Hi,

 

I have decided to upgrade my flight simulation rig by making my own simple cockpit. I have everything else thought out but I have never done anything with multi-monitors on computers.

 

I'd like to have 4 monitors for outside viewing, setup B737 style. The 5th monitor I would have as the 2D panel view for instruments. A full list of what I'd like to run:

 

4 outside viewing monitors/TVs

1 smaller monitor for instrument panel

Saitek Yoke, Saitek rudder pedals, and Saitek throttle quadrant (1x)

Saitek switch, multi, and radio panels

Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX)

 

I'd be building a custom frame to mount this all in. Here are my PC specs:

 

Windows 7 Home Basic 64 Bit

8 GB RAM/Memory

AMD FX 8350 Eight-Core Processor, 4.00 GHz

AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB

Two 1TB hard drives (one is C:\)

 

Let me know if I forgot something on system specs.

I want to know if this PC/graphics card can run what I requested with the monitors. If so, I need to know how to set it up, because I've never done multi-monitoring before.

I wanted to check if this would work and how to do it before I jumped in and bought the monitors and started the build.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jmandman,

 

Hi matey,  I do not know what Flight Sim you are using but if it is FSX I would be very surprised if you could run that many monitors on your system.

 

I have yet to move on to FSX, XPlane or P3D from FS2004 because of that very reason. Bear in mind that I would love to upgrade but after approximately 5 years of trying both FSX and XPlane, I simply cannot get anything other than a CTD when using more than 2 monitors.  

 

I am led to believe that AMD motherboards and graphics are not the best for flight simulation.  I have an 1156 MSI z68A GD80pro motherboard, 8gigRAM, 6 monitors, 3 x R9 290 cards, 1200watt PSU, and am using Win7 Ultimate 64 bit.  

 

FS2004 can handle that with all sliders up but frame rates are now down to about 20-27 in flight and at about 18 at payware airports. 

 

I am desperately hoping DTGs' new sim at 64bits will fill the bill for an upgrade.  Or even more betterer ...P3D hopefully going to 64bit with their next upgrade.

 

In the meantime, I plod on with FS2004 reasonably happily.

 

In summary, I cannot imagine you achieving your dream without the help of a Kray supercomputer and I am sorry for being the bearer of sad tidings for you.  However, if you do manage to get it working please, please please let me know, and I  genuinely wish you success with this project.

 

I would also suggest that with 4 monitors you could use 1 for the overheads (you did mention b737), 1 for mainscreen, 1 for your FMS/Throttle panel and the last for the pedestal.  This is how I have configured mine and the additional two screens for me are side views.  My overhead is a 40inch LED TV Portrait, main screen is 60inch LED TV Landscape, 22inch monitor for FMS panel Landscape, 2 x 32inch LED TVs landscape for my side views and the Pedestal is 24inch monitor in Portrait mode. 

 

Something for you to think about anyway.

 

Regards,

 

Tony Chilcott

Jmandman,

 

Sorry, I just thought also of maybe using a Triplehead2go dp edition which will accommodate 3 x 1920 x 1080 resolution set up.

That may just cut the mustard for FSX and is something I have not tried.  Someone else may be able to help you with that.  I could in fact, be a reasonably cheap way of achieving our goal.  Good Luck mate.

 

Tony Chilcott 

I have decided to upgrade my flight simulation rig by making my own simple cockpit. I have everything else thought out but I have never done anything with multi-monitors on computers.

 

Well there's 'multi-monitor on computers' and there's 'multi-monitor on FSX', which are overlapping but distinct domains. I am not familiar with AMD cards but a quick scan shows you can drive 6 monitors from your card. The problem will be that on a single-computer solution you only have two choices for such a large outside display in FSX - a single window spanning your four monitors or multiple 3D windows. Multiple 3D windows will not work satisfactorily for performance reasons. I presume a single-window display is possible with eyefinity in the same way it works with nvidia surround. The problem there will be your wide field of view, which leads to stretching at the extremes if you push it too far. If you limit yourself to maybe 100 degrees you can get a satisfactory display. Those looking for 180 degrees are always disappointed. And you don't say how big your monitors will be. Assuming you intend 4 x 1080p displays, that's still an awful lot of pixels and I would guess you'll struggle to get decent performance from it unless you want to fly default aircraft and scenery in good weather.

 

You could look at Luciano Napolitano's WideView software. This lets you run multiple views across a network. It's a whole new world of pain, as you need multiple computers, multiple copies of FSX and scenery, and you need to think about synchronising weather and traffic. But it's a proper scalable solution that should work well for a proper cockpit sim such as you are aiming for.

If your going to the trouble of multi monitor setups you might want to consider an MCP and FMC solution. I use a Vrinsight MCP and a tablet for the FMC using Simserver you will find on Avsim.

 

Regarding your PC i cant help. I run an Intel I7 with Nvidia 970 but i'm sure Radeon can do the same.

 

You will also need software such as Linda and Fsuipc to assign keys etc.

 

Good luck with it but be prepared for some head scratching.

 

Might wanna consider P3d. I find it more stable with multi monitor setups.

Might wanna consider P3d. I find it more stable with multi monitor setups.

 

Really? Many people run FSX with multiple displays. FSX is designed to do this and by and large it does it without a hitch. I have used FSX for about seven years on different PCs with all kinds of multi-monitor setups. At various times using TH2GO, nvidia surround, multiple video cards and SLI. I currently run a three-screen display using nvidia surround with fourth and fifth screens on a second video card for GPS and weather radar. I run a further two screens on a second PC with Air Manager for the cockpit instruments.

 

 

And you don't say how big your monitors will be. Assuming you intend 4 x 1080p displays, that's still an awful lot of pixels and I would guess you'll struggle to get decent performance from it unless you want to fly default aircraft and scenery in good weather.

 

They most likely would be 720p and I do use a lot of payware things. Right now my FPS varies from 60fps to 8fps, sometimes depending on the aircraft.

Looks like a multi-monitor setup isn't possible without a better computer.