I finally did a test setup of my triple-screen config. I had two 19" 1280x1024 screens on the side and one 24" 1900x1080. I just thought I could display BMS on it and I would simply lose the "extra" pixes on the side monitors. Nooo.... apparently for BMS to display over 3 screens is to make it one big desktop, and that bumped my 24" res to the same as the 19". I nearly puked. And my BMS view was wide but too small in height. I figured even if I meddle with the BMS files, I'll still get distorted side images as the lower-res image is shown on a different "scale" than my main display, right?

I know the simplest option is to simply get 3 monitors of the same resolution, but is there any workaround for dis-similar monitor resolutions that I am not aware of?

Thanks!

Assuming AMD Eyefinity, the unequal sizes is pretty much a fixed restriction for full-screen games. The only other combination you can try (and no-one likes this ) is to put the 1900 as a side monitor, i.e.

[ 1280x1024 ] [1280x1024] [1280x1024 on the 24']

That way you can use the 24' in a sub-optimal way but the main 'look ahead' monitor is at least clear and at spec res.

The only other thing I can think of is that some monitors have hardware rescalers, although it's rarer now - which would allow you to run the 24' as a side monitor but not 'stretch' it, i.e. it would still be 1280 but would have 1:1 pixels for instruments or something,

Lol, no way am I putting the bigger screen to the side. I was hoping the smaller screens would at least "retain" their scale, but if they bring my bigger screen down, nothankyou!

These are the configs I am trying to achieve. Is there a way to do this WITHOUT having to force the center screen to a different resolution? IIRC, eyefinity group forced a x1024 height resolution which threw off my main screen... more experimenting to do!

for eyefinity screens need to have identical resolution or it will change your screens to match, which isnt always a good thing.

you can try forcing the side screens to display the same resolution as the center screen, then change scaling options for the side screen and have the GPU Scale to the screen, but everything will be smushed as it will be running wide screen on a 4:3 screen,

or you can try forcing Center Screen to the Res. of the Side Screens, but force it to maintain 16:9 Aspect ratio.

i cant really check as my card is about to ship out to RMA and using my old 8800 as a backup locks me out of CCC,

but im sure in the display sections the options for forcing GPU scaling and aspect ratio (maintain, stretch, pan/scan) etc are there.
(CCC, My Digital Flat Panels, Scaling).


But All in All, to use Eyefinity, Screens Need to be identical in Size/Res. P-L-P Mode isnt supported in Eyefinity, nor is mixed aspect Ratios.

Yeah, at the moment my option seems to be NOT USING eyefinity... I'm checking a workaround in the BMS forums...

Would've been great if eyefinity could just squash one res, either the horizontal or vertical, but forcing all screens to the lowest res... ouch!

it changes them to the maximum support resolution on all three screens.

Yes, I just realized that. No Eyefinity for me, had to dig around the BMS forums to get the display to work across three screens.

I guess since I'm not doing Eyefinity, I can't do triple-screen gaming on most games unless I mess with the config files too?

EDIT: I was also wondering what the recommended angle was between the side monitors and the center monitor? Or is there a guideline about how to set this up? Is there a way that the side displays are truly angled, ie, if you set up your side monitors to 45 degrees, the view is adjusted to what you actually see at 45 degrees? Or is this just one big widescreen display with the side screens angled towards the viewer?

can you run BMS across 3 screens Windowed?

I just tried triple screen w/ the same monitors using Eyefinityh. 3 24" monitors for a total of 5760x1080. Have to say, even though Eyefinity is working well so far, I don't enjoy going from 2560x1600 (or 4960x1600 using SoftTH on those games that support it) to 5760x1080.

Compared to 2560x1600 it is just too squashed vertically at 1080, and 5760 from where I sit in the Obutto is too stretched horizontally for me. Too narrow vertically and too long horizontally. And it looks pixelated- 1080 might be a fine standard for watching movie from 10' away, but it sucks for computer use and gaming, where one sits 2-4' feet away.

