My workstation has two 6600GT cards running 4 monitors; I'd love to be able to use at least 3 of 'em for LFS. Does anyone have any tips on doing this? I'm hoping I don't have to span them in the Nvidia driver, since that means a reboot, and I'd really like to avoid that.

Thanks
-b

You'd like to avoid a reboot? Uptime is really not all that special My friend is like that, :doh:

Because all I can suggest is that you get an Nvidia driver and it should support dual displays. I am not sure about more than 2 though.

Matrox makes a device that allows you to hook up 3 monitors to a card that only supports 2.

http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... &highlight=triplehead

Currently LFS doesn't support multi-GPU spreading, so you'll need a device like the one Forbin linked to, or buy a graphics card which supports more then three monitors to be attached to it (though they suck at games, so you'd be best buying the above device).

Yeah, reboots are critical to me. It takes about 10-15 mintues to get my workstation all up and running for my work apps, between the reboot and starting and logging into all of the apps. If I can pop into LFS and play a bit without shutting down, I will. If I have to shut everything down, no way.

Unfortunately, the Matrox device doesn't really work for me either, since it means re-cabling to play, which is also pretty disruptive (I've got good cable management).

So for now it's one screen, I suppose, and hopefully at some point LFS will add multi-GPU spreading. I'd cheerfully contribute an older video card (6600GT, I think) if it would help the developers.

-b

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Currently LFS doesn't support multi-GPU spreading, so you'll need a device like the one Forbin linked to, or buy a graphics card which supports more then three monitors to be attached to it (though they suck at games, so you'd be best buying the above device).

boooo! So what you saying is even if I go out and buy an expensive SLI dual card setup I still cant spread my FOV over three monitors? LFS does not support this or is it just a lack of drivers?

Quote from anttt69 :

boooo! So what you saying is even if I go out and buy an expensive SLI dual card setup I still cant spread my FOV over three monitors? LFS does not support this or is it just a lack of drivers?

cards only support two monitors, if you have SLi you can only have two monitors, disable it and use the two cards but you cant share a program accross them, believe me, i tried

Quote from anttt69 :

boooo! So what you saying is even if I go out and buy an expensive SLI dual card setup I still cant spread my FOV over three monitors? LFS does not support this or is it just a lack of drivers?

For a game to spread over multiple GPU's it needs to be programmed into the game, this is a long process which many dev teams refrain from doing if at all possable. Though from memory it is only DirectX that requires multi-GPU support programming in as OpenGL supports it natively, don't hold me to that though as it could be wrong.

And SLi turns on of the cards into a slave, it mirrors everything the master card (the one that you attach the monitor to), and just draws every other frame. You'd need to run them as indervidual cards, but this is not something I've ever tried so don't know how effective it is.

I've looked into this some more, and the matrox triplehead solution is definitely out; in addition to requiring recabling, it supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 per monitor (3840 x 1024 total) -- so it's not going to work with 1600x1200 monitors.

I would really be thrilled if LFS were to support multiple accelerated monitors; I'd be willing to contribute some cash or hardware if it would make such a thing any more likely.

To the best of my knowledge, Flight Simulator is currently the only game that supports multiple accelerated displays, so while it's not common it certainly is possible.

Cheers
-b

Quote from aiken :

I've looked into this some more, and the matrox triplehead solution is definitely out; in addition to requiring recabling, it supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 per monitor (3840 x 1024 total) -- so it's not going to work with 1600x1200 monitors.

I would really be thrilled if LFS were to support multiple accelerated monitors; I'd be willing to contribute some cash or hardware if it would make such a thing any more likely.

To the best of my knowledge, Flight Simulator is currently the only game that supports multiple accelerated displays, so while it's not common it certainly is possible.

Cheers
-b

well I dont see why 1600*1200 monitors would not support 1280*1024.Until its LCD which crappy downscale to 1280*1024.
I think there are more important things then focusing on multi-screen support.

Physics and 3D engine upgrade are the most important.I would say for S3 it might happend as at that time Scawen will be working on 3D engine so he can include this as well.

Yeah, between crappy scaling of 1280x1024 and crawling around swapping cables, I'm going to skip the matrox solution.

I agree that physics and 3D are plenty important, and I realize that there aren't all that many multi-monitor people out there, but speaking for myself the main limitations I consciously notice when playing LFS are the lack of peripheral vision and the ability to look at the exits of corners. Years of driving schools and track events have pounded "look ahead" into my brain, and now having straight-ahead-only vision is really limiting. (Yeah, I don't play a lot of driving games, but LFS is too cool to miss).

Anyways, if there is something I can do to help, I'm game.

Cheers
-b

I'm not sure if you use it, but you can use look with axis, so when you steer the drivers head looks into the corner (very handy), or you could get a track-something-or-other (someone will know what I'm on about), which will move when your head does.

I think if you play around with the custom views you can get away with using two monitors (unless you use the single seaters).

Quote from aiken :

I've looked into this some more, and the matrox triplehead solution is definitely out; in addition to requiring recabling, it supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 per monitor (3840 x 1024 total) -- so it's not going to work with 1600x1200 monitors.

i seriously doubt a 66gt is remotely fast enough to run 3d in 3200x1200

My 6800GT 128MB runs LFS just fine at 2048x1280 with 8x AA and 16x AF, so why not? Of course, other games are another story...

As a matter of fact I've been trying to get it to run the monitor's true max resolution (2304x1440) but the 6800GT doesn't officially support it.

using a 6600 gt I ran lfs across 2 monitors and got 7 fps, so I doubt his card will have the power

I've a dual card GeForce system which will happily run 3 monitors from each. I dont have 3 monitors for each, but I have tested multiple outputs and it does all work and performance was fine, although I hadn't turned on AA and AF as i'd only just bought everything and was seeing what it could do (and nearly bought a few more screens).

I wouldn't do it with a CRT though, you might get more peripheral vision but you do get a 5 inch gap between each portal ... not worth it.

Anyway the GeForce system only requires a reboot for turning on/off SLi, it does not require rebooting to turn on/off individual displays.

I'll play with the axis thing and see if I can get it to feel natural; there's no subtitute for peripheral vision, though.

At the moment I have two 6600gt's and can sli them; it seems to me that that would be fine for 4800x1200 in LFS, though probably not in other games. In any event, if I could get a proper 3 monitor setup going, I'd cheerfully upgrade the cards if necessary.

Jakg, you're noticing the very issue I'm talking about: spanning monitors with 3d windows kills 3d performance, since it is no longer accelerated. A proper multi-monitor aware implementation would get you more than those 7fps because it would be accelerated.

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, and I definitely understand development priorities. So please take this post as clarification, and not insistance.

-b

Quote from aiken :

Jakg, you're noticing the very issue I'm talking about: spanning monitors with 3d windows kills 3d performance, since it is no longer accelerated. A proper multi-monitor aware implementation would get you more than those 7fps because it would be accelerated.

sorry, i'd love to be more help, but my Dad "sold" the 2 CRT's i was testing it on, so i moved them of my desk and set my tv back up, but he know says he hasnt! also, i fixed my SLi, and since then multi-monitors have been last thing on my mind (tbh i had no use for it, but seeing as SLi refused to work i had to think of what to do with 2 non-SLi'd cards