Triple Monitor problems in FSX

[betelgeuse 41]

I am running FSX Gold in W7 x64 with i7 Ivybridge 4000 Ghz o/c watercooled; 8GB DDR3; Nvidia 670GTX 4GB (301.42 driver).

 

I am attempting to set up surround view with three NEC monitors 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz). Connections are DVI - DVI x2 and DisplayPort - DisplayPort.

 

Using default Cessna, the problems are:

 

1. Unable to get accurate vertical bezel correction - horizontal is good. I read somewhere that the 'camera' settings in FSX can be used to adjust the bezel but where are these settings to be found?

2. Constant flickering cursor - a sign of impending doom (BSD) in my experience.

3. Main panel gone AWOL.

4. Pop-up panels wildly out of scale.

5. No 2D cockpit - yep, I'm an old dog with old habits.

 

Is there a quick fix for these problems? If not, where to start?

 

Finally, is it possible to set up FSX in windowed mode to run across three screens using Alex Reid's ("january") method for FS9? This involves creating FWD_Left and FWD_Right windows in each aircraft's panel.cfg and scaling these as per the panel SDK. Lots of trial and error but once done it works like a dream for me with very little frame-rate impact.

 

I'd be mighty grateful for advice.

[gboz 157]

I'd be mighty grateful for advice.

 

So John you have run the NV surround bezel setup routine and created your custom surround resolution and selected that in FSX?

 

gb.

[OldFlyboy 30]

Dunno how helpful this is but::

Whenever I press a key combo for a panel that is not available then the cursor begins the "hourglass/pointer" jitters. In my case it is Shift+1. Most of my sims do not have that panel. The only fix was to change its assignment.

I have still been unable to get bezel correction to work properly. It looks good during the calibration phase but not so once FSX is loaded. I use the "bezel corrected" resolution both in Win7 and FSX but it is still not too good.

Pop-up panels can be rescaled in the PANEL.CFG file. There are explanations about how to do it on several forums...I believe Bert Pieke posted instructions. Check his posts. he is an expert with panels.

There is an excellent little program that clears the screen of the upper menu bar (you can hide the bottom) to make Windows mode FSX look normal. I will post the info as soon as I get back to my FSX PC.

[realkewl 3]

I did bezel correction in NV settings and it gave me a new resolution, you'll need to select that new resolution in FSX graphics settings.

 

Vertical alignment will not be correct because your side monitors shows your image closer than your center monitor. FSX widescreen support was an after thought, IMO. At first I was hoping to have a wrap around view, but instead arrange monitors in a line. Not sure if that's what you're seeing.

 

Also, make sure FSX widescreen is enabled.

 

2D panel do not work in widescren, that's a known issue.

 

-Ray

[betelgeuse 41]

Thanks very much to all for advice.

 

I set the bezel using Nvidia surround configuration. I didn't realise that to complete the configuration in FSX that I had to set a new resolution. I have several resolutions in the list now so I suppose it is trial and errror. If this involves reducing the resolution below 5700 x 1200 then that's pretty disappointing!

 

The madly spinning cursor is the first thing I see when I use the 'span' configure routine and then open the default FSX flight. It happens before I open any panel.

 

Re. vertical alignment. I have my three monitors arranged in an approx 150 degree 'semicircle' with me at the centre around 30 inches from the middle screen. I tried putting the screens in a straight line (180 deg) but it was no better. Other folks can get three, four and five monitors to align vertically and horizontally in FSX so it's not impossible!

 

I realise that FSX was not created with multiscreen in mind but I have seen some superb setups at shows so there must be a way of doing it! Maybe I need WideView?

[realkewl 3]

Keep us posted if you get the veritcal working. Oh, and your resolution will be less than 5700 width wise, not height.

 

-Ray

[ronski 1]

To get the 2D main instrument panel ( and others ) to show correctly across 3 screens, you need to reduce the width of the panel by 1/3.

They won't display correctly across such a wide screen and cause the 'wait' curser to spin, etc.

 

Search the Avsim Library for 'FSX-Triplewide panel fix' by George V. Trovato. he did all panels for all default aircraft including the mini panels. Also has readme file which explains how to do it.

