Fantasy Grounds and other virtual tabletops

[Hugin]

I haven't used OpenRPG but I intend to in the future. The OpenRPG Traipse version is supposed to be better than the standard version, and the dev for that is working on the "Pious" version/phase, which is supposed to be an upgrade to the UI. I'm also excited for a multi-touch version of OpenRPG, it will give me a real reason to make a DIY multi-touch table.

I wanted to give a brief overview of the new technology that is going to be introduced in the next milestone of Traipse. Most of the changes are already available in the source code, and I have some planned additions that are simple to add.

The Pious UI:
The UI is designed to be as portable and as customizable as possible. I have achieved this by ripping out any statement, function, class, calculation, etc. that is not specifically designed to modify the UI. The main.py file is really just a window that holds four DocketWidgets, and a ToolBar. Each of these four widgets holds other widgets that eventually hold the material you see.

This design allows the software to be ported to different form factors. I am really touting this because with just a redesign of the UI the software can fit on many different form factors.

I will start breaking up each portion of the UI to further delve into the changes being implemented. I want to mention first that each section will have options that change the look and feel.

The Main Window:
The Main Window has a couple of changes that will be noticed right away. First, the menu bar has been removed in favor of a tool bar of icons that can be hidden on the Map and Chat tool bars. The over sized toolbar will be re-sizable so you can fit it to the size of your wants.

Inside the Main Window are the four other windows, Player List, Game Tree, Map, and Chat. Users will be able to float these out of the windows, dock them where they want too, hide them, and dock them into each other so they are in tabs.

Style Sheets & Icons:
Qt allows users to define CSS like style sheets that can change the look and feel of the UI. In development is a method which will allow users to change the icons that are used by the Core UI, so even if you don’t like the production version that is released, you can make one that you do.

All of this has been added to a new Theme Engine script that is easy to modify and update. When the Theme Engine loads it looks in the nearby folders for a theme.py file, then it loads that theme into a dictionary. The theme script is easy to modify, just change the name and the references to the images.

Style Sheets are just as easy to modify so you can make your own, and they will become part of the Theme Engine themselves, using a very similar search and load technology. Style Sheets are not just for the CSS of the chat. Style Sheets can be used to change the look and feel of the entire UI, including the tabs in the Chat Widget. The Qt Style Sheet is serious Rock and Roll.

The Portable User Interface:
Now I have mentioned this multiple times because it is a really cool development for Traipse. Having a User Interface that is not a major part of the software’s math calculations allows the software to be modified to fit the size of the computer’s screen it is on.

One of the greatest things that is going to come from the Pious UI is the ability to play Traipse Open RPG on a small net book while your friends play on a larger Multi Touch table Top. I know I am far reaching when I state this, but that was the ultimate goal for the Code Name: Trekker that I was working on, and since I can port the idea to Traipse with PyQt, Code Name: Trekker will be absorbed into Traipse Core.

What this means to the user is, they can use one software on various platforms, and still connect with their friends knowing that the only real difference is the look of the software.

I am really excited about this development, because I have major plans in the works for Traipse when I complete my Multi Touch Table. More on that when I update the Code Name: Trekker page.

Traipse
Pious blog

[Graham]

Each of the VTs has its own key strengths, and the comparison doesn't boil down simply to which one is right for you.

If you are a player, then the more VTs you are familiar with, the greater your chance of getting into a game online.

If you are a GM, then you will find that different VTs are the most appropriate at different times. If you enjoy playing online you will probably end up buying more than one, and having MapTools and OpenRPG installed for good measure.

If I have time to prepare a game which will run in text chat, and would benefit from detailed description, visual aids and well-drawn NPCs, I'll turn to Fantasy Grounds. But I can't run that for players on Macs (unless they put in the effort to set up emulation under WINE), or players without licenses (without my shelling out for the Ultimate License).

For a game run using VOIP, or that needed more complex control of the map, I'd turn to BRPG (if the number of unlicensed players was less than my floating license allocation) or MapTool.

For Classic Traveller I might use GRiP; it just feels right!

For GMing using video and audio, we're quite excited by the developments underway on v2 of iTabletop, though the release version may still be some way off.

The key point is that you can enjoy a good game in any of them, and what would be great would be to grow the GURPS community of VT users, by pooling together the users from each of the VT-specific sites. We tried this with the group at Four Ugly Monsters, but when the site was upgraded to include more social networking features some of the group functionality was lost, and the group gradually fell into disuse.

Now that Four Ugly Monsters is closing, I'm thinking of moving the group to another site, such as Pixels and Polyhedrons. Is there still an appetite out there for this?

A VT-agnostic GURPS group should mean more access to campaigns, more awareness of options, more discussion, more play, more fun...

Graham

[Ronnke]

Originally Posted by Graham

Now that Four Ugly Monsters is closing, I'm thinking of moving the group to another site, such as Pixels and Polyhedrons. Is there still an appetite out there for this?

I think there is a requirement for it. VT's are becoming increasingly popular and it would be a shame for the GURPS community to be left behind in this respect. Perhaps the powers that be might be interested in letting you setup something here. It is after all something relevant to the GURPS community.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

I think there is a requirement for it. VT's are becoming increasingly popular and it would be a shame for the GURPS community to be left behind in this respect. Perhaps the powers that be might be interested in letting you setup something here. It is after all something relevant to the GURPS community.

Moving the group to these boards is one option; I've offered up this and all the others I can think of in a discussion over in the existing group at FUM.

The great advantage of using these boards is that most of the potential audience is already here, but the downsides are:

• it would really need to have its own forum to avoid irritating other GURPS devotees with no interest in playing online.
• the SJG boards don't allow the inclusion of images in forum posts, which really help with discussion of VTs and user campaigns.
• the event calendar is not activated on the SJG site, so games can only be organised in threads, and there's no central visibility of what games are coming up.

Graham

[chimchim]

Originally Posted by Graham

Moving the group to these boards is one option; I've offered up this and all the others I can think of in a discussion over in the existing group at FUM.

The great advantage of using these boards is that most of the potential audience is already here, but the downsides are:

• it would really need to have its own forum to avoid irritating other GURPS devotees with no interest in playing online.
• the SJG boards don't allow the inclusion of images in forum posts, which really help with discussion of VTs and user campaigns.
• the event calendar is not activated on the SJG site, so games can only be organised in threads, and there's no central visibility of what games are coming up.

Graham

the events callender at fum was excelent. it will be missed.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Graham

Moving the group to these boards is one option

That sounds interesting.

[demonsbane]

A new version (v-0.95) of the GURPS ruleset for Fantasy Grounds 2 is available now:

GURPS 4e FG ruleset v0.95 released

www.spyke.me