Is this possible in XPlane10

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Good morning evening or night to you all,

 

I am moving to XPlane10 from FS2004 and I am still trying to figure out how to configure things so please bear with me.

 

I am currrently (on FS2004) running with a homebuilt cockpit using 6 monitors (actually a combination of monitors and 1080p LED TVs.)

These are configured as follows.

 

1 x 40 inch LED tv for Boeing overhead(aft and forward)

1 x 60 inch LED tv for the main screen

2 x 32 inch LED tvs for outside cockpit views (left and right)

1 x 22 inch Monitor for the FMS/Lower DU/FMS view, and,

1 x 24 inch Monitor for the pedestal view

 

All this is run on a single computer, specifications follow

 

ASUS P8Z77-V LGA 1155

Core i7 2600k (not overclocked)

20gb RAM

PSU 1200 watt Seasonic

GPUs 2 x R9 290 (4gb) DDR5

 

OS Win 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

I am running FS2004 at 30+ FPS

 

I have read a lot about multi monitors in Xplane, however, They all seem to be devoted to 3 x screens for the main cockpit view. This is not what I am looking for.

 

My question s very simple but will also be complicated.

 

"Can I duplicate what I have in Xplane?"

 

If perchance it may be possible, ie, create a panel and drag to the relevant monitor, I will start a new topic and pursue it further.

 

Just for your info, I have been trying to do this for 10 years with FSX and have never been able to fly with more than two monitors. This was slow but flyable, any more than two monitors produced an instant CTD and this despite three hardware upgrades over the years.

 

I recently tried P3D and the results were even worse. It crashes my GPU drivers or just locks up the computer necessitating a manual close and restart.

 

EDIT

 

Apologies, it would appear that I have a problem with my laptop.

 

To continue:

 

To be fair to P3D, the download is huge and my internet here in Indonesia is slow...sorry... VERY slow, I have a photo of a download with a speed of 1kb per second .... again, 1kb per second. Given that I could not get an MD5 checksum to match, it is a fair assumption that the download is faulty. Having said that though, the XPlane update was 3.8gb and that is all ok.

 

I am still trying to configure and set up my Xplane installation so please excuse any stupid questions at this time.

 

Is there any way I can set Xplane up using the monitors as outlined above ... ie create a pop up, undock, and drag to another monitor (I know this is FS2004 talk but is there any Xplane method to do this)

 

I have read many articles about multi monitors in Xplane but they all seem to rotate round 3 x monitors for an 180 degree approximately, outside cockpit view. This is NOT what I am trying to achieve.

 

If there is anyone in the Xplane community who can positively confirm or deny the possibility of doing this and perhaps guiding me through, step by step, if in fact, it is "do-able"

 

Thank you all for reading this and I really, really look forward to some positive outcome

 

Regards

 

Tony Chilcott

[himmelhorse 1,276]

EDIT

 

Apologies,  it would appear that I have a problem with my laptop.

 

To continue:

 

To be fair to P3D, the download is huge and my internet here in Indonesia is slow...sorry... VERY slow,  I have a photo of a download with a speed of 1kb per second .... again, 1kb  per second. Given that I could not get an MD5 checksum to match, it is a fair assumption that the download is faulty.  Having said that though, the XPlane update was 3.8gb and that is all ok.

 

I am still trying to configure and set up my Xplane installation so please excuse any stupid questions at this time.

 

Is there any way I can set Xplane up using the monitors as outlined above ... ie create a pop up, undock, and drag to another monitor (I know this is FS2004 talk but is there any Xplane method to do this)

 

I have read many articles about multi monitors in Xplane but they all seem to rotate round 3 x monitors for an 180 degree approximately, outside cockpit view.  This is NOT what I am trying to achieve.

 

If there is anyone in the Xplane community who can positively confirm or deny the possibility of doing this and perhaps guiding me through, step by step, if in fact, it is "do-able"

 

Thank you all for reading this and I really, really look forward to some positive outcome

 

Regards

 

Tony Chilcott

[CarlosF 1,234]

 

 

undock, and drag to another monitor

 

Tony, unfortunately and AFAIK there is no way to undock an drag to another monitor.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Carlos,

 

I was afraid of this.  Basically, I think you may well be right and the only extensions will be for the cockpit view. ie 3 monitors for 180 degrees.

 

Is there anyone who has a different point of view or has a different system working on 3 or more monitors?

 

Thanks Carlos, your response is appreciated. My problem is that I would find it very difficult to go back to that concept, which may render Xplane useless to me.  It is/was looking like a very good programme though

 

Tony Chilcott

[CarlosF 1,234]

 

 

your response is appreciated

 

Glad to help...that is quite a setup you got there Tony, I doubt you will be able to find an alternative to FS2004 based on your current setup and a single computer, but of course I may be wrong and hopefully someone here can chime in.

