Foundry VTT Integration

Suggestions
#30

Hey, Brodyjohn. That all sounds really cool. I’m still working on the “new” system I’m using for sounds but I’ve done a number of videos on various setups. I’m using audiomovers right now on my next session. This is a paid program, but it allows me to send sound to players uncompressed through a web browser. So, all they do is click a link. I’m using it with the Fantasy Player application, but it would work fine using the online version. If you’re interested you can take a look here:

Its a little more work as a GM but I’m trying to make it as easy as possible for my players to enjoy sounds.

#31

Also, you can try cleanfeed (free) and Voicemeeter Banana for a free version of what I’m doing (and good quality), but it is compressed although still better quality than sending through discord, etc… See this video:

#32

so that could theoretically be done pretty actively by a machine in Foundry = tracking Party position and turning things up and down. :loudspeaker:

OMG YES PLEASE!

#33

I’d be very interested in having a conversation directly with the Foundry team about this option. Can someone connect/introduce us? :beers: :pizza: :hammer:

The dev team for FoundryVTT is VERY small.

If you are in discord you can get on their official community server and reach out that way. I’m asking around a bit right now The discord mods have passed the message on to higher ups, hopefully you all can work something out!

*Edit 2: Lead dev Atropos says it’s best to email admin@foundryvtt.com.

2 Likes
#34

Just throwing in my two coppers: I’d love proper Foundry integration.

I was a Syrinscape subscriber for years and stopped my subscription a couple of months back due to preferring the streamlined approach of Foundry’s system.

I was just popping on here to see if there were any discussions about bring SS to FVTT and saw the thread. Hope it happens! I’ll be back if it does!

#35

I’ve been a Syrinscape subscriber on and off for several years and getting my players to download the Online Player has been impossible. So for now I just play it at the GM station and stream across Zoom. Works for room descriptions and sound effects but ambient sounds are to low to be picked up and streamed at any quality without having them too loud.

The FoundryVTT player works great though and the room triggering option would be great to use with Syrinscapes Adventure Path sound themes (Age of Ashes game going on now). So unfortunately I’m probably going to un sub until some kind of integration can be worked out.

#36

Hi @kevin.richard.gm,

We have many many many people using the Syrinscape Online Player with a whole range of VTTs. Many thousands of people, GMs and Players downloading, linking and running games with beautiful, seamless sound every single day.

It should take a BRAND new player about 3 minutes to follow the link, download, install, link and join. Here’s a vid of me doing myself:

Seems faaaaaairly straightforward to me!

That said, we hear you! You’d like setup and joining to be easier.

This is what we plan to do = make a Zoom-style linkup so that you can:

  1. share a single link with your players
  2. that link will trigger a download and install (if necessary)
  3. that link will then trigger a run of the Online Player
  4. AND join your players instantly into the correct game, without them even needing to take any addition steps.

Works? We hope it will! :smiley:

Let us know whether we are headed in the right direction! :slight_smile: :microscope: :headphones: :hammer_and_wrench:

#37

I think a single link approach to install and run would do wonders. And I just read the entire thread and I still haven’t lost hope :smiley: for now I will have to deal with some of my players not hearing the Syrinscape Audio :smiley:

2 Likes
#38

Yeah, I was using VoiceMeeter to bundle the Syrinscape Audio and my mic audio into Discord in the scenario I described. I like two options you presented well enough, but they’re still “one more thing to get going” on my players’ end, even if it’s just another browser tab. (Perhaps especially because it’s a browser tab! I’m not sure your average person knows how to adjust the volume of individual browser tabs, and users being able to balance the volume mix of speech and background noise is a neurodiversity accessibility issue.)

Also, since my last posts I’ve done a dry run of my Foundry server (running video chat separately on discord). I discovered that it’s not going to work, as-is, for the simple reason that it’s on a dedicated machine sitting in the room, here, right next to me. My ISP apparently tops out its max upload speeds at 10Mbps, no matter how high a tier you pay them for. My users were getting some serious stuttering and a couple rejected connections. Tacking on some additional outgoing high quality streaming audio bandwidth (whether from the server or just my “normal” PC) on my home network is obviously a no-go. Apparently I gotta move my hosting to the cloud. :roll_eyes: If it’s not one thing, it’s another haha

#39

That three minute video was only slightly less detailed than the tutorial that I included in my “how to get everything set up for our D&D campaign” powerpoint presentation. The screenshots and direct links in this powerpoint presentation included large red arrows and short red text overlays that said things like “CLICK THIS ONE” and “NOT THIS ONE.” My players are full, real, competent adults between the ages of 25 and 50, and most of them have college degrees and jobs that use computers, daily. Most of them are also members of demographics who have historically been made to feel as though stuff like Dungeons and Dragons isn’t “for people like them.” Here are some paraphrased quotes from two campaigns’ session zeroes that I think you might find infuriatingly useful as UX feedback:

“Okay, I got the fantasy player thingy installed, and it’s telling me something about choosing a ‘soundset?’ Did I do this right? Should I have downloaded the ‘board game’ one that they said I needed to do… something? extra? for?”

