Frank - Love the setup!

 

So I took the plunge. I guess it was more curisotiy killed the cat and given the mixed reviews of one single over x3 Matrox setup, I decided there was no other way to find out what was really going to float the boat.

 

Tonight will be the first serious maiden voyage. I flew around a bit last night just to iron out the wrinkles. Here are was what I gathered from my 5 minutes of testing.

 

1) The single has done precisly what I was hoping. Locked at 30 at KORS with sliders high right. I think I am one short of extremely dense and max water. No cars. So everything is smoother.

 

2) As expected, the resolution is less than the matrox. This is non-issue with simming as it looks great. Desktop apps are a bit weaker by nature but I have found a nice mix of contrast and sharpness that make the resolution good. Not great ... not awesome... but good. Sure higher resolution would certainly be better.

 

3) Immersion factor - they both have their perks. Flying where you can't see static bedroom furniture on the sides is a bonus, however, seeing a VC that is huge is more immersive in itself. I would give this a tie. One you see more horizontal with distortion (which you never really see with TIR) and the other you have a huge VC + big view.

 

Verdict - I don't know yet with certainty but the smoothness gained will likely win out over the resolution sitting 30" away.

 

Here is the original setup, then the new setup and then a composite of where the screens and cockpit sit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Benjamin

 

I predict that the new set-up will please you more. Looks much better to me, and you don't find the lower resolution a problem.

 

I have tried them all - so far! Single CRT; single flat; projection to 48" x 36"; analog TH2G; digital TH2G; nVidia controlled triple screen (3 x 20" 4:3s); and now as my photo and specs show.

 

I'm there. Perfection. For now!!! :Just Kidding:

 

 

BTW - The top screen on the left runs FSCommander off my second computer (its main screen is on the right - just out of the picture)

Nice - How do you like the PFC console? Pricey suckers. The MCP is nice too! Do you find yourself using it a lot?

 

Resolution is fine indeed. I finally have the settings dialed in on the display to where it's not blasting me with brightness / contrast.

What really squared me away was running the windows calibration with cleartype and coloration. The computer still was using settings from my 22" lcds so naturally things didn't look quite right.

 

I will keep you posted but so far it's looking like a winner.

 

Question, how do you keep your pop-ups on the side displays from resetting from flight to flight?

The PFC console with pedals and Audiotronics cost a lot of money 11 years ago. I've never regretted the purchase. Arrival of the shipment from Los Angeles at Gatwick was an interesting experience, I'll never forget.

 

The MCP is by CP Flight - another great buy. I have only just bought PMDG's excellent 737NGX. I waited until Paulo at CPF had the SDK and could write the software. Having spent ridiculous money on the software for PMDG's 747 I was determined not to buy until they did the reasonable thing - release the SDK.

 

All my hardware is in constant use. You may also have wondered about the keypad. It too was expensive (£100) several years ago, but it has well and truly paid for itself. It is keyboard linked and all keys are programmable. This avoids multiple keypresses, needed for some commands, and helps my ageing memory.

 

Pop-ups - I used to fly in Windows mode using the undocking process, but as I prefer Full Screen (I can never remember what this is called and I am downstairs at present - away from my FSstuff) . So, I drag and drop every time I set up for a new flight. To avoid stretching each panel to the size I want, I edit the panel.cfg files.

Benjamin - These may interest you. The first is when I used projection. The second - an old layout of my keypad.

 

 

 

Very nice setup.

 

I was thinking about the same idea and add 3x 27" for outside views to it.

You can easily switch between multiple aircraft.

 

And I can use my VRI mcp and CDU with it too.

 

Frank - Love the setup!

 

So I took the plunge. I guess it was more curisotiy killed the cat and given the mixed reviews of one single over x3 Matrox setup, I decided there was no other way to find out what was really going to float the boat.

 

Tonight will be the first serious maiden voyage. I flew around a bit last night just to iron out the wrinkles. Here are was what I gathered from my 5 minutes of testing.

 

1) The single has done precisly what I was hoping. Locked at 30 at KORS with sliders high right. I think I am one short of extremely dense and max water. No cars. So everything is smoother.

 

2) As expected, the resolution is less than the matrox. This is non-issue with simming as it looks great. Desktop apps are a bit weaker by nature but I have found a nice mix of contrast and sharpness that make the resolution good. Not great ... not awesome... but good. Sure higher resolution would certainly be better.

