Comments on: A Vertical Division http://thephotoshopwhore.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/a-vertical-division/ Taking Videogames Too Seriously Since 1988 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:33:41 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: dinopoke http://thephotoshopwhore.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/a-vertical-division/#comment-47 dinopoke Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:56:49 +0000 http://thephotoshopwhore.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-47 TT_TT I remember the good old days. Worms, Jill of the Jungle, Sonic 3 and Skunny Kart (Wacky Wheels clone)... Gaming simply isn't what it used to be. TT_TT

I remember the good old days. Worms, Jill of the Jungle, Sonic 3 and Skunny Kart (Wacky Wheels clone)… Gaming simply isn’t what it used to be.

]]> By: Chris http://thephotoshopwhore.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/a-vertical-division/#comment-38 Chris Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:56:29 +0000 http://thephotoshopwhore.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-38 I'll make sure I add split screen support to the next game I develop (A car racing game)! It won't be a space sim though. The main problems with split screen are on the PC, the keyboard can only host 2, perhaps 3 players at a time depending on the requirements of the game, so you need extra controllers where, unlike the consoles they are more rare and with games supporting less and less split screen there is less and less reason to get extra controllers so it is an endless cycle. On consoles the advent of high speed low latency internet has surely helped crush the split screen option. I think the other problem is, say the average television is 48cm, this is not massive, but not small, most games will look fine on this and run at the right speed, when you split the screen into 2x2 each player then gets 24cm diagonally which might sound like a lot, but it is like each player stepping back in time 10 years. I'm sure developers don't like to see their beautiful 1080p game reduced to 540p for each player either. Everyone can see everyone else's screen which in a racing is not really a problem as you can see where they are on the map, but in an FPS like GoldenEye it totally screws the dynamics of the game if one person knows the level and can screen peek and instantly know where the other people are. The other problem is that even though the amount of pixels being rendered does not change, in 4 player split screen you still have to render 4 different screens from 4 different locations. The audio (Which is slightly screwy, hearing the sounds that are meant for someone else), gameplay and physics code can mostly stay the same, but you can't use dynamically generated impostors any more, or you have to tag each impostor to say which player it was generated for, frustum code gets more complicated, you either don't cull at all, cull only stuff that none of the 4 frustums can see, or (probably simplest, but possibly the most calculations?) have 4 frustums. Sorry, that was quite ranty. When I release my next PC racing game I'll be sure to add 2 player horizontal split screen. I’ll make sure I add split screen support to the next game I develop (A car racing game)! It won’t be a space sim though. The main problems with split screen are on the PC, the keyboard can only host 2, perhaps 3 players at a time depending on the requirements of the game, so you need extra controllers where, unlike the consoles they are more rare and with games supporting less and less split screen there is less and less reason to get extra controllers so it is an endless cycle. On consoles the advent of high speed low latency internet has surely helped crush the split screen option. I think the other problem is, say the average television is 48cm, this is not massive, but not small, most games will look fine on this and run at the right speed, when you split the screen into 2×2 each player then gets 24cm diagonally which might sound like a lot, but it is like each player stepping back in time 10 years. I’m sure developers don’t like to see their beautiful 1080p game reduced to 540p for each player either. Everyone can see everyone else’s screen which in a racing is not really a problem as you can see where they are on the map, but in an FPS like GoldenEye it totally screws the dynamics of the game if one person knows the level and can screen peek and instantly know where the other people are. The other problem is that even though the amount of pixels being rendered does not change, in 4 player split screen you still have to render 4 different screens from 4 different locations. The audio (Which is slightly screwy, hearing the sounds that are meant for someone else), gameplay and physics code can mostly stay the same, but you can’t use dynamically generated impostors any more, or you have to tag each impostor to say which player it was generated for, frustum code gets more complicated, you either don’t cull at all, cull only stuff that none of the 4 frustums can see, or (probably simplest, but possibly the most calculations?) have 4 frustums. Sorry, that was quite ranty. When I release my next PC racing game I’ll be sure to add 2 player horizontal split screen.

]]>