The online racing simulator
Do all the monitors have to be capable of running the same resolution? I have a 22" flatscreen and two CRTs (one 15" and one 19") and wouldn't mind trying multi-monitoring out.
The centre monitor can be run at any resolution up to 1365 pixels wide (unless you have a DX10 card, that doubles the limit).
The left and right monitors must be run at the same resolution, but it can differ from the resolution of the centre monitor (can be lower - this is advised anyway for improved frame rate)

All monitors must all be running resolutions of the same aspect ratio.

E.g. I'm running 1280x960 centre and 1024x768 left and right.
OK, since I'm told I can't run triple 1920x1200 screens on my current hardware, can I run dual screens somehow and have the main monitor centered?

I don't like running dual screens where the game gets centered across the two.

I just want a bit of extra view to the left, if that makes sense???
LFS support 3 monitor???? mmm lets see, maybe yes but... in the same camera, i say, the same view but more large, becose if you want 3 monitor with differents cameras or view i guess you must need 3 differents usernames and 3 slots in the server and follow the same car to watch at your left, your right and your front, but thats only that i though.

can the LFS do that with 1 username for three monitor (different views)????
Quote from vox-ace :can I run dual screens somehow and have the main monitor centered?

with the way lfs currently works its only possible if you can render at 3*1920 and just chop one side off
Quote from Bob Smith :
All monitors must all be running resolutions of the same aspect ratio.

As far as I know the latest release now allows the centre monitor to run a different aspect ratio as well as resolution to the two side monitors. I haven't tried it yet though as I need to upgrade to a DX10 card first.

From what you say it seems the 2900XT will support 8000 pixels as it is a DX10 requirement?

Maxim
8192 pixels to be correct.
Quote from Shotglass :with the way lfs currently works its only possible if you can render at 3*1920 and just chop one side off

You can rotate the default head potision in the game, so just use both outputs of your graphics card with a monitor in each
(which will give you a wide view but with the 'join' right in the middle) and then use the rotate slider in game to centre the view onto one of the two monitors.
Mulitple Instances of LFS or PCs
IS it possible to have multiple Instances of LFS running and have a master instance and other's just camera views? Using In Sim or even having LFS talk on a private Port with other machines/instances that just take necessary data and render a view?

It would be great if LFS could be setup in a Spectate/view only fashion and just give it a location to look to use as a source for telemetry info basically and a view to use, TV/or position relative to a car/driver. Then you could have 5 instances of LFS running, 4 just receiving data from the master and those 4 rendering from the configured view points. Real small LCD for a real rear view, 2 side views and one for TV spectating. Plus this could accommodate single very fast PCs with multiple displays at different resolutions, or with multiple graphics cards. Plus it could accommodate multiple PCs being used to distribute the rendering load.
Has anyone got this running using an 8800 GTS and another video card (that isn't a 8800GTS) ?

I had it running fine with an ATI1800XT + ATI1300 but frames rates were only about 30-35. I have upgraded my 1800XT to a 8800GTS but it seems like there are driver issues when running it alongside an ATI card. Desktop is fine but softTHG doesn't like it. Looks like I will need to replace the 1300 with an nVidia card but I am just a bit concerned that the 8800 uses a special version of the nVidia drivers and I might end up with conflicts even with a cheap nVidia card. So I wondered if anyone had a combination that works.

Maxim
Quote from Bob Smith :There are only two issues as it stands:
1. I have to manually reduce the resolution of the right monitor in windows beforehand, else LFS appears in a small box on top of my desktop background.
2. My frame-rate has halved with the addition of the third screen.

I'm hoping my new board will cure at least the second problem, else I have ordered a new mobo for no reason (apart from supporting SLI it's otherwise identical to my current board).

