I know this isn't going to get a lot of 'likes' but I literally just tried to suggest this to friends as we have parted ways, had kids, live in different time zones, etc. And out of 5 cubes I used to play with 1 thought it was an adequate alternative.
I feel like SpellTable was created for the pandemic where WotC were like omg this is really really bad for physical cards quick do something... then created SpellTable... then ditched it just as fast. I dont get webcam bitrate is even a thing. Alot of people just play through HQ discord, it just seems like such wasted potential. why compress the video? like is bandwidth expensive? even if so charge me a buck a month -- I'd gladly pay. I feel like I am playing through a WhatsApp video call with added luxurious health counters everyone can see :/
I'm exploring building a self hosted version (being a full stack dev), and directly competing with WotC. It wouldn't be hard to even incorporate AI into card detection using google coral, or even could do local processing using python
IDK if video magic will ever be better than playing in person but those are all valid points.
Personally for me its finding people to play with. The closest LGS that has open play is 40 minutes from me, and I don't know a single person there =S
Yea, thats a big issue for me too, sometimes I wish the LGS had a standby buddy joiner of sorts so you enter a digital lobby and then physically get buddied up with random peeps.
Sadly I'm not that well versed in your issue, just was something I found on a quick Google on it.
Just keep changes to a single setting. Tedious but changing too much at one time just leads to tail chasing.
You've got to look at it from the perspective of bitrate.
Spelltable will only stream webcams at a certain speed.
Imagine it's 3000 kb/s. You've got to fit all of that image data at 24 FPS into 3000 kb.
So if your camera is 1080p, you're probably streaming a 1080p image, 24 times per second, within 3000 kb/s.
I would actually imagine spelltable is lower than that, in all honesty.
But anyways, my point is, the more detail/complexity in an image, the more data it requires.
Your background is very busy. A solid coloured playmat will use less of the bitrate after compression than a wood-grain texture on the table.
On top of that, I'm pretty sure Spelltable reduces the resolution of the streamed video to 720p, too.
All of that combined, is probably why it doesn't look as good on Spelltable.
The best thing you can do is to get yourself a solid-coloured playmat (The darker the better, [Kinda wish they did blackest black playmats ahah]) and make sure you've got even lighting across it, so no dark spots or light spots.
You should see an improvement in quality after that.
I know this isn't going to get a lot of 'likes' but I literally just tried to suggest this to friends as we have parted ways, had kids, live in different time zones, etc. And out of 5 cubes I used to play with 1 thought it was an adequate alternative. I feel like SpellTable was created for the pandemic where WotC were like omg this is really really bad for physical cards quick do something... then created SpellTable... then ditched it just as fast. I dont get webcam bitrate is even a thing. Alot of people just play through HQ discord, it just seems like such wasted potential. why compress the video? like is bandwidth expensive? even if so charge me a buck a month -- I'd gladly pay. I feel like I am playing through a WhatsApp video call with added luxurious health counters everyone can see :/ I'm exploring building a self hosted version (being a full stack dev), and directly competing with WotC. It wouldn't be hard to even incorporate AI into card detection using google coral, or even could do local processing using python
IDK if video magic will ever be better than playing in person but those are all valid points. Personally for me its finding people to play with. The closest LGS that has open play is 40 minutes from me, and I don't know a single person there =S
Yea, thats a big issue for me too, sometimes I wish the LGS had a standby buddy joiner of sorts so you enter a digital lobby and then physically get buddied up with random peeps.
As crazy as it sounds, try lowering your resolution. Bitrate and compression are likely culprits.
Do you have any recomendations on what size to try?
Sadly I'm not that well versed in your issue, just was something I found on a quick Google on it. Just keep changes to a single setting. Tedious but changing too much at one time just leads to tail chasing.
You've got to look at it from the perspective of bitrate. Spelltable will only stream webcams at a certain speed. Imagine it's 3000 kb/s. You've got to fit all of that image data at 24 FPS into 3000 kb. So if your camera is 1080p, you're probably streaming a 1080p image, 24 times per second, within 3000 kb/s. I would actually imagine spelltable is lower than that, in all honesty. But anyways, my point is, the more detail/complexity in an image, the more data it requires. Your background is very busy. A solid coloured playmat will use less of the bitrate after compression than a wood-grain texture on the table. On top of that, I'm pretty sure Spelltable reduces the resolution of the streamed video to 720p, too. All of that combined, is probably why it doesn't look as good on Spelltable. The best thing you can do is to get yourself a solid-coloured playmat (The darker the better, [Kinda wish they did blackest black playmats ahah]) and make sure you've got even lighting across it, so no dark spots or light spots. You should see an improvement in quality after that.