why didn't sega put split screen gameplay on dreamcast?

[SHINGEN]

Can anyone tell me why there is not a multi player mode offline on dreamcast. Or why you think they did not put it on the system.

[donkeybeatz]

Ok here's what I think:
First of all, PSO for the Dreamcast wasn't intended to be an offline game. If I remember correctly, the Gamecube version was (for a short while) offline. I don't remember why exactly. So they opted for a split screen thingie to make up for the online mode.
But of course in the end the Gamecube got it both ways: Split screen AND online. (as of now anyway)
So umm if the modem for the Dreamcast came out late or something then DC PSO could of gotten the split screen treatment.
It would probably be "Phantasy Star Split Screen O' Fun" or something. hehe.
Uhh right. It's just my opinion so don't take it seriously =P

Secondly, imagine if you had PSO version 2 and it had split screen gameplay. Add 3 friends, 4 VMU's, 1 dying Dreamcast GD-ROM drive. Load, load, load, load, load, load.... It's gonna sound like your Dreamcast is coughing to death... literally.
Mine did. =(

I would say that having 4 screens going on at once on the Dreamcast is a giant task but, I play Outtrigger with 3 other friends... it did fine... split screen and all and running at 60fps. Then again, Outtrigger had some small enviroments.

You know, this was never brought up in the past. I guess no one had a problem with it until the GC had it.

--d-_-b Dj Donkey

[Alielle]

I'm guessing it's because it would take too much processing power, not to mention the fact that v.2 was only supposed to be an add-on for v.1, not exactly a true rehaul. So I'm guessing they didn't want to change the mechanics of the game too much, because that would be a lot more work than originally intended.

[Kent]

If the split-screen mode was implemented in PSO for Dreamcast, one or both of the following may happen:

1) It would absolutely kill your framerate. You think the frame drop when looking at a room packed with Dimenians is bad, imagine how bad it would be if your Dreamcast had to display all those polys twice.

2) Grilled-cheese processor (not a pretty sight).

[Rubesahl]

On 2002-07-15 22:06, Kent wrote:
If the split-screen mode was implemented in PSO for Dreamcast, one or both of the following may happen:

1) It would absolutely kill your framerate. You think the frame drop when looking at a room packed with Dimenians is bad, imagine how bad it would be if your Dreamcast had to display all those polys twice.

2) Grilled-cheese processor (not a pretty sight).



Exactly. Proof that this is true, just look at the GC four plaver split screen pics or videos. In split screen the game has no real-time shadows, so they probably did it to avoid any type of slow-down in split screen. If they had to do that with the GC split-screen, just imagine, why they didn't even put real-time shadows on the DC being single player? O__o The DC is was a very strong system in it's time but the times have changed. Another example is Quake III Arena on DC. Multiplayer seems a lot more simplistic than single player.

[Shadow_Blade]

If you had 4 dreamcasts, 4 isp's, 4 copies of pso, 4 vmus,4 tv's stacked in the split screen look (two on top, two on bottom), all connected online then it would sorta be splitscreen mulitplayer "offline". (offline in the sense that all 4 people are in your house and can freely talk to eachother. ^ ^;)

Betcha Sega never thought of that one. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Ambrai]

lol shadow. If you want to see first hand how the hardware cant handle it, go into the mines, and when on a bridge with 4 people online, cast the AE lightning. You will more than likely get a bsod after extream graphical lag.

[Shrevn]

Come on guys your gettin to scientifical on the guy... or is it me? lol anywyas put it this way.... DC cant and GC can! *phew* that wasnt so hard now was it!

[Kent]

On 2002-07-19 08:17, wobba wrote:
anywyas put it this way.... DC cant and GC can!



Well... yeah.

I just explained that.

[Defend]

I think it was more a matter of.. "But why?"

That is, they were making THE online game for the DC, when the question of Split-screen came up my guess is they just chose not to bother with a feature that wouldn't be the big draw anyway. Of course, processing power too.. but split screen realy isn't important to PSO at all imo.. I'll use it for offline xferring, that's it.

[Kent]

On 2002-07-16 13:42, Rubesahl wrote:
In split screen the game has no real-time shadows, so they probably did it to avoid any type of slow-down in split screen. If they had to do that with the GC split-screen, just imagine, why they didn't even put real-time shadows on the DC being single player? O__o The DC is was a very strong system in it's time but the times have changed. Another example is Quake III Arena on DC. Multiplayer seems a lot more simplistic than single player.


I know for a fact that the Dreamcast and GameCube can do volumetric shadows, which can take a great deal of processing power, because a volumetric shadow is just a flattened and completely black form of the object it is a shadow to, increasing the polycount a good deal (this is used in Sonic Adventure 2). There are other, less costly shadowing techniques that make a better looking shadow, but I don't know if the Dreamcast and GameCube GPUs can do them though (I believe nVIDIA first developed them, I'm not sure). It was a wise idea on Sonic Team's part to not include the volumetric shadowing in the split-screen mode for GameCube PSO, keeping the framerate high.

[Ambrai]

Vertex shading is the new wave, and it is only on Nvidia cards. This includes Xbox. Some newer games are being released within a year that require vertex shader cards, Everquest 2 is heading this movement up.

[Sedyne]

i love how the first 4 posts all say the exact same thing in a differnt way...is it really nessecary? anyway dreamcast essentially couldn't handle 4player split screen...(feels as if he's repeating others statmenets)

[watashiwa]

You guys!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111

THE DREAMCAST CANNOT HANDLE FOUR PLAYER SPLIT SCREEN

IT'S THAT SIMPLE!!!!!!11111111

[rbf2000]

wow, that is pretty simple.

[Kent]

On 2002-07-19 22:39, watashiwa wrote:
You guys!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111

THE DREAMCAST CANNOT HANDLE FOUR PLAYER SPLIT SCREEN

IT'S THAT SIMPLE!!!!!!11111111



I already explained that! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif