forevercloud3000 said:
SvennoJ said:
An extra screen is useful in games that don't pause. For example if you have the inventory on the gamepad you can still keep an eye out for movement on the main screen while changing weapons in Dark souls. Pausing is better though, NFS rivals' map is useless for a racer to plot an escape since the game doesn't pause.
Snap can be useful when you're following a guide, if you're own of those people :) For anything else it's just a nuisance having to divide the screen. Not once since win 95 have I thought, let's run this game in windowed mode so I can browse, watch Youtube etc at the same time.
I did use pip in '99 while playing Everquest when meditation was still slow and locked you to the book screen. A simple tv card put the tv picture in the corner, something to watch while staring at the book screen for minutes at a time in single player. But that's just bad game design, I doubt anyone is going to put up with that anymore. Plus watching anything with a plot was dangerous, get distracted at the wrong time and you can lose hours in that game.
I used it again on my old HD ready tv. It had split screen down the middle, I could play a game while my wife watched tv. It wasn't great, half the game experience (mixing the sound was terrible, so tv obviously won out for sound) and distracting for us both. So we rather watched and played together.
The only time I still use pip on tv is when I browse the guide or other channels during commercials. For the latter it's easier to simply hit record and watch it a bit later and skip the commercials.
Maybe the facebook generation likes it though. Keep a couple of chat windows open while playing or watching. Not for me. |
Your Everquest example sounds like its no different then switching when a game is paused. Like flipping the channel when commercials are running. There was nothing going on in your game so you could divy up your attention more easily.
It doesn't count as multitasking if you are not the single person taking advantage of it's dual screen fuction. There is nothing wrong with one person using different screens controlled by the same device. Thats not what is in question here.
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True, that only leaves following along with a video guide.
Some games use pip, for example Siren blood curse, sight jacking. You're usually hiding somewhere though when looking through the viewpoint of someone else, so pip is not essential. The experiment is the only game I can think of that would not work the same with switching.
Not the same again I admit. Many windows simulting a security guard monitor. Nothing to do with snap or dual screen.
I've never liked dual screens for pc either. I can only focus on one at a time and tend to 'lose' stuff on the other. Alt-tab works better for me.
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