[ohsirus 241]

X-plane is not able to do undockable windows. Even FSX as you pointed out struggles when you try multiple undocking. I ran FS2004 for along time as I had a similar setup to yours, but eventually I invested into actual Cockpit Builder Programs to get around the FPS hits. 

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Vincent,

 

Thank you mate, I think that is the definitive answer I did not want but was expecting.  So sad for me but I can still play with my FS2004 which remains hugely satisfying.  TPDs though are slowly giving up on it and there is very little new stuff coming through.

 

As an aged pensioner, I simply cannot contemplate the building of an actual cockpit and here in Indonesia (particularly in my town) there is no technical ability that is readily available to help me out on such a project. It would be lovely to do but very very difficult and expensive as I see it currently.

 

For Carlos, this has been a project of love over a very long time and as I said before, it is hugely satisfying except that I really do dream of greatly improved scenery.  I fly mostly in Australia and the only halfway decent scenery comes from Aussie vista. I also fly in Indonesia but the sceneries there are pretty bad.  

 

As far as other sims go I have great hopes for NGIS,  Dovetail  64 bit and P3D 64bit in the future.  One or all of them may work out just fine for what I am wanting.

 

Anyway, for now it is back to FS2004 and again I thank you for your input.

 

Regards

 

Tony Chilcott

[Murmur 3,941]

Anyway, for now it is back to FS2004 and again I thank you for your input.

 

Although I'm not 100% sure (not having multiple monitors), I think what you're trying to achieve might be partly doable, but it requires 3 PC (in total).

 

It would work something like that:

 

On the main PC and 3 monitors, you display the main screen and the left and right view. Basically, you would have a single front view of the virtual cockpit spanning along the 3 monitors. This would be the master PC.

 

On the second PC and 1 monitor, you display the aft and forward overhead panel.

 

On the third PC and the last 2 monitors, you display the FMS and pedestal (again, same as above, single view of the FMS/Pedestal area spanning along the two monitors).

 

Each PC would be networked and have a copy of X-Plane running. The first PC would be the master, and the other 2 the slaves.

 

The slaves PC need not be as powerful as the master PC, since they're devoted to displaying only flight instruments. So on them you can have the scenery settings at minimum.

[ohsirus 241]

Vincent,

 

Thank you mate, I think that is the definitive answer I did not want but was expecting.  So sad for me but I can still play with my FS2004 which remains hugely satisfying.  TPDs though are slowly giving up on it and there is very little new stuff coming through.

 

As an aged pensioner, I simply cannot contemplate the building of an actual cockpit and here in Indonesia (particularly in my town) there is no technical ability that is readily available to help me out on such a project. It would be lovely to do but very very difficult and expensive as I see it currently.

 

For Carlos, this has been a project of love over a very long time and as I said before, it is hugely satisfying except that I really do dream of greatly improved scenery.  I fly mostly in Australia and the only halfway decent scenery comes from Aussie vista. I also fly in Indonesia but the sceneries there are pretty bad.  

 

As far as other sims go I have great hopes for NGIS,  Dovetail  64 bit and P3D 64bit in the future.  One or all of them may work out just fine for what I am wanting.

 

Anyway, for now it is back to FS2004 and again I thank you for your input.

 

Regards

 

Tony Chilcott

 

Not sure if you've ever played around with Prosim737 http://prosim-ar.com/downloads/ their program runs in demo mode after XX minutes (just reset programs) , but you can get a good idea if it's something you may be interested and you'll see people selling their licenses often.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Mumur,

 

Wow, this MAY be an avenue to explore albeit an expensive one here in Indonesia.

 

I have to admit though, when I first explored the possibilities of Xplane I was looking at going down the route of multiple copies of the programme (four) and utilising my triplehead2go for the three main panel screen (3d cockpit) and was very unsure about how this would work ie do I install the entire programme (complete with all the desired add-ons) and then duplicate that three times, or do I just have the addons on the original copy and run the basic programme on the other three.  In the final analysis though, if I cannot undock or move just the overhead panel, and for the life of me, I cannot work out how this would be possible, what exactly would I be achieving?  This is, by the way, why I started this thread in the first place I guess.  If in fact, it is possible then I would need someone to hold my hand and guide me through the dark process involved. Technical help here is almost impossible. For the second time, (the first time was years ago), I went into a computer shop here  and asked the technician if the Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU was available yet.  His response was exactly the same as the first attempt ... What is a GPU" Not really an awe inspiring response.

 

I have noticed over the years, many people using FSX and multiple monitors and via forums I have asked much the same questions I am asking here.  For some reason, nobody seems to want to or be able to share their knowledge as if it was a secret.  I guess that is fair enough although it isn't very helpful to me personally.  What I am hoping for in this forum is that the people who do have and are using roughly the same set up I want, (if it is do-able) can and will help out.  I think it is amazing that people who don't have this knowledge or experience always step up and at least try to help out. For that, I am and I am quite sure everybody here who has received help and actually solved their problems, are genuinely appreciative.

