Problem with Helios / 2nd monitor

[JPS2K]

Hi,

 

I'm new to all of this. I'm having a problem setting up Helios. I have a 28 inch 4K screen and a 24 inch 1920x1200 screen. 980GTX SLI.

 

Basicly the problem already starts if I run Helios by itself. I've downloaded the SU-25 profile, and if I set it to display on the 1st screen it's fine. If I set it to the 2nd screen, I get nothing at all.

This also happens if I just make a new profile to test. Nothing from Helios will display on the 2nd screen.

 

2nd question, if 1st one is resolved, would be what to set my monitor config on inside DCS.

 

Thanks.

[MadDog-IC]

Hi,

 

I'm new to all of this. I'm having a problem setting up Helios. I have a 28 inch 4K screen and a 24 inch 1920x1200 screen. 980GTX SLI.

 

Basicly the problem already starts if I run Helios by itself. I've downloaded the SU-25 profile, and if I set it to display on the 1st screen it's fine. If I set it to the 2nd screen, I get nothing at all.

This also happens if I just make a new profile to test. Nothing from Helios will display on the 2nd screen.

 

2nd question, if 1st one is resolved, would be what to set my monitor config on inside DCS.

 

Thanks.

 

Depends on if monitors are side by side or top to bottom configured.

 

You must have the screens linked in the nvidia or ATI screen setup as extended so that both monitors work as one.

 

You must change the resolution in DCS to match the combined resolutions of both monitors.

 

You must change the DCS camera / screen exporter to a configuration that has the correct co-ordinates for the LEFT_MFCD or RIGHT_MFCD. (YOU WILL HAVE TO WRITE THIS YOURSELF, AS DCS WILL NOT HAVE ONE EXPLICTIVLY FOR YOU RESOLUTION OF MONITORS.

 

You will have to offset the start position of the MFCD by at least the width of your main windows screen resolution in either the X axis or the Y axis depending on if the monitors are set as side by side or Top to bottom.

 

Use the forum search 'HELIOS' to get more info on how to do this.

 

Make sure you place the appropriate export.lua in the user config file section.

 

Config the Su-25T Helios Profile for the correct monitor setup and add interface for A-10c .

 

Run DCS and Test.

 

Regards, Ian.

[JPS2K]

Hi,

 

Thank you for replying. I have the monitors set to extended. I have tried both side by side and top/bottom.

 

The main problem I am facing is that even outside of DCS, Helios will only display on the first monitor. If I can't get past that point, I don't even need to look in DCS.

 

Searching for Helios just gives too many and irrelevant results. I have even skimmed through the first 50-ish pages of input and output, but to no avail....

 

So basicly, Helios displays on the 1st monitor, but not on the second. Please don't tell me I'm the first one having this problem :(

[MadDog-IC]

Hi,

 

The main problem I am facing is that even outside of DCS, Helios will only display on the first monitor. If I can't get past that point, I don't even need to look in DCS.

 

Searching for Helios just gives too many and irrelevant results. I have even skimmed through the first 50-ish pages of input and output, but to no avail....

 

So basicly, Helios displays on the 1st monitor, but not on the second. Please don't tell me I'm the first one having this problem :(

 

At a loss to why you have the trouble, and yes you may be the first having this issue :smilewink:, but I will try some other pointers for a Top and Bottom setup:

 

In windows::book:

Your main windows monitor should be monitor 1 and on top ( I assume that is your 4k monitor)

Your Second monitor should be Monitor 2 and on the Bottom (for helios)

 

In Helios profile editor, editing the Su-25T profile::book:

Reset monitors and/or check the preview of the monitor layout, does it look the same as windows was configured for.

 

ie: for Top and Bottom setup:

Monitor 1 at Top

Monitor 2 at Bottom with Helios template stretched over whole monitor.

 

What happens when you run the helios control centre and run your profile, does it say 'running profile' underneath the profile name or does it do something different or nothing at all ?????

 

What are the resolution of your 2 monitors ????

 

Attached is someones very good tutorial on setting it all up, some of the info is now incorrect for the last versions of DCS, but it gives you a good start, to check that your system is setup similiarly. It does use the A-10c Helios Profile, but it may help you immensly, it did me, to get Helios all working with A-10c and Ka-50, Su-25T, P-51D and F-15c on 2 x HD 1920x1080 monitors.

 

Regards, Ian.

2MonitorSetup+Helios+Loz.pdf

[JPS2K]

Hi,

 

I've already followed that guide last night. Same result.

 

My main monitor (number 1) is 3840x2160, my 2nd is 1900x1200. They are configured top/bottom and that's how they show in the profile editor. Everything looks fine in the profile editor.

 

When I run the profile it will say 'running'. But other than one flicker in the screen and a momentarily higher rpm of my GPU fan, nothing happens.

