Possible 3-monitor config?
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Does SoftTH do the warping like the DCS screenshot posted by Frederf? Or does it just spread a flat image on 3 screens? Also it seems to work good with 3 identical monitors but what about my case where I’m using a different center monitor from my side monitors?
If BMS only displays a wider view of a flat image, I wonder if I should even angle my side screens towards me or just keep them in line with the center screen?
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#1 I don’t know if DCS does pixel-remap compression or actually stitches 3 independent viewports, but yes, SoftTH has a warping mode to combat fisheye.
#2 What SoftTH does it trick the software into thinking you have a XxY monitor so the software generates an image for a single display. Then SoftTH sends “chunks” of that single video to different displays. The gane software has absolutely no idea that you have more than one monitor. SoftTH has post-process warping and mapping features, see #1.
#3 Any imaginable combination of monitors is just fine. They don’t have to match or line up or anything. One big render is made and completely custom chunks are sent to various displays. I have (2) 1280x1024 and (1) 1920x1080 and it works fine.
#4 It depends on how the renderer converts the 3D world to the 2D image. Most times it assumes your display is a flat plane and for geometrical accuracy you would keep your displays in this flat arrangement. That is why the image looks stretched, because if the right edge of the screen was that far to the right then the horizontally stretched image wouldn’t look stretched because you are viewing it obliquely which has a squishing effect. An infinitely wide monitor can only display 180 degrees FoV the left and right parts of it past a mile from you would be responsible for a tiny amount of angular display because you are almost looking at the edges.
But we don’t want that. We want displays arrayed in a circle around us at constant radius because it is more efficient use of monitor width to have more display angle! If you look at a 20" wide monitor at 45 degrees then it is only 70.7% as wide to your eye. Normal incidence is maximum apparent width. So SoftTH non-linear pixel mapping adjustments that can compensate for a curved (or compound curve) displays. It can render more pixels than normally are allowed by your display set and contract them with lens or cylinder corrections. Even without this feature I would angle them in. I found about 25 degrees works with my display sizes and my distance to each center.
EDIT: Looks like 2.x has 64-bit support but no non-linear correction. 1.09 is 32-bit and has correction. So it’ll work on BMS but not DCS.
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Um, in English please Frederf? Lol, I understood maybe 40% of what you wrote there, but from what I understood, SoftTH can do the side-monitor-warping like DCS, yes? Would love to get a tutorial on how that’s done.
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I use SoftTH v 2.08b on my Win7 with 3x 24" monitors. (2 graphics cards).
It’s running smooth with the FOV and Viewlimit-settings that Drumstix61 recommends.For Win7 and v 2.08b, just copy the dll-file to the FalconBMS 4.32/Bin/x86 Folder and run the game.
Use the x86-version even though you run 64-bit OS. (BMS is running 32-bit)
An info-box will tell you that a new resolution has been added to BMS. (res ……x…)
It will use your current desktop resolution.
Just remember to set the far left monitor as main monitor if not running windowed mode.Select the new resolution from the Graphics-option and go flying!
Ringo
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Um, in English please Frederf? Lol, I understood maybe 40% of what you wrote there, but from what I understood, SoftTH can do the side-monitor-warping like DCS, yes? Would love to get a tutorial on how that’s done.
Yeah, me too. Supposedly 1.x (after 1.05) had these features. 2.x doesn’t (yet?). What should happen is you use it and press ApplicationKey+A/D/X/B etc hotkeys and get it how you like. Then in the future you can set these values in the .cfg. However I can’t get these to work right in 1.09 and BMS.
What you see is here: http://www.tawbaware.com/projections.htm Video games use rectilinear because it makes 3D rectangles look like 2D rectangles. I like cylindrical/spherical because it maps directly 3D angular position to 2D monitor position. The white lines are lines of constant angle. But this would be OK if you were sitting in the focus of a curved display. There are some other plugins that do some correction. Even if it never works, 3 monitors are better even if you don’t like the edge distortions exactly.
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Does SoftTH do the warping like the DCS screenshot posted by Frederf? Or does it just spread a flat image on 3 screens? Also it seems to work good with 3 identical monitors but what about my case where I’m using a different center monitor from my side monitors?
If BMS only displays a wider view of a flat image, I wonder if I should even angle my side screens towards me or just keep them in line with the center screen?
Mate,it adds the missing left and right viewing area…it “spans” the image to 3 screens,and does take into account any difference in Monitor size or Resolution.
It auto computes the best reso for you… -
So let me see if I get it right.
