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Need help with dual-monitor use (Read 1851 times)
Apr 24th, 2011 at 5:38am

Demious   Offline
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I've been searching a lot of websites about this already, but everything I find is about the use of two monitors and not about the use of true 'dual-monitor' and if anyone could say anything usefull about this, it would be of great help.

I have two monitors set up, this was simple enough, just connect the connectors, do the settings and drag the windows in use to either one of the monitors. In Dutch we would say: a child can do the laundry...
However, every explination I find explains this exact thing, which isnt very helpful at all.

What I got now is my cockpit window on one monitor and GPS/radios/throttle/whatever, on the second, but this feels like walking around with a board at one side of your head all day, which is, simply put, very annoying.

So: How do I extend my main cockpit window over both monitors, so I can create a full left-to-right view of the cockpit?

Using the right-side-view isnt helpful either, since this gives me a V-shaped view on two runways, which of course is not what it should be and both sides still dont work together when panning my view or moving the view possition.
I found a youtube video that shows to simply choose a resolution setting with the span of two monitors, like: 3840x1080(2x1920), but this is not available in my resolution list in FSX.

Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks Smiley
 
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Reply #1 - Apr 24th, 2011 at 6:46am

Steve M   Offline
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I haven't had much luck in getting FSX in full screen mode to stretch across both monitors. I have been using FSX in windowed mode and dragging the window across both screens. I also got best results with 1024 X 768 x 2. Set your resolution in both your control panel and FSX.
 

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Reply #2 - Apr 24th, 2011 at 8:51am

Demious   Offline
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Thanks for your input, Steve. I've been trying to play around with different resolutions now, but it didnt get to the desired results, I'm afraid...
From what I see in one of the videos on youtube, I should be able to find a 3840x1080 resolution(for my monitors native resolution, that is) in my list in FSX, which is double 1920x1080. Also the same ratio in other resolutions, say: 2048x768, isnt there, while that exact one is shown in the video to be in the list.
I also tried to create a new custom resolution, but havent been able to find how to do this, so far.

I do have both my monitors working propperly, in other programs and in FSX, that's not the issue. What I cant find is how to spread my main cockpit window over both monitors, I can drag it from left to right, but it just doesnt want to stretch any further then the size of one monitor.

I've been trying to create a setup with the pilots-view on the left monitor and the passenger-view on the right one, but this only turns into a messy picture.

I see plenty of videos going around, showing what I'm after, so it must be possible and there must be people out there who know how to do this.
 
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Reply #3 - Apr 24th, 2011 at 10:25am

Steve M   Offline
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Ok I follow you now. I am using duelhead2Go so it is done differently. I seem to remember having trouble when both monitors were running straight from my card. Either way it's hooked up I don't think FSX will stretch unless the game is run in windowed mode which is selected via the in game menu bar.  Or at least I can't stretch it any other way.
 

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Flying with twins is a lot of fun..
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Reply #4 - Apr 25th, 2011 at 3:28am

Demious   Offline
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I've got it running in windowed mode and can stretch the outer game window over both screens, but than the cockpit window only spans one monitor, leaving the other half black. And strechting the cockpit window wont go any further.
I do have the extra windows(gps, radio, etc) within the outer window, on the right side, but non of the windows are capable of going bigger than the size of one monitor.
 
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Reply #5 - Apr 30th, 2011 at 2:26pm

richardd43   Offline
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Download Ultramon and see if that will give you what you want.

Quote:
 

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Reply #6 - May 7th, 2011 at 7:56am

Demious   Offline
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It looks pretty nice, but far as I can find, it doesnt do anything more hten I can also do by hand, which is spreading out the main FSX window over both monitors and still the cockpitview subwindow doesnt stretch further then the size of one monitor, unfortunately.

 
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Reply #7 - May 7th, 2011 at 11:54am

westside   Offline
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http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/

This is the solution that has worked for me. It creates exactly what you are describing. I went through all of this and I was the only way at the time. There may be a free version of some software that does the same but with this there is hardware and software involved. I have been using it for at least 2 years and it makes a huge difference.

Peace
Mark
 

...
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Reply #8 - May 15th, 2011 at 5:46am

Demious   Offline
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Before I bought the card, I asked on sevral forums, with several computer experts experts, with nvidia, as well as at the store if the Geforce 460GTX was capable of dual monitor view in FSX and everyone says it is, so it's not the question 'if' this card can do this, the only question is 'how' to do it.
 
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Reply #9 - May 16th, 2011 at 8:18pm

snippyfsxer   Offline
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Demious wrote on May 15th, 2011 at 5:46am:
Before I bought the card, I asked on sevral forums, with several computer experts experts, with nvidia, as well as at the store if the Geforce 460GTX was capable of dual monitor view in FSX and everyone says it is, so it's not the question 'if' this card can do this, the only question is 'how' to do it.