The moment I put the screen on monitor 1 in the editor and run it, it will actually display.

[MadDog-IC]

Hi,

 

I've already followed that guide last night. Same result.

 

My main monitor (number 1) is 3840x2160, my 2nd is 1900x1200. They are configured top/bottom and that's how they show in the profile editor. Everything looks fine in the profile editor.

 

When I run the profile it will say 'running'. But other than one flicker in the screen and a momentarily higher rpm of my GPU fan, nothing happens.

The moment I put the screen on monitor 1 in the editor and run it, it will actually display.

 

Sorry I am out of ideas, but I did see that you have an SLI configuration, have you tried it off of one graphics card only, might be an issue.

 

If running windows 7, have it in an aero desktop.

 

Is the Windows desktop backdrop showing up on the second monitor ???

 

 

Best of Luck

Edited May 4, 2015 by MadDog-IC

[JPS2K]

Yes, the background is on the second monitor, and I can drag any game/program there...

 

I'm running Windows 8.1 64-bit. Pulled out one GPU and that also didn't help :(

 

I just started out, but I would really like to have more to fiddle with than just HOTAS and paddles. So I wanted to test this on a 2nd monitor and then get a touchscreen :(

[JPS2K]

I messed up the profile, on purpose... To see if anything at all would happen on the 2nd monitor.

 

Here you can see that the bottom right corner is actually displayed, and in place. The rest... isn't...

There IS however some sort of overlay, since I can't click anymore on the rest of the screen (wich would be behind it all). So it's like everything else is transparent...

 

 

Edited May 4, 2015 by JPS2K

[JPS2K]

So.. I fiddled with the resolution of the 1st monitor. If I set it to 1920x1080, I get profile on the 2nd monitor but partially on the 1st and 1/2 size. If I go to 2560x1440, the entire image moves more onto the 1st monitor.

 

At 4k, I assume the profile image is or wants to be positioned outside the viewable area.

 

Conclusion: With higher resolutions, Helios appears to not be working.

 

If anyone with a 4K monitor as a main has it working, I'd love to hear about it (since I realise my 2nd monitor also isn't a common resolution but a 16:10).

 

EDIT: I don't feel like replying to my own posts, but I opened up a Helios profile after resetting monitors. This is what I noticed:

 

<Monitors>

<Monitor>

<Location>0,0</Location>

<Size>2560,1440</Size>

<Hidden>False</Hidden>

<Orientation>DMDO_DEFAULT</Orientation>

<AlwaysOnTop>True</AlwaysOnTop>

<Background />

<Children />

</Monitor>

<Monitor>

<Location>2560,4</Location>

<Size>1280,800</Size>

<Hidden>False</Hidden>

 

So I guess indeed, Helios does not support 4K. I can manually change it but then the launcher starts crying again about having to reset monitors. A solution would be appreciated. Getting this to work would go a long way towards deciding if this is something I like.

Edited May 5, 2015 by JPS2K

[MadDog-IC]

Conclusion: With higher resolutions, Helios appears to not be working.

 

If anyone with a 4K monitor as a main has it working, I'd love to hear about it (since I realise my 2nd monitor also isn't a common resolution but a 16:10).

 

EDIT: I don't feel like replying to my own posts, but I opened up a Helios profile after resetting monitors. This is what I noticed:

 

So I guess indeed, Helios does not support 4K. I can manually change it but then the launcher starts crying again about having to reset monitors. A solution would be appreciated. Getting this to work would go a long way towards deciding if this is something I like.

 

Others are running Helios on 4k setups.

 

Right fiddled with Helios tonight, trying to duplicate your issues.

 

First thought it might be a problem with in the Nvidia control panel settings, so I set the surround screen setup in a Top + Bottom config just for fun, then tried the Su-25T helios profile on that, and it got the monitors around the opposite way as to what windows was configured for, so helios displayed on wrong screen. Even when I disabled Surround screen mode, I couldn't get helios profile back to the right way by resetting monitors. Had to reboot my whole machine before Helios would do the monitor detection correctly. Finally got the screen layout the right way around again with helios.

 

Next issues was it had the helios picture in only displaying in half of the available screen dimensions on the correct monitor, so I start to play with scretching it out to fullscreen and come across your issue of the funny overlay screen with missing guages, etc.

 

Start looking under the Layers section

 

• Only to find that the 'Plantilla_General' layer is Locked, so I unlocked it (this has the effect of allowing it to be stretched / scaled to any size along with all the other guages, switches, etc.)
  
• Whilst it is locked the Plantilla_General Layer is locked at 1920x1080 by default and cant be resized
  

 

Go into second Monitor tab that has picture of Su-25T controls

 

• Select all controls with Cntrl-A
  
• Then hold down left Shift (maintains aspect ratio) and grab outer bottom right Box control with mouse and with left mouse button held down, pull the box to size of full screen, everything should now stretch over the full screen.
  

