Reforging the d20Pro virtual tabletop; adding the Unlimited Rules Engine, Native multitouch support, Shadowcasting fog of war and more.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Because we like late nights...
about 8 years ago
– Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 11:04:05 PM
3.6.8 is now out and live, sans Feature Library. This build contains a lot of speed improvements and bug fixes as well as some feature updates involving Rules API foundation and access to the Traits tab on the edit creature panel.
We are still planning a release next week. Our plan as of now is to bring the first tier of the Rules API online publicly next week and provide tier two access to the backer community shortly there after. We'll post a more substantive update once we go live with the first part of the API release.
In other news, we are involved in a partnership negotiation with Trapdoor Technologies. If all goes as well, this relationship can only strengthen our work in the virtual tabletop space! Trapdoor Technologies is responsible for the Paizo Playbook and was the creator of Dungeonscape (aka Project Morningstar). They bring a strong mobile sense to the table and a great deal of content knowledge. Again, as things progress, we will be sure to keep you all well informed!
Regards, Owlbear
Beta and Bug fix release launched (3.6.7.7)
about 8 years ago
– Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 09:22:43 PM
Hello Backers (and other folks watching the updates),
We've just launched the 3.6.7.7 Beta to the community. This doesn't have any fun early access features live in it so this is going public immediately. We should be far enough along on our feature library tools by next week to release an backer only alpha/beta of that system. The UI will be undergoing some major revisions however, so anything we launch next week will be a proof model of the logic and functions of the final UI.
I don't mean to be a tease about the final UI decisions for the Feature Library. We've been working on a system which I think will be extremely disruptive to the current VTT market and so I'm being cagey to protect the time and money investment from all of you and from our side as well.
For immediate access to the beta, please visit the D20PRO Archive site here:
In other news, we are finalizing talks with Paizo for the Pathfinder License. We met up with their management at GenCon and things went very well. Our WotC proposal was accepted and will be handled after PAX Prime(West). So we hope to have great news for all by early to mid-september.
We're deeply engaged with Trapdoor Technologies who produces Playbook as a mobile character sheet and enhanced PDF reader. This relationship is moving ahead at a fantastic pace. With their StoryEngine and character mobile character system, we should be able to provide some fantastic mobile support to the community in the very near future!
Their PDF resource system is also stellar. It uses scanned, annotatable pdfs of the source material and creates a contextual browser which allows a user to pull up the specific entry on a page in a book while also allowing for contextual browsing. This creates a very natural feel to epub.
Finally, we've been working on some enhanced networking tools with our Unity team. The quick and dirty version, since we're not far enough along to really go into depth yet, is simply this -- NAT Punch-thru. Basically, we'll be hosting a master server in the cloud which you'll be able to use to make non-TCP/IP connections to other players. Additionally, this will grant you the ability to advertise games, available seats, and other details to create hosted ads for game/match finding.
There are a few other resources being added to the Unity based online tool chest, but again, I'll wait till we're further along to really delve deep.
Just to give everyone a firm understanding of what this means -- We've put the breaks on all other projects which were in the works prior to D20PRO and pulled everyone into roles which build on the D20PRO/VTT space. This means that our Mage Hand team is specifically working on tools which augment D20PRO now rather than potentially later. In addition, we're still employing contractors to help with the Java as I'm our soul internal source for java coding at the moment (Owlbear needs food badly).
So, we've been "all in" from the get go. However, now, we're even more "all in" then every before -- which I didn't think was possible!
Expect things to ramp up and speed up considerably now that the major behind the scenes work is nearly completion on Rules Plugins, Feature Libraries, and User editable file handling.
Fun times!
(and no, the forum/blog posts will not include all the details here -- yeah kickstarter!)
- Owlbear
Shadow casting Full Feature Release - D20PRO 3.6.6
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 09:59:29 PM
Hello All,
This message represents a milestone -- a very late milestone, but still an important one!
We will be launching the Shadow casting feature to our production D20PRO branch tomorrow (June 29th) during the day (EST).
Due to massive limitations with the Kickstarter Update System, I've started up the Dev Blog space at D20PRO.com with this update.
Please pop over to the post for all the grisly details. I'll continue to post brief updates here which link to the related full articles on the blog.
