Virtual Table Tops?

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

If you're using Windows 10, you can use the integrated 3dBuilder program to import many different formats (including STLs), decimate them down to sub-30k triangles and export as OBJs to load directly into TTS. Word of warning, make sure they're tiny or they'll be humongous. Also, have them lying down (face up) in the builder.

One arbitrary unit in the obj file is something like an inch in the TTS world. Over in the 3D-modelling world (e.g. if you're getting files off thingiverse), one arbitrary unit is usually a mm.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

One arbitrary unit in the obj file is something like an inch in the TTS world. Over in the 3D-modelling world (e.g. if you're getting files off thingiverse), one arbitrary unit is usually a mm.

It depends, in the 3dModeling world, one unit can be a μm up to, um, more, it depends on what you're working with.

In Daz|Stuidio, one unit is one cm because you're working with human-scale models. Daz even has a handy guide when you're converting. So, the one unit = one mm is not a good thing to track with. However, it does appear that one mm in Win10 3dBuilder is about one inch in TTS.

Heck, from that screen shot, you can see that I have it set to five-percent as I'm usually converting from Daz|Studio to OBJ for the purposes of importing into either TTS or Unity.

[SolemnGolem]

Further to Tabletop Simulator, I just ran my first virtual GURPS session in TTS. I had six players, and I had two maps: an aboveground tavern (two levels) and a below ground map of an underground cavern complex.

Making multi-level maps:

The tavern had two levels, and so I planned the ground level in its proper place on the map surface, but I put the upper level floating in midair, as well as offset in the lateral axes so that the players could see the lower level without having the upper level blocked in view.

Each level was constructed of locked pieces manipulated into proper place and shape via the Gizmo tool. The plot depended on the tavern having a stone ground level and a wooden top level, so proper walls and textures were used for them (I cannot find these in-game in the Counting's 5e Dungeon editor, so they must have been exogenous - anybody following these instructions can PM me and I'll be happy to share my set of dungeon walls). For a floor, simply take a wall and squish it way down in the Y axis, and stretch it way out in the X- and Z-axes.

Staircases were a bit finicky: I had to improvise with tiny scaled-down walls to form little steps, and then stack them in a diagonal ascension as a symbolic representation.

(The game featured a horde of rock mites surrounding the tavern at night, and one unwitting guest inside was serving as a local attraction for them - she had a big bag of uncut gems. So her position within the tavern was actually causing the rock mites to follow her rough position around outside the tavern. The PCs could have picked up on this and saved their stabled wagons of gear, but so far they haven't done so.)

Most items placed in the levels want to be locked (especially things floating in midair on the second level) - just be careful exactly where your mouse is pointing when you unlock them, since a misclick can cause the entire floor to collapse in sudden deference to in-game gravity.

Simple steps:

• Create a wall block, squash it flat and stretch it out laterally to make the floor.
• Lock the floor so it doesn't move in space.
• Spawn and lock walls at the edges of the floor (assuming a quadrilateral is desired).
• For a door, you may want to use a "wall - gap - wall" array, putting a door item in the gap. The Counting set has two separate door models (one closed, one ajar) and it's possible to combine the two as separate states of the same object (i.e. mouseover and type 1 or 2 to make it open or closed) but I have forgotten how to do this. [I can share the combined in-game item with anybody who needs it, as a trivial matter.]
• Counting's construction set has a bag that contains lots of other bags, which eventually contain 3D models and 2D tiles. Some of them no longer function (it's possible that Counting stopped maintaining the online asset URLs) but most still do. Tables, kegs, stoves, wells (important for my adventure), beds, bedrolls, sofas, etc. are all placeable assets.
• Lock them in place when they're set up and use the Gizmo tool (left margin bar) to move, stretch, deform, rotate, and otherwise manipulate them.
• To save: there are several levels of save profundity available. Easiest is just to save the entire table, which will include the entire map as well as incidental stuff (fog of war, dice, miniatures, etc.). This will take the longest lag time and memory, but as a backup it's a wise choice. You can also use the "Stage" card tool near the GM's end of the table. Clear off all unwanted items from the map portion, and then hit the right button on the Stage card. The program will carefully pack the entire map into a bag. This bag can be saved in a couple of ways - one is to long-click and drag it to the chest next to it, so it's in the chest and can be visually clicked-and-dragged back out (place it on the Stage card to unpack again - but note that this destroys the only copy of the bag, so you'll have to repack when ready). Or you can right click on the bag and select Save Object. This puts a local copy on your computer and you can retrieve it by clicking the Objects button (top margin) and reselecting it. The bag will pop up into existence and you can put it on the Stage card again to unpack the level.