 

Vincent .... Prosim 737.  

 

As far as I can tell this is FSX or P3D based and as such, unworkable for me at this time. Just for your info ... I have installed on my computer (all on different drives) FS2004, FSX, FSX-SE,  P3D and Xplane 10 (updated)  The only one working successfully despite many many attempts is FS2004. I am not denigrating these programmes as (apart from P3D) they all work and work very well, but .... only on a single monitor and this is not what I am wanting.  Basically, I have a full cockpit except that I am using monitors in lieu of hardware.  For your further information the photo displayed is not current and I will be up loading my new photo as soon as I can.

 

Well guys,  I have rambled (again) but I hope my long-windedness has been helpful in my appeal for help.I want to express my sincerely felt gratitude for your responses thus far and have to admit that for the first time in a long long time, that I actually feel optomistic.

 

Thanks again to all

 

Tony Chilcott 

 

 

 

[Murmur 3,941]

Mumur,

 

Wow, this MAY be an avenue to explore albeit an expensive one here in Indonesia.

 

I have to admit though, when I first explored the possibilities of Xplane I was looking at going down the route of multiple copies of the programme (four) and utilising my triplehead2go for the three main panel screen (3d cockpit) and was very unsure about how this would work ie do I install the entire programme (complete with all the desired add-ons) and then duplicate that three times, or do I just have the addons on the original copy and run the basic programme on the other three.  In the final analysis though, if I cannot undock or move just the overhead panel, and for the life of me, I cannot work out how this would be possible, what exactly would I be achieving?  This is, by the way, why I started this thread in the first place I guess.  If in fact, it is possible then I would need someone to hold my hand and guide me through the dark process involved.

 

My previous post was not very clear in some points, so I'll try to explain it better.

 

As you said, undocking multiple views is not possible in X-Plane. So what you would do, is changing the point of view of the virtual cockpit for each of the 3 instances of X-Plane running.

 

So, in the master PC you would have the normal forward view of the virtual cockpit, but you would simply have it span along the three monitors.

 

In the second PC, you would move the point of view so that it is centered on the overhead panel.

 

On the third PC, you would move the point of view so that it is centered on the FMS/pedestal area, and spanning the two monitors.

 

So at the end you should get something like this:

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding your other question, I guess that you must have the same X-Plane configuration and hence the same add-ons running on each of the three instances of X-Plane.

 

Keep in mind that mine is just an hypothesis, since I never actually used multi monitor on X-Plane. I'm sure you can receive further info and technical guidance if you ask in the appropriate x-plane.org forum. You could maybe also try asking directly at Laminar themselves for technical assistance.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Murmur,

 

This is almost precisely what I am looking for.

 

The only difference is that whilst I have the triplehead2go I would use it to display the main screen and the two side screens would be the side views as opposed to a stretched main view. (the 60 inch screen is more than enough real estate for the main view. This may well involve even more PCs.

The overhead would be left alone (as is) ...  ie portrait mode I am unsure if this would be able to include the aft overhead panel (where the irs etc is housed)

Your third screen would be a landscape monitor with only an enlarged panel of just the FMS/Lower DU/FMS ... ie no throttle quadrant showing.

Fourth screen would be the pedestal in portrait mode.

 

If necessary, I could delete the side views (as these are a recent addition anyway) and just go with the main panel on the big screen.

 

Again, setting all this up could well end up being a nightmare here and I will definately require the aforementioned hand-holding.

 

We are though on the right track, if in fact the four Xplane folders process proves to be unworkable or impractical.

 

Yeehaaa we are on the way

 

Thank you so much and by the way.  I know I have lots of trouble with the internet but where precisely did you get your information regarding the late great Abraham Lincoln LOL

.

At this point, can I respectfully request some further input regarding the folder version and will this give me what I want?

 

Regards

 

Tony Chilcott

[ohsirus 241]

Tony,

 

Not sure if it would or not work well for you. Prosim737 you would only have to render the outside views using FSX/P3D (hopefully X-plane gets out of beta). No more udocking FMCs, DU, PEdestal, Overhead etc. Rendering FSX/P3D scenery and no 3Dmodels or panels usually is not over taxing for modern systems. Like I said if you have not downloaded the demo..try it..nothing lost on your end,

[Murmur 3,941]

Murmur,

 

This is almost precisely what I am looking for.

 

The only difference is that whilst I have the triplehead2go I would use it to display the main screen and the two side screens would be the side views as opposed to a stretched main view. (the 60 inch screen is more than enough real estate for the main view. This may well involve even more PCs.

