3 screens from 2 videocards in 1 computer

[G3]

this is an ongoing attempt to get lockon across 3 screens......

and working with the trackir device.

after having limited success running 3 monitors on 3 seperate pc's connected across a network results have been less than impressive.

 

i have for now focused on 3 screens from one computer for lockon.

 

after seeing some promising results of running lockon across 2 monitors fed from the one videocard, i wish to try and add a third monitor and span the view across all three monitors powered by only one computer.

(with only two, the middle of the 2 screens is the join and blocks your view horribly, 3 monitors will provide a clear middle view).

 

i have read unconfirmed reports that this will infact now work on an sli nvidia setup with the cards not in the sli mode, powering up to 4 monitors.

unfortunately that hardware is not yet on my desk :)

 

wether or not all monitors can be spanned, all showing one third of the view is the question? hopefully the answer is yes, and wether its just driver support remains to be seen.

 

many people say that you cannot achieve an nview span across more than two monitors, and this may well be the case, we will see.

 

i have seen all three monitors working together, it has been on an older nvidia setup using a ti4600 agp and a fx5200 pci, i will be attempting the same thing with a 6800gt agp and an fx5200 pci.

 

note:

the advise was to forget about the nview software, setup the 3 monitors in the winxp display properties and leave it at that, then modify the config files in the games to suit.

 

on games like quake 3 it is a simple matter of modifying the config file to match your desired resolution height and width along with a few other settings such as disabling full screen mode and adjusting FOV for example.

this provides a full 3 screen wide view of the game, truely a site to behold.

 

as for lockon what i have seen so far is looking promising:

in the graphics.cfg file you can manually setup lockon to display the appropriate resolution across 2x 1280 giving a resolution of 2560x1024x32

and adjusting the aspect ratio to suit width divided by the height.

2560/1024 =2.5

 

this gives a much improved view of the surroundings and when fully zoomed out the cockpit appears to look the same size as standard single monitor view but with a whole lot more to see on each side.

 

ultimately the perfect result would be spanning the view across all 3 monitors giving a horizontal/vertical resolution of 3840x1024x32. aspect ratio of 3.75

 

from what i understand a game will attempt or offer to display in whatever resolutions are available to it, in lockon once i modified the config to the 2560x1024 i saw other options including dual display and triple display in the graphics options within the ingame menus. this is encouraging i thought.

 

so if xp is happy to accept you have a desktop 3 screens wide, then with any luck by adding the 3rd video output from the one pc thru the use of the pci fx5200, maybe just maybe we will see lockon spread across all 3 monitors.

 

i would be most greatful to here from anyone with an sli setup, or an agp/pci combination like mine who's willing to attempt this idea, i can happily assist with the config mods if needed.

 

if this is the go with the 2 powerful cards in non sli mode on a pci-e motherboard, we should be in for some fairly acceptable frame rates

and i believe may become rather populat amoung simulator enthusiasts like ourselves.

[Witchking]

great idea...this is an interesting concept. do post screens or photos once you finish :D

[G3]

howdy witchking and for anyone else interested.

here's a pic across all 3 screens @ 3840x1024x32 (3x 19" lcd).

 

 

thats is the result i am after, this image was just a fake setup, starting the game on each pc and then adjusting the view to suit.

 

 

so far its working with the tracker across 2 monitors, but as i said the join of the screens is in the way and thats not acceptable.

as soon as the fx5200 pci card arrives i will be doing my best to get this sorted and to get all 3 screens workking together, i look forward to seeing that.

 

i just can't emphasize how awesome it looks compared to a single screen.

[Witchking]

man...thats amazing..but remember different video cards will give different fps and different quality. So I would suggest to get the same kind of card...and also the fx series of geforce 5 cards are horrible...I would suggest getting the cheaper 6800 PCI. Trust me...the difference will be like night and day. and the cards aren't that expensive now. These are the budget versions and still do very well..

[Prophet_169th]

If you get that working as pictured, I will be spending a whole lot more money....... =(

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

If you get that working as pictured, I will be spending a whole lot more money....... =(

 

 

rgr that, i got crts to spare but sheeeeeeeeeit, that looks to good to use crummy old crt's

[Prophet_169th]

I would love to get some LCD's, but they are just too expensive.

 

I picked a 21" trinitron up on a local trading site for $40. Sure its really heavy...

 

But if this 3 monitor thing worked, I would get 3 19" LCD and another 7800GT :D And an asswoopin from the wife.

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

lol @ the asswhoopin part :p

[G3]

i wasn't aware of the 6800 in a pci version, must check that out.

 

as for lcd prices, they are getting seriously cheap these days even 8ms or less can be had for a good price, i guess its all relative, theres always your birthday :)

 

soon we will know if this kind of setup is possible, i understand the hardware is a little mismatched but its essentially only for testing purposes :)

 

once its a confirmed success :) (fingers crossed) , i'd say the sli 7800gtx setup would be the way to go.

