Status Update

A quick status update as we’re entering the holidays. If you follow the discussion on Google+, you will have seen some of these improvements and new features already. This is a more comprehensive overview of where the current build is and what to expect in the next available build.

A significant portion of this update revolves around the upgrade to Unity 4.6. Part of the 4.6 update is the introduction of the new Unity UI system. The new UI system is a more mature and better integrated version of the NGUI system that Tabletop Connect has been using. This has also provided a good opportunity the refactor the existing code and introduce some new features.

Settings

• The settings dialog now provides a number of new options in the display panel.

  Color Picker

• You can switch resolutions during play and the dice display is customizable.
• The dice now display using the player’s color, or using custom dice and pip colors.
• There are also a number of post effects that will be available in the map view: DOF, bloom, anti-aliasing, and tone mapping.
• Color choice has been improved, as well. All of the color options now use a proper color picker.
• You can now access the settings dialog during a session to change any of the settings including player image, dice color, and resolution.

Dice

• The dice bar has been updated to use new dice icons that properly reflect the dice color chosen by the player.
• Rolling the dice has also been much improved. Rather than tossing the dice from behind the view, the dice are now spawned in the view above the tabletop. You can move the dice pool with the mouse and then roll with a mouse click. There is also a fade timer, so the dice will fade out after a user-specified amount of time.

Chat

• A number of improvements have been made to the chat window.
• The chat display has options to show player images, show die graphics, show dice text, show player color, and auto-save the chat log.
• Additional filters have been added for the other players. Each player can be sent the chat messages, the die rolls, or nothing.
• Chat aliases are available. You can now chat as either your player name, or any other chat alias that you add.
• You can now save the chat log manually to a specific location. This is an append save. If you save to an existing file, the text will be appended to the end of the file. This way, you an accumulate your chat logs into a single file.
• Lastly, then connect button has been updated to always reflect the current connection state: Connect, Start/Join Session, and Disconnect. If you are connected and wish to disconnect (to leave a session, for example) the disconnect button will disconnect you from the server without quitting the application.

File Browser

A preview panel has been added to the file browser. You can now see a preview of images, sheets, and maps.

Mini Panel

The miniature window has been expanded to provide a better view of the mini and a rotate slider has been added. You’re now able to preview a full 360 degrees of the mini.

Sheet Editing

• When editing a sheet, you’re no longer required to close the edit panels while editing. For example, when adding text, you can add text, make and modifications, then click to add additional text without needing to confirm and close the previous edit.
• Moving and scaling elements on the page has been stabilized. The move and scale handles no longer “wiggle” around when moving or scaling.

Multiple Characters

Multiple characters per player are now supported.

Overall Refactor

The code has been significantly refactored. Under the hood, the systems have been streamlined and cleaned-up. This results in faster performance and accelerates future changes.

What’s left?

• The map editing UI still needs to migrated to the new UI system.
• The turn order window needs to be updated and expanded.
• Upgrading the text to use distance field rendering. I haven’t decided which implementation of distance fields to use, but it will have an impact on both quality and the usability of text boxes.

There are certain to be some additional new features that find their way into this next build. The new release should be available within the next week so that we can all begin the new year with a better and more stable version of Tabletop Connect.

About carl

Developer of Tabletop Connect.