investigating Sea textures flubbled in multi monitor 2.7.xxx but not 2.5.6

[MNissen]

Please note this is an unusual (atypical) monitor set up.

 

Mac Pro (Early 2009) - 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon - 32 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM - Sapphire R9 280X 'TOXIC' 3Gb 

left screen Apple Cinema display 23" - centre screen Dell 30" - right screen Dell 24"

Mac OS X 10.13.6 - Bootcamp - Windows 10 - Crucial SSD 1TB - T16000M HOTAS - DCS World & Open Beta

 

The problem in 2.7.xxx is,  the sea textures in my left monitor go awol and are replaced by something else, I assume "distant hills' or some such. This does not happen in identical circumstances and set up, in 2.5.6.xxx. See images below. 

 

Initially I thought that it is just some quirk of using an Apple monitor as the left screen, but as you can see on the left side, of the left monitor, the sea works correctly, so it's not the monitor.

 

It may be that this is a one in a million issue and that it's not worth fixing just for one user. That's OK, I post this, so that the devs doing the work, are aware of it and for their information, going forward.

 

But if it is a simple fix, I'd be happy if the issue went away

 

 

 

Correction, the below image is labelled as DCS world Open Beta 2.5.6 ..... it should read DCS world stable 2.5.6......

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by MNissen

[Flappie]

Hey. Check this subforum which deals with multi-monitor issues.

[MNissen]

On 6/15/2021 at 9:48 AM, Flappie said:

Hey. Check this subforum which deals with multi-monitor issues.

 

Thank you Flappie I'm enjoying the multiple monitors and learning a lot from these forums.

 

Following on from the post above, I had another look, after the 2.7.2 update and the issue is still there. I am not sure it is related to multiple monitors, per se, as the textures do appear to display correctly in lower/closer, distances, see screen shot below.

 

Again I'm not too worried if it's not worth fixing just for one user. That's OK, I post this, so that the devs doing the work, are aware of it and for their information, going forward.

 

 

[Flappie]

Please attach a track showing this. I'll try to replicate it.

[MNissen]

Thanks Flappie, I'll be interested to see what comes of this.

 

This is the first time I've used the track functionality, what a great feature!  I can now see there are similar issues going on, in the right monitor sometimes too.

 

Settings - F/A-18C Hornet from DCS - Vanilla DCS Open Beta 2.7.2, set on Low preset, with the only difference between track001 and track002 being, the preload radius on track 001 is 10,500 and on 002 is 3,800.

 

I've also attached my Config/MonitorSetup/   file - '3Cameras-d.lua' 

 

Cheers and thanks for looking at this.

 

Image below is zoomed out somewhat.

 

 

Track-001.trk Track-002.trk 3Cameras-d.lua

[Flappie]

Thanks. I cannot reproduce your issue (single 1920x1200 monitor).

 

 

 

This thread might be interesting for you:

 

 

[MNissen]

Thank you, yes, If I use just the 30" monitor it works fine, no problems at all.

 

But then thats an image, that DCS is generating, of 2560 x 1600, as against 6400 x 1600, for the three monitors.

 

Curiously, my usage is now, using three monitors for "fun" stuff, like blowing things up for no reason, then using one monitor for flying with the two side monitors for MFCDs etc, when I'm learning and conducting serious flying

 

So I guess until I get enough Spondeleros for a high end PC with three 4k monitors, I'll stick with what does work, on my 12 yr old hardware

 

And thanks for the link to the 'Ocean Disappears' thread, this could be a useful "feature" when hunting subs...

[MNissen]

Ah haah!

 

I have solved the issue.

I can reproduce and fix this at will.

 

If I have three monitors going, using the supplied '3 screen' setting, the sea textures behave normally, the supplied '3 screen' setting, assumes the monitors are of equal width and DCS displays video accordingly.

 

My centre monitor is 2560 wide and the side monitors are 1920, the vertical intersection between the three images, falls inside the edges of the main 2560 monitor, by about 2 inches. This less than optimal

 

When I adjust the .lua file to reflect the different widths of my monitors, (1920 - 2560 - 1920) the sea textures mis-behave.  So DCS is having problems pumping out vision for the three different widths. All are 1600 tall, as this is how I learnt to do it.

 

Q: I wonder what'll happen if I try telling it to do 1920x1200  2560x1600  1920x1200 

 

A: nope, DCS doesn't like it, display and sea textures, no good.

 

I may be missing something here, but I guess I could get a 24" monitor to even things up or two more 30"...

 

 

FYI

note* screen aspect is 4 (6400/1600)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Standard 3 camera file:

     Left = 
     {
          x = 0;
          y = 0;
          width = screen.width / 3;
          height = screen.height;
          viewDx = -1;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = screen.aspect / 3;
     },

     Center = 
     {
          x = screen.width / 3;
          y = 0;
          width = screen.width / 3;
          height = screen.height;
          viewDx = 0;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = screen.aspect / 3;
     },

     Right = 
     {
          x = screen.width * 2 / 3;
          y = 0;
          width = screen.width / 3;
          height = screen.height;
          viewDx = 1;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = screen.aspect / 3;
     }
------------------------------------------------------------------

My width adjusted file:

      Left = 
     {
          x = 0;
          y = 0;
          width = screen.width - 4480;
          height = screen.height;
          viewDx = -1;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = screen.aspect / 3.333;
     },

     Center = 
     {
          x = 1920;
          y = 0;
          width = screen.width - 3840;
          height = screen.height;
          viewDx = 0;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = screen.aspect / 2.5;
     },

     Right = 
     {
          x = 4480;
          y = 0;
          width = screen.width - 4480;
          height = screen.height;
          viewDx = 1;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = screen.aspect / 3.333;
     }

------------------------------------------------------------------

[Flappie]

Many thanks for all these details.

 

I know ED changed a few things related to resolution in DCS 2.7. This, for instance: "Graphic system. First game start will be in main display resolution, not 1280x768."

Chances are there were side effects.

 

[Talvid]

You guys need to enter the exact numbers in place of these: screenheight, screenwidth, and screen aspect, because their values default on the largest screen, pm me with your monitorconfig.lua if you would like assistance.  

[MNissen]

Flappie, thanks for linking the thread

 yes the same issue

[MNissen]

6 hours ago, Iceman555 said:

You guys need to enter the exact numbers in place of these: screenheight, screenwidth, and screen aspect, because their values default on the largest screen, pm me with your monitorconfig.lua if you would like assistance.  

 

Thanks I will do so, Question: is the 'monitorconfig.lua' found in DCS World/Config/MonitorSetup/  and named variously for the screens like - '3Cameras.lua' ?

 

If it is, here is my altered one - '3Cameras-d.lua'

 

3Cameras-d.lua

 

Or is it named 'monitorconfig.lua' ?  in which case, I can't find it.

 

For reference, below is a pic showing the issue and overlaid with, how I understand (I could be wrong) the video is displayed, the screen shot takes the whole 6400 x 1600  image.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

[MNissen]

Well I've resolved this to my satisfaction, at least,  until there's an update that allows for different widths, monitor display.

 

My solution is to tell DCS to display 3 - 2560 x 1600  images and display these on my  three (1920 - 2560 - 1920) monitors. The 1920 monitors don't display all of the 2560 image but the effect is OK. The left monitor has to start at -640 align with the middle monitor.

 

See contents of the .lua file:

_________________________________________________________

_  = function(p) return p; end;
name = _('3Cameras-3x2560');
Description = 'Configuration with 3 - 23" 30" 24" monitors, each with its own camera Test version'
Viewports = 
{
     Left = 
     {
          x = -640;
          y = 0;
          width = 2560;
          height = 1600;
          viewDx = -1;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = 1.6;
     },

     Center = 
     {
          x = 1920;
          y = 0;
          width = 2560;
          height = 1600;
          viewDx = 0;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = 1.6;
     },

     Right = 
     {
          x = 4480;
          y = 0;
          width = 2560;
          height = 1600;
          viewDx = 1;
          viewDy = 0;
          aspect = 1.6;
     }
}

UIMainView = Viewports.Center
GU_MAIN_VIEWPORT = Viewports.Center

_________________________________________________________

 

and a pic of the in-game settings

 

 

pic  of the full 7680 x 1600  image

 

 

[MNissen]

Thinking about this, I tried the old .lua (6400 x 1600 and 3 different monitors) with DCS OB 2.7.5 and nope, still knackers the sea. Ah well, 

 

Hopefully DCS will factor in a, three different sized monitors, setting in the future. hint hint...