Hope this might help in some way.

 

Pictures included of my 2 x 1920x1080 Top to bottom helios setup.

 

Regards, Ian.

[JPS2K]

You did give me an idea. So what I did now is put the monitors top/bottom, with the 2nd monitor on top of the 1st.

 

This gives at least the correct starting position for Helios, so it does display on the 2nd monitor. However, it still gets my resolutions wrong (2560x1440 and 1280x800), so it's not full screen....

 

(and if it helps : when I set the Helios monitor at 1920x1080 instead of 1920x1200, Helios will say 1280x720 instead of 1280x800...)

 

EDIT: (and if I set my 4K monitor to 2560x1440, Helios will say 1706x960..... Somehow it is scaling....)

Edited May 5, 2015 by JPS2K

[JPS2K]

Ok, this has worked !!!!

 

Indeed, after a restart of my computer, Helios detects correctly. So basicly the 'only' thing that was mandatory was to place the 2nd (Helios) monitor on top of the 1st (4K).

 

Thanks alot, sir ! I will have my HOTAS tomorrow and I am very confident my experience will be a pleasant one :)

[MadDog-IC]

You did give me an idea. So what I did now is put the monitors top/bottom, with the 2nd monitor on top of the 1st.

 

This gives at least the correct starting position for Helios, so it does display on the 2nd monitor. However, it still gets my resolutions wrong (2560x1440 and 1280x800), so it's not full screen....

 

(and if it helps : when I set the Helios monitor at 1920x1080 instead of 1920x1200, Helios will say 1280x720 instead of 1280x800...)

 

EDIT: (and if I set my 4K monitor to 2560x1440, Helios will say 1706x960..... Somehow it is scaling....)

 

so to be clear, when you say that it is the wrong resolution

 

• I take it the two actual monitor sizes displayed in Helios profile are the wrong size, and if so how do you know what size they are ???
  
• (I would look through the nvidia config for anything that might be scaling things on the fly)
  
• or
  
• Is it just the helios instruments panel that it is displaying that doesn't extend over the full screen. (I guess this isn't the issue as my stretching the instrument panel would fix this)
  

Is certainly a vexing problem.

[JPS2K]

Hi,

 

yes, they are wrong in Helios. How I know is I open the .hpf in notepad and look at the code. It sais:

 

<Monitors>

<Monitor>

<Location>0,0</Location>

<Size>2560,1440</Size>

<Hidden>False</Hidden>

<Orientation>DMDO_DEFAULT</Orientation>

<AlwaysOnTop>True</AlwaysOnTop>

<Background />

<Children />

</Monitor>

<Monitor>

<Location>0,-800</Location>

<Size>1280,800</Size>

<Hidden>False</Hidden>

 

So at <size> you can see the... size.

 

I thought I had it working, but what I had working apparently was at 2560x1440 for my 1st monitor. Then the 2nd one is also detected correctly. This, after setting the resolution, rebooting, and THEN reset monitors in the profile editor....

 

If I go back to 4k, reboot, again reset monitors in prfile, it is wrong again. But I can at least set my desktop to 2560x1440 and play in 3840x2160, with Helios fullscreen on 2nd monitor.

 

Weird thing is, inside the editor it looks fine (monitor 2 looking 1/4 of monitor 1) but after saving it is wrong.

 

Edited May 5, 2015 by JPS2K

[Beeroshima]

I'm having this exact same issue. Was there ever a solution found to this?

[Vulpes]

Hi all, I just upgraded my HD-TV main screen to a 4K screen and I have the exact same issue too. Helios does not recognize the screen sizes correctly.

Are there really only 3 people having this problem?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[Beeroshima]

Vulpes, the solution was in windows. I right clicked on the desktop and somewhere in the display, there is a slider that controls scaling. I moved it all the way to the left and it solved the issue. Wish i could be more specific but its been months.

 

Sent when i should be working instead

[Vulpes]

Yay Beeroshima, that was it!!

 

So, for everybody who will find this thread in the future with the same problems:

In Windows 10, right-click on desktop --> Display Settings

For the UHD (4K)-display move the slider "Change the size of text, apps and other items" to the left (100%).

Helios will now recognize the screen resolutions correctly.

 

Again, thank you for your help.

Happy flying!

[Beeroshima]

Yay Beeroshima, that was it!!

 

So, for everybody who will find this thread in the future with the same problems:

In Windows 10, right-click on desktop --> Display Settings

For the UHD (4K)-display move the slider "Change the size of text, apps and other items" to the left (100%).

Helios will now recognize the screen resolutions correctly.

 

Again, thank you for your help.

Happy flying!

Glad i could help. This drove me insane for 3 or 4 days.

 

Sent when i should be working instead