To follow up, with my upgraded board, my frame-rate has doubled, back at 55-60fps solo, typically 30-40 when racing, although the start of a 32 grid race drops it to 12fps which makes starts difficult. I'm running the same card as you MaximUK (X1800XT), so at least the frame rates compare well (running at 3840x960 0xAA 16xAF). Thinking of upgrading too when I get some more finances.

I still have to run a funny config and reduce the resolution manually (on the third monitor) in advance to get SoftTH to run though. Ditto for Oblivion.
Quote from Mister2zx3 :IS it possible to have multiple Instances of LFS running and have a master instance and other's just camera views? Using In Sim or even having LFS talk on a private Port with other machines/instances that just take necessary data and render a view?

It would be great if LFS could be setup in a Spectate/view only fashion and just give it a location to look to use as a source for telemetry info basically and a view to use, TV/or position relative to a car/driver. Then you could have 5 instances of LFS running, 4 just receiving data from the master and those 4 rendering from the configured view points. Real small LCD for a real rear view, 2 side views and one for TV spectating. Plus this could accommodate single very fast PCs with multiple displays at different resolutions, or with multiple graphics cards. Plus it could accommodate multiple PCs being used to distribute the rendering load.

Yes it would be great

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=24768
Quote from Bob Smith :To follow up, with my upgraded board, my frame-rate has doubled, back at 55-60fps solo, typically 30-40 when racing, although the start of a 32 grid race drops it to 12fps which makes starts difficult. I'm running the same card as you MaximUK (X1800XT), so at least the frame rates compare well (running at 3840x960 0xAA 16xAF). Thinking of upgrading too when I get some more finances.

I still have to run a funny config and reduce the resolution manually (on the third monitor) in advance to get SoftTH to run though. Ditto for Oblivion.

I was wondering how you got on after your upgrade. It is really because of T1 with a full field that I felt the need to upgrade as it is quite hard to catch slides at 19fps. With the chance of bigger fields with patch X this will only get worse. The maximum dynamic LOD settings I have to use also means the cars when close look quite poor with their square wheels. I can only run the game on one screen at the moment and I had forgotten how small one screen seems to be. Even though you only look at the side screens during tight bends it is amazing how much of a loss not having them there anymore is. I just hope I can get it running again soon.

Maxim
Hi!

Recently got back to "trying to play" LFS again. And well, I got myself three monitors last autumn so I thought I could use all three of them. Which I guess I should be able to do with SoftTH. The problem is that LFS doesn't even start. I've been trying around for a couple of days now to get it working but no success, I don't even get any error messages in SoftTH.log, that I can see at least.