 

the anticipation is killing me .........

but i guess thats half the fun.

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

there isnt a pci version of the 6800, i think he meant pci-e.

[bflagg]

This is exactly what I"ve been imagining for quite some time but just gave up because ED said no support is available for it.

 

If you can get this to work (at least in concept) then it's a dual PCI-E x16 setup for me.

 

Can't anyone with a SLI setup test this out (borrow two monitors for a proof on concept)?

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

i can test it out, but its not with same size monitors, so whether that would affect it i dunno, but i got 1 15inch crt, 1 19inch crt, 1 17inch lcd and 1 20inch widescreen lcd.

 

so i dunno if that would affect it since they are all different heights.

 

but, i said i would test for jabo woody but i need to get some info on what files need tweakin etc.

 

so if anyone can give me a start with info then i will try this week.

[Prophet_169th]

i can test it out, but its not with same size monitors, so whether that would affect it i dunno, but i got 1 15inch crt, 1 19inch crt, 1 17inch lcd and 1 20inch widescreen lcd.

 

so i dunno if that would affect it since they are all different heights.

 

but, i said i would test for jabo woody but i need to get some info on what files need tweakin etc.

 

so if anyone can give me a start with info then i will try this week.

 

I think you just need to edit the graphics.cfg file for the correct resolution.

 

So just make sure the vertical resolution is support by all monitors.

 

So if you had a 15" that only does 1024X768 then a 17" that does 1280x960 and some other that does 1280x1024...

 

You would want to make it 3072(1024*3)x768.

 

I am just guessing though.

[G3]

brainstorm people, thats how we make it happen.

 

i would assume prophet is correct, you would have to use a common resolution, whatever the smallest monitor can handle, edit this info in the graphics config file in the config folder.

 

and as for resolution, prophet is right again, 1024x768 x3 = 3072x768.

i think that would have an aspect ratio of 4

the important thing to get right seems to be the aspect ratio

 

i have been trying with 3840x1024 (but only with 2 which = 2560x1024 )

eg: 3840 / 1024 has an aspect ratio of 3.75 aspect ratio.

 

go into the config folder, then look for graphics.cfg and edit away........

from memory you edit the horizontal res, the vertical res and the aspect ratio all in that config.

 

settings like FOV and zoom will be the next things to calibrate, all in good time, with any luck that time is soon :)

 

note 1:

to aquire the desired zoom, once in the cockpit i have been simply zooming right out and that gives the same cockpit view as a standard single screen. at present i have only done it with the 2 screens so i am unsure if this will change when adding the third screen, i would say so.

( this too can be manipulated but i am yet to sort that out.)

i am very interested to see if the game will allow you to select a resolution as high as 3840x1024, this is the key to happiness :)

 

note 2:

i believe any changes made to the in game graphics options will affect your manually edited settings, so once you edit the graphics.cfg i suggest leaving the ingame graphics options alone, feel free to confirm or deny this theory.

 

as for turning off the mini hud, i think that only happened on the 3 monitor pic i took as the side views were just panned views, i could be wrong, its happened before........

 

ps: evil-scotsman,

i do like your system specs, cpu and videocard wise are what i think is my next upgrade path.

looking at one of those new a8n32-sli (2x 16xpic-e) and you have to like that ram, would love to hear some more info in reguards to lockon performance on your computer, surely it runs well on that setup, do you run sli etc etc ?

 

i know its all a little vague but let me know if you want any more info and i will do my best to help, as soon as my parts arrive i will be adding my 2 cents and hopefully some working screenshots.

 

note 3: we need someone with editing lua experience, i think there are some more view files in there?

 

i did see some parameters for zoom, they may have been in the config file, but after changing them quite a substantial amount, i saw no apparent change, so here is where we need some advise, from the developers would be warmly welcomed.

(its good to see they actually do listen, advise and benefit from community input).

 

note 4: i think where we may hit a snag is getting the triple desktop to be recognised as one firstly by windows and then in game.

if you can get display properties to show all three monitors on a row then we are in with a good chance of the game liking it too.

 

edit: fx5200 has landed :)

[23rd_SATAN]

Wouldnt it be easier to buy a projector and edit the view to a wider aspect?

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

projector = masive money, especially as teh bulbs last 3 months or so and cost hundreds for 1 replacement bulb, and some have 3 or more bulbs :(

 

but you are right, it would probably be a real nice looking thing on a projector.

 

if you look at ubi lockon forums you will see someone who made that type of setup with lockon, the only problem i recall that they had was that the info line in f2 view was like quarter the way up the screen instead of at the very bottom, but who would care about that ?

 

ive had all four monitors attached when sli was turned off ages when i first got the pc, i needed to test all the dvi ports and simply did it just to see if it did work, and there was no problem having 4 monitors turned on.