I have:
1. one 24" 1920x1200
2. two 19" 1280x1024I can have them in falcon in that same resolution? meaning mostly taking advantage of the 1920x1200 of the 24" or it will reduce it’s resolution to 1280x1024?
So this prog tricks falcon to think of what resolution in my case?
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Stix, I humbly request an audience with you!
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With SoftTH you make the rendered frame buffer any size you want and then position the monitor bounds anywhere in that frame. For example you could have 3868x1200 resolution and
Monitor 1 pixels 0-1280 x 88-1112
Monitor 2 pixels 1280-3200 x 0-1200
Monitor 3 pixels 3201-3868 x 88-1112
What about the frame that doesn’t show up on the monitor? Throw it away. Think of it like printing a picture and using scissors and glue to put parts of that picture in picture frames. Or you can make the rendered frame a little wider and have the displayed portions of the frame leave gaps to match the bezel room between monitors. Or you can make 3000px wide image on two 2000px monitors where some of the image is redundant. Lots and lots and lots of flexibility. If you can image it you can usually do it.If the bezel is about 100px each then I would do 4268x1200, 400 extra pixels to lose behind four frame thicknesses.
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ok I got u…
So I tell it to display 3868x1200 and that is the resolution I select in falcon? and what is not seen mostly loosing view from the sideways (peripheral) not so important but I will have the main screen 1920x1200 which is better… and all digital not analog… wow that will kill the fps…So I have to try it…
Thanx for the heads up… now doing it is another thing… right?
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Hell… I just tested it on my test setup and it is great… (Not all)
First I can have the 3 monitors all the time in digital mode rather than analog which is crappy…
Run like sugar in 4480x1200 for falcon with no problems… wow…
Inside in instant action the FPS drop was HHHhhhmmmm??? but I don’t have my test system configured correctly…Finally I can see the DED and MFD’s clear in my 24" in 1920x1200… wow I missed that…
Q’s now…
1. Is by any chance the fact I have a 8800gts as a second one for the display to cause FPS drop? are there any settings I should choose to balance that?
2. In the SoftTH config tool the Gray areas how can I change them and some settings there don’t make sense to me… so I can’t decide what to choose… For the Gray areas they are on the right and left monitors at the bottom of them. How can I make it go to the middle? (Forget it I just did it from nvidia by dragging the monitor… well not drag exactly… select it (turn yellow) and than with up down arrows I centered them…)
3. U said My case would be 3868x1200 why do I see 4480x1200? did I do something wrong?
Anyway looks as a way of a high Improvement while I can have the full resolution on my main Monitor.
Thanx for opening up my eyes… I really appreciate it.
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Digital is much better than analog, at native resolution. If it looks bad in DVI then there is something wrong.
1280+1920+1280= 4480 // Sorry, bad math!
4480 is 230% of the number of pixels as 1920; FPS is a concern. There are trick to increase FPS, using less than full quality on the side monitors. Also anti-aliasing is a big hit. VRAM capacity is a concern. SoftTH only uses 1 video card to generate the image. Other cards are only used for their output ports. They do not help render. For me I put a DisplayPort-DVI adapter so I could plug all 3 monitors into a single video card.
For the 1280x1024 monitor it is now positioned at the top of the 1200px height. If you want it the middle look at the “Position X: ___ Y:___” lines for Head 1 and Head 2. Since 1200-1024=176 and 176/2=88. So you want it positioned “Y: 88” so it is down 88px from the top and 88px up from the bottom.
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Digital is much better than analog, at native resolution. If it looks bad in DVI then there is something wrong.
1280+1920+1280= 4480 // Sorry, bad math!
4480 is 230% of the number of pixels as 1920; FPS is a concern. There are trick to increase FPS, using less than full quality on the side monitors. Also anti-aliasing is a big hit. VRAM capacity is a concern. SoftTH only uses 1 video card to generate the image. Other cards are only used for their output ports. They do not help render. For me I put a DisplayPort-DVI adapter so I could plug all 3 monitors into a single video card.
For the 1280x1024 monitor it is now positioned at the top of the 1200px height. If you want it the middle look at the “Position X: ___ Y:___” lines for Head 1 and Head 2. Since 1200-1024=176 and 176/2=88. So you want it positioned “Y: 88” so it is down 88px from the top and 88px up from the bottom.
thanx…
Well actually one of the 2 19" has a problem with the digital input so I use it’s analog fine… no big deal.
