Help with dual monitor (1600x1200 x2 winXP)

[Quirkitized]

Please go to page 2, to see how I got it working about 90% correctly.

 

I know there are a few threads around talking about multimonitor issues. I have read them, and tried unsuccessfully to get it working. So sorry for posting another one of these threads, but would like to see if I can get some help here as I wasn't sure which thread to post in.

 

I would like to just simply have the Shkval (wouldn't mind abris too) on my secondary monitor (monitor 2). I have tried Horizontal spanning in my ATI settings and using default multimonitor options, didn't work. I did try a few customized multimonitor .lua's to no success.

 

What do I need to do (for my setup) to get shkval on secondary monitor? Please help, I've read so much and tried things but nothing yet.

 

WinXP

Two Monitors, 21" and 19" CRTs. Both are 1600x1200

 

 

Here is my Options.lua GRAPHICS setting

["graphics"] = 
   {
       ["multiMonitorSetup"] = "1camera",
       ["color"] = "32",
       ["heatBlr"] = 1,
       ["scenes"] = "high",
       ["water"] = 2,
       ["fullScreen"] = true,
       ["visibRange"] = "High",
       ["aspect"] = 1.3333333333333,
       ["textures"] = 2,
       ["shadows"] = 3,
       ["display_mode"] = 
       {
           ["avi"] = 
           {
               ["bpp"] = 32,
               ["resolution"] = "640x480",
               ["full_screen"] = false,
               ["aspect"] = 1.333333333,
               ["height"] = 480,
               ["width"] = 640,
           }, -- end of ["avi"]
       }, -- end of ["display_mode"]
       ["effects"] = 3,
       ["lights"] = 2,
       ["haze"] = 1,
       ["terrPrld"] = "20",
       ["height"] = 1200,
       ["resolution"] = "1600x1200",
       ["civTraffic"] = 1,
       ["width"] = 1600,
   }, -- end of ["graphics"]

Edited February 1, 2009 by Quirkitized

[scatter]

I did this for a couple of 1280x1024 monitors on an ATI card under XP. Here's the details (and how someone else did it under vista)

 

http://vaaf.net/wiki2/index.php5?title=Black_Shark_MultiMonitors#XP_.28fullscreen.29

Edited February 2, 2009 by scatter

[Quirkitized]

I tried what you linked above, no luck. I don't see anywhere on the page for information on how to make it work, other then putting that lua file in and selecting it. I don't know, horizontal desktop? Res of desktop? in game? Thank you for the link, but still stuck :(. Maybe I'm missing something small I didn't do right.

 

Here is what happen when I tried to use that lua (using LuaEdit.)

 

Set both monitors at 1280x1024 on the desktop

Set to Horizontal desktop (spans across both screens as one)

Set in-game resolution to 1280x1024

 

Full Screen

 

Windowed Mode

 

So I then tried "Dual-Monitor" mode (non-horizontal)

I get this if I choose Full Screen or Windowed Mode.

 

Here is the default Camera+Shkval Window Mode (I switched monitor positions just to try, and put horizontal mode) still no luck.

 

Here is default Camera+Shkval (I get this picture full screen or windowed) in Dual Screen mode (non horizontal)

 

If anybody could help that would be greatly appreciated! I don't understand why this is so hard, even default settings don't work...

Edited January 31, 2009 by Quirkitized

[advent_m]

About the link posted, let's imagine this setup:

3 1680*1050 monitors set up as the cockpit, and a fourth 1680*1050 monitor for the ABRIS and Shkval.

As you can see in the attached photo, there is a "dead space" on the lower-right corner of the adjacent 1024*768 monitor. Is it possible to program a script that displays a certain gauge (say, blade angle) in that dead space? The goal it one 1680*1050 screen that displays ABRIS, Shkval, and 3-4 cockpit gauges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The goal:

[Quirkitized]

I don't understand this, how does this help me?

[ruprecht]

@ advent: you mean like this? :D as far as I can tell, there is no other overlay directly exported from the sim other than left, right, centre, ABRIS and Shkval. That means that what you want to do with the extra instruments in the dead space isn't possible. But let's not hijack Quirk's thread eh?

 

 

Quirk, I almost guarantee that you're missing something small - even if you're not a programmer, try and understand what the config file is trying to do. You will get it in the end, all of us that have done multimonitor have been through what you're going through. Keep trying.

 

You've posted a number of images above, but you haven't actually said what is wrong with each of them, you've left us to infer that. For example, the first one (using Scatter's script) looks pretty close to me, you just need to fix your extreme zoom out level and change the Shkval height parameter to screen.height / 2 to fix the aspect. Also if your problem is that all of that is crammed onto one screen (it's hard to infer from a screenshot without your description) changing the aspect in your options to (total width) / (total height) instead of 1.33333 might fix it (in your case: 2560/1024 or 2.5).

 

Please explain why each image that you've posted is not what you need? We need more info.

 

Also note that you don't have to modify the existing monitorsetup files, you can create your own and call it banana_milkshake.lua for all the sim cares, so long as you select that file in the dropdown.

 

Cheers

Edited January 31, 2009 by ruprecht

[ruprecht]

Also note that the aspect at 1600x1200 (1.33333) is different to the aspect at 1280x1024 (1.25). Maybe that's causing you grief.

 

*edit* you need to decide if you're going to run at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 because the config is different for both. See Scatter's script:

 

...
aspect = screen.aspect / 2;
...

 

So your aspect (in options.lua) needs to be set to either 2.66666 or 2.5 depending on if you're using 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 respectively.

 

Let us know how you go, and try to describe the results more fully.

 

Cheers

Edited January 31, 2009 by ruprecht

[Quirkitized]

You've posted a number of images above, but you haven't actually said what is wrong with each of them, you've left us to infer that.

They are either all cramped together on one screen, or if I get it to split monitors, it will only show halfway on the monitor, on each, as you can view from the pics.

 

For example, the first one (using Scatter's script) looks pretty close to me, you just need to fix your extreme zoom out level and change the Shkval height parameter to screen.height / 2 to fix the aspect.

What extreme zoom settings? I have not edited anything in the game or change any keybinds or edit any files besides making my own monitor file that you posted, and selected it in options. I don't have that mega zoom thing when i'm using default 1camera setting. I will try your screen.height thing

 

Also if your problem is that all of that is crammed onto one screen (it's hard to infer from a screenshot without your description) changing the aspect in your options to (total width) / (total height) instead of 1.33333 might fix it (in your case: 2560/1024 or 2.5).

This is one of the problems when running full screen, it cramps to one screen. I will try what you said

 

Cheers

 

I'll also try the stuff you said in other post. I would like to continue 1600x1200, I only chose 1280x1024 as thats what you said you ran in your first reply.

 

Also, my option.lua shows correct aspect ratio (1.25) maybe i'll try 2.5 then?, and as of thread start, i have stayed with 1280x1024 since it was the one you posted in your link. I'm sure i'll get it working soon from your help.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Quirkitized

[ruprecht]

OK - the first reply wasn't me :) Same sig block style, different names.

 

Stick with 1600x1200 if your GPU can handle it. The aspect setting should ease much of your pain I would expect. Just change one thing at a time, fix the shkval aspect once you've got the overall aspect correct.

 

Good luck.

[Quirkitized]

I see, sry for confusion. I'll get back to trying this at 1600x1200.

 

Also, do I have to be full screen or windowed? and do I have to have horizontal on for my two displays? I would like to have it seperate, dual monitor/display.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Quirkitized

[ruprecht]

Also, do I have to be full screen or windowed?

 

On XP you should be able to do fullscreen.

 

and do I have to have horizontal on for my two displays?

 

Dunno, I use Vista and GeForce hardware. Scatter is your man for XP/Radeon.

 

I would have have it seperate, dual monitor/display.

 

cheers

[Quirkitized]

Ok, I think I got it! Once I fine tune some settings I'll post how I did it, might fall asleep before then but i'll make sure to post settings i used.

[ruprecht]

pics!

[Quirkitized]

Ok, I got shkval and abris on my secondary screen with cockpit on primary, using horizontal mode in catalyst control center display options.

 

However, I must not have it fined tuned correctly, as if i press "\" I can't get communication window (tower, etc). Also, in F2 few you cannot see my name, speed, alt, heading, time, etc etc all the info on that bar.

 

So back to drawing board. I'm gonna have to get some sleep but i'll post later on how I got it setup so people with similar setups can get a head start.

[Quirkitized]

Notes - This is working about 90% correctly. You will not see "Communication window" if you try to talk to wingmen, tower, etc with the "\" key. You will also not see any info on the info bar in external views, such as speed, alt, heading, time, etc. It will also crash when you take a screenshot. Other then those issues, this is how mine is working.

 

This is how I got dual monitors working with WinXP SP3 32bit and ATI Radeon 4800 with two CRT's (21" and 19"") both running 1600x1200.

