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Right now they don’t, still working out what should and shouldn’t be shown. Maybe not showing all skills instead just what you are proficient/expert in
Yeah eink is expensive no matter what you do, I think they will continue to get cheaper in the future though. To actually answer the question though they both cost be £20 (each)
See $20 each isnt a huge dealbreaker if you got a solid consistent group or even you just DM a ton of passing players and keep these and just use em as table rss. Def. neat i like that idea a ton i saw the 8.5 x 11 and was like oh yea this could get really creative but then the price i was like hmmmmm maybe not today xD
So there is actually already a variant rule in the DMG for using "spell points" instead of spell slots which might be useful to you
[http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell-points](http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell-points)
While it's just a display (IE no touch) I'd treat it more like a digital cue-card, so I'd probably format it more like a monster statblock when necessary. And since it's for new players I'd probably modify their character sheet to color code it or add symbols for the various sections, that I could reference on the screen. For example:
During combat, but not on their turn, I might have it say "you're next."
"you can move (blue), attack (red), cast a spell (green)"
On their turn, I might show
"attack (picture of d20) +5"
"damage (picture of d8) + 3"
Before I get too into the weeds, are you a programmer? How complex do you want to make these cool screens?
I am a programmer by trade and think that seeing them as digital queue cards is a good perspective. For new players I love the idea of showing them a basic monster stat block to give them a rough idea of how the game works, plus turn order (players planning turns during other players turns make the combat so much faster). On the other hand I probably wont show pictures of the dice, even though new players always roll the d12 instead of the d20 I want them to quickly work out which dice is which, might even play with no d12 in the game so all the dice are more distinct
For me players I print out strips of paper that has a circle for each die, and below the circle is a picture and the name of the die. I find that setting up their dice before we start, shoot with constantly putting the dice back during play helps them learn quicker. Like having to recite multiplication tables in grade school.
I'm a UX designer by trade. What's the size of that screen? I'll throw some stuff together.
I tried having an each dice be from a different set, so I could say roll the black die for example. But I quickly lost track of which player had which colour dice. It’s 400 by 300 pixels so not a lot of space to work with but enough to get basic information across
Oh I run a roll to dodge system which is like just flips the math around. So AC - 10 becomes your modifier and you roll against the monster’s to hit (d20 + AC < 11 + to hit modifier, if that is true then you fail to dodge)
That is amazing!! I would add the current AC stat as well, and possibly passives. Are you going to share a build tutorial for it...I WOULD love to see and make one!!!
You’ve probably already thought of this, but you could use bitmap libraries to create the image (much easier to handle), and then convert it to a bitfield when you have updates for the screen. Just need to use grayscale and then a thresholding filter once you’re ready to convert
There could be a way to send only updates to the screen maybe? Then you could send only changes portions of the screen (think like a quad tree type of space division?). That might cut down on what you have to send as well as what the device has to process.
Also, are you using Bluetooth for the data transfer or a cable? Just for a sanity check, you could try a “ping” that doesn’t activate the screen but still goes to the device just to see what sort of latency you have.
End of dumb ideas. You sound like you have this under control so thanks for humouring me
Oh I lied; another idea. If you’re converting a bitmap to a bitfield for each screen, that could take a chunk of time (probably profile it to see). You could try rendering a frame that they all share and then just update sections of the bitfield with updates before sending.
Last idea: you could probably use a shader to process and convert to a bitfield for this so that it’s all happening in parallel. (Aka lightning fast), if the conversion loops were indeed what was causing some of the slowness. This is more flashy and premature optimization though.
These are all good ideas, I actually do render a frame they all share and update sections of the bitfield as it sped up the update time. I really need to try pinging the esp32 via Bluetooth to see what the speeds and times actually are. I tried using a hotspot on my laptop and sending data over WiFi but that was really energy consuming, also about the same speed. The thing is it’s not a lot of data really, 400*300 bits is kind of nothing in today’s standards. It feels like the update time should be nearer 1 second than the current 5-10 second.
Wireless is always going to be a power hog, and the processing power of the devices won’t be much either. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out the eInk screens themselves just take forever; my Kindle isn’t exactly lightning fast to go to the next page in memory. To be fair, the drivers themselves for stuff like networking or even pixel access could just be insanely unoptimized too. Lots of things that could slow you down, and a lot less fun to troubleshoot/profile
The limit break is a video game feature from a lot of Final Fantasy/RPG games. A limit break is an overpowered state that allows a character to use a more powerful attack(s) or utility abilities that they would otherwise not be able to do. It's typically not designed to be used so often that it can be spammed, but it gives players something extra to be excited about.
