The upcoming cut-out miniatures in 3DVTT are looking great, especially when representing figures of smaller stature. You can really appreciate the size difference when facing up against human-sized or similar creatures.
Preview of short figures as cut-out miniatures in 3D Virtual Tabletop
The smaller figures are from Battle! Studio.
As part of adding cut-out miniature standups to 3DVTT, I’ve made their thumbnails cut-out too. When you’re in the screen where you select a mini to add to the tabletop, it shows the cut-out shape, if you set one up when adding the miniature to your collection.
A preview of the thumbnails for cut-out miniatures in 3D Virtual Tabletop online.
The cut-out miniatures feature is still a work in progress.
The images used for the miniatures are from Robert E. Howard’s Tabletop RPG Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, from Modiphius Entertainment.
I’ve been refining how the outline will be defined for cut-out miniature standups in 3DVTT, in a way that makes it both easy to set up, and work well on the tabletop. This latest iteration lets you cut in to define concave areas for really highlighting the detail of weapons and poses. This is great for long items like staves and polearms that are separate from the main body of the figure.
Defining a complex outline for a cut-out miniature in 3D Virtual Tabletop Online.
With developments like this, new cut-out minis feature is getting closer to public release.
The barbarian image is from Robert E. Howard’s Tabletop RPG Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, from Modiphius Entertainment.
As part of the work for cut-out miniatures for 3D Virtual Tabletop, I’m also improving the experience when adding miniature that will appear as a full card. As you toggle between importing as a cut-out, or full card, the preview image adjusts accordingly. The full image is still visible, albeit somewhat dimmed, so that you can still see what it looks like when the mini is flat, or viewing from top-down.
New preview when adding full card miniatures to 3D Virtual Tabletop.
This is new preview is not available yet, but you’ll see it when the new cut-out miniature feature makes it to 3DVTT.
The images used for the cut-out miniatures are from Robert E. Howard’s Tabletop RPG Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, from Modiphius Entertainment.
The next stage of getting cut-out standups to work is here. I’ve got them appearing on the tabletop. I think it really adds a coolness factor to the miniatures. Each one is more individually identifiable now that they have different outlines, and you can also see more of the surrounding map and other minis.
There are still a few more things to complete before this feature becomes publicly available.
Preview of Cut-Out Standup Miniatures in 3D Virtual Tabletop
The images used for the cut-out miniatures are from Robert E. Howard’s Tabletop RPG Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, from Modiphius Entertainment. The map is from Neutral Party.
Here’s a little preview of what I’m working on right now, using cut-outs for the standup miniatures in 3D Virtual Tabletop. This short video shows the screen where you add our own minis, now letting you set the outline as well.
The image used for the miniature in the video is from Robert E. Howard’s Tabletop RPG Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, from Modiphius Entertainment.
There’s now a much simpler screen for importing your own maps into 3DVTT. You can get your own maps set up and ready to play in seconds.
The Tavern Roadhouse map added to 3DVTT using the new simpler map import screen.
The previous screen was very flexible so that it could handle any map, no matter how poorly formatted it was. It was necessary for doing things like using a map taken from a screenshot of a PDF. Unfortunately, that made it very complicated, and was overkill for most maps.
I’ve been following several cartographers on Patreon, and most of them create great maps that are laid out well for a grid, even if they offer gridless versions. There’s a lot of talent there and you’ll be pleased to know that getting their maps in your game is now a cinch. All you need to do is drag the map file in, enter the size, and you’re good to go. The Roadside Tavern in the screenshot is from Neutral Party.
So getting well formatted maps into 3D Virtual Tabletop is now easy, what about the others that need an offset applied to the grid, or their aspect ratio tweaked? The previous screen for importing maps is still there, you can access it by pressing the Adv. (Advanced) button in the map import screen. You can flick in between the Simple and Advanced screens to see how it looks with the different views.