Based on using a 30" in the center and 2 20"s in portrait on the sides, I think that arouind 5000 is the sweet spot horizontally. Enough to simulate our normal peripheral vision, but not so much as to exceed it. And there is just no beating a 30" center monitor. Using a 24" after it looks tiny, and downgrading from 2560x1600 to 1920x1080 actually makes spotting enemy units in games like BF3 considerably harder. Not a fan of 1920x1080 at all. Even at 24", looks pixelated. And 5760x1080 is like looking out from the slit of a tank or something...way too vertically narrow.

It's a shame that neither AMD nor NVIDIA supports PLP, otherwise I would suggest 20-30-20 to everyone. As it is, I think it makes sense to use eitrher 3 27" at 2560x1440 or 3 30" at 2560x1600 and use them in portrait mode. 4320 or 4800x2560 is probably the most badasss triple screen resolution currently available. (To say nothing of how much better IPS screen quality is compared to TN)

You can use SoftTh with that setup.
There is no need for a secondary card if you can run eyefinity setup with it.
I used it before I bought my 2 27" as side monitors.
I had 2x19" in portrait then as side monitors.

I am currently running it windowed, yes. I wonder now how I will make this work for other games I play such as Dragon Age, Skyrim, DCS A10, etc. I guess Eyefinity would be easier as the game treats it as one big-ass monitor, so not using Eyefinity means I'll have to dig around config files... oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Also, since I config my display based on whatever value I plug in, I can run this at PLP no problem I would think.

pepper, I am not sure I follow your post 100%, but I do agree with you that 3 24" monitors is just too wide. My current setup is around 4480x1080, so not too wide, but I would appreciate a bit more height. Oh well, I got TrackIR anyway, so the side screens are mainly for peripheral vision which I hope would help with SA and formation flying. I would PPP my setup but my iiyama center screen has a thicker bottom bezel and I think that would be too awkward for me. I can PLP this probably, but I would just gain a little more vertical view on the sides.... nah...

Sorry, what "that setup" do you mean?

Also bumping my earlier question:

Basically that Triple monitors 24" and above will look (IMO) unnatural, awkward, too stretched/vertically narrow, and just downright bad in landscape mode. Larger resolutions on 27" and 30" make PPP a much better approach.

I'm ordering three 24" 16:10 Dell U2412M's this next August. They are 1200 pixels in the vertical, strictly because I hate 1080/16:9 for PC gaming...

Right now I'm using three 19" 16:10 1440x900 in Eyefinity on an XFX Tri Stand:





These are three of the same native display port HP LA1905wg screens.

Yes, 1080 is lame for horizontal res, especially compared to 1600.

1080 is the vertical res.

1920 is the horizontal.

d'oh, correct. Either way, it's lame! ;-)

1080p looks great to me

While I do agree with peppergomez in that 3x24" just looks too stretched out, unfortunately the fact is that you can buy more than 3 24" monitors for the price of a single 30". My 19-24-19" on PPP mode is my cheap version of this concept!

Either way, looks way, way, WAY better than just a single screen on anything aside from plain desktop work

Eyefinity will not work with different resolution on the screens, but SoftTH will.
you can set it to use any size or resolution of monitors and even mix orientation of the monitors.
Here is an example on youtube.


a review/tutorial on how to set it up. Note, if you have a eyefinity capable card, you only need one card.
start at 21 minutes

Thanks for that, will give SoftTH a try... I thought that was just for... I dunno, something else. And wasn't there problems with tearing on one screen when using SoftTH?

there is with eyefinity too

I see... is it a driver problem? Or simply users expecting too much from their hardware?

timing issue i think, with eyefinity the DisplayPort has a different "timing" than the DVI, HDMI, VGA ports,

with 2 card setups, the 2nd card has a different timing because its a different hardware address.

i dunno about TH2Go

5760x1080 on 23" monitors works great for me too, the side monitors will be stretched on any game that doesn't properly render the side screens separately, iRacing for one does it perfectly and there is no stretching effect.

