Widescreen / Multi-monitor set up

[Congo_Toey 10]

Hi Guys,

This looks like the game I have been waiting for, but I have little concern.

I use a triple monitor setup and matrox triplehead2go, to run the three montiors. Its appears to windows as a single very wide screen. I am would like to know if ARMA 2 will support these very side screen modes.

[Praelium 0]

I believe Arma II will include Triplehead2go support, seeing as how there are Arma II images on the Th2g site.

[Meek 10]

4ZZK1UnBMrg

Although I don't have 3 screens, I assume that it would require ~3 times as much GPU processing power, you will need one very powerful machine to play at a nice FPS, I am not happy with the performance I get with just one screen :'(. Edited June 14, 2009 by Meek

[Nicholas 5]

Yes it will. ArmA 1 supported it and i know ArmA II does. Case Solved

[diveplane 0]

am running across x2 monitors very nice

[KrUEgER 10]

How about map on a second screen? (no dual- or triplehead2go)

[telejunky 0]

I give it a try with kegetys beautigul SoftTH http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/

In Armed Assault it worked fine :) The gameplay is raised more than 200% especially wehen driving a car. You don't see the roof and your feet but you see through the windows and just wow!

[moosenoodles 0]

Your nickname suits you LOL.. looks untidy to me but im rather fussy with things being even lol... nice though many do that and more monitors for flight sims.

[walker 0]

Hi all

The Real Virtuality Engine is capable of being presented on complete wraparound or dome or spherical display systems if you have the hardware. There is an adjustable FOV in your profile. This has been a capability since BIS's OFP days.

Kind Regrds walker

Edited June 14, 2009 by walker

[bushlurker 46]

This is an old pic with Arma 1 desktop pic, but I can confirm that Arma 2 works just nicely at 4096x1200 on my Kegetys SoftTH triple monitor rig...

As Walker says - Triplehead is supported in BIS games and works PERFECTLY... The only real limit is your hardware.....

My rigs improved a little since this pic and with Freetrack head tracking and a 50" wide display Arma 1 is an immersive DREAM!

I'm now planning Graphics hardware upgrades and, if BIS kindly add Freetrack support in a forthcoming patch, Arma 2 will be the Ultimate Immersive Dream!

PS - Sorry Krueger - no separate map screen capability....

B

Edited June 14, 2009 by Bushlurker

[galzohar 31]

Considering the amount of hardware needed to run Arma 2 at max settings at 100% fillrate, I can only imagine what hardware you'd need to run at effectively 300% (100% per monitor) in terms of processing power... But yeah it does look awesome if your computer can pull it off.

[Bad Pilot 0]

My mate runs TripleHead2Go digital with 3x1024x768 monitors, Q6600, 4GB DDR2, GF8800GTS 640MB. Works fine.

[bushlurker 46]

Mine's 2 x 1024x1280 sidescreens and 1920x1200 center...

Graphics are 8800GTS 320 OC and an 8600GT...

I get a steady and reliable 30-40FPs wilth a mix of normal and high settings for Arma 1...

As you can imagine - with Arma 2 its a little underpowered... 100% fillrate and mix of normal/high I can muster the same framerates - on the middle 1920x1200 alone... :)

Crawls like a well-whupped spaniel with all 3 monitors though - 15FPS tops..... :(

Needless to say - I'll be going G-card shopping soon.....

B

[llauma 0]

Considering the amount of hardware needed to run Arma 2 at max settings at 100% fillrate, I can only imagine what hardware you'd need to run at effectively 300% (100% per monitor) in terms of processing power... But yeah it does look awesome if your computer can pull it off.

Well, actually it's about 175% if I got it right. 200% fillrate means you'll render four times as many pixels.

[polecat.uk 11]

Hi guys been reading this thread with intrest as i'm running the game on three 22" monitors, i'm using 2x9800gtx+ one for the center monitor and one for the others and softth, the game runs fine and looks like i'm there but the res is a bit low for my liking but still very playable, i'm thinking of updating one of my cards to a 285gtx, playing the game like this just brings it to life anyone thinking of doing this you wont be sorry, monitors are very cheep on ebay and softth is free:)

[thales100 10]

I know the demo works at 5040x1050 with matrox triplehead2go (still waiting for my retail copy), but you must edit the .cfg file (C:\Users\Home\Documents\ArmA 2 Demo\ArmA2Demo.CFG) , setting :

Resolution_W=3840;

Resolution_H=1024;

So itll launch Arma2 at 3840x1024, and then, in the game menu (video options), you may set it to 5040x1050, otherwise youll get this error :

Some screenshots at 5040x1050 (click to enlarge), triplehead + trackIR really make this game imersive.

[sholio 10]

can you tell me what settings you used to get the mouse offset properly in softth with A2?

i tried to fiddle around with it with the latest (1.09) version and the mouse was always on the left screen

[y2khippy 10]

WHY CANT THIS BE IN THE TEC SECTION.... THE DIRECTX 9 ENGINE ERROR has been plaugeing me since buying the game.

[bushlurker 46]

@sholio

I've posted my working Arma2 softTH config on the SoftTH forum - Here

Mouse offset of -960 works for me... but you know what softTH configs are like - the figures are really dependant on the resolution, the width of secondary monitors, the amount you allow to be skipped for "bezel management", etc...