I hope you enjoy the new simpler method of adding your own maps. I know I’ll be glad to spend less time organizing maps during my prep time for each game session.
The online version of 3D Virtual Tabletop now has a new help screen that you can access when importing a new map. It answers many of the questions I’ve been asked over and over again. I hope you find it helpful!
The new help screen for importing maps into 3DVTT.
You can see it yourself by starting a new game at https://www.3dvtt.com/game.
For all those special things happening on the map, you can now easily point them out to your fellow players, with a new set of markers to signify areas of interest. The included set has numbers, arrows, crosses, and circles, in 5 different colors, with both dark and light themes, to suit any location.
You can find the new markers in the Minis screen, in a new Markers folder that everyone now has. This folder also has special properties for making your own markers easier to use. When adding any item from this folder on the map, it will automatically appear as a flat token rather than an stand-up mini, and it will also start with a blank label, ready for you to enter in any identifying information about that place on the map, if needed. When you import your own markers into this folder, they will be treated the same, so you can make use of that as well.
Some of the new marker tokens in 3DVTT
Start or join a game at http://3dvtt.com/game to check out the new set.
2d20 is a cinematic action oriented system used by Modiphius Entertainmet in the Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition, Infinity, Robert E. Howard’s Conan and John Carter Warlord of Mars rpgs.
Characters roll two d20s, attempting to roll as low as possible on each one. Tasks require one or more successes, with success scored beyond that becoming Momentum. Extra d20s can be rolled at the cost of resources or Doom, which encourages the GM to make the characters’ lives interesting.
To make it easier to identify individual successes from each die roll, there is a new option in 3DVTT’s dice roller in the chat. Put an “i” in front of the roll command and you’ll receive the results of the roll as individual numbers from each roll, rather than having the total first. Here are some examples.
Typing “iroll 2d20”
Gives the result: “Rolled [3 18] on 2d20”
Typing “Climb /iroll 3d20”
Gives the result: “Climb Rolled [6 13 9] on 3d20“
To find out where your Momentum or Doom take you, head on over to Modiphius then fire up 3DVTT for a game.
So tonight there's another problem with the cloud provider used for storing images. That means you can't upload new map/minis or use old ones. You can only use those you've used recently that will be in your local cache.
Sorry for the service interruption again. I'm hoping it'll all be sorted in about 3 hours. If it's not going by then, it'll likely be the next day.
Check back here for updates, or see 3DVTT on twitter.
There's currently a problem with the cloud provider we use for storing maps and miniatures. You can't upload new or download old images. Games can continue if you've already downloaded the images locally, so you can continue on a map with the monsters that are already there.
I'm working to resolve it, hoping to be back up and running in 6 hours.
Check back for update, or see 3DVTT on twitter.
I’ve added a Delete button in the Maps and Miniatures screens so you can more easily delete maps and minis you’ve imported. This is great if you made a spelling mistake when you brought it in, or if the grid wasn’t lined up correctly on a map.
Deleting a map in 3D Virtual Tabletop Online
You can try it out now at 3DVTT Online (3dvtt.com/game)
In 3D Virtual Tabletop Online, you can now set your miniatures to be flat tokens. This lets you do a whole lot of cool things:
I’ve found these useful in my own game, and I hope you do too.
Also, as someone requested, I’ve added a new command to the chat:
/clear – it will remove all the currently displayed chat messages to give a better view of the map.
Over the last week, I’ve made it easier to import your own maps into 3DVTT. You can now drag the grid around to line it up, and there are buttons for fine tuning if needed. The guidelines for the grid can be either black or white, to suit any map, whether a forested wilderness or deep space. It also includes 2 views of the map, so you can see opposite edges of the map at the same time, to ensure the grid lines up everywhere. This is especially useful for those tricky maps that aren’t well formatted, making them a breeze to add. The video demonstrates all of these new things, both with a basic map, and a more complicated one.
You can try it out now at 3dvtt.com/game.
