I'd like to run squawkbox only on a small second monitor--not sure how to set it up.  I will run FSX and squawkbox from the same PC.  Do I simply plug the second monitor into the second DVI from the GTX 770 graphics card?  I have the primary monitor using the upper DVI port.  Once it is plugged in, do I then go to (Win 7 64 bit) and set up monitor 1 and monitor 2?

 

Finally when I fire up FSX and SB, do I just slide the SB window to the second monitor?  I run FSX in full view.  Or, do I start SB externally on monitor 2 and then FSX monitor 1?  Is there any performance lost with 2 monitors running off same pc/graphics card?  Do I need to do anything within SB?

 

Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks!

 

Rich Perry

 

specs: Intel i7 4820K IB oc'd to 4.8Ghz/16GB DDR 3 RAM 2133Mhz/Nvidia GTX 770 2GB/Samsung 286GB SSD/Caviar HDD 1TB/Creative Recon 5.1 sound/Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit

 

stuff: FSX/UTX/GTX/REX/FSG  PMDG NGX/QW 757/Real Air B60

Hi Rich. Long time no "see." How are things in Dysfunction Junction these days?

 

I think you're in for some butt pain trying to do it this way. Despite trying many times over the years, I have never been able to get a second monitor to work reliably with FSX running in full-screen mode. Instead, I run ancillary apps on a second PC via WideFS.

 

Cheers

Hey Bob--nice to hear from you.  Roger up on the dysfunction here at Maxwell AFB...I'm currently a professor on the faculty of ACSC.   I dabbled with FSX several years ago but my system just didn't cope very well with it, so I stuck with FS9.   I recently purchased a new rig which runs FSX like a dream.  After setting up the obligatory environmentals to include FSGlobal real weather, I finally installed SB4 and took the Beech 60 on a short haul from KMGM - KATL only to see an error message popup from SB4 mid way talking about assertion error C++ etc.  I selected ignore and it worked till shut down.

 

Researching the issue in VATSIM, I found that apparently you can't run SB4 within FSX, that you either have to start it separately, or run it from a separate PC.  Since I run in full view, switching back and forth with alt-tab is problematic.  I thought the easy fix would be to run SB as a separate window on a separate monitor--but it sounds like it needs to be run off a second PC--what's the procedure to set it up on WideFS?  Or can you give me a vector to instructions?

 

Thanks!

How's life in C-Springs?

Rich

Bob

 

If I go with second pc any recommendations on specs?  I just need it to run SB4 and maybe the weather engine.  I reckon I'll need to run my headset on the same pc as squawkbox and route speakers to host computer.  I will likely run the second pc with a hard ethernet connection vice a router since it will be right next to the host.

 

Lessons learned?

 

Thanks

Rich

Hey Rich...ACSC, eh? Say hi to Dennis Armstrong for me. He was my DO and replaced me when I left my second command tour for a year of that Maxwell schoolin' :-)

 

Wow, I remember us chatting about that i7-965 you had built for FSX a few years back...surprised it didn't run FSX quite well.

 

You don't need a powerhouse for a second PC, although I'd go with at least a quad-core i5. I use my last-generation FS machine (i7-975) for that, which is overkill, but it does make Activesky 2012 pretty snappy when it first loads and computes the wx. Any recent off-the-shelf machine should do fine--integrated Intel graphics is OK.

 

Running ATC on a networked machine, whether that be an AI program like Radar Contact, or live ATC like VATSIM/PilotEdge, is a good way to fly. It allows you to easily separate aircraft sound from ATC sound, since they're on separate systems--so you can wear a headset for ATC and still have acft sounds through the speakers, or run speakers for ATC with a separate volume control. I run my weather program (AS2012), ATC (Radar Contact v4), and an electronic flight bag (Aivlasoft EFB) for a nice moving map display--especially helpful during ground ops. I also run a few other home-grown utilities like QuantumLeap (for jumping ahead during cruise) and VASMon (to watch virtual address space usage) via WideFS.

 

Rather than direct-wiring the PCs, I would suggest instead finding a cheap (~$15) 100Mbps ethernet switch. Run the ethernet from your router and both PCs to the switch. No setup required, just plug and go. That way the PCs have access to the internet and each other. You'll want to set an address reservation in your router to always assign the same IP address to the two PCs, as WideFS needs to be set up for the specific machine IPs. I haven't messed with SB4 in a while, but I used to have it running on my second PC. With WideClient running on the remote PC, SB4 will connect up as if FSX were running on that machine. There should be lots written on the process in the various forums, here and at VATSIM. FSUIPC has a handy built-in feature to assign a stick/yoke button to work as a PTT switch remotely across the LAN.

 

Cheers