Incomming Quality Update! TheForge Integration -> Ben's Day on Wednesday CW16 (Patreon)

Hey you Pen & Paper Fans out there. This week I worked on many different topics. My to do list is huge! Oh and don't start with "BEN, MAKE MAPS NOT RANDOM STUFF!" I have enough productivity for 4 Maps ( If I would ever wan't to though) but that would be way too much (and too expensive:P ). So I use my spare time to update, optimize and expand things as well as trying out new stuff and experiment like a child with lego. So let's just jump right into it.

1. QUALITY UPDATE

I know, I know. I get a ton of feedback and not a single one was "Your Stuff looks bad". But to be fair there is still so much potential and room for improvement and I never accept status quos. "Never change a running system" is for cowards and lazy people :P So I sat down and tried to improve the overall quality, played arround with Ray Tracing and different render methos and voilà... even I was suprised how huge the difference is.

That looks really promising but isn't the apex of what is possible. I steel need to put some effort into investigating the possibilities and then I still need to update my "production pipeline". The way I work and render and prepare releases. But I think it's worth sharing

2. 3D (controllable) SCENERIES

I found a interesting solution to create a virtual 360° movie in Unreal Engine. Since YouTube supports 360° movies I could think of sceneries where DMs could controll the camera. This would bring more interactivity and looks also pretty cool - Here an Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIZfMQiWfq8

3. The Forge Integration

I know some of you use The Forge, a hosting services for FoundryVTT Worlds. I just want you to know "I am working on it!". At the moment the workflow is really clunky to get the Beneos Battlemap module working. I got in contact with kakaroto (Founder and Developer of The ForgE)  like 5 Months ago and since then we discussed many ways to get my maps working. The easiest way would be distributing my maps via The Forge Bazar (Shop) but that is no option (yet) because Patreons would need to buy it again. For now all I can say is, that I hear you and I am working on it. 

4. New P&P Ambience Sounds on YouTube

I found a extremely cool (script and code) solution to create a long video with loops of my scenerie maps. With that solution I don't need to render 3 hours for a 60 Minute 4K video but can just create the video in under 30 seconds. BOOM. So I create 60 minutes long ambient sounds for different scenes DM can use as sound alternative. Because It's so easy to do and don't cost much time I plan to release a Video a day. So the YouTube algorithm likes us more and more people (and DMs of course) stumble on our YouTube Channel. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTr5w6Fd8ZU

5. WebM for FoundryVTT!

Last week I asked for feedback regarding WebM instead of MP4 Files. Since there was a signifcant amount of people who don't want to (Or can)use WebM Files I won't provide them generally. Instead I will change the Beneos Battlemap FoundryVTT Module to only be able to play webM files that I will provide as usual via google drive. Switching to webm makes absolutly sense for FoundryVTT users. I did some significant testing and in terms of bandwith usage, loading times and overall look and feel WebM is significantly superiour! So with the next (or the next after that) Foundry Module Update you (sadly) will need to download all maps you would like to use again (as webM). But don't worry - I will provide them in one play so you can one-click-download all at once. THIS ONLY AFFECTS FOUNDRYVTT USERS. The normal releases will stay mp4.

wow that's a lot today! See you next week!

Stay Healthy
Ben