USing 2 monitors?

[vonduck 10]

Hi guys, as i am planning to upgrade my system imminently... if i choose the highest resolution in the video settings would this then mean the image would be portrayed on 2 monitors... as in widescreen or is there a special setting for that type of thing?:j:

Cheers all!

DOug

[jeremymtc 10]

TOH works quite well in multiple monitor resolutions - the interface elements are largely user configurable, and where they are not, they are at least sensibly sized and placed. TOH has specific aspect settings for use with, you guessed it, different aspect ratios including standard widescreen and triple-head.

That said, the specifics of a multi-monitor setup have more to do with the hardware solution being used (eg; Eyefinity, NV Surround, Matrox TH2GO, etc) and size/number of monitors being used than they do with the actual software they are being used with. There is a lot of variability from software title to software title in terms of *how well* they cope with multi-monitor resolutions, but I find TOH to be pretty darn good in this respect.

I think you'll find that a dual monitor setup is not very conducive to gaming however. When using two monitors, you have monitor bezels right dead-center in the middle of the viewable field, which is not a good thing. Dual monitor does work fine for standard desktop tasks though.

The bottom line is that your video hardware will determine the effectiveness of a given resolution/layout more than the software title you run within that layout - the software (TOH in this case) can only optimize for a certain setup, and TOH does cope with multi-head quite nicely.

I run TOH in 5760x1080 (3x1920x1080) on a Radeon 6970 card and love it.

[vonduck 10]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply... seems i need to be sure of my graphics card capability eh! I'll do some digging..

Many thanks my friend

Doug

[jedra 11]

I would concurr that dual monitor gaming is not ideal in a lot of situations due to the bezels being right in the middle of your field of view. Where it does work is when you have the view on one screen and 'other stuff' on the second screen - although I am not sure that this is appropriate for ToH.

If you are serious about multi-screen gaming then you should go the whole hog and go 3 screen as that does work very well once you have the hardware set up correctly. I don't have 3 screens myself (I have two 30" 2560x1600 screens), but a good friend of mine does use 3 screens and I have often mulled over getting rid of my two big monitors for three smaller ones!

Having said this, using Track-IR on one big screen, does almost work as well as using 3 screens without track-ir. Track-IR on three screens doesn't seem to give the benefit it does with just the one screen in my opinion.

If you go for two screens you will probably find the second screen redundant for gaming mostly unless you use it for boring stuff like work!

[fboes 10]

I second the idea of TrackIR & bis screen, because by mere accident this is my current setup (GF needed my primary monitor, so I had to plug my PC to out HDTV). Never mind the resolution, 46 inch with 1920*1080 px is all you ever need. :)

the question you should ask yourself is: How expensive is a triple-monitor setup compared to a real big screen + TrackIR? :)

[vonduck 10]

Thanks guys... Jedra... out of curiosity, why would you trade your 2 x 30" screens for 3 smaller ones instead of just getting another 30" screen? Same effect just bigger? Reason i ask is i was contemplating 3 x 27" with track IR but would seem the peripheral views negate the need for track ir?

fboes...sounds good about the HDTV as screen... hmmmm

[hon0 10]

Even if you play on 6 extra big screen you NEED a track IR to pilot..

[jedra 11]

Thanks guys... Jedra... out of curiosity, why would you trade your 2 x 30" screens for 3 smaller ones instead of just getting another 30" screen? Same effect just bigger? Reason i ask is i was contemplating 3 x 27" with track IR but would seem the peripheral views negate the need for track ir?

fboes...sounds good about the HDTV as screen... hmmmm

Good question. Three reasons...

1. Running 3 monitors in Eyefinity at 2560x1600 each (or whatever resultant res would be) would probably result in an FPS measured in the fingers of one hand!

2. 30" monitors are not cheap - still around £1000.

3. I would need a bigger desk, which would need a bigger office, which would need a bigger house - and I am not moving again!!

As for Track-Ir. My mate has 3x24" monitors (at least I am sure they are not 27") and when we set up my Track-Ir it did not really make much of a difference. The peripheral vision you get from 3 monitors pretty much meant that the track-ir was either redundant, or too sensitive (which made us feel a bit nausious). We couldn't find a setting which made it worth-while. When used in Arma2 though, it was still quite useful for looking round corners and over the top of things.

[hon0 10]

http://db.tt/6PuVGgwe

Right clic save as

Here is a profile well configured to play arma2, take on. Speed 1 / Smooth 10.

[jeremymtc 10]

I do find TIR useful when running in triple-head. The increase in vertical field of view is very useful, and even with triple monitor I still use left/right look quite a bit. Agreed though in that using triple-head the need for TIR is not quite so glaring as it is with a single monitor :)

As it relates to TOH though, it would be nice if the zoom-in and zoom-out part of the 6 DOF function worked properly.

[hon0 10]

As it relates to TOH though, it would be nice if the zoom-in and zoom-out part of the 6 DOF function worked properly.

It does. Just set up your curve and rebind the correct axe to analog zoom function.

With the patch 1.03 I think the "defaut" track IR curve should be fixed.