Option: Focus Level
 

Depending on your resolution, the screen/level would be divided up into two sections: the top and the bottom. What it does is, depending on your coordinates in the level, the screen focuses either on the upper part or the bottom part of the level. For example, say that billy is in the upper part of the level. The screen would focus on only the upper part. If billy was on the bottom part of the level, then it focuses on the lower part of the level. The screen would not scroll or anything. This could save alot of lag for users who have bad processors/memory or there is just simply too much stuff in the level. And if the player ran up to the upper part, the screen would refocus on the upper part, instead of just scrolling upwards. There could also be a full focus which shrinks the level down to where you would be able to view the entire level (and play in it) on just one screen instead of the screen just showing the portion that you are currently in.
The connecting levels option would have to be disabled, though.

Dude, dynamic zooming is not good for people without semi-powerful computers.

It wouldnt if there computer would be viewing only half of the level, instead of viewing the other half with it. It wouldn't use up that much memory.

The problem is nothing to do with memory, it's to do with the cost of dynamically scaling the graphics. There would be negligible gain if any.

How so? I don't see how it would cause a gain if you were only to view a portion of the entire level, instead of scaling the entire thing.

...

This is getting tiresome. If the player wants to see only a portion of the level then why can't he just shrink his game screen?

The screen would still scroll around, which could add to the lag if it had to draw each frame, instead of just freezing it. And if it was an option, then the player wouldnt have to shrink it every time he/she gets on.

Wha...?

No, stop, you don't know what you're talking about.

Okay, I think I understand what he means o.o.

When you walk around, and get close to one edge of a level, the screen starts scrolling with your character.
I think he wants it so, like.. its just split into 4 parts. When you get into one part of the screen, it immediately focuses to that part, without any scrolling.

But scrolling doesn't put any real load on the computer. Even if you were to operate an only-draw-updated-areas system, you'd just move the screen a little bit and then draw the gap at the edge. Scrolling is never a problem.

Yes, but lets put it in terms where theres many objects in the level (people, graphics ect...). Usually this lags me a bunch, and actually moving around the level is a challenge in itself. I don't want the screen to actually be scrolling at this time, because it too is lagging.

Stop. Trust me on this one, your idea makes no sense.

Wouldn't that cause things to become dithered?

And what about people and objects from other parts of the screen? If a PKer was coming for you, how would you know until he came in your part of the level?

And resizing your screen does work, I think, because I tried it once and was virtually lagless, except I couldn't see anything except my character.

You know how when you move down the level the screen scrolls down also? Thats what I'm talking about.
And for the other guy, you'll still know that the PKer is comming after you because they actually have to get near you in order to hit you. Or if their using projectiles, you would still have plenty time to dodge it because you have half of the level to move around in o_o.

I am not saying the idea is impractical, I am saying it would give negligible - if any - performance increases.