|
With iOS5 out now they added the ability of AirPlay Mirroring which allows you to stream the iPad screen through Apple TV to your HDTV.
I am looking for ideas how to take advantage of this for RPG games.
I just started playing around with it last night and Apps that support direct TV connect sees the AirPlay Mirroring as directly connecting to the TV so it goes into that mode. An example playing a Game that supports it goes into Full screen mode instead of the 4x3 the iPad screen is.
Goodreader supports this as an example.
I was apple to put my PDFs on the screen and zoom into the maps to show them on the TV. I can also show Pics as well.
Any ideas out there of Apps that can take advantage of this new feature that would work well with a RPG game?
Here's a Demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxOD30DbVZw&feature=related
Here's better video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hykk2xHvvFk&feature=related
Still not supporting AirPlay Mirror on other devices besides an Apple TV. Even the current 3rd party AirServer application doesn't seem to support it.
I see this as an "almost but not quite there yet" feature. Then again I'm almost addicted to Apple Remote Desktop's ability to pickup and display dozens of VNC enabled computers at once. I'd love to be able to pipe multiple iOS A5 equipped devices to a single display, especially as the become more common in the lineup.
Also, until either the Apple TV, the iPad, but preferably both can create their own Ad-hock WiFi network I don't really see this being overly useful for the gamer on the go. It would be more interesting to link this all up through a portable projector with a wide base stand for something for a projected play surface. Almost there, another 5 years I says until both the prices and tech mesh.
Wouldn't this encourage TV manufactures to integrate an Apple TV?
Which part would encourage TV manufactures? The Ad-hock WiFi mode? Wouldn't be an issue if they included their own system for that in a WiFi enabled TV.
If you mean having mirroring supported on non-Apple TV programs/devices. Depends on the costs of the license. Apple already licenses AirPlay technology and there are a few compatible AirPlay speakers. Another issue is a technical one. Whatever is taking the AirPlay stream needs to also be able process the images its getting. Some TVs are getting "smarter" but not all. In many cases for the end consumer it's far more cost effective to throw an Apple TV into the mix as an add-on.
This kinda goes to the argument over wether or not Apple is ever going to make a TV themselves. I tend to lean towards no. From their end it's better to keep selling upgraded versions of Apple TV which plugs into current generation TVs which you can "easily" upgrade. If it gets built into a TV you're stuck with it for the life of that rather expensive TV. How often you buy a new TV? Once a decade or longer?
If Apple ever did make a TV they would just call it the iPad Mega.
Vertical touch screens have been ruled out by most people. Unless you... ya know... like playing Infinity Blade in an Arcade.
I don't see a reason to for Apple to build a TV when it can just make attachable parts. The Apple TV is almost a "brain card" that you'd slide into a TV and upgrade/replace over the years. There was an interesting comment I heard on one of the podcasts I listen to. With the Thunderbolt port, Apple can just make "Pro boxes" that attached to things like MacBook Airs. Instead of needing a whole dedicated tower, they could build a concentrated graphics designers box. Need a power house work station? Plug in the MBAir to the "Pro box". Not enough? Plug in a second.
You can already kinda see this in the newest Apple Monitor: three powered USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800 port, and a freaking Gigabit Ethernet port. Given how Tuhnderbolt works there's no reason you can't stick a dedicated package of processors and graphics cards into an attachable box.
Down the road this holds of the iOS devices as well. A Thunderbolt port would give whatever is being attached a full pipe to processor. Or even nuttier, give the iOS device access to the hardware components (including processor and RAM) of the computer you just hooked it to.
Personally if Microsoft can get the Kinect really working well, that's the really impressive interface technology for TVs. Couple that with Siri like heuristic voice recognition and search systems.
Because ultimately this is no different then hooking a Laptop to a TV or Projector. The only real advantage is there are no wires, which is often counter balanced by not being able to split the screen into DM info on iPad, Player info on Screen. It's useful from a presentation standpoint, especially when being locked down to one spot would be a problem... but basically everything that applies to computers rigged for projection applies to an iPad/AppleTV riggged the same way.
Quite frankly you're limited by what the Apps allow you to do, and their aren't many that are geared to take advantage of this dual screen, non-wired nature.
As someone who's tried integrating digital elements into my games since 2001, it hits serious snags. The biggest is that players want to interact with what you're projecting, if they can't they either get distracted by it or bored with it.
=====
The only other Apps that may be partly useful would be a pre-prepared and hyperlinked Keynote. If you put it in Hyperlink-only Presentation mode you can create your own interal hyperlinks prepped creature/landscape/map images. Unfortunately the Action pallet on the iPad version is seriously gimped.
As being discuss in another thread Battlemap is another App, but it hasn't been updated to take advantage of this. No more the physically connecting it does.
Ditto to Keynote you could also build a standalone HTML website and load that into GoodReader. It should be able to use the same bits of HTML5 and JavaScript that iOS WebKit backend supports. Although I don't think it takes advantage of the improvements made to iOS 5 Safari itself, those are still locked off to developers. If you find something like Tumult's Hype WYSIWYG HTML 5 animation and page builder then you could prep material in that format. May give you a bit more of an animated flavor.
Beyond that not much for our kind of gaming. As I've said, I'd rather hook a full computer up to the projection source at this point and control it by VNC, thus getting the full features of many Apps, including MapTools.
=====
This kind of technology is what will really kick digitally enhanced gaming to a totally different level. Until then it's all stuff we've used before, just in smaller more efficient packaging.
Wouldn't this encourage TV manufactures to integrate an Apple TV?
Wouldn't this encourage TV manufactures to integrate an Apple TV?Steve Jobs envisioned an integrated Apple TV
I see all the parts. I can mentally picture how it could work given what I know of the direction Lion and iOS has take. I just don't see it anytime soon. The price isn't right, the technology isn't quite there, and I'm not seeing the kind of full scale product integration that would really make it shine. The fact that I still can't get an iPad to play primary display to a MacMini, both fresh out of the box makes me leery that it would work end up working well when put to "real" serious use. I can't get my iPod to natively talk and share files/info on the local network with my iPad (f#*! iCloud), or easily with my Mac for that matter. Each of the individual parts is beautiful... but as an "orchestra" they aren't harmonizing well.
*edit*
Slightly on topic... I remember an old HTML based fog of war standalone webpage/app that I download... must have been 6, 7 years ago... which I'm darn sure is burred deep in old computer files. I used to use it when running games off PowerBook when hooked to a TV. You could draw little black rectangles and save the overlay in text-output for later use. This is going to drive me insane.
And found it! Two thousand f****** four. At least Spotlight search has a better index then my brain has. It was called Map View by Graveyboat over on the Dundjinni forums. It's even still there. Don't think it will work well on the iPad though. Multi-touch issues and all that. Still worth a shot
.... Well, it kinda works. Tokens and fog can be placed, hidden, and revealed but not moved. Gives me some hope about trying an HTML5 WebApp based VT solution. Unfortunately I don't have anywhere near the facility I used to in hacking together HTML code let alone Javascript or any of the multi-touch APIs that'd be needed.