Arma2 IS a little more of a fuss than Arma1 was to setup - I've had that goddamn DirectX 9 error soo many times trying to get it right...

I got a few other DirectX related ones too - citing Fraps.exe as the module causing the error (it uses directX too)...

The config on Kegetys' site does work - but after you start the game only the center monitor will be working - you have to alt/tab to the desktop and then back into the game and its fine...

Occasionally if you're fooling with graphical settings and it makes the screen redraw it "loses it" and you're back to centre screen again - another alt/tab fixes it again...

Perfectly stable in-game though...

Don't start me on trackIR - I'm perfectly happy with my £14 freetrack tracking, thanks... TH2G is another matter entirely - I nearly bought one, but since I have portrait 4:3 19" sidemonitors (told my boss it would "increase my productivity" heheheh) hardware TH2G wasn't an option - at the time! - I believe they're continually improving them though, so I'm not sure if you need 3x identical res monitors anymore..

Kegetys softTH will handle any size of side monitor...

Whether you go the £15 or the £100's route - the results ARE amazing!!... Just look at thales100's amazing screenies! - It really DOES look like that in-game... and with headtracking as well!!!???!!

WOW!

just...

WOW...

B

P.S. - since the 1.02 patch and some serious fooling with settings, I've managed to hoist my FPS to around 25fps average - not bad for an 8800GTS across 4096x1200.... acceptably playable...

Still think I'll go G-card shopping though... A 285 might be a nice boost once the problems are ironed out...

Edited July 18, 2009 by Bushlurker

[thales100 10]

Whether you go the £15 or the £100's route - the results ARE amazing!!... Just look at thales100's amazing screenies! - It really DOES look like that in-game... and with headtracking as well!!!???!!

WOW!

just...

WOW...

Yes, it a blast to play this game on triple monitor setup, the field of view is really immersive - and trackIR is a valuable plus. :cool:

[cadmium77 16]

Wow, you guys are kewl.

I've been planning a second ATI Radeon 4870 X2 for the end of Sept/Oct and TrackIR too...so two more 24" Samsung screens and I'll be as happy as a pig lying in his own shit...

With the Radeon GPUs in Crossfire I don't think I'll need the Matrox thing...

[cartier90 0]

Perhaps semi circular screens will one day be sold - affordably, with the GPU hp to back it up...give it 15 years...

[thales100 10]

With the Radeon GPUs in Crossfire I don't think I'll need the Matrox thing...

Yes youll need it, it doesnt render anything, just adapts 3 monitors to work as a single big one - there is a free software solution too as Bushlurker is using, but not that many games are compatible with it.

Also with SoftTH you can only use one GPU to render, so no Crossfire or SLI is supported.

Perhaps semi circular screens will one day be sold - affordably, with the GPU hp to back it up...give it 15 years...

First attempt :

http://www.engadget.com/photos/nec-ostendo-crvd-42dwx-panoramic-monitor/571929/

[bushlurker 46]

More WOWs required!

I want one!

For those a little confused heres a very rough summary of the two multi-monitor options...

(Ironically a very similar situation to the heated trackIR/Freetrack option, except these two seem to coexist happily,,,)

Matrox TH2G

- Hardware based - £? - dunno, theres analog and digital versions - around $250 maybe?

- Generally plug and play, wide range of titles supported, USED TO require 3x identical monitors,

- Basically works by taking the final single monitor output from your rig (so SLI, etc possible) then uses hardware to split and blit to all 3 screens. Hardware based so virtually no performance hit... it's the weapon of choice, bearing in mind the price tag and the possible monitor configuration limitations...

Kegetys' SoftTH

- Software based - £free

_ Generally a bit of tweaking required, but a fair range of games seem to work fine - (including both Arma's) - requires a secondary graphics card and 2 x outputs on the main one - uses main card only (for graphics), so no SLI possible - (though, cleverly, its possible to use a 295 as BOTH graphics cards)...

- Basically works by using the primary card to render the scene in a buffer (one card only so single badass-as-possible card required) - the buffer is sliced appropriately (so different sized sidescreens possible), the main card displays slice 1 and 2 via 2 outputs, while the 3rd slice is blitted via the PCI-E bus to the secondary card for display...

Thats all the secondary card does, so it can be fairly feeble...

Obviously it's all happening in backbuffers and in software so theres a performance hit... that can vary - with multihead and or Nvidia CUDA enabled (softTH supports it), the hit can be as little as 10%...

With an old pci-e 1.1 motherboard and using a directX or windows "blit" it will be more...

B

P.S. on "performance hit"...

Both systems will show a performance hit, obviously - you're now asking your card(s) to render a scene maybe 4000 or 5000 pixels across! - noticable FPS hit right there..

However, by performance hit I mean over and above that - once the scene is rendered - the TH2G uses hardware for the rest, SoftTH uses software, plus the pci-e bus transfer before rendering = a slight additional performance hit...

Edited July 18, 2009 by Bushlurker

[thales100 10]

More WOWs required!

I want one!

U$ 8.000 and play at 2880x900 ? Nah ill keep my 5040x1050 at 3 x22" + matrox and forget the bezels ... ;):D