To use Dungeon Helper for what you describe, simply run the server and client on the machine you are using to display your "battle map" and upload the image you want to use. I have provided some samples of DH's features below. DH is adequate for my purposes and it is very simple to use, YMMV. As you can see, I use an older version of DH; there are 4 newer versions that I have only given a cursory look at. I use a map making program (CC2/paintshop) to place grids so grid inclusion is not a feature I require of my VT. To give you an idea of the "tabletop's" size, using a resolution of 1280x1024, a 533x596 image takes up ~40% of the mapping area.



Notes:
To illustrate various features, the grid has been activated, npc markers (colored circles) added, and sections with varying degrees of opacity included (outlined in aqua).

Markers A-c = N/PC's (the colors can mean whatever you want, for example: red = male blue = female yellow = changeling); aqua marker = notations (%=opacity, 533x596=image dimensions)

Left Image: grayed out areas (kitchen/private) & interior grid are part of the map. The 2 "white-out" areas at 20% and 100% opacity were drawn in with DH tools. All markers (colored circles) are another DH feature and their opacity, labels, and "pointers" can be adjusted, as required.

Right Image: a different image was used to illustrate the DH masking feature (useful for "fog of war") for the kitchen and storage area; the background color (default = color in upper left corner) has been made transparent, an option given at the time of upload.

No Grid:

Quote from: RPGPundit;308820Ok, except that I think I explained what I'm looking for very poorly. I'm NOT looking for an "online" tabletop that I can connect to other people with.
What I'm looking for is a visual-aid tabletop so that I can turn around my computer screen and show it to my gaming group with me in the living room, and say "This is how people are standing, this thing here is the tavern, those are barrels, and the 5 orks are here"; and then go on adjusting it when people or things move or change.

In other words, I don't like real battlemats, and having to get out dozens of minis, and waste time setting up the battlemat. Instead, I want to use a computer screen to show it instead. I want a computer program that could facilitate that. Does such a thing exist?

RPGPundit

You sure you want to introduce a PC I think that would be disruptive and slow. A big sheet of paper A2 sized the couters from Warrior knights (or pennies or bits of papper) and a marker pen is the way we have managed this for the last 20 years or so. When we add laptops , dodads etc just removes the immediacy.

I quite liked the idea of using the telly though (of course buying a special telly and mounting it horizontally in the centre of the gaming table is obviously the way forward, in fact make it touch sensitive and ...

Quote from: RPGPundit;308820In other words, I don't like real battlemats, and having to get out dozens of minis, and waste time setting up the battlemat. Instead, I want to use a computer screen to show it instead. I want a computer program that could facilitate that. Does such a thing exist?

Well you don't have to screw around with ports You will still probably want to use one of the VT like MapTools just have the client and server running at the same time. You just have the client "connect" to the server by using your computer's ip address.

To find it using windows xp just click on your start button, goto accessories, and click on command prompt. When the window pops up type ipconfig and it will tell you your ip address like 10.0.0.1 or 192.168.1.1

The reason for this is that you can't edit fog of war on the client and you can't hide stuff on the gm server.

Do you have two video ports on your graphics card? If so you can use two monitor which is the ideal situation for this type of use.

Ok, maptools did not seem to be what I wanted either.
Maybe what I want doesn't exist.

What I want is a simple grid-map, or hex-map, all blank. I can then add simple objects to it (not having to have any computer-drawing skills), and tokens to represent the PCs and NPCs. I can then easily MOVE those tokens from one place to another to show how characters are moving in the game.

I'm guessing that this is far too simple to exist, without having to have something far more complicated that requires a fucking computer-nerd-PhD to operate.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;309069Ok, maptools did not seem to be what I wanted either.
Maybe what I want doesn't exist.

What I want is a simple grid-map, or hex-map, all blank. I can then add simple objects to it (not having to have any computer-drawing skills), and tokens to represent the PCs and NPCs. I can then easily MOVE those tokens from one place to another to show how characters are moving in the game.

I'm guessing that this is far too simple to exist, without having to have something far more complicated that requires a fucking computer-nerd-PhD to operate.

RPGPundit

Have you tried using CC2 or CC3? you can lock down the map on one layer, and have symbols for each PC on another, show or hide the grid, snap to the grid...

Other such maping programs should be able to do it, as well.

Quote from: RPGPundit;309069Ok, maptools did not seem to be what I wanted either.
Maybe what I want doesn't exist.

What I want is a simple grid-map, or hex-map, all blank. I can then add simple objects to it (not having to have any computer-drawing skills), and tokens to represent the PCs and NPCs. I can then easily MOVE those tokens from one place to another to show how characters are moving in the game.

I'm guessing that this is far too simple to exist, without having to have something far more complicated that requires a fucking computer-nerd-PhD to operate.

RPGPundit

Gametable is what you are looking for then.  It is a simple program similar to MapTool, VASSAL, etc.  However, since your not connecting or hosting, then it's just a battlemap that you can draw on and place tokens.  Check it out.

Hmm. thanks! This looks by far the best thing I've seen so far in terms of ease of use!

You wouldn't happen to have any extra underlays or pogs would you? Particularly for things like terrain and such, but anything would be good.

RPGpundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;309087Hmm. thanks! This looks by far the best thing I've seen so far in terms of ease of use!

You wouldn't happen to have any extra underlays or pogs would you? Particularly for things like terrain and such, but anything would be good.

RPGpundit

Sent you a PM.

Screenmonkey is rather simple to use but a bit more cluttered. (It can be resized somewhat.)
=

Drohem's map system is pretty good but it still has its issues.  If a single dude occupies 1 hex, and a "tavern" imprint occupies all of 6 hexes, that's a really really small tavern, with tiny tables and chairs. In other words, the figures aren't proportional to the backgrounds.

RPGPundit

I played around with underlay sizes, and I figured out this formula for sizing pogs and underlays for Gametable....

These sizes are for a full square:

1 square = 64 x 64
2 x 2 squares = 128 x 128
3 x 3 squares = 192 x 192
4 x 4 squares = 256 x 256
5 x 5 squares = 320 x 320
6 x 6 squares = 384 x 384

So, as you can see, just multiply 64 times the number of squares to get the right size for the object.

If you're using Paint, this is how you can size the picture correctly:


Click the Image tab
Click the Attributes tab
Fill the Width and Height boxes with a multiple of 64 to get the right square size.

Hope this helps.

But can something not be more than 6x6?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;309632But can something not be more than 6x6?

RPGPundit

Sure, I just stopped doing the math there.  Just keep in multiples of 64.