The future of local multiplayer should be one display for everyone – Reader’s Feature

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Multiple monitors have many uses (Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine) While local multiplayer has become increasingly less common in recent years, a reader has a very…

While local multiplayer has become increasingly less common in recent years, a reader has a very detailed idea for how to make it more appealing.

In the future I envisage a modern evolution of local multiplayer gaming, where one powerful console or PC drives multiple independent displays, giving every player their own full-screen experience while keeping everyone physically together.

The interesting thing is that the technology to make this possible largely exists already. What’s missing is widespread support from game developers and platform manufacturers.

Imagine one powerful gaming PC or console connected to multiple monitors or televisions:

One important distinction: dedicated displays wouldn’t automatically eliminate screen cheating if the monitors are visible to one another. But arranging them back-to-back, using dividers, or placing players in different parts of a room could solve that.

The real challenge is that games need to support multiple independent players, cameras, input streams, and display outputs within one running instance.

This would be more demanding than rendering one player’s perspective, requiring more computing power. Game simulation, physics, world data, and some rendering work could be shared.

And there are interesting precedents. The Nintendo DS and Wii U explored asymmetric displays in different forms, while PC software such as Nucleus Co-op has demonstrated ways of running multiple game instances for local multiplayer, although that’s different from native multi-output support.

Multiple people in one room playing a tactical shooter, racing game, or arena combat game, with independent displays and no network connection required.

مطلع المقال، مقتطف من Metro. لقراءة المقال كاملًا، افتحه على موقع الناشر.