The general summary is as follows:
Shadow casting is live as part of 3.6.6 which you can download tomorrow (June 29th)
Lights as Gradient – Single Light with two stage lighting (bright / shadowy – (3.6.6)
The Rules engine work proceeds according to plan albeit slightly behind schedule – (3.6.7)
Mobile Character sheet support in D20PRO is ready, however, the actual mobile sheet is not. Coming Soon! (3.6.7)
Feature Library support (extension of the Rules Engine) is well underway and will be available in Alpha/Early Access soon (3.6.6.x)
The other features are still in the mix and being worked on. So we're on target, but the list above covers the core work being done right now.
GrrrHoo!
Owlbear
"The Creature Feature"
over 8 years ago
– Thu, Jun 09, 2016 at 10:42:36 PM
As we close in on releasing Shadow Casting to the general populous, I wanted to catch everyone up on where we are with the various goals and objectives.
Some tasks are farther ahead than others. Some have had to be delayed as we uncovered work which needed to be done before we could get started on the target task.
So lets just dive in.
Shadow Casting
This is definitely the farthest along. I'll be pushing a final beta build out tonight or tomorrow. This build has a few minor changes and bug fixes.
From the bug fix category, the most notable is a correction Thraxxis implemented which fixes an export bug which the new Shadow casting model had introduced.
On the feature improvements and fixes side, we've added a duplicate light function to the Light Panel. This allows a GM to select any number of lights in the scene and create duplicates. The duplicates are not tethered nor owned by anyone upon creation however. This is intentional as the most common case for cloning lights is to create environmental effects such a row of torches.
The duplicates are also created disabled. This is to keep duplicated lights from accidentally revealing a GM's map to the players. Once the lights are in place, the GM can easily enable them from the Light Panel.
The community has been great on suggesting adds and feature fixes. Many of these have been slipped in along side the general updates.
Those that haven't and a few clear convenience functions are being put aside in favor of completing the next phase tasks.
Next phase? Yup!
Rules Engine/API - Part I
I had started writing this update a week ago and while preparing for this section I was contemplating how to word "We're not making great headway in this area" in a palatable way. Basically disgusted with the need to report on a slagged effort I got to thinking about what went wrong. Well, as things would have it, this resulted in a massive breakthrough and now I get to report on the success instead!
As of this writing the Rules Engine is majorly underway. Our contracted help is plugging away at a very cool system we're calling the Feature Library. This is a non-programmer API access system similar to the "Effects" system which was already present (but broken beyond imagining) within D20PRO.
The new Feature System grants a user the ability to configure arbitrary elements which can be used by a GM to control aspects of loaded characters.
I would sum up, but I'm terrible at that, so instead I'm going to go into grueling detail!
Please keep in mind that this is 400% developer UI. The final UI will be cleaned up and a whole lot more intuitive...
Feature Library - Edit Feature
What you're looking at is a preview of the Edit Feature view of the new Feature Library. In this build, only Special Abilities are working, however, we have nearly completed work on Spells and should have this going in short order as well.
The quick explanation is this: A feature has a Name, a Category and a Group. If the Name and Category match an item on a character sheet then the character can use the Feature in place of the item on the character sheet.
The Categories are currently planned as Attack, Class, Feat, Item, Skill, Special Ability, Spell, and Trait. These map to common elements on a character sheet (especially ours!).
So in the above example the character has Flame Strike (normally a spell) as a Special Ability. The Feature library implements this Ability which can be used to override the players listing.
In game terms, this allows a GM to host custom or rules based abilities, spells, feats, etc. and have them apply to players and creatures based on a named element existing on the creature.
Features can be enabled and disabled and Features can come from multiple sources. Lets say you're running a game where you use Pathfinder CMB in a 3.5 game. By enabling the CMB rules for Attacks you can add that element to your existing game.
Or for house rules you can copy or modify the Features and enable your House Rules. Using Groups you can sort your Features into SRD, House Rules, Rules for Tuesdays, etc.
I know I mentioned how rough the UI is. yeah. it's bad. The UI is currently based on the old Special Ability UI in terms of capabilities. Some of the major changes are hidden away in the list where you see 4d6 damage settings. One of the more powerful changes is the ability to create multiple effects for a single Feature, for example:
each row of that table can contain an effect such as:
Action (Action Type)Modifies (thing) as (modifier type)
or
4d6 (fire) damage to HP (unnamed) (i.e. it stacks)
Alternately you could write
+5 to Strength (competence)
The results are remarkably flexible.
