|
Want to play Starcraft 2/Diablo 3/DotA 2/LoL with your friend but they don't have a computer? No worries....
SoftXpand software enables multiple users to share a single computer simply by connecting additional sets of monitors, keyboards and mice.
- High performance – from text processing to Gaming & 3D-CAD
- Simple implementation – video cards, USB & LAN
- Work with any off-the-shelf hardware (no Thin Clients)
- Native user experience (no RDP/Terminal servers)
I like to think I'm pretty computer savvy, but holy fuck did my mind just blow up when I saw this. I know about virtual machines, but this software claims you can run two games at once at the same settings on one computer, provided you have the system specs to handle one copy of the game - or at least that's what I'm understand. I need to dig for more details but holy shit, if this works like I think it does, LAN parties are going to be good again...
|
It appears to be a typical VM software with some I/O rerouting.
Not that huge of a deal and definitely not something that wasn't possible before but, well, if it has been made simple and cheap, great job by them. However, I don't see many usecases for it especially as far as gaming is concerned.
|
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games.
|
If you regularly have a spare monitor, that sounds rather useful.
|
On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games.
Disagree. I run both at max settings on my ~5 year old comp without issue and I only paid about $1,200 for it back then.
This will be really handy for when my brother or someone comes over. I no longer have to keep a second computer laying around and updated :D
|
On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games.
Who would want to play those shitty games anyway? Old games are where it's at.
|
On March 14 2013 06:05 Animzor wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games. Who would want to play those shitty games anyway? Old games are where it's at.
I concur, I could easily run 2 sc2s on the same system and have it not lag except in extreme 4v4 maxed out cases(what can I say I'm a stickler for higher level shaders).
That said, this is amazing, my wife already has a laptop she uses for facebook and pictures but that isn't strong enough to actually run games that came out after 2001 well and to build her another PC purely for games would be a bit of a waste, plus with this I can justify spending a little extra to future proof my rig a bit more and still have a way for us both to play PC games together.
Edit-I'd be interested to know how they split the sound...or maybe they don't?
|
This isn't revolutionary at all...
We used to have like 16 of these in my uni CS lab. 2 monitors/keyboards/mice and 1 mobo, running some unix OS.
Edit: actually it might be something different, as I recall now that the lab actually booted up the OS remotely from a single server. Not sure if it makes any difference though.
|
On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games.
False. Blizzards games aren´t exactly resource hogs and they don´t even run on 4 cores. My old computer had 4 instance of WoW running np for instance and this one which is 1,5 years old sandybridge can run 3x diablo 3 without too much hassle.
|
Hi @hoby2000
Thank you for your kind words about SoftXpand.
Just a small comment - SoftXpand does not use the common virtualization protocols such as RDP, which means it doesnt limit your computer's graphic performance.
Cheers, Yair (of MiniFrame)
|
On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games.
Disagree. Blizzard games are optimized very well.
|
I've wanted this functionality for many many years, but never saw it in any reasonable form.
I don't see how people are saying they know their computer can handle 2 SC2's at once (namely older systems on high quality and FPS). While it's probable if this system is optimized well,it's very possible that running two SC2s will use more than double the system resources than one. While it's likely many people could run multiple of newer games, don't say so unless you do so.
|
On March 14 2013 21:15 -Kaiser- wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games. Disagree. Blizzard games are optimized very well.
Not WoW, but SC2 and D3 I agree.
|
On March 14 2013 21:32 Xapti wrote:
I've wanted this functionality for many many years, but never saw it in any reasonable form.
I don't see how people are saying they know their computer can handle 2 SC2's at once (namely older systems on high quality and FPS). While it's probable if this system is optimized well,it's very possible that running two SC2s will use more than double the system resources than one. While it's likely many people could run multiple of newer games, don't say so unless you do so.
It's widely known that SC2 is heavily limited by CPU power, while a fairly basic GPU is already sufficient to run the highest settings smoothly. It's also common knowledge that SC2 (like many other games) doesn't really use more than 2 CPU cores effectively. It doesn't take a great leap of creative thinking to put one and one together and conclude that a machine with a relatively recent quadcore CPU should be able to run 2 copies of SC2 without significant performance degradation over a single copy.
|
|
|
konadora
Singapore66358 Posts
|
On March 14 2013 05:31 Isualin wrote:
I don't think this is revolutionary at all. You need a REALLY good computer to run diablo 3 and starcraft 2 at the same time without any visible problems at all times. But this might be cool for some older games.
no you don't. you can easily play both d3 and sc2 at the same time on any modern computer.
|
My mate has a terrible computer bv w long time I thought "wish I could share my processor power with him"
|
On March 14 2013 21:52 konadora wrote:
what about sound? o_O
This could use the graphics card through the hdmi or displayport cable for the monitor that specific person is sitting at.
|
It would certainly revolutionize RMT lol -- now double the profit!
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
