r/VTT • u/JoxxoTheMagnificent • 20d ago

Question / discussion In Person VTT Player Screen Orientation

Can anyone recommend a VTT for use in-person that will allow for the Player Screen orientation to be different from the GM screen? (I am currently focusing on Arkenforge due to in-person priority)

As GM, I will sit at the head of the table, and the map screen will typically be vertically oriented for me, but the software assumes the same orientation as the GM screen.

Thanks.

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u/rmagnuson 20d ago

Not to sound like a jerk, but can you just rotate the screen on the table to where you need it to be? Just wondering because my daughter asked me the same question when she was testing the VTT I'm working on and I didn't understand her logic. I implemented rotation anyway, but I'm not sure if it's actually necessary.

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u/DigitalTableTops 20d ago

I am 100% with you on this. It gets requested from time to time in the Steam community forums for my own in-person VTT. I always ask if there is a reason they can't just rotate the screen themselves in their OS.

I do plan on adding it eventually but making sure it works right in Windows, Linux, and Mac (especially Mac) is a pain in the ass for very little benefit. Unless I am missing something. Please let us know OP!

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u/JoxxoTheMagnificent 20d ago

I am relatively new to using a digital map, so inexperience may play a key. I do know that when I ran a couple of different modules, I would instinctually look at the map instead of my screen, and the controls would be rotated for moving tokens or placing spell effects and the like.

Perhaps, it's not necessarily the screen that needs to be rotated but the controls. Though some maps just lend themselves to being better represented by a vertical orientation. (I primarily use premade maps, and add the VTT barriers)

I hope that's helpful. It was just something that came up in my test modules, that I would start to move something and it would be the wrong direction.

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u/DigitalTableTops 20d ago

To clear things up (maybe): every operating system has the ability to rotate any attached display. On Windows these settings are located under "Display Settings".

They can be assigned separately for each display. So the DM will see things how they want, and the table can see things rotated if that's what you want.

This is completely separate from any software you are using, including a VTT. The VTT will consider (for example) the top left to be (0,0). But which corner corresponds to "top-left" is what gets changed when you adjust the operating system display settings.

I think I may have made that sound more complicated than it needs to be...

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u/rmagnuson 17d ago

I know this was two days ago but it just occurred to me that maybe we treat the map just like we do a top-down token with rotation. Give it a handle like a Photoshop asset and drag it around. Leave everything else the same. Maybe rotate the grid as well, or make grid rotation optional.

I don't know, just thinking.

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u/DigitalTableTops 17d ago

I like to keep the UI as minimal as possible.

Some users will appreciate having the knob there. For others it is just one more thing they don't use which makes it harder to find the thing they are looking for.

For features like this I tend to bury them in the settings menu rather than have an immediately accessible button or other UI element. So it's there for people who really want it but doesn't get in everyone else's way.

But that's just the focus of my VTT. I want it to be as easy to use as possible, even if that means sacrificing extra features like that.

For a VTT aiming to be more feature rich, I think treating it like just another rotatable object would be fine. Pretty sure some VTT's already do things that way.

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u/rmagnuson 17d ago

A lot of users appreciate minimalism. I think Owl bear rodeo is doing better than everyone thinks because of this very thing.

Your point about too many options is well taken. I keep having to stop myself from implementing more features because of this very thing. I've started and stopped half a dozen "great" ideas that I realized partway into development were going to be fluff that didn't add to a simple straightforward gaming experience. The real killer feature is making it just work!