“Okay, so, I think I got everything set up, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this syrinscape account that I made?”

“Ah, I’m on the Syrinscape website, and I’m logged into my account. Which one of these programs on the ‘Downloads’ page should I be downloading for this? ‘Fantasy,’ right?”

“Sorry I didn’t have time to do any of the prep stuff before tonight! Now that I’ve got this Discord thing working, can I just take one of the pre-made characters you mentioned so we can just start playing and I won’t be holding things up for everyone? I’ll do the set up before the next time, for sure.” (Editor’s note: no one else was all set up and ready to go at that point, either.)

Bonus round:

“Hey, sorry, I think I’m going to have to drop out of the D&D thing. It was fun, but I still haven’t even got all that other stuff from the powerpoint presentation set up, yet. This seems like it’s a bigger time commitment than I thought, and I feel like I’m just slowing everybody else down. I appreciate the invite, though!”

I think the “single link” model would be a huge UX improvement.

1 Like
#40

Yep. Nothing is certainly perfect yet. What I like about my audiomovers setup is its a one click link. True it opens a browser tab but there is a volume control right on the page and that’s about the only thing on the page the players can touch. Worked well when I tried it a couple weeks back and have another session Saturday am. Will see how it goes!

2 Likes
#41

[quote=“brodyjohn, post:39, topic:9319”]
” My players are full, real, competent adults between the ages of 25 and 50, and most of them have college degrees and jobs that use computers, daily.[/quote]

This is exactly why I made my first post to these forums in this thread. You just described my group that I’ve been playing with for decades and why I dropped Syrinscape after years of being subscribed. I know everyone here thinks the process is simple, but after I found out that half of my players weren’t even bothering with the SS Online app anymore because it was too confusing/too much of hassle, I ditched it.

They loved the sounds … and hated everything else about the experience. They love (and I love) how easy Foundry is. That’s why earlier in the thread I said that if Syrinscape finds a way to truly integrate with Foundry, I’ll be back in a heartbeat.

1 Like
#42

@brodyjohn I posted a video yesterday of another free option to stream sounds called obs.ninja. Really powerful but now I have it set up as literally a one click link for my players.

2 Likes
#43

The problem i have is syrinscape online requires a player to create an account. I wish it was as easy as Foundry. My players dont beed an account. I send them a link and viola…they are online remotely. If syrinscape did that…awesome. But I also don’t like the monthly fee required for online. Also something not required by Foundry. I have monthly fees costing too much already. $10 here x ten…thats $100 going out the door a month. Watching to see. Remember we dont need access to the dynamic mostly. I’d love the option to download the soundscapes I already purchased. Then I can use them as background noise through Foundry.

#44

Hi @alaskankare, we are working on an easier way for players to join into your games… my current thinking is a zoom-style-link that initiates a download and install (if needed), a run of the Online Player App, and a linking into the game automatically WITHOUT the user needing an account.

Do note however: that getting signed up, and joined for a player takes only 3 minutes (if they follow the instructions reeeeasonably carefully). :smiley: And then joining back into a game after that first game can be done in a matter of seconds!

As for the cost… the Online Player is high quality stuff, was expensive to develop, and costs money to support, maintain and develop… so it’s definitely a thing for our top level subscribers at the moment.

The soundscapes in Syrinscape are dynamically created, always customisable, mixed carefully by industry professionals, have positioning and acoustics applied dynamically in real time. Stripping the samples out of Syrinscape and running them in another system will NOT get you the experience we know players need to truly benefit from what top level audio immersion can bring to tabletop games.

Why don’t you give the 30-day free trial a go and you may just discover that the added 3 minutes of effort on the part of your players is worth it! :slight_smile: :smiley:

1 Like
#45

Hello,
I’m starting to prep Dragon Heist, and will be moving into Mad Mage for two groups. I’ve always had an issue with sound because frankly I do not want to be a DJ. It is not worth my stress finding the perfect background music.
Syrinscape looks to be a great option, but I do have to echo some of the ease of use problems and drawbacks that I believe I will see.

