Place the Main Menu on a Monitor of choice?

[buedi]

I´m running a dual Monitor Setup here, placing some displays (SHKVAL, MFCDs etc.) on a 2nd Monitor. The 2nd one is on the left of my Main monitor.

 

As you may be aware, because DCS does not allow negative coordinates to place Windows, I had to make the left one Monitor #1 (in Windows) and my "Main Screen" Monitor #2. That´s not a big deal while in the Sim, because I can place the DCS Simulation Window on my Monitor #2 and the exported Displays on my left Monitor #1.

 

The problem I have is, that the Main Menu in DCS is always displayed on the left screen and is obstructed by the Cougar MFDs I put on it. I would like to have the Main Menu also on my "Main Monitor". Is there some kind of tweaking in a LUA file possible to do this? This would make it much more comfortable. Currently, when I want to edit a Mission I have to reconfigure DCS to get the Main menu on my "Main Monitor" and reconfigure it again when I want to do some flying.

[Kuky]

will this help?

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=84270&highlight=menu+windowed

[Quirkitized]

or try this, u can move the windowed mission editor to any monitor you want, but not sure if it'll "stick"

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=102911

Edited March 16, 2013 by Quirkitized

[buedi]

First, thanks for your responses! :thumbup:

 

@Kuky: I tried that. And although everything else I do in the LUA seems to work and places the Windows / MFCDs etc. in the right spot, the UIMainView = Viewports.Center or UIMainView = GUI (if I define an area named GUI) does not have any effect. DCS always displays the Main Menu full screen on my left Display.

 

I also tried the Easy Monitor Configurator. It places everythign where I want to, but also for a LUA file generated by this tool, the Main Menu is always placed on the left screen :(

 

I´ll strip down the LUA a bit, because it also contains the Exports for MFCDs, SHKVAL etc to make it more readable. This is how it looks for example:

_ = function(p) return p; end;
name = _('Testing');
Description = 'Testing'
Viewports =
{
Center =
{
x = 1280;
y = 0;
width = 1920;
height = 1080;
viewDx = 0;
viewDy = 0;
aspect = 1.77777777777778;
}
}

GUI =
{
	x = 1280;
	y = 0;
	width = 1920;
	height = 1080;
}

UIMainView = GUI

 

I also tried to leave out the GUI block and set UIMainView to Viewports.Center, because this Viewport is rendering the Simulation Window perfectly on my right screen. But to no avail.

 

@Quirkitized: When I click on your attachments, the forum tells me that these are invalid and I should contact an Administrator. Does it take a while after an attachment is uploaded until it is available to others?

[Quirkitized]

That's odd. I will check it out and see if I can fix the attachment issue.

 

Edit: I have edited the post to include direct download links. The attachments worked for me to download, not quite sure what the issue is, but just use direct download links

Edited March 16, 2013 by Quirkitized

[buedi]

Thanks! Now that I am in your originial Thread, there I can download the attached files (also the Rapidshare ones of course). Weird :unsure:

I will try this now, since I was not able to get the Full Screen Menu running on my right Screen yet. Let´s see if it does what it should on my side :)

 

Edit: That´s interesting. With your "MissionEditor.lua" I get the Main Menu windowed and can move it around. Now I think I get the idea:

 

The Monitor Setup LUAs

They only change the viewports of the executable which runs the Sim and the Multiplayer Screen.

 

The MissionEditor.lua

You have to edit this one to change the Main Menu, Mission Editor, Campaign Editor, Options and Enzyclopedia Screens to your needs.

 

To achieve what I want in my Monitor Setup I always need to modify a Monitor Setup LUA file and the MissionEditor.lua (in case it gets overwritten in the next Update).

It´s a bit confusing, since the MissionEditor.lua has affect on more than just the "Mission Editor" :-)

Edited March 16, 2013 by buedi

[Kuky]

There is a way to get main menu in windowed mode also (the menu with in game settings, I think this is the one you are referring to) but I can't remember now how to do it, maybe you can dig it up somewhere... edit: actually link Quirkitized provided seems to be it :)

[buedi]

Yes, I tweaked the settings in Quirkitized LUA file a little bit to make the Window slightly bigger. I also tried to make it Full Screen on the right screen, but failed to do so. I think I can "live" with the Windows mode, although I need to drag it over everytime I start it. But it might be useful when editing missions anyway when working with 2 Screens and when I do Multiplayer, the Multiplayer GUI is loaded instantly, which in turn uses the Monitor Config LUAs instead and runs Full Screen out of the Box.

 

I think it´s OK so far. At least I can read everything now which was otherwise hidden behind the Couger MFDs and resulted in a lot of guesswork when clicking on something obstructed :doh:

 

Thanks to both of you, you were of great help :):thumbup:

[JujuMan]

From PerterP's thread...

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1373707&postcount=1

 

This is an instruction how to run the GUI in DCS:World always windowed while the Sim starts fullscreen:

 

 

This is how it's done:

 

 

Navigate to ...\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\MissionEditor

and open the MissionEditor.lua with a proper editor (Notepad++)

 

Make a backup of this file before you change it!!!!!!

 

Than go to line #195

 

and change it from this:

Quote:

return width, height, fullscreen

to this:

Quote:

return 1024, 768, false

1024x768 is an example - You can put in your wished resolution for the windowed GUI.

Just make sure your height is smaller as your over all res e.g. for a screen that is 1080 in height use 1020 - so the Launcher will be windowed .

(subtract always at least the height of the top bar of the window from your overall available height.)

 

Now every-time you start DCS-World the GUI will be windowed in the resolution you have set. But the Simulation will start as set in the options-menu .

[Quirkitized]

Please note the missioneditor.lua file was updated in 1.2.3, it's no longer line 195, its 196. I'll link peters post in the mod thread

[buedi]

I found the correct lines and was able to modify it to me needs. Everything works fine now, thanks for your help :-)

[PeterP]

I´m running a dual Monitor Setup here, placing some displays (SHKVAL, MFCDs etc.) on a 2nd Monitor. The 2nd one is on the left of my Main monitor.

 

As you may be aware, because DCS does not allow negative coordinates to place Windows, I had to make the left one Monitor #1 (in Windows) and my "Main Screen" Monitor #2. That´s not a big deal while in the Sim, because I can place the DCS Simulation Window on my Monitor #2 and the exported Displays on my left Monitor #1.

...

Using the "PhantomMonitorFix" would be the best solution in your case.

You would be able to keep the right monitor as Mainscreen while the DCS simulation is Rendered across both screens.

 

 

Tip - place the exe or a shortcut of it in your startup folder ,

C:\Users\>User Name<\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup to lower your workload .

So it is loaded when your system boots and you don't have to manually start it any more.

Edited March 16, 2013 by PeterP

[buedi]

Thanks PeterP, that´s also a tempting solution. I try to run as less stuff in the Background as possible, so I´ll stick to the "Windowed" solution by tampering with the Monitor Config LUA and the MissionEditor.lua for now.

It runs quite well, now just my new Cougar MFDs should arrive (the new ones were broken after roughly 2 hours of usage), then it would be perfect :pilotfly:

[PeterP]

Don't worry about using up resources... Its footprint is barely measurable.

PhantomMonitorFix only gets active once when DCS switches into simulation mode - and after it it 'sleeps'.

 

 

It Will vastly lower your "preparation time" to start up DCS as you won't have to switch desktop profiles.