Dual Display

Hi guys. I've got 2 identical 22" 16:10 lcd monitors and have run Trainz and other games in 3360x1050 resolution. Whilst the immersion factor has increased exponentionally - things such as people actually look normal size, and the whole cab is around 38.5" across :wave: - there exists the problem of the center plastic edges of the monitors where they meet. My monitors have 17mm edges around the screens, thus when they are side by side i have a 34mm vertical strip right in the center of both monitors. As you know the track your driving on is right in the center of the display, and as each monitor draws half of the track, it gets really weird when the tracks turn, or at junctions where tracks meet.

I could either physically adjust the monitors plastic surround so there is no plastic where they touch (I've never done it before and am sceptical of whether it could be successfully done), or to somehow optically correct the problem. I've been thinking of whether a prism would suffice. If one was to be positioned between the monitors - pointy end in-between them (please note the highly technical terminology :'( ), would this 'throw' the reflection of the display edges onto the flat surface facing me. Would this work?

Any other suggestions would be helpful in overcoming this problem. :wave:

Regards Barryg

You could do this: http://www.zusi.de/forum/greenspeed01.jpg

So you are running Trainz on a 2 split screens (I guess by -dualhead or whatever that trainzoptions line is).

The track is showing somewhat double on both monitors, where the monitors overlap ?

The Rube Goldberg way is to take a black strip of sometin' like plastic, tape it to the monitor edge, and mask out a small portion or either (or both monitors). But this would make an even wider black bar spacing your 2 monitors.

Do NOT take a Dewalt portable circular power saw, and try to cut down on the monitors LCD screen edge, and it's case. :hehe:

Hi. Hmmm -Dualhead, never thought of using that. Hang on............. Read up on it (nothing concise in the manual except 8:3 ratio resolution and they don't act as independant display's, - does this mean clone mode or not?). I switched to XP so i can use the horizontal span ability - which is not present with Vista or win 7 when using Nvidia cards, in my case it's a 560Ti. ATI have their own propriety driver method of spanning the display - Trainz menus suck big time because of stretching, but the actual game display works ok.

Anyway. I tried using -Dualhead but ended up with the left monitor displaying ok, the right monitor had the cabs upper right control display on the left side of the right monitor, and the rest of the right monitor showed the left window at a rather obsure angle. Perhaps NV3 could explain in more detail how to use -Dualhead, specifically 2x 1680x1050 16:10 monitors (hehe).

Using -Freeintcam i am able to move sideways which helps a lot as the center monitor strips are not central.

I don't have a power saw but my wife can be quite precise with an axe (missed me a few times).

Regards Barryg

How about something like this?


John

See here http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/amd-eyefinity-nvidia-surround_3.html#sect0

Hi John. That looks like the normal dual display - with the taskbar on one display - which i can achieve, but not the horizontal span which makes 2 monitors into 1 display - with the taskbar across both. Nice display stand though.

Hi Malc... Which control panel is that Nvidia showing? Mine - driver version 301.42 - doesn't have the 'Configure SLI, PhysX, Surround to open the associated page entry to select'. Under the 'Manage 3D Settings' i have 'Set PhysX Configuration' instead.

Regards Barryg

barryg said:

Hi John. That looks like the normal dual display - with the taskbar on one display - which i can achieve, but not the horizontal span which makes 2 monitors into 1 display - with the taskbar across both. Nice display stand though.

Hi Malc... Which control panel is that Nvidia showing? Mine - driver version 301.42 - doesn't have the 'Configure SLI, PhysX, Surround to open the associated page entry to select'. Under the 'Manage 3D Settings' i have 'Set PhysX Configuration' instead.

Regards Barryg

Click to expand...

I think you probably need to install the 3d vision drivers to get the extra entries, should be a tick box when you install the drivers. Not got it here either but I'm only using the normal drivers and deselected everything else.

If not that check your NIC drivers as apparently some time ago Windows update updated the realtek drivers which caused missing items in the Nvidia Control panel, rolling them back to the previous ones or installing the ones that came with the motherboard solved the problem.

I had another look at the link and it appears that only a GTX590 card has dual GPU's. In this case the dual display is possible with a single card, the other way to achieve it is to have an SLI configuration.

Regards Barryg

Why not use 3 monitors? Then the track is down the center of the middle monitor.

Hi Fillo... I only have 2x monitors and no SLI board so i'm stuck with dual-display. Until the fairies knock on my door this is what i work with.

Regards Barryg