Multiple monitor set up questions

[markturner 0]

Hi Can someone who knows answer the following for me please ? What does a matrox dual or triple head do that you cannot achieve from within windows by stretching the display over 2 monitors? Or from a multi outlet graphics card such as mine ( I have a 4850 X2 with 4 outlets on it) Do you need to have 2 or 3 equally sized monitors to get the best result from a dual or triple head? The reason I ask is that I just a dual head, ( I have 2 24 inch monitors) but the bezel in the middle annoys me and I am wondering wether to get a third monitor. Following on from that, I am wondering if I get another 24 inch one, wether I will be asking too much of my graphics card to power 3 24 inch monitors. If that is so, can I use one 24 inch in the middle and 2 smaller at the sides ? If so, what resolution would I use and what would the results be like?I am just trying to salvage my mistake in buying the bigger monitors ! And the dual head ! cheers, Mark

[january 19]

Hi Can someone who knows answer the following for me please ? What does a matrox dual or triple head do that you cannot achieve from within windows by stretching the display over 2 monitors? Or from a multi outlet graphics card such as mine ( I have a 4850 X2 with 4 outlets on it) Do you need to have 2 or 3 equally sized monitors to get the best result from a dual or triple head? The reason I ask is that I just a dual head, ( I have 2 24 inch monitors) but the bezel in the middle annoys me and I am wondering wether to get a third monitor. Following on from that, I am wondering if I get another 24 inch one, wether I will be asking too much of my graphics card to power 3 24 inch monitors. If that is so, can I use one 24 inch in the middle and 2 smaller at the sides ? If so, what resolution would I use and what would the results be like?I am just trying to salvage my mistake in buying the bigger monitors ! And the dual head ! cheers, Mark

Mark- not sure I can fully answer your specific questions since I don't have TH2Go but rather use dual video cards to drive my triple monitors. Here are a few observations-It is my understanding that TH2Go stretches the main FS view/panel across 3 monitors. Because of the stretching, gauges and circular instruments in 2D panels also stretch and get "ovalized". However Virtual panels apparently work well with this system. TH2Go displays only a single view whether in 2D or Virtual- but it IS triple wide! The Field of View can be increased from the single view 45

[markturner 0]

Hi Alex, thank you for your help, I think I need to be following your approach. Please could you tell me how to set that up? I have a Radeon 4850 X2 card which has 4 monitor outlets on the back. I had a quick look in FSX last night, but I could not see how to easily allocate different views to different monitors.Do you have to set it up in windows first? And if I have understood you correctly, are you saying you cannot use a virtual cockpit when using this method? sorry, but I dont really have a proper idea of how it all would work.. ! Thx, Mark

[january 19]

Hi Alex, thank you for your help, I think I need to be following your approach. Please could you tell me how to set that up? I have a Radeon 4850 X2 card which has 4 monitor outlets on the back. I had a quick look in FSX last night, but I could not see how to easily allocate different views to different monitors.Do you have to set it up in windows first? And if I have understood you correctly, are you saying you cannot use a virtual cockpit when using this method? sorry, but I dont really have a proper idea of how it all would work.. ! Thx, Mark

I'm not familiar with 4 outlets -do you have any instruction info for that card? In any event you need to connect your monitors to these ports.Now in Control Panel, go to Display/Settings and you should see a schematic outline drawing of the monitors you have connected. Drag these outlines and position them to correspond to the actual physical positions of the monitors- side by side or over/under etc. Below this drawing, set the resolution you wish For Each Monitor.Then below again, for each secondary (extra) monitor(s), click "Extend my Desktop onto this monitor---".Restart the computer for these settings to take effect. See the attached pic.You now should have 2 (or3?) active monitors where you can drag the mouse cursor from far left to extreme right like one very wide desktop!!Start up FS and in 2D mode you can undock & drag stuff to any mon or create a view ( key square left bracket) undock it, drag it and resize it. View settings are done via num KB-see FS Assignments.For a lengthy discussion on multi mons, go back about 3 pages in THIS forum to a thread-"Mixing Video Cards" started by Bonanza Pilot on July 28/09.---------------As far as I can tell, Virtual does not work with multi mons driven by multiple cards.Virtual has only one view- altered by panning and zooming. Even with TH2Go while there are 3 monitors, there is still only one view- stretched across the three.Also I cannot make Full Screen work. However there are some tricks to alter the Windowed view so it looks almost identical to Full Screen.Happy to try to answer questions.Alex Reid

[twisted8 0]

Alex, what zoom values are you using again? 1.0?thanks

[january 19]

Alex, what zoom values are you using again? 1.0?thanks

Yes, all three views @ 1.0 zoom. With any other zoom you can't correctly adjust for the width of the bezels. Much better to use Panel Config view angle adjustments (rather than zoom) to align or synch the views. If you use zoom, objects will be different sizes in different views.My outer mons are 17"LCDs vs main 19"CRT. So the view images are different sizes. No problem!Drag a side view on top of main view and resize it so it is same WIDTH as main. Then drag it back to the side mon and let the (now wider) view simply fall off the outside edge of the mon. Bingo- a 19" view displayed on a 17" monitor!And never let a view overlap an adjacent monitor- even a bit. Major frame rate hit since you now have 2 views assigned to one GPU.Alex Reid