I'm looking at professionally made and DIY gaming tables that feature a screen in the center - something the DM would connect to their laptop via cable, to display the map.
What I'm wondering is how in the world would you get a gridded map to display at the right size (whether your squares are supposed to be 5x5 or 10x10)?
Does anyone use a flat screen as a tabletop map? How do you get the map grid size correct?
I use MapTool by RPTools with 2 instances open. One with the DM tools and one as if it were a player connected over LAN. The player one is up on the screen. Then I just zoom in until the grid is the right size and try not to mess with it.
I thought about trying it with just images, but they zoom in and out so easily, MapTool makes it a lot easier. Definitely took some learning to get it to do what I want, but well worth it.
If you want to get maps crafted to exactly the right resolution for your screen - you need to know the screen's resolution. The most common screen resolution is 72 dpi (dots per inch or pixels per inch). So if you want to show a battle map grid at 100% zoom on a screen, you would create your battlemaps with 72 pixels per inch square of the map. If you go above that resolution, it won't make a massive different in quality. There are other screen resolutions too so worth checking whats yours is as well. I'm assuming it's because you want to place actual minis on top that you want the right resolution. Most of the d&d battle map creation tools like dungeondraft etc will allow you to specify the resolution per square, and if you set it to the same as your screen (e.g. 72), you should achieve the best possible resolution that your screen will display at 100% zoom.
I am planning to either use a TV or a projector. I had planned to get a sheet of acrylic etched with a grid to lay over it to avoid this sort of thing. I'm now considering the above!
I'm looking at professionally made and DIY gaming tables that feature a screen in the center - something the DM would connect to their laptop via cable, to display the map.
What I'm wondering is how in the world would you get a gridded map to display at the right size (whether your squares are supposed to be 5x5 or 10x10)?
Does anyone use a flat screen as a tabletop map? How do you get the map grid size correct?
I use one.
I use MapTool by RPTools with 2 instances open. One with the DM tools and one as if it were a player connected over LAN. The player one is up on the screen. Then I just zoom in until the grid is the right size and try not to mess with it.
I thought about trying it with just images, but they zoom in and out so easily, MapTool makes it a lot easier. Definitely took some learning to get it to do what I want, but well worth it.
If you want to get maps crafted to exactly the right resolution for your screen - you need to know the screen's resolution. The most common screen resolution is 72 dpi (dots per inch or pixels per inch). So if you want to show a battle map grid at 100% zoom on a screen, you would create your battlemaps with 72 pixels per inch square of the map. If you go above that resolution, it won't make a massive different in quality.
There are other screen resolutions too so worth checking whats yours is as well. I'm assuming it's because you want to place actual minis on top that you want the right resolution.
Most of the d&d battle map creation tools like dungeondraft etc will allow you to specify the resolution per square, and if you set it to the same as your screen (e.g. 72), you should achieve the best possible resolution that your screen will display at 100% zoom.
Hey there! You should give our Arkenforge software a look. It'll even set an exact one-inch grid on the player screen for you :)
https://arkenforge.com/play-in-person
The above software looks awesome!
I am planning to either use a TV or a projector. I had planned to get a sheet of acrylic etched with a grid to lay over it to avoid this sort of thing. I'm now considering the above!
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Im looking into this as well. What would you say is the minimum size of flat screen needed?