I've also made an underground cavern complex, which is basically a locked premade tile (somebody kindly scanned some caverny-watery artwork onto it ahead of time), with a number of 3D rocks piled on top in order to create natural-looking corridors and crevasses and so forth.

Pictures:

Ground floor of the tavern with attached stables enclosure

Upper floor of the tavern - I could not create the windows properly so we had to abstract them

Cavern system underneath the tavern, accessed by the well, with a BBEG crypt visible in the top right

[SolemnGolem]

Further notes for Tabletop Simulator:

Assets from Older Libraries that are Broken

You'll likely find many workshops that were made several years ago, and may have broken links to online libraries or repositories that got moved or deleted in the interim. You can identify these in-game by a white floating "marble" (denoting a lost 3D model) or weird textures (denoting the surface graphic has been lost).

The "Counting's D&D" workshop has a few such missing assets, most troublingly the dungeon walls.

In order to get some good walls, as well as trees, boulders, interior furniture, and plenty of other great freely-made items, I found a good collection on Steam of assets.

These also are missing several models and textures, but as of two nights ago there were enough to build a very nice library. If you collect the specific items you like, and then put them into a "Bag" (Objects > Components > Tools > Bag), you can then right click on the bag itself, rename it descriptively, and then Save Object locally.

The items inside the bag should now be backed up on your own computer, so you can use them even if the online repository gets delinked or broken.

Setting Fog of War and Line of Sight

You can create a fog of war by clicking on the F3 "Zone" button, and selecting Fog of War (second from right). This allows you to create an intangible cubic volume where stuff inside is invisible (except for whoever is "Player Black" in color, i.e. the GM).

You can manipulate, resize, rotate, and raise-lower-move-around this FoW just as you can any other 3D object in game. If portions of your map are invisible at start, you can cover them with FoW (e.g. the interior of a fortress).

To give your players Line of Sight, you'll need to generate a figurine for them. For a 2D figurine (like a boardgame "standee") go to Objects > Components > Figurines > Custom, then left click to place on the board. Hit Esc to stop placing.

For each standee, you can import and upload a graphic. So if you have a good picture of Marge the Barbarian rippling her unibrow knowingly, you can Browse Local Files and select the local .png or other graphic, and import it. Make sure to click "Cloud" and "Upload" otherwise other players won't be able to see it. Once the upload is done, click Import and the miniature should be illustrated.

For a 3D figurine, such as a .unity3d model from HeroForge, click on Objects > Components > Custom > AssetBundle and left click, then press Esc. As above, Browse Local Files to find the relevant model you want, and click Cloud and Upload. Once the Upload is done, press Import and the model will appear.

Once a player has a model, right click on the model and select Toggle, then select "Auto Raise" so it's off. This means the model will no longer automatically teleport upward in the Y-axis so as to surmount any and all given obstacles, instead being properly blocked by walls.

Then right click Toggle again, and select "Reveal Fog of War". This means the figurine will reveal objects as it passes close to them in the FoW.

(Query: how to set variables for the distance of reveal?)

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

If you're used to playing with minis in meatspace, Tabletop Simulator is your best bet.

Whatever you do, don't push the button that says "flip the table." Why that was an important feature I will never understand.

[Oxnard]

Do any of these have links / tools for players looking for online group, or groups looking for players?

[SolemnGolem]

Originally Posted by Anders

Whatever you do, don't push the button that says "flip the table." Why that was an important feature I will never understand.

If you successfully play for at least one hour without flipping the table, Steam gives you a little trophy titled "Restraint".

If it's any consolation, the game host can technically hit the "Undo" button and restore the table state... at least in theory. In reality, I've found that TTS can have weird physics effects upon Undo, causing parts of the table to disappear, spawn incorrectly, be revealed when it should not be, etc.

Originally Posted by Oxnard

Do any of these have links / tools for players looking for online group, or groups looking for players?

From what I've seen, Tabletop Simulator does not. There is a live chat in the lobby of the game with people posting messages, but it's not very easily searchable. Most of the TTS online gaming has been arranged either among existing groups, or groups that are set up via online chats such as Discord. GURPS has a fan maintained Discord, though I can't recall how to invite or share it.

[mook]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

GURPS has a fan maintained Discord, though I can't recall how to invite or share it.

https://discord.gg/hWHbuvF :)