Multi-monitor set-up guide & help (unofficial)

A 5970 is some serious graphics power. I run all my games at 5760x1200 no problems with one and compared to the gfx in some other games I would expect it to run ok here as well.

Depends on

Crossfire optimization

general ATI optimization

and the amount of performance being controlled by the CPU.

To date no one seems to have done a flight sim with Crossfire support and your 5970 has 2 GPU's cross-fired on board, so chances are my 5870 is giving better performance in game, because it has a larger single GPU. Sure you will do better in something that optimized like Far-cry 2, but in a non optimized game you will typically get a hit for having the extra GPU hanging around.

Similarly we still don't seem to be running on optimized ATI code, which is causing my 5870 to routinely spike up to 90%+ when doing stuff like Taxiing.

Then you have the issue that the CPU still has a fairly large part to play in the whole affair, so my advice would be to get it to a point where you are comfortable and see what the betas are running like closer to Christmas

yeah thats what it is. i tried gpu-z on it and its only using one core. and only 60 percent of that one. probably not using any of the other gig of graphics memory either. I dont think you can tell with ati cards how much is being used anyway. nothing like having a ferrari running on 6 cylinders hehe.

Sweet! I got mine working with my main 1920x1200 monitor and both MFDs on a small 1024x768 monitor. However when I configured it with the MFDs on the right side if I do the tutorials or use the radio menu it sticks the text off the right edge of the screen onto the MFDs. I figured out that I can place the MFDs on the left side, but to do that I have to make the mini monitor my main desktop monitor, which means a tiny desktop and the game menu screens and the like being drawn on the MFD monitor. Is there a way to adjust how the text appears?

in cp, put main monitor on top of mfd monitors

Well having hesitated for long enough I decided to have a play with multi monitor. Crossfire implementation( or lack of it) has disuaded me from going full size on my 3 24" but since I've just got my MFDs running (at last) I thought I'd try them out alongside my main screen in the bottom of the adjoining corners. They are just velcroed to the frame with a bit of rubber seal along the corner on the screen.

As you can see below, it's quite a neat solution, I just hope that when the optimisation for Frame Rate and Crossfire support is finished I might be able to use this with fullscreen background.

One added bonus that came as a surprise. If you go to hud only screen you don't get the MFDs on the centre screen as normal but just behind the MFD frames as I wanted. :megalol:

Thanks very much to all on these threads that did the hard work sorting out the .luas. :)

In particular thanks to Mad Tommy. :D

You need to edit .../Config/View/SnapViewsDefault.lua and set Snap[11][13]["vAngle"] = 0

You have no idea how long and hard I've been searching for this adjustment.

 

Screen coordinates explanation: 3 example setups to help explain screen coordinates.

This image is designed to demonstrate the x & y coordinates;

 

Both x & y start on the top left corner of the left most monitor. x goes across the horizontal while y goes down the vertical.

 

MadTommy, you rule brother.

Here's my question -- I have a set up with a couple small monitors, one on the left and on one the right, which is very much like the third monitor arrangement shown in the example above.

I would like to see the proper .lua files to fit that arrangement. Anybody got something like that?

I followed your directions pretty closely and got real close, but not quite there.

Ripcord

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Just a hint for you guys that have large secondary monitors but only use small portion of it to display MFD's, you don't have to use/specify all of the monitor resolution for it to work, you can only specify enough to cover the MFD's.

For example from Loz's setup

He has 3 monitors with same resolution I presume... but you don't need to specify 3x the horizontal resolution of each monitor... you only need the portion that is undeneath the MFD.

If those 3 monitors are for example 1024x768 and you need only 200 pixels for the MFD's you can specify 1424x768 as total resolution, not 3072x768, and shift the Centre screen by 200 pixels to the right.

Reason this should be better is smaller resolution = better performance.

That is a very good idea Kuky. I hadn't thought of that. I shall try it tomorrow, as there is a performance hit of about 20% as it is.

Thanks. :thumbup:

Kuky i don't think you can use only part of the monitor in A10c presently... i know you could in Black Shark, but when i tried in in A10c it did not work correctly.

I hope i'm wrong.... but when i tested it it screwed up... love to be proved wrong :)

Also Airdog.. can you explain your use of negative x values.. as this makes no sense to me.

Ripcord... if you need further help you need to give your monitor resolutions & locations.

in cp, put main monitor on top of mfd monitors

Duh, so simple. :doh: Works great, thanks.