The overhead would be left alone (as is) ...  ie portrait mode I am unsure if this would be able to include the aft overhead panel (where the irs etc is housed)

Your third screen would be a landscape monitor with only an enlarged panel of just the FMS/Lower DU/FMS ... ie no throttle quadrant showing.

Fourth screen would be the pedestal in portrait mode.

 

If necessary, I could delete the side views (as these are a recent addition anyway) and just go with the main panel on the big screen.

 

I don't think showing the two side views instead of the extended main view is possible in this configuration. For that, you would need 2 additional PC's.

 

If you want to have both the forward and aft overhead displayed on the same monitor, since undocking is not possible, probably the only solution is to zoom out the view until both overhead portions are visible. You'll have a more zoomed out view of the overhead though.

 

Same thing for the FMS/pedestal: since it is a single view spanned on two monitors, you are simply limited to center the view and set the zoom until both the FMS and the lower pedestal are visible. So you'll have the throttle quadrant showing in the middle (probably between the two monitors).

 

I did not understand your question about the folder version, what do you mean?

 

EDIT: So for clarity, here's how overhead and FMS/pedestal could appear:

 

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Murmur,

 

Here is a quote from Yz125 that I am trying to understand and if possible to implement.  

At this time it does not make a huge amount of sense to me and it may well be he is talking about

multiple computers anyway.  I simply do not know.  I tried to get in touch with the poster but to

date I have had no response.

 

 

 

From Yz125 (in multiple monitors forum)

I tried this earlier today and as it turns out there are no problems running multiple concurrent instances of X-Plane 10 in Windows 7 64-bit, as long as you have enough memory. Here's how to run n instances at once:

 

1) Make n separate folders, one for each instance, on the desktop.

2) Copy folder with preferences into each folder from full install of XP10.

3) Use mklink /D [target] [link] command in the shell to make a symbolic link in the new X-Plane directories for everything else in the main directory of the full install. I used a batch script to make creating the links easier--all you need to do is open a new file in notepad and put each mklink /D command on a new line. Then save as .bat with filetype as all files (not .txt). Now run this as administrator and your directory should be filled with links to everything a single instance of X-Plane needs to run.

4) Start copy 1 [master]. Tell the selection screen not to load on startup because you don't want to deal with it when launching several instances at once. Once XP10 finishes loading, you may want to decrease the render options depending on your amount of RAM. Then, go to Settings -> Net and configure your computer as the master, and set up as many slave machines as you want, using a unique port for each that is different from the port you'll be assigning yourself shortly. All IPs are 127.0.0.1. Notice you can change the rate of updates sent out to slave view machines; don't make this too high or it will start impacting performance. Now, you will also need to change the ports used send and receive net data on the master or any attempted concurrent launches of X-Plane will crash on startup. The port numbers used can be anything. Quit the master copy.

5) Launch copy 2. If it crashes go back and make sure the master copy has been assigned new, unique ports to send and receive. Again, set the selection thing to not load. After loading, adjust any graphical settings as before and then enter the net preferences. Find the section where you can assign your copy a slave view. Select the desired view and enter 127.0.0.1 for the IP, and the port you configured the master to receive on for the port. Finally, configure the option to receive on the port you specified for the slave view in step 4, and make sure the ports used for sending are unique and not used by any other copy.

6). Repeat step 5 until you've run out of copies to configure. Make sure all port numbers are entered correctly and are unique for each copy.

7) Make a batch file to launch all copies at once and place on desktop. This time, you'll use "start" to ensure the batch runs everything at once: start [location of X-Plane.exe]. Do this for each copy you intend to run.

8. Run the batch and all your copies should start at once. Since you were clever and deselected the loadup screen you can sit patiently without intervening and in some time all copies will be onscreen. If you get messages about running out of memory, you will have to go buy some more. If things aren't working, check all of your network options and make sure ports and IPs are all entered correctly. All IPs should be 127.0.0.1

9. With n instances of X-Plane now running, configure your view, and experiment with various FOVs. For 3 monitors, you would probably want around 40* - 60* / view. The offset features work as described to get your views set at the proper angles respective to each other. Set the outside displays so they wrap around your head and vary the amount of "wrap" to minimize the distortion. You will probably still have some distortion unless you have a software or hardware solution to post process the video, but the view in now 1000% improved on using 1 copy for a wide FOV.

 

You can also run a map, external view or instructor station on a concurrent instance of X-Plane 10.

 

Please post results if you try this. It is possible to run with 8GB of RAM but settings and textures need to be set quite low. Ideally you should have 16GB RAM. Performance is very good on an i7 3770K, and I'm loading everything off a mechanical RAID10 networked over 1000 ethernet. Going to try it from an Intel 520 instead tomorrow and report any gains in loading time.

Edited February 26, 2013 by yz125