Deck Plans

[AnotherDilbert]

Someone seems to be able to use it:
http://www.sevenworldsrpg.com/downloads/
VRML star and world maps for a current RPG.


Counterstrike map of a starship:
https://www.gamemaps.com/details/1363
Given the amount of maps available it can't be all that difficult/expensive to make them?

There were a lot of hype around VR and tool-chains existed. No-one was very interested, so it died. I doubt we will see a lot of interactive VR Traveller deck plans anytime soon.

AR might be another matter entirely?


I tested a simple panoramic WebGL scene: It ran perfectly on a 5+ years old iPad, and on a 5+ years old computer the browser never went above 5% of one core while constantly jerking the view around. I doubt any recent phone, tablet, or computer would have any problem with it.

Adobe Animate can apparently do virtual walk-through animations to WebGL authoring for a whopping $20.99/month.
https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html

 

[Anonymous]

This is a typical engineer. They can always figure out some way to do it, so they say almost everything's possible. Because it is. I too do this (it isn't criticism).

But "economically feasible" is another thing entirely.

Instead of a 2D grid, you're going to make the entire deckplan in a 3d package, and texture it, and publish it to an app, and then support the interactive viewer? How many hours do you think that will take, what is your hourly rate, and why won't most RPG companies pay that?

Sure, there's one or two out there, for games lucky enough to have a player or developer invest the time. I've yet to see one that's pro architectural quality, but we don't really "need" that for Traveller.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

This is a typical engineer. They can always figure out some way to do it, so they say almost everything's possible. Because it is. I too do this (it isn't criticism).

But "economically feasible" is another thing entirely.

I quite agree, or as I said earlier:

Just give it a few years and I’m sure the ‘enhanced digital editions’ of the books are gonna feature interactive deck plans that can be freely rotated and zoomed

That has been quite possible for decades, but has yet to become common. At a guess it takes longer to make than standard deck plans, hence is more expensive.