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jerryuscg

Is this 1 or 3 differant views

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Good to know Alex. I've got an ATI x1300 Pro sitting on my shelf at home that ain't doin' nuthin', and tonight we'll see what it can do for me!Like I said, I don't know much about crossfire technology but I suspect someone here will chime in about it soon and how it impacts FS2004.I love my 3 panel set up, and I can't believe I ever flew any other way. My biggest problem lately, though, is that I can't get enough monitors. Must have more monitors! I feel like I'm soon going to need to check in to Multi-View Rehab or something.Smooth skies!Chuck

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Chuck- I'm not quite sure what you're saying re pan--etc.The view angle adjustment for bezel width in multi views is done with the Panel Config line-VIEW_FORWARD_RIGHT(or left)_DIR=x.xxx, y.yyy, z.zzzz is the starting angle for the view- default being 45.000 for RFwd. In my case, with a combined bezel width of 3 3/8", that equates (for my eye to bezel distance), to an angle of 9

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All I'm saying, Alex, is that I don't bother with the Panel.cfg file any more. With the above mentioned pan in 2D view added to my FS9.cfg file, I simply use the hat switch so I just open up my two views on my two monitors side by side and then line thme up visually, and then save the flight. That way, there's no need for me to keep going back and forth monitoring my progress with changes to the panel.cfg files of my various aircraft - I found that my math was always just a little off and I would need to fine tune my adjustments.Mine is just a manual variation of what you do -- it only takes me about 30 seconds at the beginning of each flight.Smooth skies!Chuck B.

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Here you go. 1 computer. 1 AGP card, 1 PCI card, 4 monitors. Simple. Center view, Forward left, forward right views and panel view (or whatever pop up U want there). 2d only for me. Just a few tweaks (thanks to Alex) to whatever panel.cfg plane and you're off. Once you fiddle with it once, just copy paste the lines into whatever plane you want to fly. Pardon the simpit, its not finished yet.BTW, the PCI card was $56.00 and I had the other monitors laying around.http://eecherrors.homestead.com/pit17.jpg http://eecherrors.homestead.com/monitor3.jpghttp://eecherrors.homestead.com/pit14.jpghttp://eecherrors.homestead.com/pit12.jpghttp://eecherrors.homestead.com/pit15.jpghttp://eecherrors.homestead.com/pit18.jpg

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Kimchoc- Great pics / terrific cockpit!! I'm delighted it works so well for you. What are your processor,vid card specs?There's a widespread view (excuse the pun) that multi views are not possible without networked multi processors- here's proof that there is nothing magical in this- one CPU does all! Once you've tried multi views & a 180

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Kimchoc: Just to benchmark my rig, what kind of frame rates do you get on that one computer? Are you running any "stressful" addons like ActiveSky, Ultimate Terrain, PMDG, or anything like that?Thanks for any specifics you can provide so I can know if something's wrong with my set up.Thanks, and smooth skies!Chuck B.

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AMD 3400, 754 platform, 1 GB ram, RAID0, ATI 1900 AGP, cant remember the PCI card but it is ATI also.I am probably mid to a little lower in video settings. The biggest FPS killer was AI traffic. I had to turn down to 17%. But actually,its a decent tradeoff. I Locked the FPS at 22 and of course get that while in the air. Same old story, get near busy airport, FPS hits the skids. I'd say medium settings for video is about right for me. No extras, I run Flightkeeper, FDC and AIsmooth. I did install a separate sound card to free up every inch of processor speed. Nothing overclocked. I used to run THIS setup :http://www.eecherrors.homestead.com/updown.jpghttp://www.eecherrors.homestead.com/controls.jpghttp://www.eecherrors.homestead.com/latestpic.jpgI could get a lot more FPS with that as I only used the AGP card. But for the price of a PCI and two more monitors, I have a nicer setup. Its ALL about the panoramic view. Once you go towards that direction, you cant fly with one monitor any more. You have to think ahead and plan on going to Matrox Trip head OR several computers. I am staying away from networked computers because I get irrate and terribly mad when I spend 30 mins setting up a flight and taxi to the runway and the #### game CTD's to the desktop. I made a vow to keep it simple. No networked computers. Where to go from here? well, dual core processor, more ram, and maybe a Matrox Trip head. But that is simply on the upgrade path. As we all know, its a constant upgrade to fly MSFA. Hope this helps.

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Chuck- Re your query to Kimchoc- Multi View FPS. My system is likely the oldest/ lowest powered hardware around- I would expect newer, faster 'puters to perform substantially better.- AMD XP2200 1.8 GHZ, 1.28 GB RAM, Dual head AGP GeForceFX5200 vid & a single head PCI GeForceFX5200 vid card. One 17" LCD & 2 19" CRTs. I'm expecting a call soon from the Smithsonian museum!!I run FS9 with mid range settings, Autogen Off, AI low and Ultimate Terrain/Canada-Alaska-USA full blast.PMDG 737,747,ATR 72,DreamFleet Baron 58 & Fokker 100 all run nicely in 2D on triple monitors. Generally all Pop ups are open and spread across the secondary monitors along with Kneeboard as rqd. With PMDG 747, the Overhead and COM panels slow performance and take up a lot of screen space so I bring them up as req'd. However both CDUs are usually displayed- quite handy to have route on one and approach on the other! These are located one on either side of the lower EICAS on right mon- just like the real McCoy. Performance: Generally in the range of 13-25 FPS. AT night at major airports with U/T lights everywhere, or in heavy cloud, FPS can drop below 10 and NEARBY OBJECTS (runway lights,clouds) will have frame to frame movement visible. NOT a stutter- more like an old movie film running a bit slow. For whatever it's worth, I can't see any quality difference between 15 and 25 FPS. Remarkably, the flight dynamics are not affected and aircraft are quite flyable right down to 5 FPS !! I can't prove it, but I think the displayed FPS is actually 1/3 of the real processor rate!! I've learned to turn off FPS display and totally ignore it. The secret to eliminate stutters and give each monitor an equal opportunity for vid data, was to retard 2 notches, the Hdwe Accel sliders for the secondary monitors. EUREKA!!!! SSMMOOTTHH.Cheers Alex Reid CYYJ

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Thanks! And I remember those pics of your first cockpit from an earlier thread -- I think it was in the hardware forum. And you're right -- I could never go back to single screen flying, even with my TrackIR Pro!As I said earlier, I've recently made a conscious decision to pass on the Triple Head to Go for now and will stick with my 2 networked computers and WideView. I have a LOT of addons, complex payware and freeware sceneries, and I run AI at 100% ALL THE TIME. My Frame Rates are locked at 25 and the counter never drops below 24.8 FPS, all of which indicates to me that my set up is running well. I know for a fact that stretching a desktop to over 3000 x 1210 with 3 or 4 different views open and running in Flight Simulator 2004 is going to take a toll on FRs or quality somewhere (I can't imagine how FSX would do!), and I'd still have to spend some time doing some view alignment with the new bezel management software. I'm not saying I'd never buy TripH2Go, not at all is that what I'm saying, but at least not until my 18 month old Celeron bites the bullet -- which hopefully won't be for a while. BTW, a CTD usually indicates a more serious problem in your installation -- a bad file, or something. Given your lack of addons if it happens a lot you may simply just be stressing your computer a bit more than it can handle.In any event, you can get a free program here in the Avsim library called Auto Save or AutoSave or something like that (I'm not at home right now so I can't look) -- you can set it to automatically save your flights at regular intervals. I've got mine set up to save every 60 seconds -- I may not get too many CTDs, but I am on occasion prone to bad approaches! ;-)Good luck, and smooth skies.Chuck B

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>>The secret to eliminate stutters and give each monitor an equal >>opportunity for vid data, was to retard 2 notches, the Hdwe Accel >>sliders for the secondary monitors. EUREKA!!!! SSMMOOTTHH.What a great idea Alex! I can't wait to try it tonight or this weekend. You sound like you get great performance, and I don't think you're system is quite Smithsonian ready yet! I too generally turn off the FR counter, but unfortunately it's the benchmark we have grown to use to communicate "smoothness of flying experience" with one another across these forums, and it is something I pay attention to. But of course, I don't have to tell YOU that.Also, unfortunately, I _can_ tell the difference once my sim drops below 14 FPS or so, and when it ever got below 10, forget it! To my eyes, it's like trying to land using a slide show and THAT is a tough assignment for me. It never does that now, due to my new dual core and networked WideView set up, so I feel I've done my best with the most economical solutions currently available to me.One thing is for certain: there ain't NUTHIN' like 180 degree field of view flying.

