High-resolution gaming: Interfaces, notifications, and the user experience

Advances in technology and display hardware have allowed the resolution of monitors – and video games – to incrementally improve over the past three decades. However, little research has been done in preparation for the resolutions that will be available in the future if this trend continues. We developed a number of display prototypes to explore the different aspects of gaming on large, high-resolution displays.By running a series of experiments, we were not only able to evaluate the benefits of these displays for gaming, but also identify potential user interface and hardware issues that can arise. Building on these results, various interface designs were developed to better notify the user of passive and critical game information as well as to overcome difficulties with mouse-based interaction on these displays. Different display form factors and user input devices are also explored in order to determine how they can further enhance the gaming experience. In many cases, the new techniques can be applied to single-monitor games and solve the same problems in real-world, high-resolution applications.