Two Screens - One for VC other For instruments

[Guest jaskanFactor]

My systemVista64i7920 ramps up to 3.6Gigs when needed6 gig triple channel ram650 watt power supplynvidia gtx 285 not sli or crossfirenvidia gtx 9600 not sli or crossfiremonitors 24inch viewsonic @1280/1024 19 inch Belnea @1280/1024----------------------------------------------------------------First This Has nothing to do with external views, just looking for a non fps halfing way to have main fsx on one screen, and a second monitor solution where i can drop my gauges, that is all.I have been running tests with saved flight of pmdg 7471 - With 1 monitor, my fps is about 15 - 20, many sliders to the right. This on the ground.2 - With Both monitors running from gtx285, fps is about 10 or less, note: all this is on the ground.3 - With 24inch running from gtx 285, and other from gtx9600, the frames are still 10fps or less, no noticeable chnage in running gauge monitor from seperate gpu.4 --MaxiVista does not work for vista64, so cant use that.5 - I hear WideView is for external vies only, and dont really want to load myself with 2 installs of fsx, etc.6 - I have messed around with the multi/single gpu modes in nvidia control panel 3d setting, but does not seem to affect the low frames am getting with both monitors running, either from same gpu or each screen running from dedicated gpu.So what is the best way to go about getting Main FSX screen, and guages screen, without halfing your frame rates.The fps only increases slightly when i go into fullscreen mode, but as soon i drop the 2d panel on my gauges screen, fps drops to even 6fps sometimes.Considering, Running on single monitor i average 20fps or more in same situation.Please advice as to how to solve this, cause i have a spare pc i could off load to, but cant seem to get the right technology. I am looking to stick with a solution where i can just drop the gauges or panels from any aircraft to second screen, be it on same pc or not. Without the massive hit on frame rates

[TPerson 15]

The fps only increases slightly when i go into fullscreen mode, but as soon i drop the 2d panel on my gauges screen, fps drops to even 6fps sometimes.Considering, Running on single monitor i average 20fps or more in same situation.

It appears you have two separate video cards and running Vista 64 right? I had the same above problem with two separate cards and Vista 64 and the problem was I could not have the second monitor (for gauges or other FS windows) connected to the second video card. To keep from getting a frame rate drop you have to hook your second monitor to the same video card. FSX (and FS9) running in Vista 64 do not like other windows dragged to another monitor that isn't running on the same video card. I know it makes the second video card useless but that's how it seems to work in Vista 64. You could still drag other programs like a moving map, or ActiveSky, etc. to another monitor hooked to the second video card and that would not affect FSX fps performance.Todd

[shermank 166]

It appears you have two separate video cards and running Vista 64 right? I had the same above problem with two separate cards and Vista 64 and the problem was I could not have the second monitor (for gauges or other FS windows) connected to the second video card. To keep from getting a frame rate drop you have to hook your second monitor to the same video card. FSX (and FS9) running in Vista 64 do not like other windows dragged to another monitor that isn't running on the same video card. I know it makes the second video card useless but that's how it seems to work in Vista 64. You could still drag other programs like a moving map, or ActiveSky, etc. to another monitor hooked to the second video card and that would not affect FSX fps performance.Todd

the same is true for XP Home. I run two monitors with guages on the 2nd using a single nvidia 8800gt card with halg a gig of ram...works fine for me...no noticable fps hit.Sherm

[january 19]

the same is true for XP Home. I run two monitors with guages on the 2nd using a single nvidia 8800gt card with halg a gig of ram...works fine for me...no noticable fps hit.Sherm

--------------Sherm - But XP also allows use of a 2nd card! I run 2 mons with 2 different views on an AGP GeForceFX5200 card and a second PCI FX5200 card drives a third view. The three views are synched together in Panel Config to provide what your eyes see as a single 45" wide image- 145

[Guest santiagoluib3]

Hi All, I have a question. I am also considering getting a second monitor (or maybe a third for that matter).Granted the 3 monitors are now synched to give that 145-degree field of view... Can all three display synched VC cockpit ?will the TRACK-IR still work in VC mode?

[Guest jaskanFactor]

Hi All, I have a question. I am also considering getting a second monitor (or maybe a third for that matter).Granted the 3 monitors are now synched to give that 145-degree field of view... Can all three display synched VC cockpit ?will the TRACK-IR still work in VC mode?

