Vision tracking

It's time to create some virtual reality or augmented reality.
Not only new methods of user interactions are possible using vision besed tracking.
For 2D tracking the reacTIVision project is really interesting.
RPG application can be a virtual tabletop controlled by "fiducial token ID".
It could be a nice integration for applications like MapTools.
For now installed the application and tested successfully.
Will have to find something for 3D tracking and eye tracking.
By the way it's an open source project.

Hacking macros in MapTool

I'm working on the really wanderful campaign file from Imarkus to hack some macros.
I always hated not being able to use all those rules in the books and not having at hand all the DC for all the possible actions you can do (yes I know as a master you RULE which IS the DC, but this means not using all the money spent on books).
I used to create tables to print and to consult when the need arised, but time has come short to update it and I end up loosing the table around.
Having something automatic was my dream.
The macro system of MapTool is really wanderful and powerful so took the existing macro for rolling skills checks and added the ability to list for the skill chosen all the actions possible and to show the DC and calculating success.
Here you can find the code.

Output sheet for PCgen towards MapTool

The work is proceeding well.
Thanks to PCgen community managed to solve a REPLACEALL tag problem: it seems that the correct syntax is TEXT.REPLACEALL{\W+,_}.TAGNAME so that it replaces all non word characters with underscore.
This allows to create a property in the XML file used to import characters in MapTool with a list of SKILL.
Since is not possible to have a list with element name with whitespaces, the replacement was essential.
Now can go on with the output sheet creation.
I've used the campaign file from pathfinder3.5 and I'm going to hack the macros since much of the math is done in PCgen.
With this, the speed of managing characters in PCgen and using them in MapTools is greately increased and when you are a DM with a young child it can mean managing to prepare a session or not.
The stuff is published in the MapTool forum

Java Date library

I was looking for a library to manage Date and calendar to add some time/event functionality to MapTool and I stumbled upon joda .
It's really a powerful library and should be possible to customize it to create also fantasy calendar like the Harptos one (the one used in the forgotten realm).
Using this to track time within MapTool could be a nice feature addition so to have a time management option.

PCgen output sheet

OK crating a new output sheet is not so easy as it seems.
Still working on it.

PCGEN and MapTool

Decided to look on how to link the two programs since I'm lazy (I can say better I find useless to write more time the same data when using digital information we should be able to transform it).
There is the possibility to create a character sheet export xml that can be used to create a new tocken based on the information from PCgen so you can keep info from your PC in pcgen that is surely the best of the two, but can use MapTool for mapping during the session.

Creating the xml in PCGen is quite easy and there is lots of usefull data there.
All you have to do is than placing the saved file inside a previously saved rptok file.
To satisfy my laziness I'll try to automate the import in MapTool.

Hacking MapTool

I'm hacking RPTool's MapTool program.
It's one of the best program I've used so far for RPG mapping and session helping.
Well coded and with a live community, an example of how open source can produce great works.