Weekender: HoloLens – Augmented Reality Tabletop Gaming?
January 31, 2015 by dignity
We're back with another bumper episode of The Weekender where we're kicking things off by checking out the new Harlequins that have popped up from Games Workshop for Warhammer 40,000. As well as that a whole bunch of Eldar arrived in the studio!
As well as that we get into augmented reality and the new Microsoft HoloLens that was announced. It's a cool toy for the computer but imagine what it could do for tabletop gaming! It would be awesome to see overlays and more popping up around our models.
Justin also finally gets to talk about Homeland from Gale Force Nine and take us through some of the rules and how it plays.
Some of you might also have noticed that Angel Giraldez's Masterclass Volume I is causing a bit of a stir! It's up for pre-order on Monday and you get the very nice Joan of Arc model if you do as well!
Have a great weekend of gaming!
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Welcome to the Weekend!
its my understanding that motley doesn’t have to be diamonds.it can be strips, checks, different colored threads, etc.
Great show, defiantly think the hololens will change the things on the tabletop (eventually). maybe it could allow for destroyable terrain or your vehicles to appear wrecked once they have been shot.
Hololens – I think Gen 3 or 4 is more likely to have the sort of capabilities you are hoping for but since generations of tech come through much more quickly now, the wait will not be over long.
Harlequins – meh.
I agree we’ve got several iterations to wait. 1st gen is capable of a basic scan of the environment and overlaying (augmenting) images. To get to the point where the glasses can scan at a resolution fine enough to identify individual real world objects like miniatures is a long way away.
Games like Minecraft, Space Hulk – maybe even Total War augmented on a flat table top is the best we can hope for in the first few generations.
Combine this with something like Surface with RFID chips in your models and we might have the hybrid you seek.
The hololens would be great for doing D&D games creating your own 3d dungeons or later on virtual tables so you can create say jungle environments which you can add your minis into
It’s the weekend… Time to kick back and watch an hour of a bunch of guys talking bo###cks… My kind of bo###ocks mind you! Don’t stop!
I’m presuming this was shoot before the quins plastic pictures were released; they’re very different (cr@p) compared to the previous metals!
I really do hope we aren’t returning to the days of discussing every new GW release. If it’s new and ground breaking then go for it, but another 40K release, nah. Your strength is in the diversity of the games you talk about, don’t be sucked back in! That said, the rest of the show was very good; Homeland the Game looks a bit flat as a board game (and I don’t mean through a lack of vertical build to the game). Especially when you had just been talking about the latest technological marvel that we will be ruining our… Read more »
Not going to be something in every show no but since it was the Harlequins and they’re quite an interesting part of the Warhammer 40,000 world we thought it was worth talking about their return 🙂
BoW Ben
Great weekender, so nice to have the guys (Lloyd, Sam, Justin and John) getting a chance to actually talk, give an opinion, and not be completely steam rollered after just a couple of words.
Keep the good work up!
Lol
I still think you’re great Warren, you got me into Beasts of war……but your like a force of nature sometimes, well most of the time!
Best regards and great respect!
currently fighting the forces of nature.
I’m not so sure about the no-steamrolling! Poor Sam barely could get a word in edgewise! The other two were released from their shackles and went nuts! LOL
I managed to get a pre-order through for the book!
Good show… that hololens looks cool… but I fear due to the laziness of people it could have the opposite effect on our hobby as more and more tech is used less and less scenery will be used then swap out the mini’s and boom you have just another computer game.
I work with augmented reality most days at work. If anyone’s still struggling to get their head around it head over to our site http://www.newmoongames.co.uk (think there’s a link to it in my signature thing). Speaking as someone who knows how the current generation of AR tech works it looks like the big leap with HoloLens is that it can keep the environment stored in memory. Whereas currently we have to have a marker to let the software know where the flat surfaces are. IF they’ve got software that can scan the environment AND keep your head tracked within that… Read more »
Just preordered the book its a must have. Cant wait for those glasses either always wanted to dig a big hole in my living room floor
Great show guys. I am waiting for the Mr Giraldez book 🙂
“zee”?
Harrumph, you kids of today.
I can see AR being a useful tool in tabletop RPGs, but possibly not so much for tabletop wargaming
I do wonder how well people that need actual glasses to see benefit from HoloLens because clearly those were made in people that don’t need glasses in mind like lot of products.
Here is one I did, I just restricted the diamonds to one trouser leg to minimize effort 😉
here is another view of my harlequin dude.
That’s really cool. Totally gets the image accross without having to paint too many tiny diamonds!
Thanks man 🙂
now i want the book also 🙁
The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a good lunch time game based on my experience playing with a group of 5 other people. Even though none of them had played before, we still got through the game in an hour.
That said, you need to be organised; everyone needs to pick their character and make up their starting deck ahead of time (you only have to do it once.. unless the character dies of course) and you need to build up the location decks before the game if you want to keep the play time tight.
Hololens sounds great, but do you remember when Microsoft teased about kinnect? I would take this with a grain of salt, but you actualy described how Golem Arcana works, you tap the figure and his stats appear etc, its just on a flat display… 50 inch in my case 😉
In larger scales ( 1/35 ) some complicated camo patterns come as a decal sheet for those of us who get bug eyed painting modern digital or pea dot cam , etc . Might be an idea for some one to release several patterns / colors of the harlequin’s motley . Although getting the pattern of diamonds and squares all running the same way might be a problem . Great show as usual guys
screw motley.
I painted some Harlequins up in red and black with gold details and they look good AND stand out from the other Eldar on the table.
Lloyd, the show you are remembering is called……wait for it……Treasure Island in Outer space”!!! From 1987 was 5 episodes of 100mins each and it was AWESOME!!! I also remember watching it during the summer holidays.
Lloyd I think this was the program you were talking about if I remember half of the series was in black & white?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179577/
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13lkjw_treasure-island-in-outer-space-1987-part1_shortfilms
Good show guys, I am not so sold that hololens will make a huge impact, and certainly not for a number of years – it has potential but I think a number of advances in the technology will be needed and it will be very dependent on ease of access for developers to modify for our niche industry. I also think that, it’s not something everyone will want to employ – I am certainly not sold by the initial ideas. Also price point will be the thing, love @stew‘s idea for D&D but it would required a whole part to… Read more »
party not whole part – edit function please chaps
Hololens looks awesome.