 

 

Ron.

[gboz 157]

Thanks very much to all for advice.

 

I set the bezel using Nvidia surround configuration. I didn't realise that to complete the configuration in FSX that I had to set a new resolution. I have several resolutions in the list now so I suppose it is trial and errror. If this involves reducing the resolution below 5700 x 1200 then that's pretty disappointing!

 

The madly spinning cursor is the first thing I see when I use the 'span' configure routine and then open the default FSX flight. It happens before I open any panel.

 

Re. vertical alignment. I have my three monitors arranged in an approx 150 degree 'semicircle' with me at the centre around 30 inches from the middle screen. I tried putting the screens in a straight line (180 deg) but it was no better. Other folks can get three, four and five monitors to align vertically and horizontally in FSX so it's not impossible!

 

I realise that FSX was not created with multiscreen in mind but I have seen some superb setups at shows so there must be a way of doing it! Maybe I need WideView?

 

The new bevel adjusted horizonal resolution will be greater than the native 1920x3 ( 5760).

You will find it is around 6000 if you keep the same 1200 verticle res..

There Is no need for trial and error, just pick the largest horizontal resolution x 1200 listed in FSX.

 

With the NV bezel setup routine there is no independent setting of verticle and horizontal positions.

It sets both at the same time.

If your verticle alignment is out in FSX then bezel management is just not working.

For me bezel management would work in Full Sceen mode but not Windowed.

Other people have no trouble with either.

 

gb.

 

[betelgeuse 41]

To get the 2D main instrument panel ( and others ) to show correctly across 3 screens, you need to reduce the width of the panel by 1/3.

They won't display correctly across such a wide screen and cause the 'wait' curser to spin, etc.

 

Search the Avsim Library for 'FSX-Triplewide panel fix' by George V. Trovato. he did all panels for all default aircraft including the mini panels. Also has readme file which explains how to do it.

 

 

Ron.

 

Thanks, Ron. I've been in touch with George. He's taking me through it. As usual the community comes up trumps!

 

The new bevel adjusted horizonal resolution will be greater than the native 1920x3 ( 5760).

You will find it is around 6000 if you keep the same 1200 verticle res..

There Is no need for trial and error, just pick the largest horizontal resolution x 1200 listed in FSX.

 

With the NV bezel setup routine there is no independent setting of verticle and horizontal positions.

It sets both at the same time.

If your verticle alignment is out in FSX then bezel management is just not working.

For me bezel management would work in Full Sceen mode but not Windowed.

Other people have no trouble with either.

 

gb.

 

I'm away from my setup till later in the week. I tried bezel management in Full Screen and used the largest 6000+ at 1200 vert. As I said, the horizontal alignment was very good but the vertical was quite badly 'out'. I will try again when I get home Thursday.

 

Thanks very much for your help.

[OldFlyboy 30]

If you want to run in Windowed mode (and sometimes it is nice for testing/settings/etc. Here is a very good program , freeware,

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm

It will clear/toggle all borders in windowed mode to give the appearance of full screen.

[Mike_CFII_MEL 789]

Hi,

 

That's not true, all you need to do is edit your panel.cfg file and change all of the 2D panel (window_size) settings to what's shown below.

 

For example:

 

[Window??]

window_size=1.000, 1.000

 

change to

 

[Window??]

window_size=0.333, 1.000

 

This will fix the flashing curser when you toggle through your panels and open a 2D panel.

 

I'm running a triple monitor setup at a resolution of 5760x1200x32 on three Samsung SyncMaster T260HD monitors. The sim displays my adjusted/modified/moved 2D panels just fine.

 

2D panel do not work in widescren, that's a known issue.

-Ray

[realkewl 3]

That's not true, all you need to do is edit your panel.cfg file and change all of the 2D panel (window_size) settings to what's shown below.

 

Ah...thanks for the correction. I did not know that. I'll have to give it a try. Also, is this panel.cfg per aircraft or is there an overall panel.cfg for fsx?

 

-Ray

[Mike_CFII_MEL 789]

Hi,

 

This must be done for every aircraft.

 

is this panel.cfg per aircraft or is there an overall panel.cfg for fsx?

