I got to thinking about the 2nd Screen Experience today, and its impact on modding. There are some mods that change certain elements of the Pipboy Display. Usually these mods improve on the quality of the in-game map - giving it a higher resolution, perhaps adding new icons, giving the map a coordinates system, or adding in color.

Now, with the new 2nd Screen Experience...what happens? Will our phones be stuck in the default Pipboy screen mode? Mods that crash the game are one thing...mods that could crash your phone are another. I have almost no knowledge of how this all works. I know not everyone will use the 2nd Screen Experience, but it appears that Bethesda wants to encourage it (they tweeted about it changing how we use stimpacks in the game). And it is possible that there will be advantages to using your phone as the Pipboy, instead of the in-game one. Thoughts?

I'm skeptical on the whole "mobile screen" thing. Using the in-game pipboy (just tap one button on the keyboard/controller, keep eyes on monitor) seems vastly more convenient than having to turn away from the screen to look at your device, and taking your hands off your primary controls (m+k, controller). And then there's the issue of either blowing through your mobile device's battery (if it stays constantly on while you play FO4 for hours), or needing to unsleep your device to use it each time if it doesn't get locked on.

(And how will they be connecting the mobile & the main game? Bluetooth, assuming your PC has it? Needing to log in your PC & mobile to a Bethesda server? Bleh.)

As for FO4 crashing.... eh, if the game crashes, for whatever reason, I'd assume the mobile program would just go to a "communication lost with FO4" screen, and let you pop right out. And there's no way that mods would effect the mobile program - it's bound to be on iOS (as well as Android), and Apple keeps much too strict control over their mobile environment to allow users to tinker with stuff like that.

I am assuming that your phone connects to the game via your local network. It may be Bluetooth also, or as an alternative. My thought about the pipboy is perhaps, like VATS, it no longer pauses the game, but merely slows it down considerably. This would give an advantage to those using their phones, as they could keep an eye on what's going on. But either way, you could easily look at your map at any time, without pulling up the pipboy.

As to power, you can always keep your phone plugged into your computer and thus keep it powered that way.

I don't think that the game will crash your phone - I was talking about modding, say, the phone's map. But, like you said, that seems unlikely. Unless it can pull the map image directly from your game (and only limited to one format, etc).

There has to be *some* sort of advantage to the mobile phone app. Why spend time making it, connecting it to the game, and then marketing it, if you aren't going to encourage people to use it by giving it some sort of advantage? It makes no sense. They said it will change how we use stimpacks. I have no clue what that means - but it means something.

Slightly off topic, but I'm probably one of the few ( that i know of) players who used and enjoyed skyrims voice commands and was wondering if they'll be on FO4. 2nd screen via phone or tablet is cool when a game offers it but I just liked how responsive the voice commands were for switching weapons or using items without having to go into Tue menu screen at all.

IIRC during the E3 presentation Todd Howard said the mobile Pipboy app would communicate with your game through wifi. I don't think any mods you have to change the Pipboy UI will affect the phone, although it may cause some weirdness. I don't think it could crash your phone, though; just the app itself.

Now, if modders could tweak the second screen experience and add on to that, I'd be really interested to see what kind of potential lies there.

As Todd himself admitted.. it's a cheesy gimmick. I'm sure there will be some who really enjoy using it but most of us won't be using or needing a second screen. Yeah, the mods probably won't interact with the phone app very well but you don't actually need to use the phone app for anything. It'll probably be as useful as training Chop in GTAV.

My guess is, the app will probably receive inventory, health and map info. It will potentially have no problem displaying custom map markers and items. It will however (my guess) not display any high res pipboy textures, colored map markers or custom icons. It may not have any problems with custom item descriptions.

UI mods that change how the pipboy looks or what it displays on the big screen (e.g. Mods that display hidden it stats) may just simply have no effect on the second screen.

Skyrim has voice commands? Is this a console only thing?

Depends on how they implement it. There are basically two ways to do it: (1) The game sends only the data and the mobile app renders it, or (2) the game renders the mobile app screen and then sends an image to the app which just displays it.

If they choose (1) then mods will have no influence over the appearance of the mobile app, if they choose (2) then mods can influence the appearance of the mobile app.

A free patch added Kinect support to the 360 version allowing you to literally shout . A gimmick really. From what I understand, experiences were mixed and most people didn't bother.

I agree with the point that game crashing shouldn't affect the mobile app. and even so, lets say it does magically, it will only crash the app not your phone.

