Rangoon Posted February 16, 2015 Posted February 16, 2015 I've been wading through the various posts on exporting displays, and recall that I did do some of this with Black Shark 1 long ago, but times are changing so I'm seeking a bit of advice. I'm running DCS (mostly Black Shark 2) on a 2560x1440 display, with TrackIR 5, so I do get good results in terms of seeing the cockpit instruments/screens when I need to, but of course can imagine some improved situational awareness being able to export a few things out for easy glancing. When you set up the new total resolution, for example if you have a primary display and a smaller display to one side or below, you will likely have "dead space" in that resolution area which is not actual screen. Does this dead space create additional frame rate loss because DCS thinks it has to output those pixels even if those pixels are null? Or does it only work at the pixels for what is being physically represented? And similarly, does DCS output to a part of a 2nd display which has nothing sent to it? For example, if my 2nd display is only receiving information to half of its area, does the inactive half still have to be calculated each frame? I am trying to maintain framerates and don't want to use my full 1920x1200 2nd display if it's just going to wreck my framerate in order to get the ABRIS/Shkval up there. So that brings up another question: I see people are having success with Helios and these small USB LCDs (Lilliput). Do these USB displays affect framerate much? I would assume there would not be a real graphics hit since they are processing their own video, is that correct? So that would leave CPU cycles as the variable, but how much of an impact is there? With these USB LCDs, do people recommend the touch-screen versions? Or not? I have an extensive HOTAS setup, so don't *need* touch screen, but maybe it's foolish not to go that route for the best experience. I just have read that it takes some effort getting those displays working properly with Windows, and that the touch-screen aspect is a specific matter beyond just the display function. So that leads to the future which I assume is going to happen, which is app support through tablets and Windows. Obviously there is already some of this with iControl etc., though that doesn't support Black Shark so it's not applicable to me. I assume that the way of the future will be official DCS apps over wi-fi for touch-screen interactivity. But I haven't seen any news from ED about official DCS apps. It just makes so much sense for a study sim like DCS. So what this last point comes down to is, is anyone just waiting for the future and getting by with single display, HOTAS and TrackIR like I am currently? Or is it worth it to invest in these small USB LCDs with/without touchscreen?
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