Q: What's your thoughts/ experience of Eyefinity (Multi-Display Gaming)?
Every so often you get one of those technologies that completely changes the landscape. Eyefinity is one of those.
The march of progress
Multimonitor setups aren't exactly new, of course; I know (perhaps we all know) that guy who was playing Flight Simulator with a huge central monitor and two side monitors. Thing is, you usually had to jump through hoops and spend lots of money to make that happen. Eyefinity brings multimonitor gaming to the general public.
Ever run into that "chicken and egg" situation, where a new technology isn't embraced by the general public because it's not supported by hardware companies, and it's not supported by hardware companies because it's not being embraced by the general public? By enabling Eyefinity technology on their new, modestly-priced line of graphics cards, ATi has pulled that wall down. Not only is it possible to have a super wide screen, it's within reach. And (though exceptions are rampant) games can be played in the new style without a great deal of modification-- sometimes straight out of the box.
Eyefinity doesn't just make multimonitor play possible-- it brings it to the common person. And that means that game designers will be more apt to support it.
Three is better than one
Monitor prices are low, sure, but large screens are still costly. Eyefinity enables the use of lower-cost displays to produce a panorama, just right for first-person shooters and racing games alike. And a setup with three monitors-- which is, I think, the most common-- allows the right and left side monitors to mount at an angle, wrapping the user in video like surround sound wraps us in audio.
It's the same idea as Cinemascope and other wide-screen movie theater technologies. Finally your computer can play
Lawrence of Arabia the way it was meant to be seen! And if Imax is more of your thing, go with a vertically stacked monitor group.
Clem's goals in life
One of my wishes is to have a bathtub long enough so that I can get my shoulders and knees wet at the same time. But since it isn't a bathtub that's being given away, let us go to Goal #2: Immersive World Of Warcraft.
I've been playing role-playing games (RPGs) since the three-beige-book
Dungeons & Dragons set came out. Naturally I jumped on the computer RPG bandwagon, and fell for World of Warcraft after some Sony-related missteps. It's not perfect, but it's as close as it's going to get. And the developers actually seem to like their game and their players, most of the time! But with quest trackers, minimaps, chat windows, and actionbars, the screen was getting a little cluttered.
Having one enormously wide viewport lets me handle all of the user interface elements, and at the same time lets the beauty of Azeroth come through. It helps that my 5850 allows respectable frame rates while still having everything set to "beautiful."
But I enjoy other games too-- world building, casual, and first-person shooters (FPSes) as well. And guess what? Most of those are enhanced by Eyefinity.
The irony? I'm visually impaired. Blind in one eye, low vision in the other-- and yet I want this beautiful graphic setup. (I also want others to share it. If I win, my old graphics card is going to a friend.) Whereas most people are looking to decrease font size to the most miniscule possible, I seek to get larger text and better colors. But guess what? A wide screen setup lets me expand things larger than would be tenable on a single monitor.
It's a game changer
Literally. So many products have been touted as that: 3D, force feedback, those silly motion sensors. But Eyefinity is a technology that will make things better for everyone in the coming years. And that's what progress is all about.
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