Righto - I had a shot with the Android tablet. I didn't expect a lot, but I have to say I'm very pleased with the results. I constructed various experimental stands to hold the thing, and had a couple of brief sessions with Goya and with Stryker today to see how things looked from their end. Very promising. It would be better, of course, to have two cameras on the job, but if the stand for the tablet is rigid enough and stable enough then I can take the tablet down when necessary, and offer views from other angles, or close-ups, or whatever the generals want. The beauty of the stable stand is that I can put the tablet back in its main vantage point without fiddling around adjusting everything.
The best arrangement we achieved has the tablet about 7 feet from the floor, tipped forward (on a music stand, in fact), looking down over one corner of the table. We tried various combinations of lights, with the curtains open and closed - eventually the best arrangement was with curtains closed and all the room lights on, with the camera pointing in a direction which minimised reflected light. The photos were taken by Goya, at the far end of the conversation - there is a little loss of resolution in the pictures, compared with my original screen view, but it certainly looks as though it will do the job.
Remote generals should be provided with paper maps of the table, and we'll improvise some sort of unobtrusive grid reference system to clear up any ambiguities - maybe some form of unit roster arrangement might be a good idea, too. Whatever - I think we can now go ahead. We hope to have a smallish Napoleonic game ready to roll in a week or three.
I'll continue to keep an eye on the insane world of webcams, but the pressure is off for the moment.
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| The view from 7 feet up in the air - screen capture from the far end of the link. A little clarity is lost in transmission, but it is surely good enough to get us going. My son points out that if I buy an expensive 1080p streaming camera Zoom will detect our rural broadband service, and default to 730p anyway. That would be a shame (though I do fancy a decent camera for creating videos anyway). The mugs do not indicate a mighty consumption of coffee, by the way, I placed them there in case we couldn't find the corners through the camera view. Needn't have worried, I think. |
Looks like this solution will work! Can Zoom "zoom" in?
ReplyDeleteHi Jon. Alas, no. The more I think about this, the greater is the appeal of a full, all-singing, all-dancing system with multiple cameras, preferably each with its own cameraman, a proper vision director and a system where each participant can choose his/her/its own view, and zoom in to suit themselves. I realise this is ridiculous, but that is how a live game works, where players can move about and look at whatever they want.
DeleteThis "toe-in-the-water", tablet-based set-up with Zoom we are going to try will need a lot of extra stuff to make it work - markers on the table, self-managed rosters, maps, maybe a detailed summary at the end of each turn, and probably a lot of patience and goodwill. I'm sure we'll get by, and the novelty might even be a bonus for a while. Otherwise we're relying on companionship to get us through!
Only "zooming" facility I've found so far is that if I, as the host, use my tablet touch screen to expand my view of the tabletop, that makes the display change for all "attendees" - that is a bit useful, but you can't re-centre the picture - you just get a bigger version of part of the general view.
I think the ability to take the tablet for a walk for close-ups, as requested, will be important.
This will be fun, I think, but may be quite hard work too. I was wondering about the duration of the play sessions. If we play a smallish C&CN game, for example, then in a normal social game you'd expect that to be played to completion in about two hours - probably less. The Zoom game is going to be a lot slower, and the umpire/handler/cameraman is going to be working very hard. I realise a lot of guys have done this already, and are probably laughing at my concerns, but I was thinking of maybe setting up the first game as two 2-hour sessions, with a good hour break in between. If the game still hasn't finished, and we wish to continue, we can easily arrange extra sessions on later days - I can leave the table set up, since the dining room is not required for very much banqueting at present, and all the players probably have greater availability than normal.
Important thing, to me, is that we do whatever we need to do to make it enjoyable. It would be easy to become disenchanted with this idea if we forget something important or otherwise screw up!
You lost me at 'pottering' ...
ReplyDeleteI was lost myself, long before that!
DeleteNice one. I use the camera in my tablet for this sort of thing too. I prop it up on a pile of boxes!
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin - your previous comment was a useful input to these latest trials!
DeleteAn interesting experiment for those of us working toward a similar goal, in my case a simple face to face over a 3' square board board marked up in 3" squares. You are of course far more ambitious with the large table and 3 way conferencing via Zoom. I have been quietly experimenting with my new 18mm bases playing basic C&CN rules on a square grid and simplified ramekin style activation and you know what....it works pretty well!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing how this all works out for you.
Needs must, I guess - also I'm keen to keep busy, and looking at new stuff is mostly worthwhile. If I'm going to mess something up, I always tend to do it in the Grand Manner.
DeleteGood to hear from you Lee - take care.
Looks promising so far. If it works maybe you could sell a limitdd number of tickets to people to join the group and quietly spectate! (I bet there would be a market!) (Well not me I'm not much of a spectator)
ReplyDeleteHi Ross - interesting idea - I think it would have to work pretty smoothly before any outsiders get to see our efforts, but let's do a dress rehearsal and see!
DeleteWe played our third Zoom War of the Roses game yesterday. This rime 2 fixed but turnabkle views, one from each end, and the hand held cell phone for close ups and special views. That was more than adequate. Game time really wan't much longer than usual. Most often the zoomed in view isn't needed much until the troops are within charge distance. On the other hand, I wasn't hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks again Peter - this is all valuable info - (I think) I can now run a session involving two fixed cameras, my tablet and my phone, one at each end, though either of them can be lifted down for close-up work. Things still to be tested are whether it looks OK from the attendees' pov, whether our broadband is up to a sustained hammering like this, and the fact that my iPhone goes flat in (estimated) 2 hours on HD Zoom - charger will have to be connected, which probably disqualifies it from being the close-up camera! I'm also getting the vitamins up, and buying in some glucose drinks!
DeleteLook good Tony...
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have noticed with my own online game with my daughter, is that once you get going you actually start to forget that you are using an iPad/camera and the fun takes over...
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly - your experience is very encouraging - I fear that my constant swearing at the computing technology will remind people fairly frequently until I have gained a couple of campaign medals! Keep well.
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