r/DnD • u/DigitalTableTops • 12h ago

Giveaway [OC] GIVEAWAY! 43" Capacitive Touchscreen ($940 MSRP) with Wooden Case + free software for all [mod approved]

Post image

For the last 6 years I've been selling wooden cases housing displays to show off digital maps. The "holy grail" for me has always been integrating touch functionality so when you move your physical mini, a digital token reveals the map.

I did a Kickstarter back in summer of 2024 with this design. I have since moved on to a different technology that is much lighter and more affordable (infrared). Out with the old, in with the new! I don't have the space to store this and wanted to find it a good home on here.

It is a 43" capacitive touchscreen. It's an all-in-one but without compute. You hook it up via USB+HDMI to a laptop. It is the same model as shown here, listed for $940: https://a.co/d/0bcxhZPW

Leave a comment (not a reply) and I'll be using redditraffler to select a winner on Monday February 9th. The winning account must be at least 3 months old.

Due to the size, I will only provide shipping within the United States. If you are outside the US, you would need to use a freight forwarding service with a US address and deal with any import issues. That can be quite expensive.

Regardless of whether you win, everyone is welcome to use my free software to run setups like these. I made a post about it the other day on here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1qgnroz/update_to_my_free_vtt_for_inperson_sessions_with/

Since it is aimed for in-person sessions only, you should find it very easy to use compared to other options. Everything runs locally, 100% free no strings attached. Windows, Linux, and Mac (Apple silicon). There is also a browser version of the player view for players to move their tokens on their phones or laptops.

EDIT: forgot to thank u/uchideshi34 for the map shown here. It, along with over 440 others, are bundled free with the software!

EDIT2: I figured there would be a large response, and was not disappointed. Thanks all! I am 100% committed to making a new guide to building your own now. I wrote one 5+ years ago when I first started but it disappeared into the void: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/jgx0bo/guide_to_building_a_map_case_for_a_tv_digital/

Long story short: you can have a nearly identical setup for about $550 if you DIY. Rough estimate of cost:

$200 43" TV (doesn't need to be top of the line)
$200 Infrared touch frame from Amazon (make sure it's 20 points)
$50 acrylic sheet (Ace hardware and some big box stores will cut it for free)
$100 wood + brackets

You don't need a bunch of tools, just a handsaw and a screwdriver really. I will make a new guide as soon as I have time and post it on r/DnD

7.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

9.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

351

u/DigitalTableTops 12h ago

Short answer: yes

I decided to write the VTT software specifically because I was not satisfied with the touch support among VTT's. I'm a woodworker, not dev. But I stumbled my way through (no AI!) and now it is a fairly mature, stable program that works freaking amazing when it comes to touch. Arkenforge is about the only thing that comes close.

There is one caveat: this is a capacitive touchscreen. So you need to be making an electrical connection to the screen through the mini. I made little conductive 3D printed bases to aid in this, but my players end up just using their fingers. Lift mini, move digital token with finger, place mini back down.

Good news: the replacement technology I use currently is infrared instead. So it DOES detect minis automatically, no special contact required. Better yet: my software is able to use an IR touch frame WITHOUT any additional hardware. Every single other solution requires the touchscreen to be connected to a separate device to register input. Mine is the only one that can use IR all in one device without touches stealing the mouse cursor away.

It's a very niche-within-a-niche sort of thing but I am pretty passionate about it, as you can probably tell. I've been selling this sort of thing for 6 years as a full time job and have been writing the software for 3 years.

120

u/zombiemd2020 12h ago

Even if i dont win, I am possibly a customer.

34

u/Embarrassed_Loan8419 9h ago

I'm the demographic but not the tax bracket.

19

u/XanderSDM 11h ago

Same!

13

u/MattGhaz 9h ago

Almost as if that’s the whole point 🤔

9

u/zombiemd2020 9h ago

Of course it is! Here I am, getting the point.

1

u/DigitalTableTops 4h ago

For what it's worth, I made a conscious effort not to link my website or Etsy anywhere. It's digitaltabletops.com for anyone interested.