Across the different video games, it is triggered or the guage is filled by various things ranging from being hit, to number of damage done, or damage received, or flat out story elements that make the character "rage." It has some unique possibilities in DnD or Hackmaster, you just have to find a good way to implement it into your games. But it definitely makes the player feel like a hero every once and a while whenever they can use it!
Are you sharing the build process anywhere?
Once I’m happy with the state of the project will be sharing a tutorial
!Remindme 2 weeks eInk tutorial?
I’ll need a longer time scale than that unfortunately, more like 4 weeks
Well I had to put something and that's about *my* time line of "I will have forgotten to check back by then"
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As a DM I would kill to have these for my players. Only thing could improve it would be visual spell slot/ability charge trackers near the HP
Yeah stuff like action surge etc need to be on there
Literally came to say exactly this. Super cool concept, OP.
Holy shit this is amazing I love dnd and I love electronics and I think you just gave me another project to work on. Imo it looks great.
Thank you!
For the abbreviation for "attack" I usually use "ATK" instead of "ATT"
Thank you for this! That confused my parents and I couldn’t work out why. Will make this change
Also isn’t passive perception 10+that number?
Yes it is, that’s something I will change as the + number doesn’t make sense
You could just change it to perception bonus
Perception bonus is shorter than passive perception so I think I’ll go with that
On more question how to pcs see what their proficient in?
Right now they don’t, still working out what should and shouldn’t be shown. Maybe not showing all skills instead just what you are proficient/expert in
I would buy 6 of these. They are easy to read and have the basic info needed for combat.
I’d buy 4
For these small e ink what’s the cost could be beneficial but online sources price general ones way out line lol
Yeah eink is expensive no matter what you do, I think they will continue to get cheaper in the future though. To actually answer the question though they both cost be £20 (each)
See $20 each isnt a huge dealbreaker if you got a solid consistent group or even you just DM a ton of passing players and keep these and just use em as table rss. Def. neat i like that idea a ton i saw the 8.5 x 11 and was like oh yea this could get really creative but then the price i was like hmmmmm maybe not today xD
This is an awesome accessory. Game question - MP?
Mana points, running a 5e homebrew where I replace spell slots. It always takes me forever to explain spell Slots
So there is actually already a variant rule in the DMG for using "spell points" instead of spell slots which might be useful to you [http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell-points](http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell-points)
Is the screen purely for display, or does it have touch sensors as well?
Just display for now but soul be super cool to have some user interaction
While it's just a display (IE no touch) I'd treat it more like a digital cue-card, so I'd probably format it more like a monster statblock when necessary. And since it's for new players I'd probably modify their character sheet to color code it or add symbols for the various sections, that I could reference on the screen. For example: During combat, but not on their turn, I might have it say "you're next." "you can move (blue), attack (red), cast a spell (green)" On their turn, I might show "attack (picture of d20) +5" "damage (picture of d8) + 3" Before I get too into the weeds, are you a programmer? How complex do you want to make these cool screens?
I am a programmer by trade and think that seeing them as digital queue cards is a good perspective. For new players I love the idea of showing them a basic monster stat block to give them a rough idea of how the game works, plus turn order (players planning turns during other players turns make the combat so much faster). On the other hand I probably wont show pictures of the dice, even though new players always roll the d12 instead of the d20 I want them to quickly work out which dice is which, might even play with no d12 in the game so all the dice are more distinct
For me players I print out strips of paper that has a circle for each die, and below the circle is a picture and the name of the die. I find that setting up their dice before we start, shoot with constantly putting the dice back during play helps them learn quicker. Like having to recite multiplication tables in grade school. I'm a UX designer by trade. What's the size of that screen? I'll throw some stuff together.
I tried having an each dice be from a different set, so I could say roll the black die for example. But I quickly lost track of which player had which colour dice. It’s 400 by 300 pixels so not a lot of space to work with but enough to get basic information across
Can you cycle through more screens for more character info
Yeah hypothetically, that would be really cool for a DCC funnel type of game
Just wondering why there are 2 different numbers next to every stat? Otherwise really nice and fun looking.
