Picture in Picture gaming?

[moonbogg]

So, I had the idea of doing multi monitor gaming, but on a single monitor. It would basically be a window on your screen with a rear view so you can see whats behind you at a glance. Or you could have two of them showing whats at your sides.
You could make your Windows operating system think you have 2 or 3 monitors, and just use little windows as those monitors. It could be good to see if someone is chasing you and trying to knife you etc.
So, good idea or stoopid?

 

[greenhawk]

generally done. The biggest issue is that the game needs to support it to work. It is done in flight simulators but I am thinking you want it in FPS games.

The way I have seen it done is to setup windows with multiple windows, then set the game to use a non-standard screen size (to go over the three windows) then change the FoV (field of view) so that you have some side visibility.

of course though, some games might see the FoV change as a possible cheat, but that is what you are looking to do anyway.

 

[davie jambo]

That is basically cheating

 

[mizzou]

It might be difficult to get a video game to support this resolution output without modding it.

Messing with the FOV accomplishes this somewhat...to a degree.

Multimonitor/triplehead gaming just seems to expand your horizion but doesn't necessarily help you see to your sides.

Having a little window pop up is an interesting idea...but in reality, we don't have mirrors on our heads so it's not a natural thing.

 

[Dankk]

So, I had the idea of cheating, but on a single monitor. It would basically be a window on your screen with a rear view so you can see whats behind you at a glance. Or you could have two of them showing whats at your sides.
You could make your Windows operating system think you have 2 or 3 monitors, and just use little windows as those monitors. It could be good to cheat if someone is chasing you and trying to knife you etc.
So, good idea or stoopid?

ftfy

 

[BladeVenom]

That is basically cheating

Like someone else said, it's done with flight simulators all the time.

Any game set in the future should really have that option. Cars today have rearview cameras.

 

[Elcs]

Multimonitor/triplehead gaming just seems to expand your horizon but doesn't necessarily help you see to your sides.

Depends on the type of multimonitor gaming and the game. But in most scenarios you're spot on.

With X2: The Threat back in my Radeon 9800 Pro days my main 19" widescreen monitor acted as my standard view and the second monitor could be set up in a variety of different ways. The only ways that I can remember that I had it set up were 1) side/rear view cameras for navigating through small gaps with a big ship and 2) tracking the turrets as the AI took shots at my enemies.

This may be the only exception to the rule.

 

[davie jambo]

Like someone else said, it's done with flight simulators all the time.

Any game set in the future should really have that option. Cars today have rearview cameras.

I thought he was meaning in games like counter strike where obviously it would be cheating