I'm looking at buying a new, inexpensive laptop. I'm excited at the prospect of using D&D Beyond's announced virtual tabletop. I realize it's only just announced and there are few (no?) details available about it, but generally speaking, is there a way to make an educated guess about what kind of minimum or recommended requirements for a PC it might have? Primarily, I'm wondering if these kinds of tools typically require a dedicated graphics card, or if I could get away with an integrated card.
The requirements of currently available VTTs seem pretty light. Is that a fair guess for this one, too? The fact that it was being developed in the Unreal engine made it sound like it might have the requirements of a more graphics-intensive video game than what is currently available.
Well, they mention they use the Unreal Engine for the "game". Really, that's a pretty safe tech that most machines could run. I think you'd likely be safe with almost any new laptop today.
We won't really know until they actually announce the product, but it's not like they're building a first person shooter where you need 60 frames per second while dealing with a whole bunch of particle effects on screen, so they absolutely can make something that looks decent and still runs (more or less) on ten year old laptops. That doesn't guarantee that they will, however; I've seen plenty of games that should have been fine on a low end computer and weren't, usually because of people being really bad at optimizing.
I would expect that Wizards wants it to be runnable on fairly low end hardware, but it's not like they're an established studio, they either had to do a bunch of hires or buy a company, and either way there's a lot that can go wrong.
If you want a sense of what's possible, the closest product out there is probably tabletop simulator, or possibly digital versions of board games like gloomhaven.
I wouldn’t worry about it at all. What they want to do, say they are going to do, and actually do are probably going to be three different things. Not to be down on wizards, that’s just how lots of things work. There’s even a non-zero chance they won’t make one at all. I’d not use a possible piece of software as a metric for your decision.
I wouldn't worry about finding the right machine at this time, the VTT is still a long way off and computer technology could change quite a bit during the development.
It'd be safe to assume that there would also be Beta testing phases for D&D Beyond members to sign-up and try it out, during that time we'll get a much clearer idea of the capabilities and system requirements.
Having played around with some other 3D tabletop environments (TaleSpire, Tabletop Simulator, Wildshape and the 3D module for Foundry VTT), the technical requirements for core functionality doesn't need to be massively high. As long as you don't have thousands of special effects or hundreds of assets on a single map, even a budget machine with integrated graphics should be able to cope.
I also wouldn't be massively surprised if they say they are aiming to develop it to function on mobile devices too, if that's the case it'd want to be somewhat flexible for lower hardware specs... maybe with a set of options to toggle in stages between prioritising performance or graphics.
I'm voting with the crowd of "It's too early to tell and don't get something today for something a long ways off." Get something today for something today or wait to get something a long ways off for something a long ways off.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Shot in the dark, and it's not a whole lot to go on, but the sample they included in the video (which was likely built on the unreal engine, but isn't user controlled but pre-scripted) looks fairly similar to Talespire. You could use the suggested Sys Reqs for that:
OS: Windows 10
Processor: 64bit
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card with DX11.2 (shader model 5.0) capabilities.
I'm pretty surprised they didn't just acquire someone who's already got a good, functional VTT. There are multiple out there with years of experience and user data.
I'd be less worried about the specs and more about the skills required for any DM who wants to homebrew with a 3D VTT.
The amount of skill and time to create "battlemaps" is going to be prohibitive to anybody using it for anything other than published scenarios/campaigns.
I'd be less worried about the specs and more about the skills required for any DM who wants to homebrew with a 3D VTT.
The amount of skill and time to create "battlemaps" is going to be prohibitive to anybody using it for anything other than published scenarios/campaigns.
Even with 2d maps it takes a lot of work to make battlemaps, but it really depends on the map style you're looking for. My impression from the video (which may be wrong, of course) is that they're trying to emulate physical maps (such as the ones used in critical role), which basically means you have a fair number of (fairly generic) 3d objects such as walls, pillars, chests of gold, etc, which you just pick up with a virtual hand and drop in place. This won't be super fast (physical maps like that are also not super fast), and it also isn't going to give gorgeous quasi-realistic video game scenery, but it's certainly a lot more viable than expecting people to do 3d rendering.
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I'm looking at buying a new, inexpensive laptop. I'm excited at the prospect of using D&D Beyond's announced virtual tabletop. I realize it's only just announced and there are few (no?) details available about it, but generally speaking, is there a way to make an educated guess about what kind of minimum or recommended requirements for a PC it might have? Primarily, I'm wondering if these kinds of tools typically require a dedicated graphics card, or if I could get away with an integrated card.
The requirements of currently available VTTs seem pretty light. Is that a fair guess for this one, too? The fact that it was being developed in the Unreal engine made it sound like it might have the requirements of a more graphics-intensive video game than what is currently available.
Any suggestions would be very welcome!
Well, they mention they use the Unreal Engine for the "game". Really, that's a pretty safe tech that most machines could run. I think you'd likely be safe with almost any new laptop today.
I'm fairly certain all chips can run Unreal?
We won't really know until they actually announce the product, but it's not like they're building a first person shooter where you need 60 frames per second while dealing with a whole bunch of particle effects on screen, so they absolutely can make something that looks decent and still runs (more or less) on ten year old laptops. That doesn't guarantee that they will, however; I've seen plenty of games that should have been fine on a low end computer and weren't, usually because of people being really bad at optimizing.
I would expect that Wizards wants it to be runnable on fairly low end hardware, but it's not like they're an established studio, they either had to do a bunch of hires or buy a company, and either way there's a lot that can go wrong.
If you want a sense of what's possible, the closest product out there is probably tabletop simulator, or possibly digital versions of board games like gloomhaven.
Thank you! Anyone with PC knowledge think this should be able to do the trick?
https://www.microcenter.com/product/647547/lenovo-ideapad-slim-7-14itl05-14-intel-evo-platform-laptop-computer-grey
I wouldn’t worry about it at all. What they want to do, say they are going to do, and actually do are probably going to be three different things. Not to be down on wizards, that’s just how lots of things work.
There’s even a non-zero chance they won’t make one at all. I’d not use a possible piece of software as a metric for your decision.
Very reasonable reply. Thanks!
I wouldn't worry about finding the right machine at this time, the VTT is still a long way off and computer technology could change quite a bit during the development.
It'd be safe to assume that there would also be Beta testing phases for D&D Beyond members to sign-up and try it out, during that time we'll get a much clearer idea of the capabilities and system requirements.
Having played around with some other 3D tabletop environments (TaleSpire, Tabletop Simulator, Wildshape and the 3D module for Foundry VTT), the technical requirements for core functionality doesn't need to be massively high. As long as you don't have thousands of special effects or hundreds of assets on a single map, even a budget machine with integrated graphics should be able to cope.
I also wouldn't be massively surprised if they say they are aiming to develop it to function on mobile devices too, if that's the case it'd want to be somewhat flexible for lower hardware specs... maybe with a set of options to toggle in stages between prioritising performance or graphics.
I'm voting with the crowd of "It's too early to tell and don't get something today for something a long ways off." Get something today for something today or wait to get something a long ways off for something a long ways off.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Shot in the dark, and it's not a whole lot to go on, but the sample they included in the video (which was likely built on the unreal engine, but isn't user controlled but pre-scripted) looks fairly similar to Talespire. You could use the suggested Sys Reqs for that:
I'm pretty surprised they didn't just acquire someone who's already got a good, functional VTT. There are multiple out there with years of experience and user data.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I'd be less worried about the specs and more about the skills required for any DM who wants to homebrew with a 3D VTT.
The amount of skill and time to create "battlemaps" is going to be prohibitive to anybody using it for anything other than published scenarios/campaigns.
Even with 2d maps it takes a lot of work to make battlemaps, but it really depends on the map style you're looking for. My impression from the video (which may be wrong, of course) is that they're trying to emulate physical maps (such as the ones used in critical role), which basically means you have a fair number of (fairly generic) 3d objects such as walls, pillars, chests of gold, etc, which you just pick up with a virtual hand and drop in place. This won't be super fast (physical maps like that are also not super fast), and it also isn't going to give gorgeous quasi-realistic video game scenery, but it's certainly a lot more viable than expecting people to do 3d rendering.