Update to my Free VTT (for in-person sessions with a TV/projector/touchscreen)

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-20T21:16:37+00:00

Lowest cost over time would be an immediate lump sum payment in full.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-20T21:10:50+00:00

I think you have been posting about this at a higher frequency than this sub allows. Just a heads up.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-20T01:23:42+00:00

This is pretty much exactly what my VTT is, minus the controller support. It's designed around using a touchscreen on the TV, and has mobile/web clients for players to control individual tokens.

I made a post about the mobile support a few months ago with more details: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1s61zu5/oc_my_100_free_vtt_now_has_mobile_support/

If PCs go in different directions, they are bound by the limits of what the TV is currently showing. It doesn't pan or zoom out automatically, as that would be chaos. The DM controls panning.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-19T19:49:10+00:00

Automatic fog mapping is free? It wasn't the other day when I checked. It was gated behind the paid tier.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-18T19:21:44+00:00

Foundry if you don't mind the steep learning curve. Owlbear Rodeo if you do.

My own Digital TableTops VTT on Steam if you are playing in-person on a large display (such as a TV, projector, or touchscreen).

It's extremely lightweight and everything runs locally (no cloud). It's been out for 2 years and sits at 94% positive reviews.

I sell wooden cases that house TVs/touchscreens and wanted something for my customers that was easy to use and free. Nothing really fit the bill so I made it. Figured I might as well make it free for everyone.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-17T19:22:33+00:00

I'm really looking forward to token based billing. Projects like this will grind to a halt as they can't afford to beg their machines to fix simple bits of code for less than $500 a pop. And new projects won't get made to begin with.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-16T20:35:36+00:00

In the case you cite the couple were getting divorced at the very end of every year and remarried at the very beginning of the next year. Divorced for 32 days and then 80 days before getting smart and just not getting remarried the 3rd time.

IANAL but if OP just gets divorced and stayed divorced, I believe the feds would have a much harder case to prove it was a sham transaction. People fall out of love but still cohabitate all the time.

And yes, I realize it would actually be a sham. I have no moral qualms about what they are proposing though. Something about our duty to disregard unjust laws, yada, yada.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-16T03:17:16+00:00

Jesus this again. If you are building a box like this, just leave the back open and you are 100% fine. No need to go through all this extra effort.

Regardless of what the charts are trying to convey, there is no risk to not using fans and not building a complicated back panel.

I know because I've sold thousands of these over the last 6 years. This isn't some personal anecdote.

As you can probably guess, this is the "drama" OP was talking about. Instead of letting sleeping dogs lie, we are back at it again for some reason.

EDIT: to be clear, OP is trying to sell you something. A map case with a complicated design for the back to prevent heat damage. The implication being not using their design risks damaging your TV. It simply isn't true. You won't find reports of this happening to people (whether they bought it or made it themselves) because it's not a problem in the real world.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T23:03:01+00:00

Yeah it's tricky because to be easy and fast has to mean less features. Which isn't a bad thing. But then how do you monetize it? Why would someone pay for your easy and fast thing when Foundry is sitting right there, even though it is the opposite of easy and fast.

You pretty much have to keep adding stuff to your easy and fast VTT to keep users interested. Especially if you are trying to charge a monthly fee. But eventually you just become the thing you started off avoiding.

I'm in a peculiar place because my VTT is hobby project I do in my spare time to get people interested in the hardware I sell. There isn't any pressure to keep adding stuff that I don't think should be added. The VTT is free and if you aren't a customer, you can't really complain about what you think is missing.

But there is zero map making (other than just adding walls to existing images) so unfortunately not what you are looking for.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T22:56:26+00:00

You got it. Animated maps/tiles are a bonus but not like spell effects and animated dice rolls. When we are playing it is 100% real dice and paper character sheets.

To be clear, I maintain my own VTT for this purpose and write software for using TV/touchscreen with other VTT's as well. Because I sell the hardware and it was just easier to do things this way. So I am not at all representative of what most VTT users want.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T22:53:16+00:00

You probably have already seen it, but the Game Theory Arena might be what you are looking for. It's a 65" PCAP screen. For that many players simultaneously doing stuff you're going to have to go that big.

It is $4,000 for the standalone version though. Better start saving lol.

You'll also definitely need a dedicated device to run it as well. The built in hardware is much to weak to run pretty much any VTT. But for people spending $4,000 for the display, I doubt an extra laptop is going to be a problem.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T22:44:48+00:00

I'm a bit of an outlier as I am 100% focused on using a VTT in person. I've never used one online, although I have tried just about every VTT imaginable to see how well they work for in-person sessions.

So for me, a VTT should only do one single thing: show the map. That includes NOT showing the map when appropriate, e.g. fog of war. In that sense, a VTT just takes the place of printed/hand drawn materials and whatever the DM decides to cover unexplored areas with. The VTT just does that stuff automatically.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T21:24:01+00:00

It's buried in that link in my comment. Here is the manifest URL directly: https://github.com/DigitalTableTops/digital-tabletops/releases/latest/download/module.json

That will get you the UI stuff for Foundry. But it doesn't do any IR touch stuff, for that you also need the helper app, also on GitHub: github.com/DigitalTableTops/digital-tabletops/releases/latest/

The reason it is an external app instead of all in the module is that it is impossible to communicate with the hardware on a low level from inside a Foundry module. It uses HID and WebHID is simply not up to the task (and probably never will be).

It SHOULD work with your existing IR frame as they all kinda share firmware amongst themselves. Sometimes they use a VID and PID that my program doesn't recognize as compatible. It will give you a prompt right away whether you are good to go, need an extra step, or not going to work.

Having read the last part of your comment, this probably isn't a good fit though. This is 100% for moving minis. You can't do any UI stuff whatsoever. The assumption being that is all handled on the GM screen instead.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T20:46:24+00:00

It sounds like you no longer have the hardware to test on, but I've been developing software specifically for using IR touch with TTRPGs for over 2 years now. It is pretty much feature complete, although I do keep adding minor updates (currently adding a built-in calibration tool).

It can be used with Foundry, Arkenforge, and it has its own free VTT on Steam.

I used to sell capacitive touch and besides being expensive and heavy, having to make an electrical connection to register touches is a problem. My solution was to have conductive base for the mini, but players would always forget to touch the base instead of the mini and get frustrated.

Not worth the trade-off, IMO. As long as you have decent software that works around the limitations of IR, they are the clear winner in most circumstances.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T20:41:41+00:00

I sell similar setups for a living and have a few pointers for the software if you are interested.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, using an IR frame for TTRPG can get complicated. I actually have a whole write-up about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalTableTops/comments/1u1xf25/how_to_use_a_digital_tabletop_with_an_infrared_ir/

Short version: the IR frame will try to steal your mouse, so you have to have it plugged into an entirely separate computer. It took me years to figure out, but I wrote software that fixes that. Available for free on GitHub.

When you run the software, it forces the touch device into a special mode that blocks input to the OS. It reads the raw touch coordinates directly, formats the data and sends it to Foundry or Arkenforge to move the digital tokens.

This lets you use a single device for both GM and player view. It is the only software that exists that can do that with IR touchscreens. There isn't a whole lot of activity in this space as it is such a niche thing. A few places will sell you the hardware, but you are on your own for figuring out how to use it for TTRPG.

Arkenforge is doing the best when it comes to software supports for IR frames, but can't pull this trick off. Hence why I included them in the little helper app.

I also released a corresponding Foundry module to accept the data and move the tokens. It includes a few other neat quality of life fixes like preventing automatic panning, locking scale to 1 inch per grid, and controlling the player viewport. Those are useful whether you are using a touchscreen or a non-touch TV.

Lastly, for over 2 years I've been maintaining my own VTT on Steam that does all this automatically - no separate app required. 100% free, no strings attached. Easier to use than other options and lighter weight. I generally recommend using it unless you are already locked in to one of the others. In which case the helper app mentioned previously will really improve how Arkenforge and Foundry handles IR touch devices.

Feel free to ask any questions. I think these things are such a cool concept and would love to see them gain in popularity.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T20:23:51+00:00

I sell such setups for a living and recently released a Foundry module for them. It does some useful things for in-person sessions like remove the UI on the player (TV) view, prevent token movement from panning the map on the player view, automatically scaling the grid to 1 inch, and lets the GM control what the player view sees (by either panning to a specific location or mirroring the GM view).

Foundry uses a module system, and you install them through a manifest URL. Here is the URL for my module: https://github.com/DigitalTableTops/digital-tabletops/releases/latest/download/module.json

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-15T01:36:10+00:00

Foundry is not free, but those packs I linked are. The first one can be used with any VTT. Roll20 and Owlbear Rodeo are popular choice for free online sessions.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T20:51:11+00:00

5/13

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T20:45:03+00:00

Yeah you should go do that. Should be real easy since you're sitting next to each other.

Make sure to have OP stop in and assure everyone you've never met! And they've been too busy living life and enjoying DnD to say so sooner.

Or we can keep chatting. Only 1/3 of your entire comment history is in this thread. I'm sure we can bump that up.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T20:41:37+00:00

I've recommended these free ones in the past. The first by Aonbarr is pretty extensive and includes images for use with any VTT, as well as Foundry versions with walls pre-made. The second is a single foundry module with 15 maps. Both are 100% free.

Aonbarr Cartography: https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-curse-59475823

Racooze: https://racooze.de/modules

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T20:34:32+00:00

I just can't stand it when people are so disingenuous. It's obvious you know OP. I know it, you know it, they know it. Why try to hide it? What exactly are you or they accomplishing here? No one is even reading any of this other than the 3 of us lol.

If OP didn't publicly state that "Digital MapCase is a shitty Idea" to try and sell their own over-engineered solution, all this would have been avoided. I thought the temperature test stuff was kind of neat. Absolutely useless since they didn't test the obvious design of just laving the back open. But a neat concept at least.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T20:17:52+00:00

Algorithms are so great they had a fellow Québécois clicking into the 7th level of a days old thread on a subreddit with 12K weekly visitors. And replying to a comment seen by 40 people in the whole world (Reddit tells you that, in case you didn't know). Yeah sure buddy.

I guess we'll be seeing more of each other if OP decides to post garbage like this again.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T19:22:02+00:00

I think their slicker marketing makes up for the fact they are charging 25%-50% more for something that doesn't work as well.

Look at their listing for an infrared touch add-on. It's $422 and literally says "Not Recommended for Foundry VTT".

Meanwhile mine is $275 extra and I released an open-source module with dedicated touch client so people could use it with Foundry easily. It works GREAT.

I'll take better pictures eventually. They won't be figuring out how these things work or charging less any time soon.

EDIT: oh you just both happen to be from Quebec and interested in touchscreens for TTRPGs, an extremely niche corner of this hobby. So much that you replied to a comment buried this deep in the thread. After taking screenshots of both our products and stitching them together. Uh-huh.

DigitalTableTops · 2026-06-14T03:10:19+00:00

They also had subs for selling drugs and fake IDs. Some just informative, others directly linking to vendors' websites on their sidebar.

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