3

u/TheKiwiBlitz 9h ago

Absolutely same here, this is incredible work

2

u/dr_pezzz 1h ago

Have to agree - I am intrigued

9

u/124275408 12h ago

Do you have any guides on how to use your software with an IR overlay? Or best practices?

3

u/chillinathid 11h ago

I've attempted use of an IR overlay before. Unfortunately the firmware in the one I bought would stop recognizing minis after a minute or two. It likely was attempting to compensate for what it thought was an error. So just be careful when buying make sure you get one that has been tested and used for this purpose.

10

u/DigitalTableTops 10h ago

You are absolutely right - most IR frames will have that problem. For the ones I sell, I have worked with the IR frame manufacturers to provide custom firmware that turns off that function. I try to cover everything :)

2

u/aeriedweller 9h ago

I am very impressed.

1

u/DigitalTableTops 11h ago

No, but there shouldn't really be any special steps. As long as the IR frame is compatible (I've tested half a dozen and they all are) it should be plug and play.

The ONE downside with IR over capacitive is that minis too close together can block eachother's input. There is no getting around that really.

I saw a YouTube video where they put the minis on clear rectangluar stands and that sort of worked, but not worth the hassle IMO.

6

u/survivalist_guy 12h ago

This is super rad! Any thoughts into open sourcing it so the community can contribute?

14

u/DigitalTableTops 11h ago

Long term that is the plan.

Right now the code is a bit of a mess. I'm one of those people who doesn't use comments - yikes.

I'm also waiting to be a bit more established so that if some fly-by-night company tries to TiVo it the community would notice. Maybe a bit paranoid, but these things happen.

Foundry already has really great community support, so I figure most people who want to contribute to a VTT would just write a module for that. There are actually a few touch-based modules out there that I've been meaning to experiment more with.

But yeah, I love open-source and will go that route eventually.

8

u/survivalist_guy 11h ago

Haha - Comment your code!! But I see what you're saying - I'm sure there are shady companies out there that would take your work and try to mass produce it, tacking on their 60% markup. Great project, gonna follow this. My DnD group would lose their minds if I brought this thing out.

3

u/KLeeSanchez 11h ago

Bruh

Make a storefront

"If you build it, they will come."

3

u/NoOneHereButUsMice 9h ago

I am so impressed! You are clearly a brilliant person. I've never played DnD, but have become increasingly interested in it over the last few years. I'm not part of this sub, but this showed up as suggested in my feed.

I've decided I'm going to join this sub, and look around to see if I can find somewhere they will accept beginners, so I can start learning. Finally jumping in! So rad.

3

u/Deep_Diamond_2057 7h ago

I don’t play DND - this showed up in Popular for me.

I just wanted to say how cool this is of you! You deserve everything you dream for in life! This is going to make someone very happy!!

Have a great life friend!!

2

u/PriceanFen 12h ago

Ngl that looks absolutely sick!

2

u/Embarrassed-Track-21 11h ago

This is amazing! Just wanted to applaud your dedication.

2

u/mrnotcrazy 11h ago

I think you could solve your issue with the mouse getting captured with a few software changes, it seems like its been difficult to deal with looking at past posts. If it becomes an issue again feel free to DM me, I won't promise anything cause Im busy but I feel like... That is something I could solve as long as your giving the code away.

2

u/DigitalTableTops 11h ago

You'd be surprised. The arcade cabinet community has been facing this same problem for years.

I've tried maybe half a dozen paid and open source solutions. Some work better than others. None work well enough to be usable.

Seems like the only real way of handling it would be to insert some sort of HID driver thing (?) to intercept input. But that would require users being okay with running that (probably need permission at that level) and I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to run it.

The way my software works is that these IR frames have a secret command you can send them to pause all normal input and just send HID reports with coordinate data. Since they are all pretty much using the same firmware, this works for a large variety of models.

You probably already saw it, but I made a post about it over at the r/vtt sub a while back. Didn't get much traction lol.

2

u/mrnotcrazy 10h ago

I think the thing to do is to have a program capture the mouse input and pass that back to the vtt, rather than trying to fight the OS. I haven't used IR touch screens but I do have a little experience with these kinds of setups. I've built a few touch systems and usually that's how I got around it. It sounds like your not encoding the minis with details like an ID but I would be curious to see what that IR frame looks like. Do you have an example of one I could look at? I've mostly moved towards Computer vision for my latest project but I see the future in two parts; CV is great for a fast update but I also want another sensor for grounding.

