D&D Beyond needs a desktop app for PC and should be put on Steam.

I've had this idea for as long as I've known about this site. I believe that a desktop app would open new possibilities for development, since designing things for the web is sometimes restricting, and the convenience of having it on Steam would also present many marketing opportunities. I believe that this would push D&D Beyond to another level. Please vote in the poll if you would use it or not.

I'm only speaking for myself, but there is no situation where I'm using D&D Beyond on desktop when I don't have internet access. There is no benefit I can see to a desktop app, and only downsides:

• Compatibility—DDB can run on desktop on any device that can run a supported browser (which most, including all the big options). I've used DDB on mac, PC and even linux
• System Requirements—the ability to run a desktop browser is very low in terms of system demands (ignore chrome being memory hungry). However a desktop app introduces system requirements and separate OS development pathways
• Steam—don't get me wrong, I love steam. But I don't want to need to have it running in the background to run DDB. I don't want my games delayed by the inevitable steam update you get every third boot. I don't want my internet connection slowed because steam defaulted to automatic updates again and it's downloading a 10gb Baldur's Gate 3 update in the background
• Wasted Dev Time—even if I don't use it, others might, but I think DDB splitting it's dev bandwidth across a windows app dev path, or more, is a waste of resources.

You say it'd be convenient on Steam? I believe it'd be less so, compared to a web browser. I can have Maps up and running and ready to play before Steam has even launched.

What advantages do you think having a dedicated app would bring?

Quote from Davyd >>

What advantages do you think having a dedicated app would bring?

I can't speak for OP, but one potentially major advantage would be avoiding issues caused by peculiarities of certain web browsers — see, for instance, how apparently everyone using Brave can't move tokens around in the Maps VTT all of a sudden. I don't know that that's worth all the other issues it would cause, though.

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from Davyd >>

What advantages do you think having a dedicated app would bring?

I can't speak for OP, but one potentially major advantage would be avoiding issues caused by peculiarities of certain web browsers — see, for instance, how apparently everyone using Brave can't move tokens around in the Maps VTT all of a sudden. I don't know that that's worth all the other issues it would cause, though.

 But you'd be trading an edge case compatibility issue (1.8% of people use Brave at that high end vs 65% chrome on the low end) for a much more likely one when it comes to system requirements, OS, etc

Also it's easier to fix the Brave issue and it's been acknowledged that Brave recently changed something. If you try and fire up a dedicated app but it turns out you can't run it at full screen because you have integrated AMD graphics on a chip that no longer gets driver updates (or something like that) DDB can't do toffee for you.

So,  pc app

Advantages:

• some engine features

Disadvantages

• You gotta keep developers\distributors for windows\linux\intel\amd\arm\x64\x86\steam\egs support.

PS. They got some project named Sigil. They will not repeat this mistake.

Quote from Rilanor >>

So,  pc app

Advantages:

• some engine features

Disadvantages

• You gotta keep developers\distributors for windows\linux\intel\amd\arm\x64\x86\steam\egs support.

PS. They got some project named Sigil. They will not repeat this mistake.

 Sigil is both a terrible example (it was a resource heavy 3d VTT) and a great example (they never got mac support off the ground)

Quote from Davyd >>

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from Davyd >>

What advantages do you think having a dedicated app would bring?

I can't speak for OP, but one potentially major advantage would be avoiding issues caused by peculiarities of certain web browsers — see, for instance, how apparently everyone using Brave can't move tokens around in the Maps VTT all of a sudden. I don't know that that's worth all the other issues it would cause, though.

 But you'd be trading an edge case compatibility issue (1.8% of people use Brave at that high end vs 65% chrome on the low end) for a much more likely one when it comes to system requirements, OS, etc

Also it's easier to fix the Brave issue and it's been acknowledged that Brave recently changed something. If you try and fire up a dedicated app but it turns out you can't run it at full screen because you have integrated AMD graphics on a chip that no longer gets driver updates (or something like that) DDB can't do toffee for you.

 Any DDB desktop app wouldn't have any noticeable graphics requirements -- there's no 3D rendering, no animation.

The most likely compatibility problem it would have is if it gets updated to use some framework that's not in older OS versions, or a framework it relies on gets removed/changed in an OS update.

And, in practice, it'd just be an app wrapper on a system web view, because there's just no good reason to do anything more. If they wanted to allow offline use, they could do it now with extant web standards.

Quote from jl8e >>

Quote from Davyd >>

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from Davyd >>

What advantages do you think having a dedicated app would bring?

I can't speak for OP, but one potentially major advantage would be avoiding issues caused by peculiarities of certain web browsers — see, for instance, how apparently everyone using Brave can't move tokens around in the Maps VTT all of a sudden. I don't know that that's worth all the other issues it would cause, though.

 But you'd be trading an edge case compatibility issue (1.8% of people use Brave at that high end vs 65% chrome on the low end) for a much more likely one when it comes to system requirements, OS, etc

Also it's easier to fix the Brave issue and it's been acknowledged that Brave recently changed something. If you try and fire up a dedicated app but it turns out you can't run it at full screen because you have integrated AMD graphics on a chip that no longer gets driver updates (or something like that) DDB can't do toffee for you.

 Any DDB desktop app wouldn't have any noticeable graphics requirements -- there's no 3D rendering, no animation.

The most likely compatibility problem it would have is if it gets updated to use some framework that's not in older OS versions, or a framework it relies on gets removed/changed in an OS update.

And, in practice, it'd just be an app wrapper on a system web view, because there's just no good reason to do anything more. If they wanted to allow offline use, they could do it now with extant web standards.

 You'd be surprised. Depending on what framework it's written in, you can 100% have graphics rendering issues tied to chipsets (usually onboard, but that'll hit laptops more).

If it was a native app running a web wrapper, there'd be literally zero point in it existing, like less than zero

Looking at more advanced VTTs, there's a mix of different approaches. Roll20 is browser only, Fantasy Grounds I believe is software only (haven't used it myself), and Foundry is browser for players but software for the DM.

I don't see much point in creating separate software for dndbeyond's current functionalities. Maybe there will one day be features that would justify it, but doing so now feels like putting the cart in front of the horse.

I don't think I can get behind the argument of the original post. I don't think the service being browser-based makes it restrictive. And I certainly can't see how having it tied to Steam and requiring a Steam login on top of a D&D Beyond login and having to run the Steam app to run the web service inside a container would be more convenient. I don't even keep up with the Android app anymore because on all my devices - my Windows laptop, my Ubuntu media center, my Android tablet, and my Android phone - the website just works and the interface works basically the same and scales to my screen resolution. As it is, I'm just not seeing what benefit running the website inside an app wrapper would provide.

As a software developer, I think this would have all sorts of issues. An offline app would be unable to do things like log rolls and update character sheets.  And an app that is always online would just be implemented as a web page in a standalone browser. Most of the webpage is run locally anyway, when it comes to calculating the character sheet stats etc.

Anyone got a specific feature that would be available in a standalone app, that a modern web browser can't do?

Additionally, the added development cost if you didn't put the app in a web browser anyway would probably slow down their ability to provide the other 99% of us with new features.

Ok, I'm convinced. I guess the app doesn't make as much sense as I thought.