I do not however agree with the bluetooth. They would never have bluetooth be a requirement as very few pc's have that ability. I was thinking more along the lines of maybe connected via the wifi your computer is connected. I can see that as a very real possibility as I use my phone as a remote for my home entertainment system through wifi and its very responsive. There's no way they would use your data because its too slow and inefficient to give you any sort of edge or bonus quick enough for real time.

Not only shouting but quick swap between weapon/spells and item use without navigating or pausing into a menu (which would be a nice trick for fallout Imo).

I tend to think the "2nd screen experience" is not going to be very relevant in terms of actual game-play as it will be more a distracting fad than a helpful tool. Now give me some in-game data on my PCs 2nd monitor and we might be onto something...

If I can run the app on my Tablet (Android), then I might use it, but I'm likely not going to use my phone while actually playing (and I'm certainly not paying a $100 for a plastic phone holder....even if it looks "Kewl").

Man - give me a game - any game - that uses my second monitor and I will be a happy camper.

I would be very happy with just an increased FOV spanning the second monitor. i.e., have the second monitor an extension of the first.

When I got WatchDogs and Black Flag, I downloaded their respective phone apps - I'm going to guess Fallout 4's would work roughly like those. In my experience, they sync up through your wifi network, and then the game automatically detects when the app is trying to ping it. With the second screen app, I could view the map and various objectives, set waypoints, etc - this all just runs while you're playing the game, so I'd doubt it would pause the game or anything if you're messing around in your inventory via your phone.

If my PC crashed while using the app when I was playing the Ubisoft games, I'd just get a "connection lost" message on the app if I tried to use any of the functions that required it to be connected to the game. I don't see mods causing crashes to do much damage to the phone app - it is a separate program, after all.

Which is why I'd guess that you likely won't be able to mod the phone app. So if you download a UI mod for Fallout 4, I don't see that being reflected in the app in any way.

But that's just my guess.

On the second-screen experience in general: I agree with Todd that as far as stupid gimmicks go, this one is pretty neat. Considering I'll be playing on my Xbox one, I think that navigating the app will be easier and more intuitive than the in-game Pip Boy. If stimpaks are one touch to activate, that's also useful as I won't have to leave the action to heal. Bringing up the local map will be nice. And it might add to immersion since I can stay in the action instead of pausing the game every couple of minutes to do literally anything. I'm being pretty optimistic about it all obviously, but it appeals to me much more than traditional second-screen gimmicks and I'll definitely give it a try.

On mods: I doubt mods will affect the app directly since it's a different platform/engine entirely. Although if they release an interface specification then it may be possible to create your own app to interact with the game. And that would be pretty rad.

Were they at all useful, or were they just distractions? Like I said up above, I can't see the point of having to take my attention away from the main screen & my hands off my controls, to do something in my inventory/on my map; when it'd be much more quick & efficient to tab up the Pip-Boy in-game and do it there. But I've never played a game with one of these side apps before.

(I also wonder if it's less or more of a distraction when on a console/couch/controller than when at computer desk w/keyboard & mouse. Hmm. /ponder)

Huh, interesting. Based on various "immersion" comments & complaints I've read over the years, I would have thought that it would be harmful to the "I" thing, since you end up drawing more attention to the fact you're playing a game/manipulating controllers/looking at a screen; taking away from your direct attention to the main screen, and breaking your engagement with the action. But what do I know....

Nothing to me is more immersion-breaking than the simple act of pausing the game. That's why I like games that have real-time menus (Dead Space) and why I'm a fan of the new VATS. Everyone has their own idea of what immersion should entail, which is probably why it's become something of an overused buzzword, but to me the app will help. It's like actually using a Pip Boy, while the world continues to move around you.

Well, I played those on my PC, but with a controller. Personally, I found I'd have to put my controller down every time I wanted to use it. It was usually easier to just pause the game and do things that way.

I used it more during loading scenes and at least for those apps there was content or minigames that you could access when not playing the game - I used it more for that than when actually playing, myself.

I just want the app to let me access and play the pipboy minigames.

I'm waiting for someone to strap an iPadPro to their wrist.

Or a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02qx_fdSGic of course, that would be a great second screen experience.

They should have a Facebook and twitter app to let you annoy people with your progress in game.

You mean like http://raptr.com/ ?

Yeah, I'm on board with this line of thinking. I really don't want to be messing around with my phone when I'm playing on a much nicer rig.