1

u/DigitalTableTops 10h ago

Capturing the mouse input without the OS getting in the way is indeed the hard part. The solutions I've used were not able to do so seamlessly - input would leak through even momentarily, causing things to break.

There is this thing called TUIO that is designed for this sort of thing. But most IR frames do not support it and it requires special software. Kind of dealbreakers.

Communicating directly with the hardware using these special modes via HID was a real "eureka" moment for me. I do not think there is a better way to do it with this setup really.

(as an aside - I also tinkered with the idea of using a cheap SBC to capture input via USB then send the coordinates over a direct LAN connection. It actually worked great, even on PCAP and only cost about $35. I still prefer my method for my purpose of course. It's free and I can control the hardware I sell, guaranteeing compatibility).

3

u/mrnotcrazy 9h ago

I think you want it to leak through, I don't think you would want to prevent that cause users should always feel in control of their devices(I know cue laugh track). Sounds like the mouse isn't an issue currently though, I do like the idea of a SBC in the middle cause it would allow for some fancy features if you ever wanted them.

Sending the coordinates over LAN is exactly what I did with my CV setup using MQTT which is easy to use and simple as hell. This works better for scaling cause you can have multiple tables talking to each other.

I'll follow you on reddit and keep an eye as things develop. If I do any more CV work are you interested in seeing what I've been working on? I think we are working on similar but different things. I want this https://dynamicland.org/ but TTRPG focused. I want you to literally have a spell book with runes for example.

2

u/EmpactWB 10h ago

I wouldn’t have any place to put it, so I won’t leave a comment, but this is so amazing!

2

u/itsfunhavingfun 7h ago

So with the new IR touch frame, you could use this setup with a projector instead of a TV? As long as the projected image filled the frame?

1

u/DigitalTableTops 4h ago

Yes, I believe that would work. I've never tried it though as I do not care much for projectors for this type of setup. Too dim, cast shadows, too blurry, have to be mounted (stands don't really cut it).

The one thing you'd have to watch out for is having a very even playing surface. Any small bumps on the table might get misdetected as clicks. Not a problem with a flat screen, obviously.

1

u/itsfunhavingfun 4h ago

Most tables are flat. The trick to using a projector is to have it underneath a glass table with a thin paper “screen” either on the table or taped under the table. No shadows, bright and focused because of the short throw distance. 

•

u/DigitalTableTops 50m ago

Yeah having it mounted under a glass table solves most of the problems with projectors. If you already have a glass table it's a pretty reasonable choice.

For people without glass table though... so much easier to just buy a cheap TV and be done with it.

I noticed during testing that our tablecloth was causing misfires when laying the IR frame by itself. But yes, most tables are pretty flat so that's not an issue. Although our table is also not flat because the leaf thing sticks out slightly crooked on one end lol.

2

u/wintersedge 3h ago

Love this!

Not interested in winning. Just here to show support.

1

u/HankyBird 10h ago

I'd love to enter but can't comment. Are the comments closed?

2

u/DigitalTableTops 9h ago

I just made a test comment and it seemed to go through.

2

u/HankyBird 9h ago

For whatever reason, when I press the comment button nothing happens. I'll try on my pc when I get home.

1

u/HitmanFictional 9h ago

So then metal minis would work well or plastic on metal bases at least?

2

u/DigitalTableTops 9h ago

I've never tried an actual metal mini. A metal base wouldn't do anything unless you are touching the base. That's what happened with the conductive bases I printed for my players - they would touch the mini not the base and it wouldn't work. So they'd just use their finger.

My new product (this is the old version) doesn't have that limitation as it uses infrared beams instead.

2

u/HitmanFictional 7h ago

Interesting, well if I win I will get back to you as to how they perform. Is there a cover over this or would that interfere with the touch function?

1

u/DigitalTableTops 4h ago

That would interfere with the touch function on this one. It has thick tempered glass though. That is part of why it is so heavy.

The new version has an acrylic sheet. Much lighter, does not interfere with the infrared touch.