We've seen some
fancy applications for
Microsoft's Surface, the touchable, strokable, caressable computing device/
big-ass table, but not a single one has made us twitter in nerdy glee like Surfacescapes. Created by a team at
Carnegie Mellon University, it's an implementation of Dungeons & Dragons in 3D, something that has of course been done dozens and dozens of times before, but this is different. Way different. It brilliantly brings the tabletop style of play to Surface, with players moving real figurines over virtual battlefields, rolling virtual d20s and d6s to deal real damage against digital dire wolves and the like, opponents who can move and attack automatically. Sure, it takes some of the imagination out of the experience, but it'll also make re-rolling your character a heck of a lot easier -- not to mention eliminating the dungeonmaster's folder of magic, mystery, and crudely drawn maps.
posted Oct 20th 2009 7:58AM
Hell yeah! Surface rocks!
I need to keep my ideas to myself...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/17/panasonics-103-inch-plasma-repurposed-as-multitouch-air-hockey/comments/17169228/
Yay for moving your whole arm around a big table for hours on end!
I'm never going to see my friend Steve again after this comes out : P
How come you never see ME? or return my calls?
awkwarrrrrrd
Friendship phail!
I cast magic missle!
I just had a geek overload. This makes me want to build a garage or basement just to put surface somewhere for D&D sessions... I mean AD&D, because it's advanced!
That's what he said?
Attention Deficit Disorder?
Indeed. My inner nerd is squealing like a little girl at this.
make sure you dont BSOD during one of those games, the nerd rage would be over 9000
wow! can't wait to bring it around to my friends houses to play together!
I'm pretty sure they'd come to yours.
Dr. Sheldon Cooper will definitely be replacing his Coffee Table in the near future.
Don't see a lot of BBT references.
That looks like the interface from Temple of Elemental Evil.
surface table rocks, but fell asleep after the first 10secs...
I should be pissed that they stole my idea, but considering that I've never told anyone about it, had no plans to ever build it and it wouldn't have been 1/100th as kewl as this, I think I can forgive them.
In other words they didn't steal your idea...
You know, Microsoft surface looks like a great time. Yet all I've seen of it are tech demos, use in highly popular events (like the superbowl) and available to the super-rich (it's on at least one yacht). With the slow development cycle and no mass-production in sight this year, it could be as late as December 2012 before we see this in use by the general public.
Ohh...now I get it. Sneaky Mayans. Microsoft is going to BSOD the entire planet.
why do surface demos always show it not responding to half touches? its way to common to see any demo of people having to keep doing the same thing at least twice.
WANT! NOW! MUST WIN LOTTO!
I'm sorry, it's crap, that path in NO way avoided AoO. And OMG can we scale that crap, DireWolves are Large, that thing was oviously huge! (doh, gotta go take out the trash, I will add more comments later).
I can't wait for Star craft 2 version.
OMG...I never thought of that but that would be incredible. I guess you could do that currently with your average touch screen though, right? But a huge 46" tactical table for Starcraft II or Warcraft III or any top down 2D game would be awesome. I'll need to start formulating how to get my wife to understand that I MUST have this!
Not interested in D&D but this would make a great RTS interface or any strategy game perhaps even an MMO.
come on, guys. The R.U.S.E. trailers were all over Surface. it looks AWESOME.
Is it just me or do the control objects seem a bit contrived? I mean, it would be easier to just have a slide out menu or shoot of virtual paper that you can drag around the place and off the screen. It's almost like they attempted to make it more complicated than it needed to be...
I also noticed that the input lag was pretty bad.
Well an OBJECT that you use to pull up your character sheet and commands and such seems not too bad after a while. You could move around the table, change your seat and as long as the object goes with you, so does everything else. Easier to keep up with than papers and dice and doesn't clutter up the screen much it seems. Though, yeah, at first I thought it was a bit more complex than it needed to be. With your control object, you could take it from table to table and you'd be taking your character with you. But then again, having the luxury of multiple surfaces all playing D&D might be too far out of scope, let alone having ONE of them for your average D&D player.
The dice rolling thing needs to be improved a lot or turned into a 20-sided control object you roll around, soft one that doesn't hurt the surface obviously.
I'd like to see the 'control object' be your thumbprint.
That looks like 4th ed, which combined with microsoft surface will make this idea nearly unadopted. (I'm discerning this from the fact that the "fireball" radius was in a perfect square, which I have SERIOUS issues with. It's like Saga's method of moving diagonally... GRR!)
It's gotta be customizable to 3.5, 2nd, Saga, Gurps and the like. Plus surface has to come down from its $12,500 price tag (+shipping) before any one of us buy into it. with 12 grand I'd have a large white table with a projector aimed straight down on it with the wiimote whiteboard system for some added kicks ... and a decent used car
I could see comic/game shops investing in one of these for weekend gaming though... That would draw the kiddos (and me) in!
considering that the surface is just a camera under your monitors screen ... one wonders why the heck it is so expensive.
DIY Surface for $350: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer
you have been attacked by a wizard!
wizard casts spell: greater runtime error plus 5!!
you can: hit okay, hit cancel, reboot.
I think what isn't always taken into account is the fact that we geeks LIKE to have reams of paper, character sheets, and REAL dice rolling around. I could definitely go for what I saw one guy do though, mounting an projector over a table and creating the map with Neverwinter Nights.
I would definitely like to be able to roll real dice. That is an integral part of the game. Making real dice rolls an option keeps the DnD flavor.
Using real die should not be hard at all, if a camera can be mounted either under or over the table. I'm pretty sure a camera of sufficient resolution should be able to resolve the faces on a die (or maybe even put RFID on each face of specialized die and mount a proximity sensor just underneath the table).
how about playing some C&C on that thing?
@Michael and Rex Same with the Di rolling... Theirs is way slow. In fact, I think it would be easier to move a figure, than to set a path for said figure.
What about the privacy of the DM? That always been a key element in D&D. The ability for the DM to prepare and set up what they're about to do while the players study the map and contemplate their options. With this table, it seems to me like all the DM's actions will be predisposed.
Battle map idea is great, but it would be far greater if the DM could premake his own maps and world before any campaigns or encounters.
http://ccv.nuigroup.com/
open source software to help making your own table.
I agree with the poor dice rolls. It seems slow and off the screen. Plus, one of the COOLEST parts on D&D is the feel of a hand ful of damage dice from a powerful spell. I love having my own custom dice when we play and I would NEVER trust a computer to make a die roll for me. That's not ME rolling, it's the computer.
Great concept for a "work in progress" - well done "team at Carnegie Mellon University"...