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How to Multiple Screen with Z16?
(71 posts, started )
Quote from JasonJ :[OT] would love to see a picture of someone using the new patch Z features with a photo taken from the correct viewing point to see what it looks like with the multi monitor features. ie: like your shot Bob, except the camera needs to be about 3 feet closer

would be cool to see it.

I'd need a fish eye lens for that well maybe I could pause a screen and shoot a panoramic shot

[Edit]
Well I took a few shots...
When I'm sitting at my rig the very left and right of the screens are just comfortably in my peripheral vision so when I'm driving the head rests are just obvious enough to help with motion cues but not at all obtrusive. Felt a little weird at first having the two outer monitors wrapping around so close to my head, but adjusted to it very quickly - I ran an hour and a half enduro on Sunday night with it without problems (although it is possibly making me feel a bit more tired with long usage, and I'd advise against using such a set up when you had too much to drink ).

Amazingly even with a massive 230deg FOV you can see that the middle screen is still very clear and in similar proportions to how I would have run a single screen with a FOV around 76deg. Overall I find it gives me an amazingly immersive feel with only previously dreamt of spatial awareness and excellent visual sense of speed.
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I did a X2 screen test using a 23'' Samsung@1920x1080x60 & a 17''ViewSonic LCD@1280x1024x60 running on a Nvidia 9600GT@512mb . @3190x1042x60.

But with W7 I ran into some trouble getting it to run full screen,I tried display settings in control panel,but it offer's no support to span the taskbar over all screen's(like xp did it..)
So I tried the Nvidia display thingy,but found the same deadendroad
Had to stretch the game's window across to the second monitor...
Meh..Had a nice stable 60fps tho..
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Quote from Glenn67 :I'd need a fish eye lens for that well maybe I could pause a screen and shoot a panoramic shot

[Edit]
Well I took a few shots...
[snip]

Indeed looks awesome. The horizontal lines now line up by the looks of it. It would be freaky sitting in that rig. Pretty close to real life. You got the dash in the right spot for the wheel to mate. Nice 1


I have a 40" so I don't need to use this new feature, but when LCD's with tiny bevels are affordable, I can go this way to. Something to look forward to.
Quote from JasonJ :I have a 40" so I don't need to use this new feature, but when LCD's with tiny bevels are affordable, I can go this way to. Something to look forward to.

I don't think you get the same experience with one 40" screen. I used triple screens before the patch and it was kind of a let down. Sure the view was wider, but one the sides the image was very distorted and you couldn't really see that much more to the sides.
With the new patch there are actual new viewports on the side. So you really can see much more and it's not distorted. For me the new patch has pretty much eliminated the need to use the right/left look function. I can see the same thing by just turning my head that I could see before by pressing the look buttons. It helps a lot when racing close to other people when you can always see exactly where they are.
The reason why you can't have the same experience with one big screen is that the side screens need to be angled so that things line up correctly.

Now I can truly recommend getting 3 screens for LFS. Before it was not really worth the money, but currently it most definitely is.
I know it's no where near as good as a 40". I just wanted to see how it looked now that LFS supports it properly now. It was a bit hard to tell from Bob's CRT setup.
It wasn't a great shot. You really need to see it in motion for it to make sense. I don't have a digital video camera though.
nVidia released drivers that support 5040x1050 and DX10 today. 191.07 are out, and confirmed to work by many triplehead users. I guess it's nVidias temporary Eyefinity killer.
So go get it!
Quote from atledreier :nVidia released drivers that support 5040x1050 and DX10 today. 191.07 are out, and confirmed to work by many triplehead users. I guess it's nVidias temporary Eyefinity killer.
So go get it!

You still need TH2GO (or SoftTH) with Nvidia. Hardly a Eyefinity killer.
At least nvidia can now keep some of those that already have Th2G and are getting fed up with the poor driver support. We have been stuck with 182.50 drivers until now.
Ok.. I tested around a bit with multi screening...

- Spanning LFS over 3 Displays in windowed mode only gives me around 20FPS when I am alone on the track - unplayable with a huge starting grid.

- Spanning LFS over 2 Displays (the 2 connected to the 16x PCIe Card) gives me about 100 FPS in the middle of a race - at a start with about 10 cars I am falling down to 40 FPS

- using SoftTH with 1280x1024@32bit for the center screen and 1024*768@16bit just gives me about 60FPS in the middle of a race, but just about 20-30 starting with about 10 cars. These low FPS at the start are undriveable for T1...

I also tested around with AA and AF until I switched them off - only increases the FPS by 2 or 3...

So I guess something else is wrong with my rig - even a low-end PCI card should to the job for the 3rd display according to the SoftTH forum...

In FSX I cannot see any FPS drop using 3 displays - and I didn´t even change the resolution or colour depth of the side screens!

However... I will go on testing, now I just bought a new FullHD 23´´ wide screen... I have to play around with SoftTH to get all 3 working in the correct resolution.

Anyway, I still have questions:
Quote :
Just disable windowed mode while connecting, so that LFS won't go windowed when connecting to a server.

Where can I disable that? Seems I need some new glasses...

I believe that my rig should have enough power to run LFS with 3 displays in a good speed:

GA-P35-DS3p, 1st display card (PCIe 16x) NVidia9600GT 512MB, 2nd display card (PCIe 4x) NVidia 7600GT 256MB, 4GB RAM, Q9550 and Win7 Ultimate 64Bit...

