Lack of split screen

[snakeboy1]

[QUOTE=bluemonkey][QUOTE=The Video Game Critic]
As for your contention that "all" the art assets need to be reworked, that makes no sense at all.  Do you really think they would have to draw smaller ATVs??

[/QUOTE]
Yes they would.  Every lower count model would need to be reworked by hand.  Algorithms do exist for polygon collation and separation but won't produce visually pleasing results without a human artist at the helm.
[/QUOTE]

I don't understand. If this is such a problem, why are there many, many split-screen games out there. There are split-screen games on the Wii, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, etc., etc.

I'm not trying to be contentious here. I don't know anything about making games and am trying to understand the situation. What you are saying just doesn't make sense to me considering there are lots of split-screen games.

[bluemonkey1]

Those games could cheat in other ways.  When rendering polygons you crop them against a front and a back plane.  So when you get pop in that's when a frame suddenly crosses the back plane boundary.  So typically split screen racing games move their back plane closer to the camera and that way they immediately discount a lot more polygons without having to pump them out to the graphics architecture meaning you get a lot more pop in.  Another trick is to lower the frame rate.  Drop it down a few hertz and you have another saving there, perhaps lower the rate at which you recalculate your physics system which puts in handling lag.  When the graphics were more primitive this didn't show as much, with something like Pure you'd end up with stellar graphics popping up like Sega Rally 2's did right in front of you, when the graphics are that good it looks that jarring.  When you have a game like Forza 2 which updates it's physics model 300 times a second you would suddenly notice the massive change in the handling if you went to 4 player split screen.

Shooters would do other techniques, the multiplayer levels would always be much more constrained than single player levels and would be as much designed around getting the thing running as they would gameplay.  With the advent of online play suddenly much more intricate and gameplay orientated arenas are being built.  Levels are designed purely around what plays right rather than putting in walls and subdivisions purely to create boxes of set numbers of polygons blocking each others' lines of sight.  This then means that for split screen games you'd need to make a whole other batch of levels.

Let's not forget some games just wouldn't work split screen anyway.

And some developers just don't want to compromise the experience.  Why stunt the single player and online components so that split screen gaming won't require large amounts of reengineering?

And gaming can still be very social by the way, it's called LAN parties.  Got one coming up in a couple of weeks myself.

[BuryMe1]

I agree. I miss split screen. It is really a lot more fun that online is. The reason I want to play multiplayer games is so I can play them with friends, not some guy on the other side of the country. Unfortunately, online is taking over.

Split Screen, you will be missed.

[Sudz1]

[QUOTE=bluemonkey]
And gaming can still be very social by the way, it's called LAN parties.  Got one coming up in a couple of weeks myself.
[/QUOTE]

An excellent point I hadn't even thought of earlier; not only can the developer sell more copies of each game if they forgo including a split-screen capability, but potentially they can force the sale of more consoles as well!  It's one thing if I have to drop an extra $60 to buy a separate copy of the game to play against my friend because there's no split-screen, but if it's a game that really holds great multi player potential and he's bugging me enough I may end up buying a console I wouldn't otherwise have owned just to play. 

Being a PC guy I of course have nothing against LAN parties, but it's hard to say that this is an easy substitution for simple split-screen play if you want to enjoy the social aspects of playing against friends.  Instead of just coming over, popping in the game, and going head-to-head, now you have to lug over your game, console, and find extra TV's to play on.  It's a much bigger investment of time, money, and leg work - all forced on you due to the greed (or laziness) of the developer.
Sudz