 

Step 1 - Change desktop to horizontal

 

Step 2 - Make sure its horizontal

 

Step 3 - Make your own multimonitor .lua file (C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\Config\MonitorSetup)

Put this in it

Description = 'ABRIS and Shkval on the right and camera on the center'
Viewports =
{
   Center =
   {
        x = 3200;
        y = 0;
        width = 1600; 
        height = 1200; 
        viewDx = 0;
        viewDy = 0;
        aspect = 1.3; 
   }
}
Shkval =
{
   x = 2400; 
   y = 0;
   width = 800; 
   height = 1200; 
}
ABRIS =
{
   x = 3200; 
   y = 0;
   width = 800; 
   height = 1200; 
}

 

Step 4 - After you have made your own multimonitor file, edit your options.

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\BlackShark\data\scripts (open options.lua)

 

Make sure the selected items in bold are correct, this is settings I used for two 1600x1200 desktops in horizontal mode, your settings may vary. Why is it so large of settings? You have to account for a "ghost monitor", explained in next step.

 

The ["multiMonitorSetup"] = "shkval+camera", line, "shkval+camera" is the name of the file I used when making my own multimonitor file. So for example, when you make yours, and you save it as "dualmonitor" or whatever you want, in options, choose "dialmonitors". Whatever you named it.

 

["graphics"] = 
   {
       [b]["multiMonitorSetup"] = "shkval+camera",[/b]
       ["color"] = "32",
       ["heatBlr"] = 1,
       ["scenes"] = "high",
       ["water"] = 2,
       [b]["fullScreen"] = false,[/b]
       ["visibRange"] = "High",
       [b]["aspect"] = 4,[/b]
       ["textures"] = 2,
       ["shadows"] = 3,
       ["display_mode"] = 
       {
           ["avi"] = 
           {
               ["bpp"] = 32,
               ["resolution"] = "640x480",
               ["full_screen"] = false,
               ["aspect"] = 1.333333333,
               ["height"] = 480,
               ["width"] = 640,
           }, -- end of ["avi"]
       }, -- end of ["display_mode"]
       ["effects"] = 3,
       ["lights"] = 2,
       ["haze"] = 1,
       ["terrPrld"] = "20",
       [b]["height"] = 1200,[/b]
      [b] ["resolution"] = "1600x1200",[/b]
       ["civTraffic"] = 1,
       [b]["width"] = 4800,[/b]
   }, -- end of ["graphics"]

 

Step 5 - To help make any adjustments, view this page, it will show you exactly what settings do what (read the VISTA part)

http://vaaf.net/wiki2/index.php5?title=Black_Shark_MultiMonitors#XP

 

This is what it should look like after its all setup:

 

I still need to learn more, and fine tune it...as I would like to get the info bar back, and the communication window, feels like I am missin something. If anybody could help with that, that'd be appreciated.

[ruprecht]

I think part of your problem is the X= settings in your monitor config. I'm pretty sure you don't need to use a phantom monitor with XP. The way you have it, you have 3200 horizontal pixels left of your main display, which is why you can't see the multiplayer text.

 

My notes below:

 

Description = 'ABRIS and Shkval on the right and camera on the center'
Viewports =
{
   Center =
   {
        x = 3200;  [b][color=black]-- this should be 0[/color][/b]
        y = 0;
        width = 1600; 
        height = 1200; 
        viewDx = 0;
        viewDy = 0;
        aspect = 1.3;  [b]-- shouldn't this be 1.33333 ?[/b]
   }
}
Shkval =
{
   x = 2400;  [b]-- this should be 1600[/b]
   y = 0;
   width = 800; 
   height = 1200;  [b]-- or use 600 for correct Shkval aspect[/b]
}
ABRIS =
{
   x = 3200;  [b]-- this should be 2400[/b]
   y = 0;
   width = 800; 
   height = 1200; 
}

And for your options:

 

["graphics"] = 
   {
       ["multiMonitorSetup"] = "shkval+camera",
       ["color"] = "32",
       ["heatBlr"] = 1,
       ["scenes"] = "high",
       ["water"] = 2,
       ["fullScreen"] = false, [b]-- you should be able to use true with XP one you get your numbers right[/b]
       ["visibRange"] = "High",
       ["aspect"] = 4, [b]-- why 4?  shouldn't it be 3200/1200, or 2.66666 ?[/b]
       ["textures"] = 2,
       ["shadows"] = 3,
       ["display_mode"] = 
       {
           ["avi"] = 
           {
               ["bpp"] = 32,
               ["resolution"] = "640x480",
               ["full_screen"] = false,
               ["aspect"] = 1.333333333,
               ["height"] = 480,
               ["width"] = 640,
           }, -- end of ["avi"]
       }, -- end of ["display_mode"]
       ["effects"] = 3,
       ["lights"] = 2,
       ["haze"] = 1,
       ["terrPrld"] = "20",
       ["height"] = 1200,
       ["resolution"] = "1600x1200",
       ["civTraffic"] = 1,
       ["width"] = 4800,[b] -- should be 3200 (1600x2)[/b]
   }, -- end of ["graphics"]

Edited February 1, 2009 by ruprecht

[scatter]

Sorry for anything missing in my original doc (and sorry for being away while you had them). I've just edited it to show all the steps. Rup's right about the fullscreen - the phantom monitor does bumpkiss for it and should be avoided. In fact many of the things that he does in Vista (non-fullscreen) don't work or break things in the fullscreen system.