I adjusted the BIOS to boot the 2nd display card first, because else my second OS won´t boot with 3 displays activated - but I don´t think that´s the problem, because changing this settings to normal has no difference.

I also thought about buying a ATI HD 5770. This one should be able to handle 3 screens at once. Can anyone confirm that this card really can handle 3 Displays and that I can use them as Multidisplays in LFS? I read somewhere that you need an additional adapter which costs as much as the display card itself...

Thanks!
oops... I searched all options several times... lol
Quote from JustForFunRacing :I believe that my rig should have enough power to run LFS with 3 displays in a good speed:

GA-P35-DS3p, 1st display card (PCIe 16x) NVidia9600GT 512MB, 2nd display card (PCIe 4x) NVidia 7600GT 256MB, 4GB RAM, Q9550 and Win7 Ultimate 64Bit...

Using triplehead really takes a lot out of your computer. I have a bit faster CPU and a bit faster GPU than you and I am using 1680x1050 + 2x1280x1024 monitors (4304x1050 is the resolution in LFS). I am getting similiar fps than you, 60+ when driving alone and around 30 during starts with many cars. I am using 4x for AA and AF.
Quote :I also thought about buying a ATI HD 5770. This one should be able to handle 3 screens at once. Can anyone confirm that this card really can handle 3 Displays and that I can use them as Multidisplays in LFS? I read somewhere that you need an additional adapter which costs as much as the display card itself...

With that card one of the monitors has to have DisplayPort connector or you need an active DisplayPort -> DVI adapter which costs over 100€.
Otherwise that card should work fine with three displays and LFS. Except all the monitors need to have the same resolution for the built-in triple monitor (Eyefinity) function to work. So you might still have to use SoftTH.

Or you could get that card and keep one of your older cards as the secondary card and continue to use SoftTH. The 5770 provides more power so LFS should run more smoothly than now.
Thank you, geeman1 !

Well then this display card is not worth to buy... I have different resolutions for my displays and of course I don´t want to buy an extra adapter which costs as much as the card itself.

However I am even not able to run SoftTH with different resolutions

Either the whole picture is moved to the left, or adding sideExtraWidth=640 (1920-1280=640) I get a total crash with a blue screen

I guess I have to stay with single screen and will unmount the 2nd display card...
Now we have testpatch Z20 out.

In order to have a 2 screen setup, there's one thing I don't get...Do the two monitors have to be equal ? Same resolution, same physical dimensions ?

I have two very different monitors, 22" wide 1680*1050 & 8" touch 800*600, and one single Radeon.
Apart from the obvious disadvantages (dimension-wise) would it be possible to set a 2-screen LFS for me (just to try) ?

Edit: ok, reading through the thread (as usual) I found the answer about resolutions not having to be the same.
But when I add my second screen on the left, LFS tells me "not wide enough for true 2-screen setup".
Quote from Ripley :Now we have testpatch Z20 out.

In order to have a 2 screen setup, there's one thing I don't get...Do the two monitors have to be equal ? Same resolution, same physical dimensions ?

I have two very different monitors, 22" wide 1680*1050 & 8" touch 800*600, and one single Radeon.
Apart from the obvious disadvantages (dimension-wise) would it be possible to set a 2-screen LFS for me (just to try) ?

Edit: ok, reading through the thread (as usual) I found the answer about resolutions not having to be the same.
But when I add my second screen on the left, LFS tells me "not wide enough for true 2-screen setup".

Did you manage to get it working?
No, not yet...
Quote from Ripley :I have two very different monitors, 22" wide 1680*1050 & 8" touch 800*600, and one single Radeon.
Apart from the obvious disadvantages (dimension-wise) would it be possible to set a 2-screen LFS for me (just to try) ?

I don't see that working in any usefull manner. I guess you could run them both at 800x600 and use horizontal span, but the image wouldn't line up in any way.
Yes, that's what I was afraid to hear...anyway, even with both screens at 800*600, LFS keeps saying "not wide enough for true 2-screen setup".
Time to look for another couple of monitors.
believe me, go for the long haul...get a paar/triple of nice 19-25 inch screens/tv's and enjoy it...you wont regret it
Hi guys,

i can't seem to get multi-monitor working, i just cant get above 1920*1200. I read a lot of threads, but found nothing that helped.

Win7, ATI HD4850, Multiple monitor setting in Win: extend these displays.
Patch Z20, right Monitor added in Options->View

Anyone a hint?
Are no higher resolutions available to choose in LFS? If not, then what is your desktop resolution?
you seem to be using extended desktop in windows as opposed to having one large desktop across both screens (with the taskbar going across both and all that) which is what the graphiccard must see for multiscreen to work in lfs
tbh i'd say go with as big a single screen as you can get, just my personal pref though as I dont like the cuts between the screens and then your only having to render one monitor.

I've heard you need a pretty big spec to run them smooth. sli/crossfired cards.

Only find a duel screen monitor setup usefull when doing non gaming stuff.

good luck though!
Quote from jaykay3000 :tbh i'd say go with as big a single screen as you can get, just my personal pref though as I dont like the cuts between the screens and then your only having to render one monitor.

I've heard you need a pretty big spec to run them smooth. sli/crossfired cards.

Only find a duel screen monitor setup usefull when doing non gaming stuff.

good luck though!

900 inch

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