Think you need tripleHeadToGo for that, it allows you to combine three monitors into one monitor, whicfh you plug into your gpu.SO with 3 monitors, your pc only sees one monitor, cause all your monitors are plugged iinto triplehead, and triplehead goes in your gpu as one montitor.Then you can use triplehead software to configure what each monitor shows.I have vista64, and beeen told, that, 1 - The best way to increase monitors without the dramatic drop in fps is to horizontal and vertiacllay stretch the vc view over all monitors, and not each monitor being a seperate window. So triplehead allows you to do this in hardware.2 - Vista does not allow you to stretch single view over several monitors like xp does. no matter what video card or multi monitor software you got, so if using vista, seems the best way to go without too much fps hit is tripleHead or dualhead device, think they cost around 185 to 300 dollars. Amazon has triplehead at about 240 pounds.3- TripleHead is a box that you connect up to three monitors to, so that your pc sees all three monitors as i big monitor. So from there on everything is the same as if you had just ONE monitor. I havent used the tool, but this is what i have found, cause i might be buying one. So in principle trackir should be ok.4 - The only way to avoid major fps hit is to stretch a single view across multiscreens rather than opening a diffrent window in each. So you could stretch your vc view across al your monitors. And place gauges you need where it suits you.5 - Too many complainst about wideview, cause for one thing, they say the fsx world you see depends what monitor you looking at, so traffic and weather is not properly synced on all monitors. SO i dropped that idea. XP and nvidia drivers still do stretching of views though, but not vista.6 - For me, plugging my second monitor to either same gpu or different gpu was sme fps in vc(too low) . But outside view i got more fps with both monitors on same card. SO i am suprised why some are getting little or no fps hit with second monitor on same card.7 - From my research so far. if you got vista the best way to multimonitor without a slide show is to get tripleHeadToGo or similar hardware. For XP you can setup nvidia control panel to stretch your monitors rather than extend. But this is no longer possible for vista, hence tripelHead.8- If anybody knows how i can get good frames with two monitors on same gtx 285 without major fps hit =, youll save me the $300 i might have to spend on tripleHead box. I use i monitor for vc, and another for my guages only. After undocking and placing windows, i then go fullscreen. But fps is too low to fly.9 - Ps If you got a better idea than tripeHead ps let us know, some have complained about views not showing properly between the edges of the monitor, forced to use low refresh rate 57Hz, and all monitors must use same resolution etc. But as vista person, its still the best multiscreen solution i have seen so far.NOTE: For tripleHead even though all monitors need to be same resolution, they dont need to be same size. But its works best if they same size, as am sure you can imagine.

[GeorgeT93 1]

I'm also running Vista64, and have opted to go for the TripleHead2Go (and will be getting a 3rd monitor for it at the beginning of next month.) If you have 2 or more video cards, you can get three monitors to span in FSX under Vista64 using a program called SoftTH instead of buying the TH2G. It works fairly well, and doesn't require the secondary and/or tertiary video cards to be very powerful at all, since all rendering is actually done on the main card, and the image is then 'sent' to the additional displays. I'm currently running 2 monitors connected to a single 9800GT 1GB card, and was able to use the program to span over the two monitors, but because the program is designed for use in triple monitor configurations, it needs to be 'tricked' to ignore the fact that it didn't detect a left-side monitor. As a result, it still rendered at the resolution it would have if I had 3 monitors connected. Because of that, my menus weren't accessible because they were being drawn on a screen that wasn't physically there. It takes a bit of configuring to get it up and running, and there is of course a slight performance hit while using it, but it does work. Also, since it is a software-based solution, you may (if you choose to use it) want to get yourself in the habit of double-checking your FSX in-game resolution settings before starting each flight.If you do decide to give SoftTH a try, don't download it from their download page, as the older versions don't work correctly with FSX. Go to their forums and download the latest version, which should be v1.09 RC1. That's the version I used and it seemed to work ok.At the end of the day, I decided an external hardware solution was the better choice for me since (according to the documents I've read on the Matrox site) the TH2G is supposed to work fine with only 2 monitors connected, letting me have a 2-monitor wide spanned vc, and then I can just plug in a third monitor when I get it next month. I did get the digital version, which includes a bezel management utility, but softTH does allow for options in the configuration file to do pretty much the same thing. SoftTH may or may not be the solution you're looking for, but it's free, it works, and all you would have to lose is time spent editing the configuration file to get everything up and running.Good luck in whatever you decide. After my upgrade from XP32 to Vista64, I've been very happy with performance overall, but the loss of spanning my VC across 2 monitors has been a real thorn in my side. SoftTH probably would've stayed on my system if I had another video card or at least another PCI-Express slot to put it in.Hope this information is at least a little helpful to you as you decide what you will want to do.-George

[Guest jaskanFactor]

