Hi all.

I've got a 21.5" monitor atm and would like to know if getting a second monitor, rather than a larger one, helps when multi-tasking as a game developer. I'm thinking that it would be nice to have my IDE on one monitor, and maybe a tutorial or something else on the second one.

Would anybody particularly recommend it?

Definately. If I started a new job and there weren't 2 monitors on my new desk, I'd have to immediately ask them where my 2nd monitor is!
Ok... maybe not that rudely, but it's such a standard piece of equipment that I would assume any professional programming environment to provide multiple monitors.

At my current work, the standard setup (for all staff) is a widescreen monitor + a small LCD TV.

If you do get a 2nd one, I'd also recommend a multi-monitor task-bar app, like multimon or ultramon.

Definately. If I started a new job and there weren't 2 monitors on my new desk, I'd have to immediately ask them where my 2nd monitor is!
Ok... maybe not that rudely, but it's such a standard piece of equipment that I would assume any professional programming environment to provide multiple monitors.

At my current work, the standard setup (for all staff) is a widescreen monitor + a small LCD TV.

If you do get a 2nd one, I'd also recommend a multi-monitor task-bar app, like multimon or ultramon.

Appreciated! My university opened up a new game development lab and each PC has two monitors, so it must be beneficial to me if they did this.

My current monitor doesn't seem that common so I might have to sell this one then get two together.

I was also thinking about getting a second monitor. Hodgman's reply has sold me on the idea. heh

[quote name='Hodgman' timestamp='1327322558' post='4905423']
Definately. If I started a new job and there weren't 2 monitors on my new desk, I'd have to immediately ask them where my 2nd monitor is!
Ok... maybe not that rudely, but it's such a standard piece of equipment that I would assume any professional programming environment to provide multiple monitors.

At my current work, the standard setup (for all staff) is a widescreen monitor + a small LCD TV.

If you do get a 2nd one, I'd also recommend a multi-monitor task-bar app, like multimon or ultramon.

Appreciated! My university opened up a new game development lab and each PC has two monitors, so it must be beneficial to me if they did this.

My current monitor doesn't seem that common so I might have to sell this one then get two together.
[/quote]
They don't have to be the same monitor. It's definitely easier that way, but as long as they have similar pixels per inch, windows will be able to handle it swimingly.

I have recently run into a problem that does suck though. I had a 20ish inch monitor and my tv stopped cooperating with the PS3/xbox. The monitor is higher resolution than my 30inch tv. So I have a larger monitor with lower resolution and a smaller monitor with higher resolution. Windows sees my big monitor as smaller than the small monitor. Mostly it's annoying because I can't easily track my mouse along the bottom of the two screens because the bottom of the tinier screen is below the bottom of the larger screen as far as windows is concerned, despite the opposite being true in real life.

Otherwise everything is fine though

Ive long resisted the idea, because I hate upsetting well established workflows, but I must say ive found the transition pretty smooth.

That is, im not sure im getting any productivity gains from it yet, but im forcing myself to split my things over two monitors, and at least it does not bother me. The only annoying thing is that id rather have to taskbars, one per monitor. Clicking an icon on my main screen to change tabs on my secondary feels wrong. Generally, windows does not seem to bother much to support multiple monitor setups.

Also, if you can, buy the exact same model. I have two dells, which are supposed to differ only in dimensions and production year, but the color temps are totally different, and it kinda stands out when they are right next to eachother.

The bog-standard 21.5 inch, 1080p monitor, costs $120 each - if that describes your primary monitor, then there's really very little excuse not to have a second (or even a third, desk space permitting).

However, unless you are going to vertically mount all 3 of them (and I have yet to find a cheap way to do this), 1080p is really not enough resolution for desktop work, particularly in the vertical direction. It's sort of a toss-up whether to shell out for the much more expensive 1920x1200 monitors, or whether to spend a similar amount on vertical mounting...

However, unless you are going to vertically mount all 3 of them (and I have yet to find a cheap way to do this), 1080p is really not enough resolution for desktop work, particularly in the vertical direction. It's sort of a toss-up whether to shell out for the much more expensive 1920x1200 monitors, or whether to spend a similar amount on vertical mounting...

You could get two 24" 1920x1200 monitors (or 30" 2560 x 1600 if money is no object) with 90º swivel stands, and just put them next to each other -- this has the weird quirk of having the traditional LCD aspect ratio of 5:4, except with a black bar down the centre.

I keep two monitors. a 24" kept in landscape, and a 21" rotated to portrait. I have a similar setup both at work and at home.

Does it increase productivity? Let's just say I have a difficult time doing serious work when using my wife's single-screen computer.

The real estate is wonderful.

Observe the rotated widescreen monitor gives 1080x1920; bigger than two 1024x768 screens.

I typically divide mine screens three areas: Main monitor for the IDE or other tools. Second rotated monitor top half for the game window (at 1024x768), bottom half of second monitor for a web browser open to our wiki for the design documents and other web tabs.

Other times when I have worked on networked games, I have run two instances of the game in windows, one above the other. It gets a little tight but you can run three instances of a game if you devote a quarter of the screen to three instances of the debugger; annoying but certainly possible.

I keep two monitors. a 24" kept in landscape, and a 21" rotated to portrait. I have a similar setup both at work and at home.

Does it increase productivity? Let's just say I have a difficult time doing serious work when using my wife's single-screen computer.

The real estate is wonderful.

One thing I will note is that in a similar vane you should learn the windows key shortcuts for the windows 7 snap functionality. It doesn't play as nicely with multi-monitor. I tend to use one screen full for IDE, then depending on what I'm doing I will snap 2 things to the left and right of my other monitor. To my knowledge you can only snap to both sides of a dual monitor side by side setup with the hotkeys as dragging to the side will just drag it onto the other monitor.

Definitely have increased productivity though. More generally I have one screen for what I'm working on directly and the other for loosely related things. It helps from being completely distracted from what you're working on when you're multi-tasking. For example yesterday I was working on setting up my website. I had it open on one screen, filezilla and the stream of the IEM starcraft finals on the other.