Duh, so simple. :doh: Works great, thanks.

Tends to make some of the multi-player items drop off if you're not running same res on the top and bottom screen, so its worth looking at the specifying monitor for text thread which explains the files to modify to fix it.

Airdog, thanks for the offer, mate. That was just what I was looking for, even though I went with a different solution.

For some reason I was never able to get anything to show on the left MFD. So I moved them both over on the right side of the center monitor and the rest was easy.

Would it be really wrong to say that I am in hog-heaven? This baby is awesome, and I haven't even flown it yet.

Ripcord

That is a very good idea Kuky. I hadn't thought of that. I shall try it tomorrow, as there is a performance hit of about 20% as it is.

Thanks. :thumbup:

Let us know if this works out for you so I don't have to try it out with 22" I use for work (would save me some hassle :D)

Also Airdog.. can you explain your use of negative x values.. as this makes no sense to me.

Well I just tested my theory and it failed miserably but I'll explain it below.

When I set up my monitiors in the Nvidia CP any monitor above or left of the monitor labled #1 is given a negative value as far as the X and Y coordinates go. So I just assumed that the .lua files would see that.

I was wrong an I apologize putting out info that was wrong. I should have tested my theory before assuming that it would work.

My setup has the MFD's below the main monitor so I didn't have any experience with the right and left setup. I was able to make it work by designating the left monitor as #1 in the Nvidia CP but that opened up a monitor shuffle everytime I was out of the sim....not worth it.

I apologize to all again for my mistake.

There should be no negative values... the way multimonitor setups work is the game sees the total set of resolutions of all the monitors in the same arrangements as they are in windows/graphics driver setup (you can arange monitors in both ways)... then with LUA files you specify where each game display is to be displayed and what size resolution this display should be. It's that simple.

Grr the refresh issue is back on one my monitors. It was there in Beta 2 but I overcame the issue by rearranging my desktop. Now it's back in Beta 3 and I can't get rid of it.

On my right monitor, the view doesn't refresh when I cycle through the MFCD screens. The left one cycles just fine. Does everyone have any issues with current beta build, where one of the MFCD's doesn't cycle?

Issue is not present in Blackshark.

FIXED: LINK

Kuky i don't think you can use only part of the monitor in A10c presently... i know you could in Black Shark, but when i tried in in A10c it did not work correctly.

 

I hope i'm wrong.... but when i tested it it screwed up... love to be proved wrong :)

Well MadTommy I've done as Kuky suggested and it does work to use part of the left and right monitors just to project the MFDs onto. It also successfully increases the frame rate. I'm not able to quantify by how much as I've also changed my C: Drive to a 120Gb PCIe SSD and OS to Win7 in the mean time, Frame Rates are generally higher, and a lot smoother. If new textures are needed to be downloaded, it does it instantly with no pauses. :D

^ Thanks Loz

I'll look at this again.. i wanted to use just part of my 2nd 22" monitor so i could keep an eye on TS and other background apps.. but whenever i tried it screwed my 'main / centre' monitor. It may be a case that it only works when you have a 'balanced' setup, i.e 3 monitors, but does not work when you have just two...

Extracting other instruments

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It may be a case that it only works when you have a 'balanced' setup, i.e 3 monitors, but does not work when you have just two...

You could be right but I wouldn't think so. I accidentaly turned off one monitor and the setting were all just measured from the top left corner of the remaining two, as per the .lua.

^ Thanks Loz

 

I'll look at this again.. i wanted to use just part of my 2nd 22" monitor so i could keep an eye on TS and other background apps.. but whenever i tried it screwed my 'main / centre' monitor. It may be a case that it only works when you have a 'balanced' setup, i.e 3 monitors, but does not work when you have just two...

Here is mine with a reduced 3 screen layout.

Frame rate isn't bad, this on Res 3150x1200, all (bar Water med, Traffic low), set on High and I get between 24-60 FPS.

Should have picked a better, less distracting windows screen for the background.:doh:

Here is a look at my 2MFCDs.lua

Bear in mind that my res stated in the ingame options is 3150x1200 and because I use Bezel Compensation some of the x coords look strange.

:) Nice to see the maps in the foreground :) Good idea too about not making the MFD screen take up the whole monitor, I need to try that when I have enough energy to resize all the multi-player screens again

............when I have enough energy to resize all the multi-player screens again

Tell me about it. LOL

I think I've done it so many times now that I don't need to look at any guide. I know it off by heart. :lol: