Dual Display Option would make this game so much more fluid!

[bmac203]

Love the game.... dislike the interface.

I would like to see a function that would constantly keep the galaxy map on one screen, and your planetary view on the other. I think being able to multitask like that would make this game more enjoyable to me. Just click on your extended display galaxy map to go straight to the planet you want. Seems like something to look into that would set this apart from most strat games.

[tigersfan]

I agree, that would be awesome.

Unfortunately, the engine we use for the game, Unity, doesn't allow for any kind of multi-monitor support right now. Hopefully they will add it soon.

[doctorfrog]

This is a bit of an insane workaround, but couldn't you install an extra copy of AI War, then join your own game with that second install as an observer? Then, just ALT+ENTER if you're in fullscreen for each instance, and drag one window into the other monitor.

You wouldn't get a magical clicky map, but you'd at least have the galaxy map always viewable. And you may or may not be violating the spirit of the game license.

[keith.lamothe]

And you may or may not be violating the spirit of the game license.

If it's just one person playing, I can't see how that would possibly be a problem with us

Let me know if that works, and I might have an idea for making it a little better of a fit.

[TechSY730]

Ah, the good ol multiple instances of the process and doing a localhost LAN game "hack" for multiscreen fun.
Actually, with proper networking "commands" support, you can do all kinds of insane stuff with that.

Hope you got the memory, CPU, and graphics capability to pull it off though.

[bmac203]

Mac Pro setup used for rendering HD video... it's a powerhouse.

[doctorfrog]

And you may or may not be violating the spirit of the game license.

If it's just one person playing, I can't see how that would possibly be a problem with us

Let me know if that works, and I might have an idea for making it a little better of a fit.

Y'know, I kinda suspected you'd be ok with that. Here's a screenie of it working OK for me:



Obviously, I don't have dual monitors, but it should work fine, just drag one over to the other monitor, and you'll always have an eyeball on the galaxy, or another system.

My only concern is that the second instance will probably gobble up too many resources, and there's no need for that, if all it's doing is tracking galactic trends. Is there a way to make a "dumber" game process that wouldn't need as much CPU/GPU/RAM?

[keith.lamothe]

Here's a screenie of it working OK for me:

Sweet

Is there a way to make a "dumber" game process that wouldn't need as much CPU/GPU/RAM?

A way that we will ever, ever do?  No   Good grief that would be a metric ton of pain, different code paths all over the place, etc.

[TechSY730]

I was thinking about someone making a "texture pack" containing nothing but blank (or at least very small in file size) PNGs (or whatever format you use), so the parts of the game you don't need drawn don't eat quite so much memory for textures. But I realized that how well that would work would be dependant on how much memory is used for textures.

[doctorfrog]

Here's a screenie of it working OK for me:

Sweet

Is there a way to make a "dumber" game process that wouldn't need as much CPU/GPU/RAM?

A way that we will ever, ever do?  No   Good grief that would be a metric ton of pain, different code paths all over the place, etc.

No skin off my nose, as I only have one monitor. I'll just quietly edit my petition for the optional planetary minimap. *Someday*

[Wanderer]

Hey, question for you... did your second run of the game follow your first one around?  IE: When you swapped galactic maps in the primary screen did the second one 'chase' you in highlights and the like?

That seems like a rather useful toy.  I'm usually writing up AARs and the like in my second monitor but that could be handy.