-Ray

[betelgeuse 41]

Thanks, Neal, Mike_CFII, Ray, this is interesting stuff and very encouraging. I can't wait now to get back Thursday and experiment with these suggestions, plus George's.

 

John

[betelgeuse 41]

Keep us posted if you get the veritcal working. Oh, and your resolution will be less than 5700 width wise, not height.

 

-Ray

 

I got it working. I'l lay it out in steps for others, like me, who are not too savvy about these things. The objective was to get three screens running in FSX in Full Screen Mode. Check my original post.

 

The first thing is to have three identical monitors (1920 x 1200; 60 Hz). Then, a graphics card with three screen outputs. These must be DVI or DisplayPort, perhaps HDMI. VGA outputs will not work. I use an Nvidia GTX670 and what follows is for Nvidia cards only. I run Windows 7 but I guess it will work the same in XP.

 

1. On the desktop right click and go to 'screen resolution'. Check that three screens are showing and that these are ID 1,2,3 showing 1920 x 1200 resolution. Make sure they are in Landscape and that each shows 'Extend desktop to this display'. If all is well, close this and go back to Desktop.

 

2. Right click and go to Nvidia Control Panel. Go to 'Set up Multiple Displays'. Make sure three green screens are showing in landscape mode and that the centre screen has a star to show it is the primary display. It should be possible to move the mouse cursor from right to left across all three screens. This is very important. If you can't do this you must re-arrange the screens until you can. Put the cursor over one of the screens - it will become a 'move' hand. Drag the screens around until you can move the cursor across all three screens.

 

3. Go up the menu to 'Configure Surround, Phys X'. Check the box 'Span displays with Surround'. Click 'configure'. In the popup box all three monitors should show green with white check-marks. Click Apply.

 

Now the fun starts.

 

4. You should now have one display stretching across all three monitors. Don't worry if your desktop is on the far left. That is where it is meant to be. The three screens should show IDs: 2, 3, 1 or whatever. Check again that you can move your mouse cursor across the entire display. If not use the popup box to rearrange the individual monitors. When you are okay with that, click Apply.

 

5. A bezel correction popup box appears. The bezel is the plastic frame around the monitor screen. You need to allow for this when setting up the display so that the scenery is continuous behind the bezel. Otherwise things look very strange. So, click 'Yes, add special resolutions'.

 

6. A road will appear with markings spanning the first two monitors. Move the pop up box out of the way if you cannot see this properly. Use the setting button between the left and centre screen to make adjustments so that the road is correctly lined up. My setting is 110 but this will vary according to the width of the bezels. (Make sure the monitors are touching and at the same horizontal level). When done, click on the button between the centre and right screen to bring up another road. Repeat the alignment. When satisfied, click 'Create Resolutions'. On the next popup click 'Add or Remove resolutions'.

 

What has happened in 6 is that the display resolution has been changed in the horizontal mode to take account of the width of the monitor bezels. So instead of 1920 x 3 = 5760 it will be slightly more than that. The vertical mode remains unchanged at 1200.

 

7. This part can be awkward. In this popup you must choose your new resolution and move it from 'inactive' to 'active'. If like me, you experimented a bit you will have some strange inactive resolutions. Scroll down that list and find one which shows a figure greater than 5760 (x 1200). Do not use any vertical value except x1200. When you find a screen resolution which fits this, move it across to the active side using the arrow. Make a note of this resolution - mine is 5971 x 1200. Click OK.

 

8. Close the Control Panel and run FSX.

 

9. Create a flight at some sparse scenery airport. Use virtual cockpit. Go to Options/Settings/Display. Under 'Full Screen Resolution' find the resolution you created and which you made a note of under 7. Mine is 5971 x 1200 x 32. Select this and click OK.

 

10. You should now be sitting in a virtual cockpit with a surround view which aligns accurately between the monitors. If the matching between your screens is not quite right, you can reset the bezel correction. Go back to the Control Panel and start again at 3.

 

I hope this helps. Apologies to the many on these boards who know all this already. I thought it might help folks like myself who had to gather information in bits and pieces from a variety of sources.

 

Now I must sort out my 2D panels. :smile: