the fasest modules. DDR2 memory is dirt cheap. I built a new PC and got 4 GB for around $40 IIRC.
Heh... my first PC (a 386) that I had I splurged and got the 2 MB of RAM upgradable to 4! Whee! (as opposed to the 1 upgradable to 2) Ah, those were the days... Wing Commander and Pools of Radiance. Good times.
@Lokiare... I always suggest boosting RAM. It's cheap now, unless you're using DDR3 memory, but even the price of that is coming down if it isn't the fasest modules. DDR2 memory is dirt cheap. I built a new PC and got 4 GB for around $40 IIRC.
I missed a sale on tigerDirect by one day to get 2 gigs of ram for $20 after rebates.
What you want to do to pull this off with maptool, assuming you've got the tv as a second monitor setup all worked out, is open maptool, open your campaign file, and start a server as a GM. Then open maptool in a second window and connect to server as a player. You should be able to find your server on the LAN tab.
I don't know if you show up on the LAN tab if you're not connected to the internet.
Use the loopback address of 127.0.0.1 (you select this in MT from the 3rd tab when connecting to a server). It might generate an error (mine did) but everything works (I think the error is when you don't have an internet connection).
The one drawback of this method (2 instances of maptools on the same computer) is that you'll have to reposition and close/open windows on the 2nd instance to get what you want.
What I did was get a second laptop which is connected to my TV (and a wireless mouse/keyboard) that the players use. I run my DM view on a separate laptop. The computers are "networked" through a switch.
What i'm looking for is a digital game system whereby i can connect a second monitor to my laptop, and turn the monitor to face the players. Then on the laptop screen i see the "DM view" where i can setup the next room etc. and the second monitor only shows the "player view" which includes fog of war and light sources etc.
Battlegrounds will do what you want. You just need to run two instances of the program, one to drive the GM view and one to drive the players' view.