One of the core design goals is to streamline and front load some of the overhead that the old system incurred.
For example, with the new system you can not only specify your save DC and duration's but also what type of template to use for targeting. When casting a 3.5/Pathfinder Fireball, you would automatically be provided with a 20' Burst template to drop on the map which selects the effected targets.
Feature Library - Template Automation
It is still possible to modify the effect of a special ability or spell before sending to the GM or to the PC's.
it is even possible to save the modified version if the GM chooses to do so.
Finally, Features, like other Libraries, belong to the GM. A player can edit effects and push built Features to the GM for acceptance, but in the end, the Campaign owner is the owner of the Library.
This also means that a system feature set only needs to be loaded on the GM/Campaign side. Gone are the days of players having to enter in spells individually. With the Library, the GM can share a collection of features to every player connected to the game.
Huzzah!
Rules Engine/API - Part II
But wait! There's more! With Features under way, we've also been working our breastplates off on adding rules abstraction to the D20PRO core engine. What we've implemented is a Reflection based Rules system which allows for alternate rules systems to be initialized within D20PRO. Currently we're building the 5e SRD rules using this new tool set and should have some fun things to show in the very, very near future.
What does this mean for you? Especially(!) what does this mean for you developer type folks? It means that we are on track to have a build of D20PRO which allows for Java based expansion to be loaded at runtime. Right now, we're still evaluating whether to use hot-jars or straight text based java code. Both are possible using this new Rules class loader.
Because this is pretty much a pure code change, there's not a lot so show visually at this stage. As the 5e SRD flushes out, however, I should be able to show some nice 5e related bits and bobs.
But hey! an image is worth 100d somethings!
Rules (reflection) FTW!
So yeah, that looked a lot like the last character sheet, but hold the phone! If you look closely at the saves area (middle of the sheet) you'll note that instead of Fort and Ref (Will is under the combo box) we have Str and Dex. Basically the Rules set loaded uses Stats for saves rather than fort, reflex and will. Additionally, the combo box shows Type's which are directly from the 5e SRD instead of the 3.5 OGL types!
There's some logic clean up and some UI building, but this is fairly close to being ready to go.
Additionally, we've updated the Core Dice to include Advantage and Disadvantage type roles.
Core Dice with Advantage and Disadvantage
Oh yeah, and the game log (dice) channel is attacked to the Core Dice panel so you can see roll results as they happen without having to use the Game Log directly.
We've been busy
It's true, we've been super busy working on the Kickstarter, growing the product and the brand and generally trying to keep this ship sailing in a relatively course following fashion.
In addition to the major highlights from above, we've been working on a variety of other D20PRO related tasks and services. A lot of this is focused on cleaning up our Content creation pipeline and identifying where we need to improve manpower and availability.
One of the places we've been putting some efforts is in the area of networking. The current TCP/IP model is remarkably secure as compared to other possible methods, however, having a means to tunnel D20PRO traffic into a game service is high on our list of tasks. To this end, our Unity folks have been investigating ways to use some of the Mage Hand networking system to create a home for D20PRO.
If we're successful on this front, we'll be able to provide Game Finding, Match Making and several other services (cloud based Character Vault) to the community.
Thanks again for all of your patience and support
Again, we wouldn't be working on this project if it weren't for you all. Thank you for your continued patience and support! (what? I said that twice?)
- Owlbear and the D20PRO team
Bing! You've got mail!
over 8 years ago
– Thu, May 05, 2016 at 11:50:12 PM
Hitting the Shiny Red Button
Due to various circumstances, we're moving the current Shadow Casting build into public beta!
The upside is that you all will gain access to these features right away, the downside is that the tutorials and sample maps are still being built.
"Why" you might ask would we make such a sudden move? The answer is simple, ENnie's. We very much wanted to submit D20PRO into the ENnie's this year and releasing Shadow Casting into the wild at the same time.
So, without further ado, here is the download link for D20PRO 3.6.3 replete with shadow casting and dynamic lighting!
While we are working on our training and documentation I'd like to point you back toward our YouTube channel where we have some samples and overviews which show the in's and out's of the system prior to the recent update.
