Multiscreen

[nandrews 4]

I have to admit being slightly green on this subject. Even though I bought a 'triple head' system (3 x 9800GTX) with this development in mind.But I believe it still needs Nvidia to produce suitable drivers to run the three screensIf anyone can give me a brief idea how close this might be and what else I might need (apart from another two monitors!)My dream is to have a system which shows two forward windows and one Capt side window. From my 'realworld' aircraft simulator experience, the boost this gives to the realism is approaching 100%!ThanksNigel

[january 19]

I have to admit being slightly green on this subject. Even though I bought a 'triple head' system (3 x 9800GTX) with this development in mind.But I believe it still needs Nvidia to produce suitable drivers to run the three screensIf anyone can give me a brief idea how close this might be and what else I might need (apart from another two monitors!)My dream is to have a system which shows two forward windows and one Capt side window. From my 'realworld' aircraft simulator experience, the boost this gives to the realism is approaching 100%!ThanksNigel

-------------------Nigel- I quite agree with your comment re the increase to realism with a wide Field Of View! I've been running triple monitors with synched views-LFwd,Fwd,RFwd for several years- and the result is so significant that I regard this as THE number one add on for FS. If you fly virtual cockpit, TH2Go is the way to go- but be aware that it simply stretches View Fwd (and the virtual panel) across three monitors. You still have only 45

[nandrews 4]

Alex,Many thanks for the long and detailed description of your system, it certainly looks well set up.I would be interested to see if I can emulate, or even improve on yours. As I am running FSX on Vista64, with three cards I believe I should be able to.I should be able to use the power of the the GPU's to get an overall better performance with 3 views, than just the one. Though of course the one CPU will still prevent me actually getting 3x better.The Matrox solution would seem to provide for those wth just the one card and enable the one display to be split, or as you say spread, across more (3).I would naturally look to add-on one monitor to each card (tho' for cost I might opt for a smaller size than the main one for the side view).But my concern is that the configuration will still only effectively spread the current view across the 3 displays. I am not convinced yet that it will be sending the specific view direction and angle to each monitor.Your photo attached does look very impressive but presumably in a 'busy' situation you are not able to realise any greater complexity in FS2004 than you would with one display.I have wondered if I ought to consider the different situations between flying a large and small aircraft. The airline configuration might be as you say Forward (L and R) and side window (L). Whereas with a GA single it might be better to have one forward with two side windows (L and R).Thanks again.NigelP.S. One of the risks associated with the simulation of movement is motion sickness. I wonder if in your sim flying you have ever experienced this? In my work with real flight simulators this was one of the hazards when flying the visuals with the motion turned off!

[january 19]

Alex,Many thanks for the long and detailed description of your system, it certainly looks well set up.I would be interested to see if I can emulate, or even improve on yours. As I am running FSX on Vista64, with three cards I believe I should be able to.I should be able to use the power of the the GPU's to get an overall better performance with 3 views, than just the one. Though of course the one CPU will still prevent me actually getting 3x better.The Matrox solution would seem to provide for those wth just the one card and enable the one display to be split, or as you say spread, across more (3).I would naturally look to add-on one monitor to each card (tho' for cost I might opt for a smaller size than the main one for the side view).But my concern is that the configuration will still only effectively spread the current view across the 3 displays. I am not convinced yet that it will be sending the specific view direction and angle to each monitor.Your photo attached does look very impressive but presumably in a 'busy' situation you are not able to realise any greater complexity in FS2004 than you would with one display.I have wondered if I ought to consider the different situations between flying a large and small aircraft. The airline configuration might be as you say Forward (L and R) and side window (L). Whereas with a GA single it might be better to have one forward with two side windows (L and R).Thanks again.NigelP.S. One of the risks associated with the simulation of movement is motion sickness. I wonder if in your sim flying you have ever experienced this? In my work with real flight simulators this was one of the hazards when flying the visuals with the motion turned off!

