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This is a test vid I made for a GR run while boxing D3 monks recently, showing how a 4k monitor makes it much easier to keep track of everyone and what's happening than running one main screen and the rest off on another screen. No comms on it though as I am still trying to work out my content voice and what I actually want to talk about while recording/streaming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLgHCRuXoOA
Personally, I wouldn't say that just a 4K screen is what allows you to keep track of things better, but a large 4K screen, or just a large screen in general. I played like this on a 23" 1080 display back in the day, where all of my clients were rendering at 960x540 placed in a quadrant layout, and they were small. If you had a 1440 display, then you could do 1280x720 in a quadrant instead, but unless your screen is big (30"+) then the game clients will still feel small.
Most 4K displays that are on the market today are ~27" (not talking about Korean panels on eBay), and that is not going to make the game clients feel any bigger than a similar sized 1080/1440 screen when using a quadrant layout, but if you have a nice large screen, like a large 1080 television or large 4K display, then I agree, a quadrant layout is very nice. :)
I'd still favor having certain UI elements (minimap, health, etc.) repositioned in a cluster so as to make at-a-glance spotting of things easier.
Yeah, I am only using 27's but I'm finding that being able to have all 4 running in 1080p at once on one screen is much easier to keep track of drops, see map drops, move to pick up loot and see if anyone is left behind than previously where I had one full screen on a 1080p monitor and the other 3 off on quadrants of a second monitor. It's not that they feel bigger than running quadrants on a 1080p it's that they are a lot clearer to read I'm finding, though the diff for you and I Mirai might be eyesight related only :)
And yeah Ugh, I used to run with 4 mini-maps and health globes on the main client using DxNothing (in the same way as posted now in the d3 forum...if I'd known no-one else was doing that 2 years ago I'd have posted about it) when I was running with one on one screen and 3 on another but now with health bars on and eyes scanning constantly I find I don't need it....likely again just a preference thing.