 

To make up for it I may be able to help you a bit with the current probs.

 

You can get the status bar back by changing the screen height of the camera and displays

 

for each of them change the height line to:

 

height = screen.height - 30;

 

To get the comms (sortof) back with your current system you'll need to shrink the display at the far right from the top of the screen. It won't be a complete solution though as the comms menus won't get erased after you've finished it.

 

Probably the best solution (it's still not perfect though - ED need to work on the multi-screen stuff) for you if you want both those features is to swap your screens and use this LUA code:

 

Description = 'Camera on the right monitor, Shkval and ABRIS on the left'

 

Viewports =

{

 

 

 

Center =

{

x = screen.width / 2;

y = 0;

width = screen.width / 2;

height = screen.height - 30;

viewDx = 0;

viewDy = 0;

aspect = 4 / 3;

}

}

 

ABRIS =

{

x = 0;

y = 0;

width = screen.width / 4;

height = screen.height - 30;

}

 

Shkval =

{

x = screen.width / 4;

y = screen.height / 4;

width = screen.width / 4;

height = screen.height / 2;

}

 

 

 

 

(and in the graphics options set your res to the desktop stretched size - from your pics that's 3200x1200)

Edited February 1, 2009 by scatter

[Quirkitized]

Ok guys thanks, I will work on this now and fine tune it with your settings and try some more.

 

Scatter, that script works perfect. Except I would like "Main view" on primary monitor, shkval/abris on other, basically just swap them...how do I do that with your script? I'll try to figure it out.

 

But yeah that works great, I can see command menu, and info bar, everything shows up. I also adjusted my options correctly like ruprecht showed.

 

Here is a screenshot. Like I said, it works great!! I just need to get cockpit and abris/shkval swapped screens. Could you help me with that?

 

Edit: If I choose "Swap Display Mapping" in my cards control center, I can then get cockpit on the screen infront of me. But this isn't practical as its the monitor to my right and not in front of me, so anything on desktop and in game is really hard to work with...surely there is a way to swap the displays in your script?

Edited February 1, 2009 by Quirkitized

[ruprecht]

Unplug the screens, swap GPU heads, switch positions on the desk :)

 

*high fives scatter* another successful mission buddy.

[Quirkitized]

Unplug the screens, swap GPU heads, switch positions on the desk :)

 

*high fives scatter* another successful mission buddy.

 

Haha, why didn't I think of that. Sometimes when things are complicated you overlook little things like this!

[scatter]

Unfortunately all you can do is have the main screen to the right and the secondary to the left for everything in BS to work as far as I know (so moving monitors may be necessary).

 

Like I said before - ED really needs to work on this before it could be said to work properly.

[Quirkitized]

Ok, fair enough. I'll continue to work on my desktop monitor positions etc and fine tune it some more. It looks like the "External view bar" is all the way across screen, for instance when im in cockpit, it shows up...i'll have to try to take it off, if it means removing that bar, thats fine.

 

This is becoming a real pain in the ass, just to get dual monitors working, you have to do hours of studying, code changing, adding, desktop setups, monitor swapping...idk if i want to go through all the monitor swapping and setup options each time I want to play BS. This is by far the biggest pita i've had to deal with in a game as long as i can remember lol.

Edited February 1, 2009 by Quirkitized

[ruprecht]

You need a dedicated cockpit setup then!

[Jack57]

So are you guys running a display profile for this? Just that, while I got it working OK it was a pain to have the menus spread across both monitors and to have to change my displays back evry time I finished playing with BS. Any solutions to that??

 

Cheers, Jack :pilotfly:

[Quirkitized]

I wish there was a solution to that, as I have the same problem. If I want to play BS in dual screen I have to (ontop of doing all the manual editing to options.lua and making own monitor.luea):

 

Open Catalyst Control Center

Switch To Horizontal Mode

Swap Displays

 

Then I have to redo it all after I exit to play other games. Hopefully ED will come up with something to make it easier, maybe by the time its ready to ship for retail or next patch.