Actually, yes, it is...
Sorry, but you got fooled.  You can plug two monitors into your card, and drag 2D panels back and forth, but if you want your games to genuinely span screens, you either need a Matrox box, or else you need a second video card running in SLI.

ATIs are a different animal, but somebody else can speak about those...
 
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Reply #10 - May 21st, 2011 at 7:47am

Demious   Offline
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Thank for the info Snippy, I'll have a good talk about it with the store that sold it to me.

However, I informed with Matrox and this is what they tell me about their Dual- and Triplehead2go:

"Our GXM solutions  can only show what the video card itself can show."

So since my card cant show that specific dual-monitor-view, the Matrox solutions also cant.
Not sure what those Matrox solutions are made for then, but this is what the creators say...
 
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Reply #11 - May 21st, 2011 at 9:16am

Steve M   Offline
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"Our GXM solutions  can only show what the video card itself can show."




Matrox will display on two or on three screens what your video card can display on one screen. It would be useless to anyone otherwise. The above quote should have been reworded by Matrox.
 

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Flying with twins is a lot of fun..
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Reply #12 - May 21st, 2011 at 1:45pm

snippyfsxer   Offline
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Steve M wrote on May 21st, 2011 at 9:16am:
"Our GXM solutions  can only show what the video card itself can show."




Matrox will display on two or on three screens what your video card can display on one screen. It would be useless to anyone otherwise. The above quote should have been reworded by Matrox. 


Well put.  If we theoretically had a single monitor that was 5040x1050, the single video card would happily display it! 
 
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Reply #13 - May 25th, 2011 at 7:27am

Demious   Offline
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I've seen in a video on youtube how someone used a double-resolution on a geforce 7200 card, but he doesnt explain how he got that in his list.
Now I have been able to create double monitor resolution and get in in the list within FSX even, but with me it doesnt work.

 
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Reply #14 - May 25th, 2011 at 5:01pm

snippyfsxer   Offline
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Demious wrote on May 25th, 2011 at 7:27am:
I've seen in a video on youtube how someone used a double-resolution on a geforce 7200 card, but he doesnt explain how he got that in his list.
Now I have been able to create double monitor resolution and get in in the list within FSX even, but with me it doesnt work.



1) Get a Matrox Box
2) Get another Nvidia card running in SLI, so that you can enable "Surround"
3) Get an ATI Eyefinity card

I don't think there are any other options.
 
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Reply #15 - May 25th, 2011 at 6:20pm

Steve M   Offline
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snippyfsxer wrote on May 25th, 2011 at 5:01pm:
Demious wrote on May 25th, 2011 at 7:27am:
I've seen in a video on youtube how someone used a double-resolution on a geforce 7200 card, but he doesnt explain how he got that in his list.
Now I have been able to create double monitor resolution and get in in the list within FSX even, but with me it doesnt work.



1) Get a Matrox Box
2) Get another Nvidia card running in SLI, so that you can enable "Surround"
3) Get an ATI Eyefinity card

I don't think there are any other options.





I agree with Snippy and add this, No matter how much duct tape you have on hand, you are just going to struggle and end up frustated. Out of the above three suggestions Matrox is the simplest route and is very user friendly. If Matrox slowed my FSX by by one or two frames per second, I haven't noticed yet. My sig is a Matrox dualscreen shot very heavily compressed to fit in the sig space but it's still not to bad. Matrox software doesn't ask your vid card to do any thing more than it was doing, other than use a higher resolution. Once your vid card spits out the info through its output port (VGA or whatever), it has no idea whether  Matrox is hooked up or one monitor is hooked up.    
 

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Flying with twins is a lot of fun..
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Reply #16 - Jun 2nd, 2011 at 4:01pm

Solid   Offline
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Demious wrote on Apr 25th, 2011 at 3:28am:
I've got it running in windowed mode and can stretch the outer game window over both screens, but than the cockpit window only spans one monitor, leaving the other half black. And strechting the cockpit window wont go any further.
I do have the extra windows(gps, radio, etc) within the outer window, on the right side, but non of the windows are capable of going bigger than the size of one monitor.


I have been using Nvidia cards for about three years and two monitors. On the Nvidia control panel for 32bit machines you will find a setting that lets you stretch horizontally  the view to both monitors, that is they act as one long one. FSX or FS9 works perfectly and look great. Its totaly automatic. Now if you have a 64 bit machine the control panel which I just found out  since I got a new machine last night is very troublesome and not as clear as the 32 bit one. I am just having what you mention with the new 64 bit machine, win7 and the Nvidia 460SE...I had to get to work so I could not fiddle with the problem too much but I suspect its all a question of playing around with the resolution, if I get it right I´ll drop you a note tonight.... Shocked Shocked
 

Gera
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