Many gamers have setups with two or monitors. Oftentimes these differ in size, resolution, even aspect ratio. They can be very helpful in productivity tasks, but mid-gameplay they rarely serve as more than displays for external music or chat.
Are there games that utilize this extra space in a unique way and are played better or exclusively with two or more monitors? Preferably something more than just extra FOV
Back in the day Supreme Commander could utilize a second monitor for a dedicated map that you could zoom in and out of independently of the main game window. I don’t remember if you could do other things with it, but I thought it was pretty sweet with just that.
The Wii U was stuck working against itself in a number of ways. On paper, the idea of bringing the DS’s successful format to a console sounded great… but couldn’t actually work the same way in practice.
The first problem was that human eyes can’t focus on two screens at different distances from the eye. You can’t actually look at both screens together, you have to switch your focus from one to the other.
Then there’s just the economic reality of console development requiring developers to prioritize multiplatform development. No one wants to design a game around the Wii U and have it be exclusive to the Wii U. That was viable for the DS because the DS was such a massive juggernaut, and because handheld titles could be developed on a much smaller budget, but Wii U exclusivity could never be justified. Games that are being developed for other single-screen platforms and then ported to Wii U can’t do much with the Gamepad.
But perhaps the most ironic nail in the coffin was that the best use case for the Gamepad, Off-TV Play, could only be supported by games designed around a single screen. Developers shouldn’t make the second screen important or else they lose this feature!
I feel like Mariokart 8 made good use of the gamepad: it could act as a mirror of the TV or it could display non-essential info like a map and what items each player has.
Simulators, like x-plane or flightsim, and I think some driving sims can use lots of monitors. Like 4 monitors for the cockpit windows and another two for control panels etc. though you need a hench pc and graphics set up to do this at a decent frame rate
Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours on Steam. Maybe the PS4 variant has some magic for multipule monitors, too but I’m too lazy to look. There may also be other Darius ports that utilize multiple monitors but this is the main one in the series.
It’s a horizontal shmup that used large displays in the arcade cabinets, that may have been multiple monitors but my memory is fuzzy.
You can stretch the game across multiple monitors in the game settings to replicate the super wide feel of the arcade game. They even have some “cabinet” connection options in the port that let’s you compare your scores and see replays from other players.
while not a novel thing such as extra menus or something, it let’s you play the game closer to its original format.
Probably not quite what you meant but two monitors for Dwarf Fortress is a god send. Game on one screen, the other for DFHack console, Announcements, SoundSense, Dward Therapist, and various other utils. Could probably use 3 actually…
I’ve heard rumours that Kitten Space Agency (the spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program, considering KSP2 is dead on arrival) will support multiple monitors.
I know it has multiplayer baked in at every step of the development (even if it won’t be available on release). So maybe I’m getting my wires crossed between multimonitor and features of the multiplayer that sound like they would be great for multi monitor (IE, someone plays as ground control)
There was a 3D military tactic game or two from one dev that had dual monitor support. Where the second monitor became an overhead map that let you issues commands.
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Back in the day Supreme Commander could utilize a second monitor for a dedicated map that you could zoom in and out of independently of the main game window. I don’t remember if you could do other things with it, but I thought it was pretty sweet with just that.
Every Nintendo DS game.
Wii U too!
Not really, that was the big gimmick of the console, but only a handful of games actually utilize it.
Games like breath of the wild had the feature cut despite being designed with it in mind.
ZombiU does it well however.
The Wii U was stuck working against itself in a number of ways. On paper, the idea of bringing the DS’s successful format to a console sounded great… but couldn’t actually work the same way in practice.
The first problem was that human eyes can’t focus on two screens at different distances from the eye. You can’t actually look at both screens together, you have to switch your focus from one to the other.
Then there’s just the economic reality of console development requiring developers to prioritize multiplatform development. No one wants to design a game around the Wii U and have it be exclusive to the Wii U. That was viable for the DS because the DS was such a massive juggernaut, and because handheld titles could be developed on a much smaller budget, but Wii U exclusivity could never be justified. Games that are being developed for other single-screen platforms and then ported to Wii U can’t do much with the Gamepad.
But perhaps the most ironic nail in the coffin was that the best use case for the Gamepad, Off-TV Play, could only be supported by games designed around a single screen. Developers shouldn’t make the second screen important or else they lose this feature!
I feel like Mariokart 8 made good use of the gamepad: it could act as a mirror of the TV or it could display non-essential info like a map and what items each player has.
iRacing (simulators in general)
Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator.
If you are into older space sims and Star Trek, you might like it :D
BallisticNG has the option to do multiplayer in either split screen or on a seperate monitor.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/473770/BallisticNG/
X2 had some singleplayer multi monitor features, buf the later games X3, XR and X4 did not…
Eve Online!
Yeah, if you’re not running (at least) two clients, you’re playing eve wrong.
I heard you like spreadsheets so I put a spreadsheet in your game so you can spreadsheet while you game
My first thought as well. Good old times of triple boxing spy alts and whatnot. I still miss it sometimes.
Once you won EVE, try out Prosperous Universe. No combat. Just the economics/trading of EVE, no need to always be on.
Plus, we have the best spreadsheets.
Simulators, like x-plane or flightsim, and I think some driving sims can use lots of monitors. Like 4 monitors for the cockpit windows and another two for control panels etc. though you need a hench pc and graphics set up to do this at a decent frame rate
elite dangerous, never tried though
Elite Generous? Is that the space philanthropy game?
😂 elite dangerous*
put 100s of hours in, am embarrassed by the typo
Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours on Steam. Maybe the PS4 variant has some magic for multipule monitors, too but I’m too lazy to look. There may also be other Darius ports that utilize multiple monitors but this is the main one in the series.
It’s a horizontal shmup that used large displays in the arcade cabinets, that may have been multiple monitors but my memory is fuzzy.
You can stretch the game across multiple monitors in the game settings to replicate the super wide feel of the arcade game. They even have some “cabinet” connection options in the port that let’s you compare your scores and see replays from other players.
while not a novel thing such as extra menus or something, it let’s you play the game closer to its original format.
Almost every game on the Nintendo DS.
I don’t know of any PC games that do that. Just the DS.
I can fight anyone who tells me Metroid Prime Hunters online gameplay with the stylus and the touchscreen is not peak shooter gaming on the go.
Runescape (both OSRS and RS3) cause the second screen will be filled with the best wiki in the gaming industry, movie or just some random video.
Probably not quite what you meant but two monitors for Dwarf Fortress is a god send. Game on one screen, the other for DFHack console, Announcements, SoundSense, Dward Therapist, and various other utils. Could probably use 3 actually…
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_games_that_support_multi-monitor
Awesomely useful site
Not really, it conflates games that have some ability to spread one screen between to monitors and games that actually utilize two monitors.
I’ve heard rumours that Kitten Space Agency (the spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program, considering KSP2 is dead on arrival) will support multiple monitors.
I know it has multiplayer baked in at every step of the development (even if it won’t be available on release). So maybe I’m getting my wires crossed between multimonitor and features of the multiplayer that sound like they would be great for multi monitor (IE, someone plays as ground control)
There was a 3D military tactic game or two from one dev that had dual monitor support. Where the second monitor became an overhead map that let you issues commands.
I know supreme commander 2 has the second screen as a tactical map. Not sure if it’s interactive though.