 

nview isnt the way to go, as i found out ages ago that with nview on, when watching a video that my other monitors turned off and that i could only watch the video on the main monitor as when i dragged it over to the other monitors media player would go over no problem, but it would have a blank centre where the video was meant to be showing, but the audio was still coming out of the speakers.

 

^ was a nview problem with drivers from ages ago, not sure if that still applies ?

[G3]

would love a projector and recently considered one, but the running costs are a little off putting where as with the 3 lcd's its a one off purchase that should last for years to come with no ongoing costs.

currently looking at an older seleco crt projector like in pubs and clubs, i get to test it out before hand so no worries if its not suitable, i hear they are good images but low brightness with a longer life than the average modern projector.

but thats another thread, and site so back to the triple screens...........

 

i had the same issue as mentioned by the guy on the ubi forums but across 2 screens with the f2 view and the info bar, like you said no big deal.

 

it seemed to happen after i changed the fullscreen setting and/or the menu res, can't be sure that was it but thats when i noticed it, as it wasn't like that yesterday.

 

dam, i cannot get access to the ubi forums from due to filtering this end.

could we possibly copy and post the relevant info on the subject from the ubi forum into this thread, sorry for the hassle, would be much appreciated.

 

looking at my fx5200 as we type, will be doing some serious testing tomorrow.

 

i found that i was unable to span across 2 screens in dualview mode set thru display properties and not nview, dualview seems to be what the standard display properties sets it to, it was only once i set nview to horizontal span that it semmed to work, this is not good.

 

getting the spanning part set up is the biggest hurdle at the moment, please post your findings and we will pool our knowledge and with any luck overcome these issues.....

 

its nice to discuss this with people who actually understand what i am attempting to do :)

 

look fwd to hearing more............

[Groove]

could you please explain how i could use two monitors for lock on ? i have a radeon x 1800 xt 512 mb with two monitor support. any setup details would be nice :)

[G3]

hello groove, hello germany.

not familiar with the ati terminology but should be similar.

if anyone has ati info that contradicts the info below please advise as i am only assuming its similar to the nvidia nview method.

 

how to get 2 screens working.

setup your windows desktop to cover the entire 2 monitors.

choose a resolution your monitors can handle and go from there.

 

typically for say 2 19" lcd's the best resolution is 1280x1024

so your desktop size would be 2x 1280 = 2560x1024

aspect ratio is horizontal divided by vertical,

in this case its 1280/1024 = 2.5

 

enter this info in the appropriate location in the graphics.cfg file.

located in the config folder.

adjust the aspect ratio in the same way.

 

start the game and when you go to fly it should be full width across both screens, i simply zoom out to make it look as it did on the single screen, just with much more, unfortunately the whole issue is that the join in the monitors is in the way, so three is so much better than two.

good luck with it, let us know how you go with the ati card, the implemetation of the multimonitor support might be better from ati.......

 

 

its so easy to drift off the topic...i do it all to often myself

once or if we nut this out no doubt a full tutorial will made up for all to enjoy.

 

at present we are still in the hope it works stage ourselves.....

now back to 3 screens please :)

[Groove]

thx i will try it out tomorrow and post some screens of my crazy setup :)

[Groove]

how about putting two monitors the way that you could see the whole cockpit with instruments. that would be nice too !

[G3]

monitors stacked would be great too, i did try it out and it looked good but i didn't have the monitors stacked, i had a similar idea in this thread:

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?t=13721

 

i think you should just be able to set it up as vertical spanning, another thing i have been doing is moving the second screens position to compensate for the blank area between the two, this is about an inch on my thin bezel lcd's, but for crt's it may be about 2inches.

it makes things look like they are aligned when going across both screens, adding to the realism as in your eyes flow across the join rather than notice a badly aligned view.

 

good to see your interest and the fact that the idea is gaining momentum, surely this would be great to add a feature to allow exporting instruments or views to other screens, or atleast a 3 screen wide view without the need for other software like nview to deal with.

 

ED, please consider.

[Groove]

any ideas how i could setup an windos resolution of 1024x1536 ?

 

im trying with Powerstrip but it aint let me do the change...

[Wags]

howdy witchking and for anyone else interested.

here's a pic across all 3 screens @ 3840x1024x32 (3x 19" lcd).

 

 

thats is the result i am after, this image was just a fake setup, starting the game on each pc and then adjusting the view to suit.

 

 

so far its working with the tracker across 2 monitors, but as i said the join of the screens is in the way and thats not acceptable.

as soon as the fx5200 pci card arrives i will be doing my best to get this sorted and to get all 3 screens workking together, i look forward to seeing that.

 

i just can't emphasize how awesome it looks compared to a single screen.

 

 

That's not a fake setup. Three monitor support is available with the Matrox Parhelia card.

 

-Matt

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

that is a fake setup, look at the mini huds on both sides, if that wasnt fake, then you wouldnt get the huds on the side windows