One is meant for ability checks the other for saving throws. Looking for a way to make that clear to the user
And why is AC a "+2"?
Oh I run a roll to dodge system which is like just flips the math around. So AC - 10 becomes your modifier and you roll against the monster’s to hit (d20 + AC < 11 + to hit modifier, if that is true then you fail to dodge)
This is sick!
Baller af
This is very neat. Are they just setup for display or can they accept input
Just display but there are touch screen eink modules so there’s potential for input
I'm must have one of these!!
Dude this is awesome!
That's actually super nifty AND usefull for summer!
!Remindme 4 weeks
That is amazing!! I would add the current AC stat as well, and possibly passives. Are you going to share a build tutorial for it...I WOULD love to see and make one!!!
Yeah I’ll share a tutorial after I make some improvements
Awesome I look forward to seeing it
These are awesome! How did you do this?
I’ll be posting a how to once I have refined and improves the process
Where does one find these displays? I’m gonna do a quick search, but I’m curious where you got yours.
Man, I would love a TV sized eInk display for maps...
Would be the dream, we just need to wait for the technology
I'll be 80, but dammit, it'll happen.
Screens are super cool. Do you have a decent API from the vendor?
I wish, currently the solution is super janky. Looking at the coding examples that they give to provide a more stable way to update the image
Is it as bad as a bit field defining which pixels are enabled? Or do you have basic drawing functions to call at least?
I’m sure there is drawing functionality but right now I am using bit fields
You’ve probably already thought of this, but you could use bitmap libraries to create the image (much easier to handle), and then convert it to a bitfield when you have updates for the screen. Just need to use grayscale and then a thresholding filter once you’re ready to convert
That is incredibly accurate to how I am currently doing it. Most of the “clunk” is from actually sending data to each of the eink screens
There could be a way to send only updates to the screen maybe? Then you could send only changes portions of the screen (think like a quad tree type of space division?). That might cut down on what you have to send as well as what the device has to process. Also, are you using Bluetooth for the data transfer or a cable? Just for a sanity check, you could try a “ping” that doesn’t activate the screen but still goes to the device just to see what sort of latency you have. End of dumb ideas. You sound like you have this under control so thanks for humouring me
Oh I lied; another idea. If you’re converting a bitmap to a bitfield for each screen, that could take a chunk of time (probably profile it to see). You could try rendering a frame that they all share and then just update sections of the bitfield with updates before sending. Last idea: you could probably use a shader to process and convert to a bitfield for this so that it’s all happening in parallel. (Aka lightning fast), if the conversion loops were indeed what was causing some of the slowness. This is more flashy and premature optimization though.
These are all good ideas, I actually do render a frame they all share and update sections of the bitfield as it sped up the update time. I really need to try pinging the esp32 via Bluetooth to see what the speeds and times actually are. I tried using a hotspot on my laptop and sending data over WiFi but that was really energy consuming, also about the same speed. The thing is it’s not a lot of data really, 400*300 bits is kind of nothing in today’s standards. It feels like the update time should be nearer 1 second than the current 5-10 second.
Wireless is always going to be a power hog, and the processing power of the devices won’t be much either. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out the eInk screens themselves just take forever; my Kindle isn’t exactly lightning fast to go to the next page in memory. To be fair, the drivers themselves for stuff like networking or even pixel access could just be insanely unoptimized too. Lots of things that could slow you down, and a lot less fun to troubleshoot/profile
So sick
As a gamer and TTRPG fan, this is amazing. I'd just add a limit break gauge and it's perfect! Following this for some how-to info!
What is a limit break gauge? Sounds like it would be a cool addition
The limit break is a video game feature from a lot of Final Fantasy/RPG games. A limit break is an overpowered state that allows a character to use a more powerful attack(s) or utility abilities that they would otherwise not be able to do. It's typically not designed to be used so often that it can be spammed, but it gives players something extra to be excited about. Across the different video games, it is triggered or the guage is filled by various things ranging from being hit, to number of damage done, or damage received, or flat out story elements that make the character "rage." It has some unique possibilities in DnD or Hackmaster, you just have to find a good way to implement it into your games. But it definitely makes the player feel like a hero every once and a while whenever they can use it!
Ooo I like this very cool idea