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Tom's Hardware Reviews Multi-Display Gaming
MikShapi writes "Most gamers out there today own a dual-head graphics card (most of us completely neglecting the second port), and games such as X2 are offering support for this already (at least on nVidia cards, due to the "span" driver feature). Tom's Hardware did a nice rundown on the technology, complete with screenshots and benchmarks."
Meh, Seriously..... People are saying how cool this is but multidisplay gaming was being done on my Mac Quadra 840av back in 1989 or 1990 with an application galled Hornet by Graphic Simulations. We had three displays hooked up that could dynamically display front and side views as you moved the plane throughout its axis making virtual air combat much easier. Hornet was apparently written for the Mac natively, but later, when Graphsim decided they were going to write for Windows first and then port the Mac version, we lost the ability to do multidisplays even though the Macintosh had been supporting multiple displays since 1987.
Granted, at the time, a Quadra 840av with three fast NUBUS video cards and three displays were decidedly not cheap, but my point is simply that this is nothing new and when the original Graphsim creators of Hornet included this feature, they knew this was the right way to do it just like the more sophisticated simulators that pilots use for their training.
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I'm sure that having a second monitor to provide extra game info is probably way cool, especially with games like flight sims and driving sims. But how many people really have two monitors?
:-(
My desk is not that big and because I care about resolution and sharpness I run a large 19" CRT. There simply isn't room on the desk for a second CRT.
Not to mention that extra monitors are quite pricey. I love games and gaming, but I can't see myself forking over several hundred dollars for the purpose of playing a game. At least if I were a graphic designer I could make money with the second screen, but gaming is only a money pit.
No second screen for me, I guess, no matter how cool it would be.
I have been pwned because my
You can't beat the "3-headed" Doom play if you had three networked machines. That was fun.
My experience with dual monitors has showed me its use for multitasking, but I can't think of anything more horrid than trying to span a game across it.
Even my multitasking ends up dividing entertainment from work... My GAIM windows and media players go in monitor 2 while my real work stays in number one.
I just don't see how that would be any fun.
clifgriffin > blog
Zaphod Beeblebrox!
This would work great for a game if you had a touch screen on one of the monitors.
Think MMORPG
One screen is first person view
The other is your inventory and chat screen
It's too hard to actively use 2 screens with one mouse.
I've always hated how my second monitor becomes unusable during gameplay. I'd like nothing more than to be able to throw my TV app up on the second monitor so I could watch TV while waiting to respawn in Wolf: ET.
I like the idea he presents in the article, but I'd rather have FPS games have the action in a middle window and have auxilliary information on the sides. Of course, the problem there is that two screens would divide the picture and three screens get you head swiveling even more than the original layout.
Multi-display gaming will require a lot of these kinds of ergonomic decisions if they are to succeed.
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
With the nVidia drivers allowing you to span, games like EverQuest already support multi-monitor. I play EQ in 2560x1024x32 and it works out pretty well, letting me split the character information across the screens. And, honestly, you never really look directly in front of you that often, heh, so the screen split isn't that bad.
doom -devparm -net 3 -left
doom -devparm -net 3
doom -devparm -net 3 -right
Done this a few times, works best if you have 19" monitors, roomate got seasick playing it. But he couldn't play Descent without getting nauseas either.
My biggest issues with this is that I need a monitor that allows me to place 2 more monitors on the left and right seemlessly. Such as, I want to extend the screen forward in the form of a lens and then slide the left and right monitors behind it hiding the plastic along the edge of the glass display. I can't have the 2 inches of break in my display when playing FPS games. Put it on both sides and it is twice as annoying. Remove the frame of the monitor and we have this working for games. Otherwise this is going to only slow me down. My desk has a 19 inch CRT, 14 Inch CRT, 17 inch CRT, and 2 laptops. Nothing new, but technology just isn't right.
Atari tried to put this technology into arcades, with Race Drivin' Panorama. There were 3 and 5 screen versions, but only prototypes existed. Check some nice photos and specs here and here
Some games I think a dual monitor setup would be awesome. Think any RTS game where the play field is shrunk because of the "instrumentation" or the like, with dual monitors, a lot of this could go to the second monitor. I think it'd be even cooler if you could decide what components went over to the second screen, and only keep those items most important to you on the play field screen. Or, have both the current and a completely non-instrumented view in the second.
I don't think that just spanning the entire screen shot across 2 monitors would be helpful in any way though. Even with LCDs, the break caused by the frames would be somewhat irritating, to me at least. Then again, even the mesh lines on Trinitron monitors are annoying to me, so I may be just a bit more sensitive to those types of things.