Hopefully now that both Nvidia and AMD latest gen cards support 3 monitor on a single card and have enough VRAM and GPU power to support 3 monitor realistically, hopefully soon 3 monitor gaming will stop being such a small niche and more sims and games will do like iRacing and start supporting it properly with separate rendering for the sides so that we don't get the stretching.

Note that softTH only works for DX9 and earlier games. So many many recent games (BF3, all recent DCS titles) are no go. Skyrim, F4 BMS, x space combat series, Fallout 3 do work however.

+1

Hopefully it will become common place for games to support the monitors natively.

I love my triple monitor set up.

Another question bump:

I was also wondering what the recommended angle was between the side monitors and the center monitor? Or is there a guideline about how to set this up? Is there a way that the side displays are truly angled, ie, if you set up your side monitors to 45 degrees, the view is adjusted to what you actually see at 45 degrees? Or is this just one big widescreen display with the side screens angled towards the viewer?

I have my outer two angled at about 30 degrees. It lessens the distortion some. However, this affects desktop work slightly, but I'm used to it now and it doesn't both me in the slightest.

mine are about 25/30 degrees, enough to where my center screen is where it would be if i ran single screen, and the 2 side screens take up most of my focused periph. vision.

I remember now why I don't watch this program... hard to concentrate on the content with all that roundness staring at you. With the two guys doing the review, I could understand more.

25-30degrees, thanks guys! I've not measured mine yet, but I have it so that when I turn my head to look at either one, it will be facing me as squarely as possible. Can't wait to try formation flying with this!!

All I know that if you get Triplescreens in a good working config I would say it would be hard to go Back to just a single screen... Makes gaming so much more fun..


By the_nephilim at 2011-09-17






By the_nephilim at 2011-09-17






By the_nephilim at 2011-09-17







By the_nephilim at 2011-09-17

I agree 100%! It's like when you start gaming with TrackIR, or with the Cougar MFDs... once you know what is possible, you'll miss it when it's not there.

I wonder if that is F4BMS? What FOV are you using? What angles are your side monitors at? How'd you get rid of the bezels?

Nephilim has 3 beamers, so he had no bezels to start with. He only had to minutely line up the projectors, to minimise overlap/remove any gap.

Yes True even like having a HOTAS hard to go back to just a single stick..

Yes that is F4 BMS 4.32...110 Degrees... I am not sure of the Angles of my side screens, I could get a Protractor to find out but it looks like it may be about30-40 Degrees??

No Bezels with well VERY Minimal with Projectors..

Oooo... Projectors. Nice.

Right.... I'm trying to make a custom desktop wallpaper, and I was hoping to have a different left, center, and right image. I've created a proper .jpg file ready for use, but selecting it just ends up showing the middle image on all 3 screens Any way to make the wallpaper span all 3 screens? Thanks!

EDIT: Seems like I have to tile my image... funny though since my center monitor appears to be 0,0 and the image starts from there. Nothing a simple Photoshop can't fix!

I know what you mean. Couldn't concentrate on anything being said.

Just figured out how to make SoftTH work with BMS. I used to have to use a hex editor hack to make BMS span 3 screens by basically using the editor to force BMS to display a wider view and that view was my combined monitor resolution. Each time I go to the setup screen, BMS would overwrite the hack so I'd need to go in and do it again. Now with SoftTH, it does the exact same thing but allows me to select that resolution on the setup screen. Easier, nice.

I wonder if there are any more capabilities of SoftTH? Like maybe making the side screens warp a bit so that it reduces the fisheye effect? Also one problem I have is that images look small on the center screen but then looks bigger when they come on to the side screens... any fixes for this?

Is there also a tool for bezel management with this? I seem to remember Eyefinity had something like aligning a triangle or something...

Lsatly, my screen goes to Basic color settings when BMS (and SoftTH) come on, is there a way to avoid this?

Thanks!

Edit the Game's FOV Settings is usually what you have to do.

The Benefits of 3 Screens:

Yep, got the game's FOV to 110 or 120. Getting a bit dizzy with how things change "dimensions" when they're on one screen and move to the side screen.