project-oblex

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  Tracking on the game board

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  Rendered tabletop

Software like roll20 and fantasy grounds allows users to play games like Dungeon and Dragons online on a virtual tabletop. However, these exiting online solutions are only good when the entire party can play online. When some of the players are playing in person and others are remoting in there's no good way for both types of players to be engaged--even with HD webcams minis can be hard to distinguish making a physical board unviable to online players and roll20 is unsatisfying for in person players.

Project Oblex is a way to unify these two types of players and provide a satisfying experience for them both. It works via a webcam mounted above a physical gameboard that uses image recognition and object tracking to create a virtual tabletop that can be seen in real time over the internet. It combines the best of both worlds to allow online players to engage fully with the game without detrementing physical players.

Project Oblex is named after a creature from Dungeons and Dragons, a slime that can make copies of people that it has consumed. Due to the nature of the program, "consuming" the physical game board to stream a copy of its own, I thought it was appropriate.

Built With

• python