Since the advent if the internet age(2000) I can't tell you the last time I have a group of friends over to play a game. It's all been done online since then, hell, even before then. When I was in HS, late 80s early 90s, that would have been the last time I did 4 player couch co-op. Held and went to plenty of LAN parties, but that not couch co-op.
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No this is Blizzard, there has to be some convoluted nefarious reason.
Since it sounds like you haven't played... Diablo multiplayer isn't splitscreen.
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People with software backgrounds know that once you build the multi-login endpoint and associated framework, it doesn't matter if you have 2, 3, 4 or more people. It's just instances of the same code.
Much more likely to be processing power related. They can't keep 4k / 60 FPS with 4 characters on the screen + input processing.
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Adding Players 3 and 4 are trivial development cost after adding Player 2. Almost all code is reused. It is very unlikely to be based on anticipated adoption rates.
Given the console focus on 4K and FPS benchmarks these days, it is very very likely to be a performance measure.
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4 players on one screen, splitscreen or not, would be heinous and impossible to see anything for all the space given over to each individual UI.
It's not Gauntlet Legends where all you have is a player model on the screen and a tiny health UI in the corner.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
If you don't think it's much work, then develop it yourself if you are so smart.
What a stupid complaint to post about. It's not a widely used feature. I don't know anyone that uses local Co op for a diablo game. Bring ur laptop or console with u, connect to a display and all 4 of you can play in the same room if it's so important to you.
BTW, im not at all disappointed. They need to focus on more important things than 4 player local Co op. I'm glad they aren't putting effort in a useless feature no one but a handful of people can fit in a mini van would even use
Give me a freaking break op.
Last edited by Unseen Guest; 2022-07-20 at 08:30 PM.
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Diablo III had no problem with that. Why Diablo IV would have this problem? Especially while there is similar amount of UI information required.
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It's like Blizzard would decide that they will create Mythic+ for 3 players now instead of 5, because 2 additional players brings to much effort for them from engineering perspective. Or like adding 15 raid size impossible and too costly for them because of tech (not balance). Nobody would believe in that argument.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
The “reveal” is not a reveal it is a lack of paying attention. They have never once alluded to more than 2player couch co-op. All the press releases only spoke about 2 players and how you can BOTH change talents on the same screen in two seperate talent windows…..this isn’t news it’s getting outraged because you never listened in the first place
Even for MMO-C this conspiracy theory is a bit of a reach.
Blizzard is simply doing their part to help protect your health. The coronavirus is making a comeback and Blizzard doesn't want a number of people in close proximity to each other. Blizzard should be praised for this move.
So, the thing about rendering a world is that, what you see on your screen tends to be the only things being rendered. With 2-player split-screen, you're rendering it twice, and sometimes rendering different areas of the world. With 4 players, you're rendering it four times, and sometimes four different areas of the world.
Naturally, this significantly increases the rendering requirements. No, this is not as simple as copy-pasting UI. I'm not at all sure why you would even suggest that, other that having zero knowledge of programming or game design.
Diablo 4 is set to be a large, open world game with relatively modern graphics. No, it's not going to be a simple matter to implement 4-player split screen, even when they might already have 2-player.
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It's simple object-oriented design. The first player is the first player. The second player is where the multiplayer systems come in. Once you've set it up for two players, the third and fourth players just need to account for the increased screen space requirements, but they will be functionally identical to the second player, as far as game objects go. You're essentially reusing the same pre-fab game objects for the second player, just with different default positioning and screen scaling changes.
Adding additional players is simple enough once you've set up a second player, but the computational requirements are not as simple and are likely why they aren't doing it. Either that, or the feature for Diablo 3 consoles wasn't as popular as some would like to think.
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Is is really required to understand that? Blizzard hires plenty of new people for their projects anyway. The most important thing is to being experienced on business or software/server architecture. Decisions like these aren't based on "how much time you have worked in Blizzard".
I'd Actually just be surprised and grateful that/if 2 player couch co op is even a thing. As someone that just wants to sit back on the couch and play games with friends, good local co op titles are a real pain in the ass to find and we revert to 90's beat-em-ups more than we should have to
Because you'd have to look at the code to actually understand what it's doing. Do you know how many people claimed that changing the Backpack size from 16 to a higher number was just "Change the 16 to X!". It ended up not being as difficult as Blizzard once thought, but it was not that easy either.
Not to mention you have any limitations put on by Sony and Microsoft the deal with either at the hardware or software levels.