I’ve tried several different ways to get sound into my game:

  • Using Watch2gether to stream YouTube music to all players.
    The Drawbacks to this solution was getting everyone to click into the page, which did not require any login process. And it was unable to mix multiple sounds

  • Groovy Discord Bot
    This was an improvement since everyone automatically heard the background music since they had to be in Discord, and everyone could set individual volume control. It also allowed me to layer up to 3 sounds. However, as a DM it was very annoying to switch playlists due to the interface essentially being text commands in discord.

  • Foundry VTT Soundboard
    Again, easy for the players. If they were in the game, they heard the music and are able to adjust the volume. The downside is I cannot just link to a YouTube or Spotify playlist, and therefore have to find the correct theme music. While this may be fun for some, I am not a DJ.

So I stumbled onto Syrinscape, and while I have not subscribed yet, it is something I am very much considering. The drawbacks that I see are users deciding not to open the webpage app, thus not getting the experience. Or me trying to figure out how to get sound from Syrinscape on my Mac into Discord, which most of the solutions seem like a very finicky setup.

So while I believe your upcoming feature for a single link with no login will be a step in the right direction, and a minimum feature for me to join, I would like to know what your current thoughts are on the Foundry integration.
From posts in this thread it looks like you are/were willing to work with the developer, but posts in Foundry’s discord seem to indicate you are not willing due to copyright or some legal jargon.
Perhaps it was due to Foundry not supporting paid modules, but in recent versions it does. There are several modules out there now that require a Patreon activation.

Another option I could think of is somehow linking your online player to an official Syrinscape Discord Bot, instead of the current Frankenstein way of pushing through the DM’s connection. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that the individual players are each streaming from your servers. Theoretically, if there is an official Discord Bot, that one Bot can take the stream and push it via Discord to the players, resulting in a net reduction of server load on your end.

Thank you for your thoughts on this
~DrWiFi

#46

Hi @DrWiFi,

The Syrinscape Online Player apps actually create the final mix directly on the remote machine, thus the only thing delivered via the internet connection is the first playback of each sample (which are then cached), and the start-to-play command with all the parameters needed…

Soooo… I don’t think this can be streamed through a discord bot? We’d have to mix the sound down on the GM’s machine and then stream that through the bot… which is what we are trying to avoid, because: a) this takes up a big chunk of bandwidth, b) is subject to internet bumps.

I gather a lot of the negative stuff on the Foundry forums came from an integration where a Foundry user asked for us to share the Syrinscape Online Player code so they could build that directly into Foundry. There are lots of reasons why we can do this, which I imagine you can image.

But yes, we are keen to help VTTs integrate with Syrinscape… a number of other big VTTs have made AWESOME stuff happen to make using Syrinscape fun and easy within their environments.

For the moment, yes, remote players will have to run the app… but from my perspective, considering the beautifully crafted, official, immersive, adaptable sounds that Syrinscape creates… running an app doesn’t seem like too much of a high price to pay.

Feature Request: Supersyrin Bots
#47

Love the Idea. Really great direction. This twenty word post thing really make the adjectives come out. Wibbly wobbly.

1 Like
#48

If it is invisible from the players’ PoV that would alleviate one major pain point. I think the real benefit though would be in a seamless integration with Foundry so the DM isn’t having to toggle back and forth between the soundset creator / master-interface and the VTT. I know that Eadorin had a working prototype that could do that (e.g. creating a Syrinscape UI within Foundry) – if that were combined with the players not having to do anything (or having it follow a known pattern like Zoom), then that might work.

I’m a front-end developer, though a pretty junior one, but I know that both Eadorin and I would be more than happy to sign any and all non-competes, non-disclosures, etc. if it would help make that happen (though I’d have to check in with him if he’s up for trying to re-learn FVTT since the most recent updates have changed the architecture on their code base quite a bit).

I cannot speak for everyone, but for him and me, the issues were: laggy interface on the master, having to flip back and forth between VTT UI and Syrinscape UI, lag in communicating sounds to the various players (which I can say is a lot better now than it was last year), and players having difficulty getting set up (rather than the experience being seamless for them).

The last piece would be the ability to really leverage Foundry’s specific sound features like localized sound effects placed on the map itself, but that’s more of a wishlist than a “let’s make this really work smoothly”.

#49

Currently I use the Discord Audio Pipe bot + Online player solution (which also works with Fantasy Player as well if you are not a SuperSyrin), on Fantasy Grounds with AudioSeer (which just make API calls from the FG application). This solution requires absolutely zero effort from the players, and I have access to great audio quality plus triggered audio based on chat parsing.

All these functionalities could easily be built on Foundry as a module. And even with high quality audio, we are still talking about a third of a megabit per second, so bandwidth issues wouldn’t be happening due to the discord bot.

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