As for dual monitors in general, initially I thought why have duals? Just get one bigger better monitor. Now having worked with duals for about 2 years, I love this setup, and would rather have 2 slightly less capable monitors instead of one slightly bigger monitor. Being able to see a full web page and do something else in another screen related to it is way more helpful than switching between two window frames. There are many other instances where dual monitors are useful as well, and I even span both sometimes, although the application I use when doing that is amenable to doing that (eclipse).
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
You mean when I play Pong, I can have one paddle on one screen, and the other on another! That is dope!
-m
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# Modus Ponens
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but I can't see myself forking over several hundred dollars for the purpose of playing a game.
Then you're definitely no gamer.
"WOW! GEFORCE 5000! MOMMY CAN I HAVE $750 FOR A COMPUTER PART?!?! ALL THE OTHER KIDS MIGHT GET IT FIRST IF YOU DON'T HURRY!"
"No, Jimmy. Now take your medicine, go to your room and lie down. You know how your blood pressure gets when you're excited ever since you turned 40."
I'm sure that having a second monitor to provide extra game info is probably way cool, especially with games like flight sims and driving sims. But how many people really have two monitors?
I bought 3 Hitachi 17" Flat Panel displays just for that purpose. I powered them with a Matrox Parhelia. (Screenshots here, here, and here.
For Flight Sim'ing, the experience is just OK (at best). And that's only if you turn down the settings quite a bit. The video card simply can't handle 3840x1024 resolutions with all the settings maxed out and still manage 60+ frames per second. (Though in flight siming, since the graphics don't change nearly as much as they do in a first person shooter, you only need 25-30 to get a smooth playback.)
I noticed that in first person shooters the extra monitors didn't actually add to the emersion like I thought it would. You still focus all of your attention on the middle monitor. The side monitors ARE good for camping/sniping though. You have a wider field of view so it's harder for someone to surprise you from the side. But when you are running around constantly, the side monitors can almost be more distracting than useful. But it makes for a great demo for friends. Everyone you show it to will want it.
The real problem with triple head gaming right now is lack of graphic processing power. Don't buy the Matrox card for this purpose. You definitely WILL NOT be happy with the results. I most certainly wasn't. And I bought it knowing that for first person shooters it was going to suck, but I wanted it mainly for Flight Simulators. But even in that case it just doesn't have enough power.
Maybe when PCI Express is available I'll be able to buy 3 NVidia/ATI based graphic cards that actually have the kind of power needed for this intense of a workout.
What Tom's Hardware is proposing in this article is a much more practicle use for a second (or third) monitor. Having the second monitor display map data, chat information, statistics, and so on. The second display wouldn't even have to be accelerated in that case. A spare PCI VGA card with 8MB or 16MB of RAM should be sufficient.
anybody remember these guys?
http://www.go-l.com/monitors/index.htm
last i recall, they had fraud rumors flying left and right, but then they showed up to some convention or other with an actual setup and made everyone eat their words. i still think a lot of their desktop descriptions sound like complete hogwash, but whatever. that grand canyon display still looks pretty badass.
education
That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
~a.bierce
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
How much does a set of graphite shaft golf clubs cost? For that matter have you checked out the price of balls lately? Nevermind greens fees.
What does a single Orvis or Sage flyrod cost, never mind your reel, line, flies and wading equipment?
I've got several hundred dollars into just the radio gear of my R/C racing car, and it's another fourty bucks in tires every few times I race it. Not to mention entry fees.
Computer gaming is actually relatively cheap if one runs a generation or so behind the curve. Used 17" CRTs are about fifty bucks.
I'm a notorious cheap ass bastard who enjoys squeezing life out of as little money as I can. I'm a luftmensch. But I work to buy things I want and enjoy. A good book. A game. A nice flyrod. A Campy grouppo. Whatever.
Life is a money pit. I'm going to do what I can to enjoy it and use what little money I have in that pursuit.
I work to live, not live to work.
KFG
My second monitor at home is a 17" LCD and was pretty cheap. Indeed, two smaller monitors will give you more screen real-estate than a single large one, for a much lower price.
If you do go down the multi-monitor route in Windows, I'd highly recommend Ultramon which adds invaluable features missing in the OS (taskbar on second monitor, maximize to dual-screen, button to flip window from one monitor to another, turn on/off second monitor, multiple profiles, etc.)