Two monitors - one for flightsim, one for race sim

[JonP01 102]

Hi, sorry - I wasn't sure which forum was best for this question. I'm looking to build an entirely new machine next year and also buy completely new controller hardware. However I would like to run a dedicated standard computer desk-based setup for my flight simming (including yoke, quadrant and rudder pedals) but also a dedicated physical race sim cockpit (such as the Trakracer RS😎. The race sim setup will have everything hard mounted - so even notwithstanding the fact that the race sim cockpit won't work with flight sim controllers anyway, it won't be practical in the first place to go converting the race sim setup to flight sim use or vice versa even if it did - I'd be bolting and unbolting stuff all the time and it would be get very old very quickly.

But the only way I can see this working (unless I build two completely different PCs) is to have one PC driving two monitors where I can switch from one to the other (and the monitor not in use can effectively be completely disabled). The race sim monitor would be hard mounted to my racing sim rig cockpit and the flight simming monitor would be part of my flight simming setup on the ordinary computer desk. So I would need to be able to actually either boot to one monitor or the other depending on what I want to play or I would need to be able to change over from one monitor to the other whilst in Windows - and ensuring the un-used monitor is not using any graphics resources lest it reduce overall performance.

Can I actually do this and if so if is difficult to setup? Any shortcomings I would need to be aware of?

Thanks

[vortex681 806]

You could use a physical HDMI or display port switch - one output from your PC switchable between the 2 monitors. One other thing to consider is that leaving all of your controllers plugged in together (if that's what you intend to do) can sometimes lead to a loss of settings or controller mapping in some games.

Edited November 4, 2018 by vortex681

[JonP01 102]

Thanks. I did not know about display port switches. That would be a good solution. Yes, I'm aware of the controller pitfalls so my plan would to make sure I have sufficient USB ports so they are all always connected. Thanks again for the great suggestion - I will look into it!

[vortex681 806]

56 minutes ago, JonP01 said:

Yes, I'm aware of the controller pitfalls so my plan would to make sure I have sufficient USB ports so they are all always connected.

My advice would be NOT to leave them plugged in when not being used. When people have problems with controller settings or loss of mapping, it's often because having unused controllers plugged in confuses the game software. Also, always make sure that you always plug controllers into the same physical USB port each time you reconnect them.

[Bob Scott 6,573]

I gave up on this and now use my last-generation sim computer for driving/racing sims and other games.

That said, there's no need at all to buy more hardware to switch between two monitors--that can be done easily within the standard nVidia Control Panel.

I disagree about disconnecting unused controllers, for the reason that if you change the configuration of the connected USB HID devices from session to session, you will likely find that the GUIDs of the devices change as well, which makes keeping settings a real bear.  When I ran multiple monitors (one for P3D with a floor-mounted yoke, one for FSX/DCS on the other side of the table with a HOTAS stick/throttle) I left everything connected, and configured the programs to use the appropriate controllers and to ignore the others.  If P3D sees a new HID device it doesn't recognize (new as in a new GUID) it will often assign all the default axes to it.

Regards

[vortex681 806]

On 11/13/2018 at 7:51 PM, w6kd said:

I disagree about disconnecting unused controllers, for the reason that if you change the configuration of the connected USB HID devices from session to session, you will likely find that the GUIDs of the devices change as well, which makes keeping settings a real bear.

I always remove the controller(s) I'm not using and have yet to have a problem. I mentioned unplugging them because a number of gamers on the race sim forums have reported problems leaving PS4 or X-Box controllers (and occasionally joysticks) plugged in with their racing wheels. They were finding that the wheel was either not being detected or if it was, button mapping was being lost between sessions. Removing the unused controllers seemed to solve the problem. It's possible it was down to specific games, of course.