 

3) Immersion factor - they both have their perks. Flying where you can't see static bedroom furniture on the sides is a bonus, however, seeing a VC that is huge is more immersive in itself. I would give this a tie. One you see more horizontal with distortion (which you never really see with TIR) and the other you have a huge VC + big view.

 

Verdict - I don't know yet with certainty but the smoothness gained will likely win out over the resolution sitting 30" away.

 

Here is the original setup, then the new setup and then a composite of where the screens and cockpit sit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need 2 of those monitors for one wide cockpit.... :Peace:

Just want to thank some of the people here for their screenshots because I noticed something I thought I would never see. I admittedly never tried FSX in triple monitor configuration (late to the Flight Simming hobby). I had just assumed it rendered it incorrectly just like every other game I've ever tried including Microsoft Flight.. I just moved my 40inch LED out of the way (back to being a TV) and put back my three 23inch LCD's in Eyefinity again.

 

Wow... It renders triple monitors the right way! No stretching on the wing monitors! I'm astonished.. When I bought this triple monitor setup over a year ago this is what I envision and time and time again so many games just failed to render correctly across three monitors.. I'm thrilled! How FSX got this part sooooo right is unbelievable.. Of all the games to nail it! :yahoo:

 

Hi Bill,

 

Could you please tell if you use any form of Bezel Management with your Eyefinity setup, as I use nVidia Surround with Bezel Management enabled but if you look at my picture you will notice the knobs towards the far right get elongated. They only look correct if I turn Bezel Management off.

 

Regards,

 

 

Ted.

Portrait mode Eyefinity/Nvidia Surround is always hit or miss.. More often a miss. You're better off buying a new large monitor to save yourself frustration. :)

 

I use landscape which is much more common with bezel management and have no issues. Some stretching on the fringe but that I fully expect. Most games stretch so insanely bad the game is unplayable.

 

 

Yeah, 2 more 40s (and I don't mean malt beverage) and I would be set.... well, actually, right back in the same boat of trying to push too much resolution and trading FPS for resolution. There has to be a balance for now. At least until I get a chip beyond 4.7 / 4.8 that will really drive the resolution I was at until 2 days ago. :)

 

There are pros and cons to both setups .. I am going to let this one settle before I make too big of a decision either way.

 

Bman.

Portrait mode Eyefinity/Nvidia Surround is always hit or miss.. More often a miss. You're better off buying a new large monitor to save yourself frustration. :)

 

I use landscape which is much more common with bezel management and have no issues. Some stretching on the fringe but that I fully expect. Most games stretch so insanely bad the game is unplayable.

 

 

I love the overhead panel Bill :LMAO:

:LMAO:

Must be the in-flight entertainment panel. :)

 

I think we need someone to try triple 40" TVs.

 

gb.

Odd I was just about to go looking for this thread. Curious about how Ben is adapting to the single monitor.. I have returned to my original setup.. 40inch 1080p LED-LCD w/ a 23inch LCD on the wing for panels.. I just couldn't stay with triple monitors. The wider FOV was nice but I really missed my whole viewing space being immersed in the game even with less total viewing area of the game itself. Another deal breaker was having to edit the eyepoint of nearly every plane so it looked right and also stop the clipping in tight cockpits. The Katana was nearly impossible to re-position the eyepoint correctly without clipping into the canopy and still being able to see correctly.

 

In flight entertainment indeed.. That painting goes way back.. I've had that since I was 17.. Just one of those odd things from my youth that strangely stuck around..

I thought with 3h2go x3 monitors, you "turn" your head to see left/right side, while with one big monitor, you "pan" the view to see left/right side, which one is more realistic?

With my setup ( TH2Go and 3x 26") I use :

 

Large aircraft (Jetflying)

wideview=true

cockpit zoom 0.90

spotplane zoom 0.80

wingview 0.70

 

Small aircraft ( VFR flying )

wideview=false

cockpit zoom 0.50

spotplane zoom 0.60

 

I use this icw Hattrack from VRI to look around in the VC.

This is very realistic.

 

If I had the money I would add another fast pc with a 2nd TH2Go and 3x 26" to make two layers of 3 monitors.

Then with Wideview I and Hattrack I could look around.

 

 

Like this :

 

 

 

Here with 8 pc's and 8 TH2Go devices....