Duel Monitors

Propeller

New member
Will Trainz work with two monitors? For example, "in cab" view on the left monitor and "Map" view on the right monitor.
 
In a word "No", you can't split out the screens in the way you want. I would love to have something along those lines as well, and as dual monitor setups become more common maybe it will appear in a future version of Trainz ?

Trainz runs quite happily on a two monitor setup (well I hope so, I've been running it like that on and off for a few years :) ) but it will appear on the primary screen run windowed or otherwise.

There is a way to spread Trainz across 2 monitors for an ultra widescreen view, I have never tried this, but apparently what you end up with is a view of Trainz "as is" but just stretched.
 
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Wide Screen

Another way to get "wide screen" is to hook your computer up to a large HDTV via HDMI. This is what I do and running Trainz routes is fantastic on these big screens.
 
As itareus says, you can stretch the screen across two monitors. This is done by running the program in a window but setting the resolution of the game to be that of the two monitors combined on the horizontal dimension. So for example if you have two 1980 x 1080 displays your Trainz video option would be 3960 x 1080 which will put the window across the two monitors.


What I don't like about this setup is the big black stripe down the middle caused by the monitor frames.

John
 
Hi guys, sorry for sticking my nose in. My monitor is fine, but I noticed when I was at the shop that 32" TVs are now much cheaper than my 24" monitor. Why wouldn't a guy go for a TV over a monitor? I saw a "good-name" 32" TV for $249 and next to it a 27" monitor for 3 times that amount.

Just curious, cheers.......Rick
 
...Why wouldn't a guy go for a TV over a monitor? I saw a "good-name" 32" TV for $249...

The acid test is for you to go up to the cheap 32 TV and sit reasonably close in front of it for a few hours as you would with a monitor. When your eyesight comes back give us you opinion ... :p.

Seriously it comes down to image quality and the way the human eye works. Incidentally a decent 32" TV in the UK costs way more than a decent 24" monitor (and remember they will both be running at the same HD resolution) - and I for one am not influenced by the name badge on anything these days !

My current setup is 2 matching 24" full HD monitors, they are a great balance of size, quality and practicality in everyday use , together they cost about the same as a reasonable 32" TV. I have a PC hooked up to my 32" (admittedly budget end) TV downstairs and hardly ever use it.

Chris
 
Thanks Chris; Yes, name seems to mean nothing these days. I bought 2 60" well known brand TVs a few years back. The first, with all the home theatre gear, cost about $6,000. Six months later, I bought the same set up for $3,000. I'm not sure which one is sitting in the attic now, but the other one is on it's last legs. The part to fix them is about $1200. I can get a new 60" for that amount now-a days.

I'm not really sure how, but I have about 6 monitors sitting around and everyone of them still works great. One of them has a 15" glass screen and one heck of a "picture".

My eyes were great until I got my first computer. Now I wear reading glasses, just to see the keyboard. I guess it's time to go to an eye doctor. Can't read the phone book, cooking instructions, etc. I must be near sighted. I can still see what kind of ducks are in the marsh, when everyone else is saying, "What ducks?"

Cheers...Rick
 
I'm having eye problems too. In this case it's a cat laying in my lap and preventing me to see all the keys on my laptop's keyboard.
 
Thanks Chris; Yes, name seems to mean nothing these days. I bought 2 60" well known brand TVs a few years back. The first, with all the home theatre gear, cost about $6,000. Six months later, I bought the same set up for $3,000. I'm not sure which one is sitting in the attic now, but the other one is on it's last legs. The part to fix them is about $1200. I can get a new 60" for that amount now-a days.

I'm not really sure how, but I have about 6 monitors sitting around and everyone of them still works great. One of them has a 15" glass screen and one heck of a "picture".

My eyes were great until I got my first computer. Now I wear reading glasses, just to see the keyboard. I guess it's time to go to an eye doctor. Can't read the phone book, cooking instructions, etc. I must be near sighted. I can still see what kind of ducks are in the marsh, when everyone else is saying, "What ducks?"

Cheers...Rick

They say, ahem, as we get older our arms get longer. :)

When I play the piano, I have to sit too far back to reach the keys...

The same here with the ducks on the pond. :D

John
 
...Why wouldn't a guy go for a TV over a monitor? I saw a "good-name" 32" TV for $249 and next to it a 27" monitor for 3 times that amount...

32" TV at 720p or 1080p resolution is fine for viewing at 'normal' TV watching distance, typically 2 to 4 metres. Your 27" monitor would have a far higher resolution, probably 2560x1440 pixels or more, giving a cleaner, sharper picture at monitor viewing distances - hence the price difference.

P.S. I like the idea of duelling monitors, the mind boggles!
 
I believe I saw an add for a 3 monitor set up for some flight sim. I think the two on the ends were at a slight angle. I guess we are never satisfied. I'm happy with one monitor....for now.

....and a good day to you John. Yesterday the smoke alarm went off, some smoke got out of the wood stove. Well, steam from cooking can set that bugger off sometimes. Old age is catching up to me. I started off racing to hit the "cancel" button, somehow got the pain in my back to start acting up again, my new knee pain kicked in again, got to the alarm pad and could not read the darn thing. I crawled back upstairs trying to find my reading glasses, found them, returned to the pad only to find out that I had forgotten what button to press. I had to call the wife for that info, crawled back down to the pad, and yup, forgot my glasses up by the phone. My ears are still ringing! Freaked out the cats. I was swearing up a storm. I waited half an hour for the alarm company to call, hoping the fire department didn't show up. Ain't old age grand!?

Cheers...Rick
 
Go Wireless

Hi Again:

The "secret" to happily using a big HDTV with Trainz is to get a wireless keyboard/mouse set like I have. I have it set up through USB with my gaming computer. I can sit comfortably back from my large TV (about 3.5 m) and become fully immersed in driving routes in Trainz. For normal computer work I use my laptop because distance is not a problem for my "aging" sight.
Trainz is a simulator/game and it really shines on large HDTV's. IMHO that is the way to really enjoy "the ride of your life" on a train. :D

Cheers,

Derek
 
Do you mean them "dragons"? I'd enjoy that myself! Of course I'd like to be about 3.5 m (miles) away from the action. Sorry, my Trainz rig has been in the shop forever. I'm so bored, I just checked all my back ups, yep, everything's still there!

Cheers.......Rick
 
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I did get Trainz to run across my two displays. I had to adjust the height and width settings in the Trainzoptions.txt file. This file, an FYI here, is now located in the Userdata folder in TS12 post SP1. It took some fiddling to get the correct aspect ratio to work, but it worked as I thought it would. The problem I have is the monitors are two different sizes and a bit spread apart from each other. If they were butted against each other with small, thin bezzels, this would have worked. I found the black divide between the displays annoying.

John
 
In a persons dual monitor installation, they used a saw to cut the monitor frame, so that the LED screens actually butted up against each other (Warning: do not do this, as you will saw your monitors in half) !
 
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I saw a persons installation where they used a saw to cut the monitor frame, so that the LED screens actually butted up against each other (Warning: do not do this, as you will saw you monitors in half) !

I've seen that before too and wouldn't attempt it either.

There are professional dual display setups used by the film and graphics industry that already have special monitors for this purpose. They're not in my budget at the moment though.

John
 
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