Triple monitor set up

[Kieran]

Hey all,

 

So I recently got 3 Dell 24" monitors, and have been wanting to use them for X-Plane. So far the best I've got is running X-Plane windowed and dragging it out to fill all three monitors, and then setting the FOV to 120. However I would ideally like to be able to have X-Plane full screen so I don't have the bar at the top. Plus the views on the two side monitors is being kinda stretched pretty badly. Does anyone have any ideas of other ways to set it up so I don't have any distortion?

 

One idea I had was to run 3 instances of X-Plane, with them all looking at the same scenery and aircraft folders with the use of linked folders. That way each would have a different set or preferences. I'm sure then that google would teach me how to write a simple script to start all 3 instances with one click, if not that isn't too much of a hassle to open them manually. The thing that I'm not sure about with this approach is setting the side views such that they are aligned with the center monitor, while still having the view rotated to the left and right as needed.

 

Cheers,

 

Kieran

[cabnz1]

Are you running with an Nvidia card? If so you should be able to set up all 3 screens as 1.

[Kieran]

Yeah I am, but unfortunately because of some silly DisplayPort issues I can't. My monitors only have DisplayPort and HDMI input, and I only have one of each on my GTX 780TI, so I have to daisy chain them, currently all running off DisplayPort, and Nvidia doesn't seem to like that.

 

I think my best bet is to run 3 instances of  X-Plane. Is it possible to set the view in X-Plane to be a specific number of degrees to the left or right? Never mind I found out how to do this, I'll work away at what I've got and report back here. But if anyone has any ideas, I'd be more than happy to hear them

 

Cheers,

 

Kieran

Edited November 5, 2014 by Kieran

[CaptCWGAllen]

Have you tried Matrox Triplehead2Go - I use that very succesfully  - see screenshots - didn;t really take them fot this purpose but they prety much work for illustrative purposes.

 

When you open a screenshot at the top go to View Original and then go full screen which will open it across all three screens - for some reason the way X Plane does screen shots it does't actual fill the whole of the three screens but it gives you a pretty good idea. I have no problems with it. I also use TrackIR.

 

http://1drv.ms/1pnsFiu

 

cheers

Peter

Edited November 6, 2014 by CaptCWGAllen

[cabnz1]

You could always get a second card

[Kieran]

Yeah I've considered a Matrox Triplehead2Go, but I'd still get the distortion around the edges, which I was hoping to avoid. If I can't get my 3 instances to work properly, I'll look into it more.

 

I am saving up for a new system with the new GTX 980s, which have 3 DisplayPort outputs, so that won't be an issue

[Kieran]

New question, does anyone know how to run X-Plane in full screen mode on a monitor other than the primary one? (I'm on Windows 7)

[gercarst]

Kieran,

 

I don't own a Nvidia card but maybe I can give you some ideas based on my experience using 3 monitors with an AMD card.I use (Win7/64).

 

Try one (or more) of the following:

 

-EXTENDING your Windows desktop (the Windows bar only appears on one screen) vs. EXPANDING the desktop (the bar spans all across 3 monitors).

-Select a different Main Display via Windows Control Panel, Display Properties, screen resolution (right click on desktop) (I used to select the leftmost monitor in this case)

-Try customizing X-Plane's fullscreen resolution (e.g. 5760x1080 in case your monitors are 1920x1080 each.)

-There's an option on AMD's driver to "create a display group". Maybe there's one similar on Nvidia's.

 

Hope it helps,

Jerry C.

[MercuryMat]

I have no problem using one displayport and two dvi with nvidia card in 3d surroind mode and latest driver...

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[Kieran]

Mad Mat, the problem is my monitors are daisy chained off the one displayport.

 

So here is what I've got so far, and I'm pretty happy with how its working out.

I'm losing a little vertical screen area due to the window, but it's certainly manageable. I've written a script to start all three instances at once, so it's pretty much just a single click now. The only issue is a 3GB frame buffer isn't quite enough for running 3 copies of X-Plane, because textures aren't shared across the three instances. But the only way to fix that is to upgrade, which I'm saving up for. Hopefully NVIDIA brings out a 8GB GTX 980 in response to AMD's 8GB cards, we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Thanks to everyone who has posted.

 

Regards,

 

Kieran

[MercuryMat]

Ah ok! I do not understand why you daisy chained 3 monitors on one displayport instead of using different output of the graphic card..sorry

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[Kieran]

Because my card only has one displayport output, and the monitors have no DVI input.

[MercuryMat]

I think you can use some dvi to displayport converter no? May be the simpliest solution!

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