But putting all three on the same VGA how? I have a spare port but nvidia says only two… It will work u say cause I have the second Vga on? Or u mean a different VGA Card? Or I can plug and the third monitor on the same VGA cause of SoftTH??Thankfully as of Vram it has 3GB so I believe this will be no problem. Antialiasing? well I have it to app control… and multisampling at 5 from Falcon GUI. If I see big hit in Campaign I will reduce it… snif snif…
Also what is better for side displays I went to png and performance and the view was way pixeleted.
Once again I don’t have words to thank u…
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I got my SoftTH setup working today thanks to a brief chat with Stix.
Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the fisheye effect though? For example, if I am looking at the airport tower on my center screen, it looks small but when it goes to the side screen (ie peripheral vision), it gets bigger! Really difficult to judge closure rates and distance with that and with flight lead off to your side.
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thanx…
Well actually one of the 2 19" has a problem with the digital input so I use it’s analog fine… no big deal.
But putting all three on the same VGA how? I have a spare port but nvidia says only two… It will work u say cause I have the second Vga on? Or u mean a different VGA Card? Or I can plug and the third monitor on the same VGA cause of SoftTH??Thankfully as of Vram it has 3GB so I believe this will be no problem. Antialiasing? well I have it to app control… and multisampling at 5 from Falcon GUI. If I see big hit in Campaign I will reduce it… snif snif…
Also what is better for side displays I went to png and performance and the view was way pixeleted.
Once again I don’t have words to thank u…
To me “VGA” means 9-bin blue connector for analog. I mean a second video card can act as more connection locations.
I got my SoftTH setup working today thanks to a brief chat with Stix.
Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the fisheye effect though? For example, if I am looking at the airport tower on my center screen, it looks small but when it goes to the side screen (ie peripheral vision), it gets bigger! Really difficult to judge closure rates and distance with that and with flight lead off to your side.
Rectilinear projection is just how video games render 3D to 2D. The distortion at high sidelook angles is the price you pay for all straight lines showing straight. This is the exact same problem found by trying to map the Earth sphere on a 2D paper map. There are tricks where it can redistribute the pixels across the image to stretch the middle and compress the edges and overall the distortion effect is reduced. (
This is another product, Warpalizer) SoftTH is supposed to do this but I haven’t figured out how quite yet. It’s something involving lensCorrection=1 and the App+A/D keys on the keyboard. -
Now now… that SoftTH killed my VGA… LOL
I mean the FPS… going up from 3840x1024 to 4480x1200 on the main and 1024 on the 2 side panels was a genuine killer for frames…
At some points I even show 17… lol
the bad thing is I work on agean and cant test on Israel right now or Kimpo (bored to switch back all those f4patch things I have on)… So to where I was 40 at Aegean I got to 24 -26… changed quality on the 3 monitor to performance using jpg… well didn’t notice any difference as of quality. I have vsync on from both GUI and Nvidia.
And I just overclocked my VGA’s just a click… Now I’m back online didn’t show bellow 30 and (20000 ft) up with heavy cloud down it jumped to 40 - 56… Nice… all TE have in mind no Campaign.
Sound good.
What I noticed is that my second VGA 8800gts tops in it’s Memory Controller Load 99%, all others are bellow 5%. Will this always be the case or I can decrease this?
Is this in any way holding down my main VGA 580??? Cause as I see it, the 580 GPU load averages to 60-70%. -
With SoftTH only one card does work. Make sure the 8800 isn’t your primary and the others are just acting as memory-ouput dummies?
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There is always a compromise.
@Arty,
I would have thought your FPS would be higher with that Monster GPU and all it’s CUDA Cores…but,3 screens of BMS take a toll,eh?I started with my lowly 8800GT,getting 22-35 FPS.
Not to be thwarted,I bought an GTX550Ti,FPS went back to 62 w/VertSync on.
Found SoftTH,bought 2 more 24" monitors,and FPS fell back in the 20’s with the new 5760x1200 resolution. GAKKK!!!
Turned off all “Eye Candy”,which is still better than what we had with OF,and got back in decent FPS range.
I got used to it,
and then replaced the 8800GT with a 2nd GTX550Ti and FPS returned to 62.
Might add another GPU for “Eye Candy”.@ICE,
glad you’re sorted mate.
As for the “Fisheye” effect,I am just used to it,but you may be able to lessen it by using the SoftTH Tool to allow for the extra Bezel Area.(maybe add 200 Pixels to the width Parameter???) I Dunno…Maybe this - http://www.kegetys.fi/forum/index.php?topic=2631.0
@Federf,
Good Intel mate.Bottom line is, 3 screens are better than 1.
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Well I’m above 30 at MP so I’m ok.
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Question
To use this do you need to have nividia surround selected offWood