Why does splitscreen shift the players screens to the left and right rather than just splitting it across the middle of the screen. I'm sure there's a good explanation; I just don't know what it is. I know it's not just U3 because CoD: WaW did the same thing. Do any of you guys know why this is? I don't mind it that much. Just curious.

It's to maintain the aspect ratio of the screens. Dividing across the middle would get you too wide or too high screens depending on the orientation.

My completely uneducated guess would be to maintain aspect ratio.

Probably because the image would become to wide otherwise. Might be that they would have to render to much at the same time.

It's what the guys above me have said, and also to avoid confusion of having similar textures either side of the divide. If one player has a grey floor and another a grey roof, and everything is moving quickly it can get quite confusing.

They just do it to PISS ME OFF.

@theodacourt said:

It's what the guys above me have said, and also to avoid confusion of having similar textures either side of the divide. If one player has a grey floor and another a grey roof, and everything is moving quickly it can get quite confusing.

This was exactly what I had always assumed. It would get very very difficult to discern where one player's screen ends and the other's begins if there was no physical divider.

Yeah, aspect ratio and image clarity I suppose like everyone else has said. Maybe it also put less strain on the system, as it's got less pixels to render out.

Thanks everyone. I figured there was a legitimate explanation. I thought it might have to do with how much the systems have to process as well but yeah. Thanks.

To maintain aspect ratio and also to conserve framerate. Each line they don't have to render is a smidgen of performance saved.