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Dragon Magic Studios - ARCade Frame Assembly

14 December 2022
  1. Introduction
  2. Materials
  3. How to Cut PVC
  4. Instructions
    1. Top Crossbar
    2. Bottom Crossbar
    3. Center Supports
    4. Final Assembly
  5. Final Words

Introduction

I’ve already talked about Tilt5 in a previous post. Their system is a wonderful place to start and is dialed in on tabletop gaming with a strong social component. However, what happens if your aspirations are larger?

Well, they’re not going to stop you - far from it. However, they don’t have the time and resources to cater to every random idea that comes across the desk, either. For that, T5 turns to its community. One such member, Dragon Magic Studios, happened to live in China and have a strong interest in materials and resources. Upon testing the Tilt5 device and its board, he found that he really wanted… something better. Specifically, the board had visible lines, wasn’t easy to clean, and was relatively fragile for something that’s intended to pick up and move around from table to table.

Luckily for everyone, he did something about this.

The result is a store entirely filled with products that are inspired by sessions with the Tilt5 unit while being completely separate from the Tilt5 team. Bravo!

The focus to date has been on improving the board components to remove visual blemishes, increase the speed and frequency of cleaning, and allow better mobility. The boards are made of multiple materials, and can be rolled up to be portable. One type of “board”, however, isn’t a board at all.

Tilt5’s predecessor, the erstwhile CastAR, would often show off various setups where real-life shapes were covered in retroreflective material to add immersion and depth into whatever images were projected from the glasses. DMS has taken this same approach forward by integrating the Tilt5 board pattern - integral to proper headset tracking - and incorporating it into a full backdrop.

See, the Tilt5 projector doesn’t focus its beam on some small area and try to optimize a relatively small dimension. Instead, it projects the beam that it projects, trusting to its low brightness and the unique properties of retroreflectors to “bounce” the image directly back to your eyes. It turns out that if you expand the footprint of the retroreflective material, your eyes will pick up an even wider field in any dimension the material is present in. Want to see more holograms rising out of your play space? Include vertical material. Want to have larger peripheral environments even when the action stays “within the board”? Include more horizontal material.

To this effect, DMS has created the “ARCade setup”. You take some extra retroreflective material, attach (most of) a T5 board pattern to it, and hang it from a PVC contraption that you build yourself. Voila! Instant green screen!

The one downside, perhaps, is that there’s no instructions currently on how to build this frame. As one of the first to receive an ARCade setup, I wanted to fix that. PVC isn’t terribly hard to work with, but I know that not everyone has done so in their past.

Materials

To begin, you will need the following:

  • 1 x PVC cutting tool (two styles are shown in the picture below) Two tools designed for cutting PVC, lying adjacent on a cement floor
  • At least 24 linear feet of 1/2” diameter PVC pipes (three 10’ pipes works great for this)
  • A couple zip ties (also called “cable ties”) Plastic zip ties on a wood floor
  • At least 2 clamps which are strong enough to hold a piece of fabric suspended in the air Two small plastic tension clamps
  • 4 x T-shape PVC junctions (“slip” ends, not “thread” ends) One T-shaped PVC connector
  • 4 x 45° PVC elbow junctions (slip ends) One PVC connector bent at a 45 degree angle
  • 4 x 90° PVC elbow junctions (slip ends) One PVC connector bent at a 90 degree angle
  • 1 x ARCade setup by Dragon Magic Studios

How to Cut PVC

  1. Measure from the flat end of a pipe to the total length you wish to end up with. Mark that once with a permanent marker. Measuring tape lying on top of a PVC pipe section
  2. Rotate the pipe slightly and do this once more to create two marks which are in line with each other. Measuring tape lying on different side of PVC pipe from previous picture
  3. Align the blade of your PVC cutting tool with the two marks you have made. Apply pressure (for one type of cutter) or slowly ratchet the blade down (for another type) until you have cut through the PVC and separated the section you measured from the main pipe. PVC cutting tool with blade aligned to two small marks on the PVC

Instructions

Top Crossbar

  1. Begin by cutting (2) 34” sections of PVC pipes (These are the main horizontal top and bottom bars)
  2. Cut (4) 1.5” sections of PVC
  3. Cut (4) 9.5” sections of PVC Dissassembled PVC pieces of top crossbar
  4. Attach (1) T-shaped PVC connector to one end of a 34” section. Repeat with the other end of the same PVC section One T-shaped PVC connector attached to a straight piece of PVC
  5. Insert (1) 1.5” section of PVC into a T-shaped connector to create a very short extension. Repeat for the elbow on the opposite side. One one and one-half inch section of PVC attached to a T-shaped PVC connector
  6. Attach (1) 45° PVC elbow junction to the 1.5” section. Repeat for the 1.5” section on the opposite side. You should now have a crosspiece ending in a 45° bend on both sides. One 45 degree PVC elbow attached to a very short section of PVC
  7. Insert (1) 9.5” section of PVC into the 45° elbow junction. Repeat for the elbow on the opposite side. One nine and one-half inch section of PVC attached to a 45 degree PVC elbow
  8. Attach (1) 90° PVC elbow junction to the 9.5” section of PVC. Repeat for the 9.5” section on the other side. This completes the top crossbar! One 90 degree PVC elbow attached to a section of PVC

Bottom Crossbar

  1. Repeat top crossbar steps in full. (No, really!) Assembled bottom crossbar made of PVC pipe

Center Supports

  1. Cut (4) 40” sections of PVC

Final Assembly

  1. Insert (1) 40” section of PVC into each open hole of the top crossbar One 40 inch section of straight PVC inserted into a T-shaped PVC connector which faces downwards
  2. Insert reverse end of 40” sections into the bottom crossbar One 40 inch section of straight PVC inserted into a T-shaped PVC connector which faces upwards
  3. Apply pressure as needed to all elbow junctions, ensuring that the fit is reasonably firm. You should be able to lift this frame by the center supports without it feeling like it’s going to fall apart.
  4. Stand the frame up on its bottom crossbar
  5. Attach a zip tie to the left-most 90° elbow junction as an anchor point. Repeat for the right-most 90° elbow junction. Zip tie wrapped around a 90 degree PVC elbow junction
  6. Attach (1) clamp to each zip tie as necessary. (You will have to decide where on your style of zip tie it makes most sense to attach the clamps.) Plastic tension clamp attached to a zip tie
  7. Stand frame such that the “U” shape opens towards you, not away from you. Assembled PVC frame with slight U shape, standing on a floor
  8. Unroll ARCade fabric such that Tilt5 board pattern is “down”, facing you, and facing away from the “U” shape
  9. Attach left-most upper corner of ARCade fabric to left-most clamp. Repeat with right-most corner and right-most clamp. Plastic clamp holding corner of retroreflective fabric to zip tie
  10. Adjust height or alignment as necessary to achieve a smooth, arced fall to the sheet which allows gravity to smooth most wrinkles that want to occur in any fabric Silvery retroreflective fabric fully unrolled with bottom lying flat on the ground and slight bend where the vertical meets the horizontal

NOTE: I’m still experimenting with how to smooth the fabric. The final product should look much better for you than in my final picture, as wrinkles in the fabric will distort or throw off the 3D effect of the Tilt5 projection.

Final Words

This post was entirely to describe the construction of the ARCade setup, not to review it. As soon as I have a bit more time, I will follow up with a separate review post.

Until then, happy gaming!

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