Split screen... What do you think?

[Jamesgamer]

The first thing I should explain is what I mean by "split screen":
-What I have in mind is two people controlling one player (what would normally be controlled by one person).
-Of course, it could also mean two people controling separate players.

The second thing I should explain is that this is possible:
-Multimouse technology; what I have in mind is CPNMouse [hyperlink].
-One player using exclusive mouse; the other only keyboard could work.

Main questions:
-How hard would it be to view two parts of the map at once, split down the middle?
--This is the most necessary; everything else *can* be worked around.

-How hard would it be to include multiple mice into glest natively?
--For those of you who don't know/haven't read the above link, there are two ways of including multiple mice in an application:
---having multiple mice throughout the OS (somewhat buggy and bad-looking; easier)
---having mulitple mice in a specific application (must be coded into application; works better)

(in the case of two people controlling the same player)
-How hard would it be to allow multiple, separate selections to occur?
(or, in the case of two people controlling separate players)
-How hard would it be to tell glest to display two separate players' screens?

Why I think this is useful/nice/etc.:
-People who have one computer or networking trouble can do two players on one computer; especially if the computer has a big screen or two screens.
-It could be very interesting to have a strategy done by two people (for example, one person mantains the home base while the other pesters the enemy)

All comments appreciated; constructive criticism is preferred to mindless babbling.

[ElimiNator]

I think it would be good but can two players on one computer connect to one or two other players on a different computer?

[John.d.h]

While it might be an interesting feature, I wonder how many people would benefit from it.  I'm thinking it would be very few.

[Jamesgamer]

I think it would be good but can two players on one computer connect to one or two other players on a different computer?

Seems like it would be possible.

While it might be an interesting feature, I wonder how many people would benefit from it.  I'm thinking it would be very few.

If it's not difficult to do, I think it's worth it for the sake of the few =D

[hailstone]

Multiple mice isn't supported natively for SDL or win32 (the two input APIs being used in Glest) and CPNMouse is Windows only. The split screen is possible, since I've seen it in Bos Wars, but I'm not sure how difficult it would be for Glest.

I think having a mini screen of your team players' actions could be interesting but I'm not even going to attempt anything like this until other features are completed.

There has been discussion on having multiple players control the same team but this is a feature for later.

[Omega]

Interesting (must post somewhere 'happy' to keep frustration down). I think it would be cool, but very difficult to program, as well as the multimouse. Is it possible to use 2 USB mice? (the only kind really used these days). What I would use this for is NOT for multiplayer battles, but for coop games where it is good to see the other player directly, and for one player, two factions!!! Of course for that, we don't need split screens, but there is apparently no talk of this. Why can't I have multiple factions? I have no one tom play with in multiplayer, and cpu allies suck. I always dreamed of having two forces attacking and defending coordinately (in multiplayer, by talking [which brings to mind glest should have microphone support, so players can talk while in multiplayer]).

That would be easier. Though I support split screen. There's still a problem of the fact that the screen is now crowded, and the problems with player control... Usually split screen on computers uses just keyboard (ie: wasd for player 1, up,down,left,right for player 2).

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[Jamesgamer]

Multiple mice isn't supported natively for SDL or win32 (the two input APIs being used in Glest) and CPNMouse is Windows only.

Oops, I forgot about linux there.   

I think having a mini screen of your team players' actions could be interesting but I'm not even going to attempt anything like this until other features are completed.

There has been discussion on having multiple players control the same team but this is a feature for later.

I agree. Perhaps some hotkeys to quickly change camera location would ease the lack of this feature for now.