45 replies to this topic

[CyBerkut]

Redburn, on 03 December 2011 - 09:42 AM, said:

Now, for in-cockpit displays, there are (approx) 12 console displays shown in the cockpit preview this week.

Umm... cockpit preview? Somebody got a link?

Thanks!

[EDIT] Nevermind... It's over in the media section.

Edited by CyBerkut, 05 December 2011 - 10:54 AM.

[Odinson]

CyBerkut, on 01 December 2011 - 08:18 AM, said:

I can envision the out-the-window display being on either a single TV / Projector display, or a 3 TV / projector Eyefinity (Surround) group, with cockpit controls / indicators on extended desktop touchscreen monitors below. Perhaps with Heat management / propulsion on 1 touchscreen, weapons / Information Warfare on another, and other communications, navigation, etc. on the third.

Certainly, it won't be something that everybody utilizes to the fullest. But some of us will. And when the videos and pictures start popping up on Youtube, SimHQ, TheWayIPlay, etc... it could bring in more players.

Turn us loose, baby! We'll make you proud.

I agree completely. I would really like to see control groups/multifunction displays that can be un-docked from the main window and sent to other monitors a-la MS Flight Simulator. That, coupled with the main view having eyefinitiy/surround to simulate looking out the windows of your cockpit, would be a fantastically immersive experience.

I think some people would be concerned their experience will suffer if the game can do all that stuff and they *don't* have that setup, but if we take a step back and think about it:

A person using only a keyboard, a mouse and one monitor, will still have access to all the same information (MFDs and such arranged in the main view window) and all the same controls via hotkeys on their keyboard. This is the most basic setup a person is likely to have. Each successive step towards that immersive setup we're daydreaming about simply gives you more pixels to spread that information over, until eventually you have enough display space that you have a completely immersive cockpit.

I think touch screen support for un-docked control panels on seperate monitors would be brilliant. I think every control that can be clicked or touched on the touch screen should also be able to have a directX device button press associated with it (or a keyboard hotkey). Myself I probably would not buy touch screens, but I have several monitors now I would love to set up as my MFD groups and then build myself a custom switch/controls panel as a USB device that delivers directX button press information. That's how most controllers interface with PC games now anyway - each axis and button is a set of directX information.

[Odinson]

Sorry for the double post... watch this video. THIS is an example of what we should be able to do in this game. Start at 2:14 if you want to get to the meat of it without the parts that are irrelevant to the idea itself.
http://youtu.be/fkQKYlkgE6w

I think this is what CyBerkut and I are both thinking of, but with more "cockpit view" monitors to give a full surround.

[pcunite]

Just curious ... how many of you folks with more than one monitor also have nice versions of them? I personally use a NEC 2490WUXi2 ... color correct and consistent from corner to corner ... I only have one of them, however. With monitors at different angles it would think an IPS display would be a requirement. Wondering how committed you folks are.

Edited by pcunite, 16 December 2011 - 06:01 PM.

[Odinson]

I don't know if my monitor standards are as high as everybody else's. I play Crysis and L4D/L4D2 on my 22" Acer X223w at high resolution and I'm quite happy. I have two older 15" monitors that would serve very well as seperate instrument panels. I just purchased a Radeon HD 6750 that supports 6 displayport displays, so it wouldn't be beyond imagining that I could get two more monitors and an active displayport adaptor for each of my monitor devices and run that sort of setup. I would do it for the immersion, but I'm a gigantic Mechwarrior/Battletech nerd, heh.

[CyBerkut]

pcunite, on 16 December 2011 - 06:00 PM, said:

Just curious ... how many of you folks with more than one monitor also have nice versions of them? I personally use a NEC 2490WUXi2 ... color correct and consistent from corner to corner ... I only have one of them, however. With monitors at different angles it would think an IPS display would be a requirement. Wondering how committed you folks are.

Oh, "committed" comes in many flavors. For instance, my wife probably thinks I should be "committed" (to an asylum), but chooses to tolerate my PC gaming habit in spite of that.

When selecting displays, a lot of it comes down to what matters most to you for your intended usage. For me, I'm less concerned with getting perfect color matching, or wider viewing angles. My higher priority was to get three matching touchscreens that had 1080p resolution. The angle of the displays can be positioned to accomodate my seat position, and I'm the only one who needs to view it, so that's not really a concern in my case. I'm not all that fussy about color. The displays all seem to be in the same ballpark, and could probably be calibrated if I became motivated to pursue that.

[Valdor Constantine]

i approve of this as soon as tax season comes around...........oh god... the funds at my disposal hehe gonna have a hayday creating a cockpit set up if multi monitor support is added.........and touchscreens yes!!

[Phatt]

pcunite, on 16 December 2011 - 06:00 PM, said:

Just curious ... how many of you folks with more than one monitor also have nice versions of them? I personally use a NEC 2490WUXi2 ... color correct and consistent from corner to corner ... I only have one of them, however. With monitors at different angles it would think an IPS display would be a requirement. Wondering how committed you folks are.

Lol I have a Samsung 42" HD LCD, a 24" Samsung Sync Master 2443 and a dodgy old 19" Viewsonic as a systems resource monitor.

However I'm willing to sell some of my grand children to pay for a set of three 30" High Res HP's.

Anyone want one?

[CyBerkut]

Sceadwian, on 20 December 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

The only way to keep it fair and reasonable however with a practical game is what was seen in the preview concept video, where you don't just have a straight up HUD pasted on your monitor, but are looking out from the cockpit.. aside from what little data you get from the neurohelmet. Obviously you can't look at one display or another without taking away from your main view window so keeping the single monitor as the total viewpoint is the only way to do it. If they texture the sub displays properly your peripheral vision will actually become an active part of the game, to look down at that display and get detailed information you have to look away from you main viewport to focus on the sub display, as long as you aren't distracted by the Hula girl at least..

