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Development in 4k

Started by December 16, 2014 07:36 PM
17 comments, last by The_Neverending_Loop 9 years, 10 months ago

Hello I'm thinking of going from my 2 monitor set up to a 1 monitor 4k (or maybe other resolution display).

I was wondering if anyone has had some experience with doing development work on 1 large display and could share some insight at some of the pros and cons? like is 28" to small for a 4K display? or anything else that comes to mind.

I've used them as we have several macs and macbooks around the office. These devices give you a choice, either two screens or a single 4k screen.

Nearly every developer faced with the choice in the office has gone with two "regular" resolution displays rather than a single high-res display.

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Well, I have a 13" 3K display in one of my laptops (3200x1800). Running at native resolution you're gonna have a bad time because most software has been written assuming 96 PPI. Some utilities (like Microsoft Windows 8 itself) cope OK by changing the size of an inch to be much much smaller, in the case of a 4K display an inch is about 6 mm. This is entirely the wrong approach. Most applications still get it wrong anyhow. Living in a high-DPI world mostly sucks at the moment.

So, the thing to keep in mind is that you want a constant angle subtended by the display at viewing distance. A 4K display is 3840x2160, with a 28" diagonal (24" x 13") that's still about 160 PPI. To get the pixel density you're used to, you need to go to about a 45" diagonal screen. That kinda makes sense, considering it's about twice the size of a bog-standard 22" monitor. Do consider the physical footprint of the device.

Or, you can get (stronger) reading glasses.

The day they make a 60" curved (concave) 8K monitor I'll be ecstatic. By then everyone will have fixed their high-DPI scaling issues and it'll be running off my phone as a CPU. I'd still have my clicky mechanical keyboard, because that's the peak of evolution in that input device.

Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer

I'll admit that I'm rarely pressed for better resolution and just need more space. Windows easily docking to a screen are a big plus in a windows environment and are hard to compensate with manual resize. Assuming your dev process has you open many files like mine does (xml, code, editor, etc.) this can quickly become overwhelming on a single screen, not matter how large.

I used to have a single 32 inches display which I've now traded in for 2X24 inches. I'd sure love 2X32 inches, but wouldn't got for 1 40-42 inches at any given time. 4K wouldn't help either for me.

And here I was hoping this would be a thread about writing 4k demos...

I'm pretty addicted to the 27 inch, 2560x1440 IPS displays I picked up on ebay a couple of years back. The resolution is about right for the size, and a decent video card runs the pair of them without trouble.

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A higher resolution would give more space though, and I don't mind straying from a standard 96ppi for a display as long as its not something too outrageous.

I have a 2 monitor display at home and sometimes I do feel like I need more real estate, but at work I have a 3 monitor display. The thing is the 3 monitor display is kind of pointless since I have to rotate my head too much to use the 3rd monitor at any given time.

My concerns with gettings an UHD monitor is that the pixels will be too small. I wouldn't want to get constant headaches from trying to work in such a high resolution even if it provides all the real estate I need, but I don't know if that would be the case.

Another issue is that my space at home is limited and having 2 monitors is taking alot of my actual room real estate. So do I continue with 2 monitors? get a 4k display? or meet somewhere in the middle and maybe get a 2560x1440 display?

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I've settled on the 27" 2560x1440 displays as well, Windows 4K just seems way too rough around the edges. I love 'retina' type displays but it's not time yet outside the Apple world. However, I've been curious about 4K on a much larger screen, say 40+ inches.

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I actually want to get my hands on a sub 30" 4k monitor, in particular the P2715Q or P2415Q since those are IPS panels and hit 60hz. I particularly like the idea of removing the "pixel grid" and seeing everything as smooth pictures and text.

What I don't know is if, with high-end graphics cards can it support good framerates without anti-aliasing and still produce a nice render. After all, AA was invented as a way to lessen the jagged effect of slopes on a visible pixel grid. With high DPI displays, AA should become less of a necessity.

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Still waiting for a 4K IPS with decent input lag without the need of selling one of my kidneys on ebay...

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Yeah I can't go back from 2560x1440 after having used it for a while.
I don't use the OS DPI scaling features at all, and instead just like everything being smaller. I do (currently) have good eyesight though...

Visual Studio lets you change the font size -- I bump it up just a bit so that it's only a tiny bit smaller than what you'd usually see on a 1080p monitor (but much, much sharper than that).

Going all the way to 4k, I imagine you'd actually have to use the OS's DPI scaling features (and hope all your apps play friendly with them).

[edit]

What I don't know is if, with high-end graphics cards can it support good framerates without anti-aliasing and still produce a nice render. After all, AA was invented as a way to lessen the jagged effect of slopes on a visible pixel grid. With high DPI displays, AA should become less of a necessity.

It's certainly less of a necessity, but without AA, renders still look very much like video games rather than films.
e.g. 720p with 16x AA still looks absolutely terrible when compared with film-quality AA -- and that's a virtual resolution of 5120x2880!

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