Quote :
79042.85 - SoftTH: SoftTH v1.05 by Kegetys
79042.85 - SoftTH: Loading configuration D:\Live For Speed\softTH.cfg
79042.86 - SoftTH: Load DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d8.dll (auto)
79042.86 - SoftTH: Activating Win32 hooks...
79042.86 - SoftTH: Direct3DCreate8 (ver 220)
79043.41 - SoftTH: D3D Handle is 1340800
79043.47 - SoftTH: Adapter 0: ati2dvag.dll, Radeon X1950 Series with SoftTH v1.05 by Kegetys
79043.47 - SoftTH: Adapter 1: ati2dvag.dll, Radeon X1950 Series Secondary
79043.49 - SoftTH: Adapter 2: ati2dvag.dll, Radeon X1300XT/X1600 Pro Series
79043.49 - SoftTH: Adapter 3: ati2dvag.dll, Radeon X1300XT/X1600Pro Series Secondary
79043.49 - SoftTH: Added mode 1920x480 85Hz 22
79043.49 - SoftTH: Added mode 2400x600 85Hz 22
79043.49 - SoftTH: Added mode 3072x768 85Hz 22
79043.49 - SoftTH: Added mode 3840x960 85Hz 22
79043.49 - SoftTH: Added mode 3840x1024 85Hz 22
79043.49 - SoftTH: Added mode 4800x1200 100Hz 22
79043.69 - SoftTH: CreateDevice 1024x768 100Hz 22bf 77df
79043.69 - SoftTH: Focus window: 787992
79043.69 - SoftTH: Mode 1024x768 not widescreen
79043.69 - SoftTH: 1 backbuffer(s): 1024x768
79043.69 - SoftTH: SwapEffect 1
79043.69 - SoftTH: PP Flags 00000000
79043.69 - SoftTH: Behaviour Flags 00000080
79043.69 - SoftTH: CreateDevice 1024x768 100Hz 22bf 77df
79043.69 - SoftTH: Focus window: 787992
79043.69 - SoftTH: Mode 1024x768 not widescreen
79043.69 - SoftTH: 1 backbuffer(s): 1024x768
79043.69 - SoftTH: SwapEffect 1
79043.69 - SoftTH: PP Flags 00000000
79043.69 - SoftTH: Behaviour Flags 00000080
79044.17 - SoftTH: Storing function pointers...
79044.17 - SoftTH: Standard mode: 1024x768
79044.17 - SoftTH: Releasing surfaces...
79044.17 - SoftTH: Releasing devices...
79044.17 - SoftTH: InitStuff done
79044.17 - SoftTH: CreateDevice return (1024x768)
79044.19 - SoftTH: Storing function pointers...
79044.19 - SoftTH: Standard mode: 1024x768
79044.19 - SoftTH: Releasing surfaces...
79044.19 - SoftTH: Releasing devices...
79044.19 - SoftTH: InitStuff done
79044.19 - SoftTH: CreateDevice return (1024x768)

Hardware is:
C2D E6600 @ 3,33GHz
2GB PC6400 Corsair
Gigabyte P965-DQ6
Ati X1950XTX (Primary)
Ati X1300XT (Secondary)

Currently using Catalyst 7.4, although I've had no luck with 7.1, 7.2 and 7.5 either.

The X1950XTX drives two of my Dell P1130s, center and left.
The X1300XT drives one additional Dell P1130, right, and one shitty Viewsonic 15" TFT that serves as a wallclock.

I haven't got the slightest idea what to do next, any and all information is appreciated.

Edit: I don't know if this was the right place to take this up on but... Show me away if you think it doesn't fit here.
Do your monitors support 85Hz?
I would start by adding the extra mode 1280x1024x60 in the config file.

You need to post your config file contents as that is probably where the problem lies.

Stick with it as it is worth it.

Maxim
Dell P1130s are 21" CRTs. I think they can handle that resolution and refresh rate.
/searches ebay and such for cheap monitors

wow! it would be great, i look around and see all screens with lfs goodies
dreams are so nice
EDIT: dreams do come true?
40 to 50 15" monitors
4€ each
but too ugly and small
Quote from Bob Smith :Dell P1130s are 21" CRTs. I think they can handle that resolution and refresh rate.

Oops :ashamed:
I thought I would post about my upgrade experiences. My games pc is based on an AMD 64-4000 with 2Gig of RAM.

With an ATI1800XT and 1300 combo I could run LFS at 3 x 1280x1024. I needed to turn down a lot of the settings and max out the dynamic LOD settings to achieve 19fps in T1 and 30-35fps when alone.

I have switched this out and replaced it with an nVidia 8800GTS + ATI1300 combo. This worked fine as a desktop but softTHG couldn't create the ATI screen. There also seems to be issues with the ATI 3D drivers working.

I have now replaced the 1300 with an nVidia 7100GS. I had lots of trouble getting a set of drivers that worked with both without blue screening during bootup but did eventually get it working. Getting the ATI1800+1300 working together was easy.

I maxed everything out ingame and got 29fps! I dropped the settings back to the ones I used with the ATI combo and it made no difference and it remained at around 29fps. Adding 16xAF and 16xAA also made no difference to the fps although when combined with maxed out game settings did improve the graphics a lot and no more square wheels. What I did find was running the side screens at 1024x768 did increase the fps (which it didn't on the ATI combo). Dropping it to 800x600 increased the fps to 55fps with about 48fps in T1 which is much better than I was putting up with. Using 800x600 with 16AF and 16AA still looks great and you don't usually look directly at the side screens.

