First-time Artemis LAN party: 2 PCs, 1 Netbook, and... 2 iPads!
On November 10, 2012, I introduced Artemis to some friends from church. None of us had played before, but I had been watching many hours of YouTube footage, and reading the forum and wiki for quite some time before making a purchase today.
As host, I was hoping to provide at least 5 stations. But I only have three computers. Hm, what to do? I’ve got these two iPads, and I’ve used Splashtop Streamer before... will VMware do 3D graphics now? I wonder...
A few hours of experimentation later, and presto! The iPads are in play!
We had 2 desktop PCs, an Asus EEE PC netbook, and 2 iPads set up:
- Guest Dad at the Helm on a Windows Vista desktop
- Guest Son (age 13) at Weapons on an Asus EEE PC HA 1005 netbook
- Guest Daughter (age 11) at Engineering and Comms on 19” monitor #2 of a Windows 7 desktop.
- Main screen on 23” monitor #1 of a Windows 7 desktop
- The Secret Sauce: 2 minimized VMware Player sessions on the Windows 7 desktop running 2 more clients.
- Captain (me) : iPad 1 with Captain’s Map
- My Daughter (age 9) at Science on an iPad 2
The iPads worked great for Captain’s map and Communications, and "OK" for Science. However, other more “busy” screens such as Weapons or Engineering were a major challenge on a 10 inch iPad screen.
I'm writing up a full how-to for running VMware Player and Splashtop to tablet-enable an Artemis LAN party. The documentation will be here: Artemis LAN Party with VMware Player + Splashtop for Tablet play
Eventually I'd like to link or post this into the Artemis wiki, after it's been revised and tested more by other players.
As host, I was hoping to provide at least 5 stations. But I only have three computers. Hm, what to do? I’ve got these two iPads, and I’ve used Splashtop Streamer before... will VMware do 3D graphics now? I wonder...
A few hours of experimentation later, and presto! The iPads are in play!
We had 2 desktop PCs, an Asus EEE PC netbook, and 2 iPads set up:
- Guest Dad at the Helm on a Windows Vista desktop
- Guest Son (age 13) at Weapons on an Asus EEE PC HA 1005 netbook
- Guest Daughter (age 11) at Engineering and Comms on 19” monitor #2 of a Windows 7 desktop.
- Main screen on 23” monitor #1 of a Windows 7 desktop
- The Secret Sauce: 2 minimized VMware Player sessions on the Windows 7 desktop running 2 more clients.
- Captain (me) : iPad 1 with Captain’s Map
- My Daughter (age 9) at Science on an iPad 2
The iPads worked great for Captain’s map and Communications, and "OK" for Science. However, other more “busy” screens such as Weapons or Engineering were a major challenge on a 10 inch iPad screen.
I'm writing up a full how-to for running VMware Player and Splashtop to tablet-enable an Artemis LAN party. The documentation will be here: Artemis LAN Party with VMware Player + Splashtop for Tablet play
Eventually I'd like to link or post this into the Artemis wiki, after it's been revised and tested more by other players.
page
1
9 replies
I went ahead and did a quick video demonstration of how it works: VMware+Splashtop+iPad = Win!
Excellent work! Great documentation.
Have you tried apple itouches?
I'm betting they'd work. I just tried on my iPhone 4S, so I assume any iPod Touch of that generation should also work. Talk about a tiny screen space!
Comms works pretty well, since you have large tap targets. Other consoles require more precision, which you get in touchpad mode with Splashtop.
Comms works pretty well, since you have large tap targets. Other consoles require more precision, which you get in touchpad mode with Splashtop.
[Last edited Nov 15, 2012 06:02:40]
I succeeded in connecting my 1st Gen Apple IPad and used Science and Comms successfully on it. Fun testing the Vmware system. Wonder if it would be faster if using XP instead of Win7 in VM?
Define "faster!" I doubt there is a notable difference in speed between the two operating systems once you have the VMware "layer" in middle. Artemis didn't seem to stress the CPU much in VMware; my main problem was "meh" WiFi performance. You need a solid 2 Mbits in "Sharp" mode, and 1 Mbit in "Smooth" mode.
Now, if the VMware window looks choppy, you're probably hitting a CPU or GPU bottleneck on the host system.
Now, if the VMware window looks choppy, you're probably hitting a CPU or GPU bottleneck on the host system.
Thanks for sharing! I just did a similar setup last Friday, using an iMac as the host computer and VMware Fusion. I also did a write-up of it in case anyone's in a similar situation (used some slightly different tools for the Mac):
http://jamesmallen.net/2012/11/26/artemis-on-ipads-before-the-app-comes-out/
I tested it with two VM instances, but we only ended up needing one. One cool feature of VMware Fusion is that you don't need to use Splashtop - there's a VNC server built into VMware that Fusion lets you tap into directly.
http://jamesmallen.net/2012/11/26/artemis-on-ipads-before-the-app-comes-out/
I tested it with two VM instances, but we only ended up needing one. One cool feature of VMware Fusion is that you don't need to use Splashtop - there's a VNC server built into VMware that Fusion lets you tap into directly.
Thanks, this worked for me! I am using a powerful desktop as the server hosting Artemis and 2 VMs. One VM is using Splashtop2 on my Asus Transformer 101 and the other is using Chrome Remote Desktop on my Chromebook.
The Chromebook is the worst lag, but will hopefully work for the communications officer.
The Chromebook is the worst lag, but will hopefully work for the communications officer.
Now that the iOS version of the game is available, you can save money playing with it instead of splashtop. Also, it works a lot better!!
Login below to reply:
