Author Topic: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme  (Read 7808 times)

Pokertini

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« on: February 02, 2007, 02:09:22 PM »
I'm new to TD2 and have been investing a lot of time over the past week in creating layouts.  The first is mine, for the Poker Cigars & Martinis league.  A friend of mine hosts an annual Fire/EMS Charity Poker tournament, so I wanted to make some custom layouts for the event.  I'm very pleased with the way they turned out.  Odd rounds have the Fire Truck background, even rounds have the ambulance.  The lightbars are actually animated gifs and light up on break.

« Last Edit: February 03, 2007, 06:22:59 PM by Pokertini »

tandemrx

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 347
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2007, 07:20:38 PM »
I love the layouts - especially the mirror image "ambulance".

Could you share your $2000 buy-in round/blinds structure?

tandemrx

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 347
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2007, 07:23:52 PM »
Also, how are you going to display the layouts during the tourney?

Only thing I would worry about is that the text is somewhat small for many of the elements (except the clock).

My experience is that if you want people to actually pay attention to the screens (or need people to see them, such as dedicated dealers) you have to make all text as big as possible - even if it means sacrificing a few cells.  At least the blind info should be as big as possible.

If you are going to project the screen onto big screens maybe this is a non issue.

Pokertini

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2007, 08:33:13 PM »
Thanks for the comments.  The display will be on a 50" television.  The images I posted here I shrinked from 1024x768 to 800x600 just to make them easier to see.  But you make a good point, I'll have to hook it up beforehand to double-check readability.

Funny you ask about the $2000 chip structure.  We usually play $1000 with $5 chips.  I wanted to eliminate them, so the first tournament we played, we started with $1200 chips and 15 minute levels, starting at $25/$50 blinds.  The game was over pretty quickly.  So I bumped this to $2000 and 15 minute levels which seemed ok.  Our tourneys are more like S&Gs and we play 2 or 3 in an evening.  I personally think 20 minute levels would play real well and will give it a try at our next tournament.

I included the blinds schedule below.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2007, 08:43:35 PM by Pokertini »

tandemrx

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 347
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2007, 08:52:03 PM »
I don't know if it is possible for the charity event, but if you could send it to 2 displays, it might cause fewer sore necks from those with their backs to the TV.  Assume you might have some less experienced players at a charity event, so it is useful to have those blinds available for everyone to see easily.  May simply not be possible with the resources you have.  And it certainly isn't necessary.

I don't know if you can send a laptop display out to 2 different TVs.  I mean, there must be way, but I don't know how to do it.

For my 20 person tourneys I try to use 3 monitors so that no one has their back to a monitor and most importantly so that the 2 dealers can both see the monitors easily.  It works well, but I wish that my cabling was a bit more clean (3 cables are going all over the place, but I try to route them along the walls for the most part).

Plus I have to put the monitors on rather tall stands so that everyone can see them over everybody else's heads.  I use our computer flat panel monitors (we have a couple 21-inchers and one 19 incher), so I don't feel like having wall brackets and then having to disassemble the monitors to attach them to wall brackets, so I just throw them up on some stands I made that are about 4.5 feet tall.

I would say that it is overkill, except that everyone is always referring to them (I think they have gotten a bit dependant on them and never try to remember what the blinds are - but we often have less experienced players).

Pokertini

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2007, 05:39:48 AM »
You asked about the $2000 blind structure, I assumed you meant the one I used in my home game (10 people, lasting around 3 hrs).  If you were referring to the one displayed for the 80 person charity tournament, I just used one of the default blind structures supplied with TD2 as a placeholder because I don't know the blind structure for the charity tourney yet!  ;D

JV956

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2007, 03:19:51 PM »
i would really like to use some of those layouts...is there anyway that you can share those in the file that the TD 2 uses?

tandemrx

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 347
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2007, 03:31:26 PM »
He would just need to provide the ".tlo" layout file for that tourney and then any associated image files.

He could attach them to a message to the group.  You might need to "reassociate" the images with the layout on your computer - but easy enough to do.

JV956

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2007, 03:35:09 PM »
i always see a pic of people's layout and is envious of their creativity.  unfortunately i do not have the time or the creativity to tweak with TD 2 to make my own layouts...

has anyone ever thought of putting up a layout, rounds, sound template site?

tandemrx

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 347
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2007, 03:56:40 PM »
That is exactly what this section of the forum is all about. 

I guess it would be nice to have them all collected in one spot.  But somewhat tough to probably organize this on a forum.  Corey would probably be concerned about a specific collection of layouts, sounds, templates, etc in one spot because he couldn't verify that they all worked or are set up correctly - so people might complain that they downloaded a template and that it didn't work for them or have other security issues (virus laden, etc).

Not sure how it is best to organize such stuff.  Still, you can find a some layouts, templates on this section of the forum.

Pokertini

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2007, 06:00:25 PM »
JV956,

I've archived the necessary files in rar format.  Download the Pokertini_layouts.rar file.

When you extract, be sure to extract to the following directory:
c:\program files\the tournament director 2

If you do not know what a rar archive is, you can GOOGLE: rar archive extract

Or, you can email me and I will be happy to help.

A couple of points:
The layouts are designed to be displayed in 1024x768
I changed the grill for the ambulance and updated the image to reflect this in the first post
To get the chips to display, you will have to update the Chips image files under the chips tab
« Last Edit: February 03, 2007, 09:38:10 PM by Pokertini »

Corey Cooper

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6216
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2007, 06:03:13 PM »
ZIP and RAR file attachments enabled now...

britnt7

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 42
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2007, 11:23:32 AM »
Pokertini,

Could you email me (timothy@myactv.net) the poker chip images that you have? I have the same poker chips but wasn't able to find these pics anywhere. I currently have white, red, green, blue, & black chips.

Thanks,
--Tim

JV956

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: My custom layouts, includes Fire, EMS theme
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2007, 11:23:37 AM »
JV956,

I've archived the necessary files in rar format.  Download the Pokertini_layouts.rar file.

When you extract, be sure to extract to the following directory:
c:\program files\the tournament director 2

If you do not know what a rar archive is, you can GOOGLE: rar archive extract

Or, you can email me and I will be happy to help.

A couple of points:
The layouts are designed to be displayed in 1024x768
I changed the grill for the ambulance and updated the image to reflect this in the first post
To get the chips to display, you will have to update the Chips image files under the chips tab

thanks!!!