These results suggest that it is the PCI-e bus speed limiting the fps. It also suggests an 8800GTS is overkill as the fps don't change with maxed out settings. It seems from my limited testing that a graphics card in the ATI1800XT class is about the minimum you can use to achieve 3 x 1280x1024. With that you will need to compromise your graphics settings to enable you to get through T1 safely at the back of a grid. Once you get to the next level with ATI1950's(?) and equivalent then it looks like you should be fine. The drivers I had to use are only 57's so it might be that I could get better performance with newer drivers?

I went for the 640Mb version of the 8800GTS. Memory useage with 20 AI drivers at 3x1280x1024x32bit is 285Mb so I would expect that with the new bigger fields with patch X the 320Mb version would run out of memory. If you are willing to run at 16bit colour though the 320Mb version should be ok and is much cheaper.

Maxim
Interesting, I'll do some more benchmarking with mine to see what's limiting what.
I am curious if 2 graphic card in 2x PCI-E slots could help to increase a performance as the old PCI slot is very limited with the bandwith.

If you dont enable SLI it should work I think but I have really no idea.Also the AMD 4000+ might be another limiting factor.For example E6600 should increase the performance.
Quote from DEVIL 007 :I am curious if 2 graphic card in 2x PCI-E slots could help to increase a performance as the old PCI slot is very limited with the bandwith.

If you dont enable SLI it should work I think but I have really no idea.Also the AMD 4000+ might be another limiting factor.For example E6600 should increase the performance.

Both cards are in PCIe x8. It is a crossfire board so no option for SLI but softTGH doesn't like SLI (or crossfire) as I understand it. If I use one screen at 1280x1024 then I get well over 200fps so I don't think CPU load is a limiting factor but I don't really know so you might be right. I am surprised that PCIe bus speed would be a factor as it is only one screens data being transferred so it might be driver issues.

Maxim
PCI has theoretical bandwith just 133MB/s !
In fact it will be like 100-110MB/s.Thats really not so much.

When you have 2 cards in PCI-E slot they can output up to 4 screens if SLI is not enabled.
PCI-E bus has more then bandwuth for this purpose.

Also maybe the CPU might be really limitting for 3 screens as I guess with softTH its the CPU who dispatch the graphical data for each of the card.I really dont know exactly how this program works.Maybe you could dd a test just to overclock the CPU by 200Mhz and see if there is any FPS difference.Might be interesting to test.
Quote from DEVIL 007 :PCI has theoretical bandwidth just 133MB/s !
In fact it will be like 100-110MB/s.Thats really not so much.

When you have 2 cards in PCI-E slot they can output up to 4 screens if SLI is not enabled.
PCI-E bus has more then bandwidth for this purpose.

Also maybe the CPU might be really limiting for 3 screens as I guess with softTH its the CPU who dispatch the graphical data for each of the card.I really dont know exactly how this program works.Maybe you could dd a test just to overclock the CPU by 200Mhz and see if there is any FPS difference.Might be interesting to test.

You're right, that would be an easy way to prove it one way or another. I am going away for a few days but I will give it a go when I get back. It did seem strange to me that the PCIe bus wouldn't be enough but it still seemed a more likely cause than CPU limiting it. I will let you know what happens. In the set-up you mentioned each card would output it own data so wouldn't need to transfer data to the other card. In SoftTHG one card does the work then transfers it to the other card over the PCIe bus to be output by that other card. Tests have shown AGP isn't enough so the transfer rate must be quite high. I guess kegetys would know the answer but hopefully he is spending any spare time he has redoing pitspotter for patch X rather than reading this as I really miss that routine in a 32 car race.

Maxim

Maxim

LFS on three Monitors is awesome
(206 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG