Gaming Under Lockdown

Gaming Under Lockdown 

Gaming Under Lockdown
with Alan Graham

Inspired by Phil’s article last week 'Stay at Home and Play Flames Of War and WWIII Team Yankee' and in particular the bit about 'Having a Friend Command the Opposition', I set about moving some of my home security cameras around to turn my Gaming Shed into a Virtual Gaming Shed.

Check out Phil's article here...

A bit of work over the weekend, some R&D and some keen testing volunteers later, we have a gaming solution.

We have a 3 camera setup.

  1. Battlefield Cam, looking (almost) straight down over the battlefield.
  2. Player Cam, a rotating camera, controlled by the remote player.
  3. Dice Cam, this one is really important to add to the tension of the game and is simply my mobile phone on a WhatsApp Video call with the camera balanced on a box pointing downwards at a dice tray. My opponent does the same and we can see what each is rolling. We also use this for our voice communication.

High speed broadband means very little lag (<1 second).

I've blu-tac'ed coloured paper (Post-it Notes could work too) under the platoons to help the Remote Player identify them and made some super-size gaming tokens for the same reason. Obviously, I do all the movement and measuring for them, so I'm pretty busy jumping around the table but the feedback I've had indicates you can have a reasonable gaming experience.

For the tech savy out there, I'm using Yi 720p & 1080p cameras, with their App and PC client software and my mobile Phone using a WhatApps video call (don’t forget your charger). As added bonus, I can now play some of my old gaming friends who had moved away.

So far, I've played 4 games this week !

Right: here is the camera setup above the table (click on this image for a larger version)
Below: Battlefield Cam and Player Cam

~Alan

Gaming Under Lockdown
 Gaming Under Lockdown
Battlefield Cam
 Gaming Under Lockdown
Player Cam