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Re Your Quote Chuck- "One thing is for certain: there ain't NUTHIN' like 180 degree field of view flying." As I've said before- Try driving your car with a single 19" LCD replacing your windshield and side windows !!!!Cheers Alex Reid

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i'd been using TrackIR and a dual monitor setup for a while. one monitor was used for the VC view, and the other was used for panels, gauges, etc. but recently, my fiancee got me a third monitor for my birthday, and my parents got me the TH2GO. i can't even begin to express how much the expanded field of view changes everything. plus, the added degrees of freedom that the TrackIR gives makes it even better.the monitors i have are actually three different models. ideally, i guess it would be good to have three of the same exact monitors, but not absolutely necessary. at the very least, you should get three monitors of the same size, which is what i have (3 x 19" widescreens). obviously, the bezels do get in the way and obstruct the total field of view. but i find that once i'm flying, this isn't an issue as i become so immersed in what's going on.i was afraid at first that the larger resolution would bog things down, but really i haven't noticed any reduction in FPS. i have it locked at 25 FPS and with default aircraft at default airports, it maxes out. with an aircraft such as the LDS767 at an add-on airport like ImagineSim's KCVG, i still get anywhere between 15 to 18 FPS on the ground. of course, once in the air, it steadily increases and maxes out during cruise.the only problem i ran into was that the TH2GO does not play nicely with ATI cards. i was using an X1950PRO AGP card, but i picked up an eVGA 7800GS CO for pretty cheap and run FS2004 at a resolution of 3840x768. i can't tell you how it performs with FSX since my computer is aging pretty fast.if anyone would like to see how this setup works, i shot a couple of videos that you can view here:http://virtualskies.ulmb.com/th2go.htmand just as a reference, here are my computer specs:Asus P4P800SE MotherboardIntel Pentium 4 CPU [3.0GHz (OC

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skeurton -- Is that the analog or digital version of 3HTOGO you're using? Currently, I have 2 different monitor sizes in use, and that makes a difference. Do you ever fly in 2D panel view? (Another thing that's been holding me back is "panel stretch" in 2D view and there's supposed to be a way to compensate but I'm not sure what the procedure is).If that's the analog version, I may need to reconsider! But then what would I do with my 2 nd computer? :-)

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hey Chuck-- it's the analog version. i would have liked to get the digital version, but it was a present and i wasn't about to turn it down! apparently, most places are out of stock of the digital version anyway.i don't really fly in 2D that much since i like to use my TrackIR. but i occasionally do like to bring up the 2D panels to make things easier. you are correct in saying that the panels are stretched out, but the easiest way to fix them is to just resize them within FS. for instance, when flying the LDS767, i like to bring up the 2D overhead panel. when i hit Shift+5 to bring it up, it's stretched out across the screen. all you have to do is find the left or right border and click and drag it to resize it. then, if i close it and bring it back up again, it's already resized the way i want it.i believe there's a way to do this in the panel.cfg files, but i'm not sure how.as for what to do with your 2nd pc, i say turn it into a Media Center PC. that's what i did and i don't regret it one bit. i haven't watched a commercial in god knows how long! :)

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Hi, skeurton! Thanks for the info -- I couldn't understand why you couldn't just resize the 2D panel that way.Here's the pictures that ultimately made me decide to pass to the triple head to go -- lauding the importance of their bezel management software, available ONLY on the digital version, which I can't use because I have 2 different size monitors. (Keep in mind this is from their OWN website!)Without Digital Edition Bezel Management software:<< http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/commo...zel_without.jpg >>With Digital Edition Bezel Management software:<< http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/commo...sbezel_with.jpg >>You don't experience this inherent misalignment? Even in 2D view? If you don't, I'm on their website to buy today!!

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