I'm also running Vista64, and have opted to go for the TripleHead2Go (and will be getting a 3rd monitor for it at the beginning of next month.) If you have 2 or more video cards, you can get three monitors to span in FSX under Vista64 using a program called SoftTH instead of buying the TH2G. It works fairly well, and doesn't require the secondary and/or tertiary video cards to be very powerful at all, since all rendering is actually done on the main card, and the image is then 'sent' to the additional displays. I'm currently running 2 monitors connected to a single 9800GT 1GB card, and was able to use the program to span over the two monitors, but because the program is designed for use in triple monitor configurations, it needs to be 'tricked' to ignore the fact that it didn't detect a left-side monitor. As a result, it still rendered at the resolution it would have if I had 3 monitors connected. Because of that, my menus weren't accessible because they were being drawn on a screen that wasn't physically there. It takes a bit of configuring to get it up and running, and there is of course a slight performance hit while using it, but it does work. Also, since it is a software-based solution, you may (if you choose to use it) want to get yourself in the habit of double-checking your FSX in-game resolution settings before starting each flight.If you do decide to give SoftTH a try, don't download it from their download page, as the older versions don't work correctly with FSX. Go to their forums and download the latest version, which should be v1.09 RC1. That's the version I used and it seemed to work ok.At the end of the day, I decided an external hardware solution was the better choice for me since (according to the documents I've read on the Matrox site) the TH2G is supposed to work fine with only 2 monitors connected, letting me have a 2-monitor wide spanned vc, and then I can just plug in a third monitor when I get it next month. I did get the digital version, which includes a bezel management utility, but softTH does allow for options in the configuration file to do pretty much the same thing. SoftTH may or may not be the solution you're looking for, but it's free, it works, and all you would have to lose is time spent editing the configuration file to get everything up and running.Good luck in whatever you decide. After my upgrade from XP32 to Vista64, I've been very happy with performance overall, but the loss of spanning my VC across 2 monitors has been a real thorn in my side. SoftTH probably would've stayed on my system if I had another video card or at least another PCI-Express slot to put it in.Hope this information is at least a little helpful to you as you decide what you will want to do.-George

I have heard there is no way to span acorss multi screen in vista, unless you do it hardware like tripleHead , i am suprised you can do this with SofTH.In anycase can you tell me if you get any fps loss using multiscreen with SoftH, cause part of the reason i am thiking of triplehead is cause i heard hardware multiscreen solution is better for fsx fps.Also Can i use the second output from my gtx285 to drive sedcond monitor for sofTH, cause i dont have another video card.Thanks

[GeorgeT93 1]

I have heard there is no way to span acorss multi screen in vista, unless you do it hardware like tripleHead , i am suprised you can do this with SofTH.

I was surprised too, but it does actually work under Vista64, and works fairly well. It also allows for spanning across several video cards, which allows you to use one video card for each monitor, or have two monitors connected to one video card, with another connected to a secondary card, and it can span across all three screens. I haven't tried using multiple cards, so I used it with only two monitors connected to a single card.

In anycase can you tell me if you get any fps loss using multiscreen with SoftH, cause part of the reason i am thiking of triplehead is cause i heard hardware multiscreen solution is better for fsx fps.

There was a slight performance loss that I noticed (around 2fps), however that was just during testing with the default flight (in the air over Friday Harbor) but using the Beech Baron instead of the ultralight. I haven't used it flying around more scenery-intensive areas like NYC or Seattle, so I can't comment if the fps drop is higher in those kinds of areas (though I suspect the frame rate drop would be higher in those areas than what I experienced over Friday Harbor).

Also Can i use the second output from my gtx285 to drive sedcond monitor for sofTH, cause i dont have another video card.

Yes, you can use 2 outputs from a single video card to span, however, as I said in my previous post, only using 2 monitors with SoftTH is accomplished by telling the program to ignore the fact that it can't detect a left-side monitor. While this works for getting the game to display across 2 screens, it still causes the game to render as if three screens were connected. As a result, there is output being generated for a left-hand display that doesn't have any monitor to display to. This causes the menus to become inaccessible, since they are drawn on a monitor that isn't there.As I said in my previous post, for me, using only 2 monitors currently, the inability to access the menus was enough of a deal-breaker to convince me to go the external hardware route, so I purchased a TripleHead2Go Digital (which arrived today), which I'm now using my 2 monitors with, and plan on adding a 3rd monitor sometime early next month. The biggest complaint I had about SoftTH is that, with only 2 monitors connected, it treats the left-hand (or primary) monitor as though it's the center screen, and really seems best suited to someone that has 3 physical connectors to use for monitors (using 2 or 3 video cards). With my current machine, I have no place to put an additional PCI-E video card to support a third monitor, so for me, I ultimately decided that the TH2G was the better (albeit more expensive) alternative. For anyone running 2 or more video cards with 3 monitors, this could be a great alternative to spending $300 on the TH2G, especially since it's free, and there's literally nothing to lose but the time spent getting it configured. If you don't like it, you just delete the files from your FSX folder and it's gone. For those of us that are currently using 2 monitors, the program does work, but it has to be 'tricked' to support only 2 connections as, for some reason I haven't been able to figure out, it doesn't seem to have native 2 monitor support.I hope this info is helpful to you, and if you google SoftTH, or kegetys (that's either just the name of the site, or possibly the author of SoftTH's name), you will find the SoftTH site, along with their forums, where you can probably get better help than I've been able to provide.Good luck!-George

[GeorgeT93 1]

Oh, one more thing I wanted to add. I can't say for sure, one way or another, if the loss of 2 fps was a result of the overhead of the program, or a result of the resolution that it was pushing out (and can't be sure until I actually connect a 3rd monitor to my TH2G). I use 19" 1440x900 monitors, so 2 of them spanned should give me a resolution of 2880x900. However in FSX, that resolution wasn't available as SoftTH multiplies the resolution by 3 regardless of whether or not a 3rd monitor is actually there. That meant I had to run a resolution of 4320x900 even though only 2880x900 was being displayed. That was why the menus weren't visible. With my TH2G, I am running 2880x900, so the extra 1440x900 resolution that SoftTH forces the game to render *could* be part (possibly even a big part) of the decrease in performance.-George

[Walt90 0]

George,You wrote that the FSX display is "stretched" over three monitors with the 3HTG. Can you explain what you mean by that statement? Do you actually see more field of view, same as when you select the front right or front left views?Or, are you just seeing the front image, whatever field of view that is, and it is stretched over to the other monitors? So while the image is wider when sitting in front of three monitors, do you really see more, left to right, outside the cockpit?Thanks.

[GeorgeT93 1]

George,You wrote that the FSX display is "stretched" over three monitors with the 3HTG. Can you explain what you mean by that statement? Do you actually see more field of view, same as when you select the front right or front left views?Or, are you just seeing the front image, whatever field of view that is, and it is stretched over to the other monitors? So while the image is wider when sitting in front of three monitors, do you really see more, left to right, outside the cockpit?Thanks.

Walt,You do actually see a wider field of view. You select the appropriate resolution in FSX, so across 3 1440x900 lcd screens, the resolution you would choose in FSX would be 4320x900, so SoftTH doesn't actually 'stretch' the image but instead works like Horizontal Span worked on nVidia cards under XP. The biggest difference is that SoftTH supports spanning across multiple cards where nVidia cards under XP could only span across two monitors connected to the same video card. The program apparently works by rendering the full image (so in my example, the full 4320x900) on the primary video card, then copies the frame buffer to system RAM and then to the additional card(s) in the system. Because of that, the secondary (and/or tertiary) card can be significantly less powerful than the main card since they don't do any rendering, they just display the additional image data.Hope this information is helpful to you, and sorry for the confusion for using the word 'stretch' instead of 'span' in a previous post, as I've really tried to avoid mixing those terms because I know the confusion they can cause since they're not interchangable terms, at least not for the purposes of this discussion. I definitely meant to use 'span', as that is a much more accurate description of what SoftTH does.- George

[Walt90 0]

Hi George,Ok, good to know on the span vs stretch.What about the digital TH3D? Does it span the image also?Regards,Walt

[GeorgeT93 1]

Hi George,Ok, good to know on the span vs stretch.What about the digital TH3D? Does it span the image also?Regards,Walt

Hi Walt,Yes, the TripleHead2Go Digital also works in span mode. The difference is that the TH2GD acts like a single resolution monitor is plugged in, so your resolution in Windows would also be 4320x900 (using the 1440x900 example from above), where SoftTH uses a directX 'hook', so it's only active when the game whose directory the SoftTH files are in is run. So in the case of FSX, the SoftTH files go into the main FSX folder, and are only active when the game launches. This means that when you're back in Windows, it will continue to work in standard Windows multi-monitor mode (so each display would be configured independantly of each other at 1440x900 each.) So the TH2GD 'lies' to the OS and is 'active' all the time (since it is an external hardware solution), where SoftTH lies to the application. The end result using either winds up being the same, they just go about it in different ways.Hope this helps. :)-George

[Guest jaskanFactor]

Hi Walt,Yes, the TripleHead2Go Digital also works in span mode. The difference is that the TH2GD acts like a single resolution monitor is plugged in, so your resolution in Windows would also be 4320x900 (using the 1440x900 example from above), where SoftTH uses a directX 'hook', so it's only active when the game whose directory the SoftTH files are in is run. So in the case of FSX, the SoftTH files go into the main FSX folder, and are only active when the game launches. This means that when you're back in Windows, it will continue to work in standard Windows multi-monitor mode (so each display would be configured independantly of each other at 1440x900 each.) So the TH2GD 'lies' to the OS and is 'active' all the time (since it is an external hardware solution), where SoftTH lies to the application. The end result using either winds up being the same, they just go about it in different ways.Hope this helps. :)-George

Please let us know how you get on with 3H2G, and how much of an fps hit you get using 3 monitors