Hopefully this is a good start to immersive interaction, not just a simple video game. I just hope the concepts pan out into a playable game.

Multiple monitors are great for simulations like flight sims or tank sims...

These are multi-ton nuclear powered Battlemechs, that walk and run. A little force feedback shake and a couple extra display panels belittles the scale, the display itself has to move with the action.

{Emphasis added}

Errr... what?

If you have multiple monitors, you make more use of your peripheral vision. (In fact, I would argue that when you are using a single display, you aren't using your peripheral vision at all. You are always looking straight ahead at a single monitor, just making that portal move around to view whatever portion of the entire scene you want to see at a given moment.) A single monitor compared to three wide, is akin to looking through a keyhole compared to opening the door.

I'd hardly say that multiple monitors belittle the scale. Quite the opposite.

[CyBerkut]

Sceadwian, on 21 December 2011 - 07:45 PM, said:

CyberKut, you apparently don't know how limited main vision is and how shallow peripheral vision is.

From my monitor which is 19 inches and about 2.5 feet of distance from my face anything more than two inches from my center of vision is peripheral. Try reading a letter 6 inches from center of any word you're focusing on in this post, if you can do that without shifting your center of vision you're lying.

I'm familiar with how typical human vision works.

That example of yours speaks to the focus of your vision at a given moment, but that is about all. It says nothing of note about peripheral vision. Take your example, add a monitor on each side. Go ahead and focus on the letter in the center of your center display. If something moves/changes on one of those side screens, you will pick it up in your peripheral vision (unless you have some limiting disorder with your vision). You do not necessarily have to be focused upon something in the real world to gain useful information. When your peripheral vision picks up movement, or a change in color, off to your side... that can be very helpful. In some cases it means the difference between survival or death.

There's a wonderful feature to the normal, healthy human eyes. They can actually move to shift their focus to other locations. Interestingly enough, so can the entire head. Coupling these capabilities with additional displays that can portray additional portions of what can be seen in a mech cockpit actually makes for a *better* simulation of what would be experienced in a mech.

If a mech actually existed, would a pilot be toggling a Point Of View hat switch on his joystick to look around, or would that pilot simply shift their gaze?

Having said that, yes, it is important for the game designers to make it work well on a single display (after all, that is still what the majority of likely players will be limited to at this time). But to say that it has to be only one screen for everybody... lacks vision.

[Elektrik]

CyBerkut, on 22 December 2011 - 07:56 AM, said:

I'm familiar with how typical human vision works.

That example of yours speaks to the focus of your vision at a given moment, but that is about all. It says nothing of note about peripheral vision. Take your example, add a monitor on each side. Go ahead and focus on the letter in the center of your center display. If something moves/changes on one of those side screens, you will pick it up in your peripheral vision (unless you have some limiting disorder with your vision). You do not necessarily have to be focused upon something in the real world to gain useful information. When your peripheral vision picks up movement, or a change in color, off to your side... that can be very helpful. In some cases it means the difference between survival or death.

Agreed. The perfect example is when you're driving and someone slightly to your right or left changes lanes...

[Durruty]

I also want a good multi-monitor support. Please.

[Harrow]

Meatball, on 01 November 2011 - 11:51 AM, said:

Please add in support for multiple monitors using AMD's Eyefinity and Nvidia's Surround. Simply allowing large resolutions isn't enough. Many games do that, but they spread out the UI and it makes it difficult to use multiple monitor setups.

If possible either allow the GUI to be reconfigured by the player, or set it to center on the middle display(s). Many games will put GUI objects on the top left/right and bottom left/right which doesn't work well with 3 monitor setups.

I would buy another HD6970 and 2 more monitors to run eyefinity if they supported it with full cockpit veiw. I.E. front view through middle monitor with left and right forward arc views through the left and right monitor respectively.

Edited by Harrow, 02 February 2012 - 08:05 AM.

[azoth green]

i think u should give the idea of one but i dont think u should ethier for the reason alot of people play on lap tops

[TheRulesLawyer]

I'd like to see the ability to toss my hud type stuff- radar, damage indicators, etc on a 2nd monitor. Especially the map. I'm always referencing it during the game but its too small on a single monitor.

[Corsa]

I've got triple monitors on Eyefinity and desperately want support for them. As the OP said, just giving ultra wide resolutions isn't enough, we need to be able to move UI elements so they aren't way off to the side where we won't see them.

Also, since 5760x1200 resolution at max settings isn't going to happen to anyone without a MONSTER gamign rig I'd really like to see an option to display the "game world" (view out the windshield) on just the center screen, but put UI elements like the map, damage screen, ammo display etc. on the other screen(s).

Apparently Supreme Commander had something of that sort?

[THOR HAMMER]

yes eyefinity

[Victor Morson]

My main concern is still being able to put the BattleGrid on the other monitor, separate from the cockpit. That'd be incredibly useful and a good use of multi monitor support for anyone with two monitors, rather than just people who have a 3 monitor surround setup going.

[Togg Bott]

CyBerkut, on 19 December 2011 - 07:37 AM, said:

Oh, "committed" comes in many flavors. For instance, my wife probably thinks I should be "committed" (to an asylum), but chooses to tolerate my PC gaming habit in spite of that.

HAR HAR HAR..... i know i'm late to the game site... but this is just so.. so.. yeah i'll say it... Married.

may have to put that quote in my sig

[CyBerkut]

I can't deny the truth. We're coming up on our 30th anniversary next month.