-------------------------------Hi Nigel- I can't speak for FSX or Vista- like a Timex watch, my FS9 on XP just keeps on ticking. I have seen triple views running in FSX and I understand that the bezel synch is carried out in Config by altering "camera" angles. Beyond that I have no expertise there.-----The performance limiting factor is not really the GPUs but your CPU. You can only compute & update one image at a time- and therefore, the other two view images are always static or unchanging! This has a tremendous smoothing effect in terms of what your eyes/brain see. In a very complex situation such as a night final approach at KLAX, indicated FPS can drop as low as 7- yet the whole thing is smooth and quite flyable. (this on an ancient AMD 1.8 with GeForce FX5200 GPUs) The only negative is that nearby objects such as blue runway lights flashing past wingtips, will have a chatter or flicker. (remember that 145

[nandrews 4]

Alex,Thanks again for another full and detailed reply.I haven't yet looked at my configuration to see how I can start setting this up.So, excuse a question with what maybe a very obvious answer. I am still not understanding how you are able to specify in FS your seperate view directions (3 in your case) and have them directed to the specific monitor for that view?I have a couple of analog CRT's which I will try alongside the flatscreen and see how I get on. But I may not find the time to do this until next week.Your second picture certainly is inspiring me to try and set this up.Nigel

[january 19]

Alex,Thanks again for another full and detailed reply.I haven't yet looked at my configuration to see how I can start setting this up.So, excuse a question with what maybe a very obvious answer. I am still not understanding how you are able to specify in FS your seperate view directions (3 in your case) and have them directed to the specific monitor for that view?I have a couple of analog CRT's which I will try alongside the flatscreen and see how I get on. But I may not find the time to do this until next week.Your second picture certainly is inspiring me to try and set this up.Nigel

--------------------Nigel- the following applies to FS9/Win XP. Should be someting similar or eqiv. for FSX- BUT I'm not sure about VISTA- seems I read somewhere that Vista doesn't like multi mons.------------Triple mon Desktop is set up in Control Panel/Display/Settings. Here you configure the monitors so that they are all one wide desktop- the mouse cursor can be dragged from far left to extreme right- across all 3 mons.Now to create a new view- key [ and a small new view appears overlaid on main view. Right click on it and undock. Drag that new view over to say left secondary mon and then drag the edges to fill it out to the size you want. Click on that view to set the Focus to that mon. With Num Lock On, key control+num KB 7. Bingo- you now have the left mon set to View Left Fwd. The num keys 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 represent the different FS views. Keying 7, (for ex.) sets the view as long as you hold the key down- Control locks it in place. If you change the FS assignments and substitute Shift for Control, a single key press on 7 both sets the view AND locks it.Mixing LCds and CRTs works just fine- you might wish to play with colour balancing. There is also a fairly simple way to shift the angle of the outer views to adjust and allow for the width(s) of the monitor bezels. This is what blends the three views into what your eyes/brain see as a sigle image. I won't get into this right now- separate topic.Hope this helps.Alex Reid

[nandrews 4]

Alex,Just a progress report. I have set up a 17in CRT as a left quarter view and flown it a bit.I have yet to position it more precisely - raising it 8 ins and abutting to the flat panel.I have used the '7' key and then pan to adjust the direction. Not saved the view configuration as a flight yet.It feels good, but I need to get the monitor position adjusted to test it properly.The display does seem to step more obviously than I have seen before, but again I need to be a bit more scientific in my measurement. The frame rate (Shift Z) still didn't look bad so maybe this is the processor struggling. I am just getting into over-clocking and have someway to go with that hopefully.Thanks for your advice.Nigel

[january 19]

Alex,Just a progress report. I have set up a 17in CRT as a left quarter view and flown it a bit.I have yet to position it more precisely - raising it 8 ins and abutting to the flat panel.I have used the '7' key and then pan to adjust the direction. Not saved the view configuration as a flight yet.It feels good, but I need to get the monitor position adjusted to test it properly.The display does seem to step more obviously than I have seen before, but again I need to be a bit more scientific in my measurement. The frame rate (Shift Z) still didn't look bad so maybe this is the processor struggling. I am just getting into over-clocking and have someway to go with that hopefully.Nigel

-----------------Nigel- sounds like you are making progress! Have a look in the AVSIM FS2004/FS9 Forum- Topic: "Add on Scenery Recommendation". I posted a pic there today which shows the monitor positions quite well.Essentially, you want to physically set up the mons so the top edges of the screens are in line. The View Fwd Left/Right monitors should be angled toward you so that they are square to your line of vision. This will be about a 30-45