The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Dual monitors, and getting the most out of them
exis
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I just bought a 24" 1920x1080 monitor to go along with my 22" 1650x1080 monitor. Working on a paper lastnight, this was awesome. Working on something on one screen and having another entire screen for relevant material and references is fantastic. I can definitely see this being hugely beneficial for work purposes. I've been using Ultramon to split the Win7 taskbar across monitors, and everything is sweet.
Today I booted up The Witcher 2, which maximized to a single monitor without issue. But while I can see stuff on my secondary screen, I still need to alt tab out to move my mouse over.
I'm not too concerned about this in particular, but it made me think... how do you use multiple monitors? Do you have any tips/tricks/apps that make life easier? Any workarounds for common issues? Would be interested to hear suggestions for how to get more out of this.
Today I booted up The Witcher 2, which maximized to a single monitor without issue. But while I can see stuff on my secondary screen, I still need to alt tab out to move my mouse over.
I'm not too concerned about this in particular, but it made me think... how do you use multiple monitors? Do you have any tips/tricks/apps that make life easier? Any workarounds for common issues? Would be interested to hear suggestions for how to get more out of this.
exis on
0
Posts
Protip: If you have steam games and want to avoid alt+tabbing issues, add this run command Works for most modern source games.
It was pretty awesome, just being able to swing a cursor over that many displays/systems.
I have a couple futureshop gift cards, I should really go pick up a cheap 24" and go back to the triple-display system where the HDTV is my primary.
edit: although there's one thing I don't like about using three displays; I run my third from the motherboard, which doesn't have dedicated video memory
*edit2: Synergy is also good for when you want to be able to access other stuff while gaming, because you can set keyboard shortcuts to pull you to a secondary system without alt-tabbing from the game itself. Though to do this, you have to enable a setting in synergy to stop it from coming to the foreground as an application (otherwise the game will act as if you'd alt-tabbed to another program.)
Does anyone know a way to choose which monitor a program full screens in by default? At the moment I switch my main monitor to my secondary monitor, then full screen the program I want and use the program. Then when i'm done I have to switch the monitor settings again.
It's kind of tedious. I'd really like a way to be able to set certain programs to go full screen in one monitor or the other without having to fiddle with display properties.
I have all of my nvidia drivers up to date and the Nvidia control panel doesn't seem to have any useful options.
http://imgur.com/kOFJA
far left is for Foobar (music program) and assignment information. Middle is for videogame/where I'm doing an assignment and is aligned slightly lower than Left so I can open the start menu easily. Right is for internet and ventrilo.
folder windows are typically scattered about the monitors if applicable
I've been doing it this way and generally the program will open on whatever monitor it was on last.
But I was trying to figure out if there was a way I could have specific things open full screen on one monitor or the other. As it stands I have to make my secondary monitor (it's larger I use it for gaming and stuff) my primary monitor if I want something full screen on it. I'd like to find a method where a secondary monitor can full screen.
I'll look into this Ultramon.
Not jarring at all. Although I keep the 19 inch right in my face and the larger monitor is off to the side. You'll probably end up keeping them at an angle that respects their size.
How'd you get the taskbar across all monitors?
What I did was set it so that my second window was "located" on a diagonal, so the only way to get to my secondary monitor was by moving the mouse through the upper-left corner of the screen.
My Backloggery
Supposedly the software has a feature that let's you alt-tab out of a game without minimizing. The feature was developed for use with Starcraft II so I don't know if it works with all games, but I imagine it does. Here is the relevant page: http://www.actualtools.com/articles/detail.php?ID=1250&sphrase_id=12322
In case you're wondering what you do with a three-monitor setup, the right monitor has all my chat and communications (Buddy List + Chat, Steam Friends + Chat, Ventrilo, torrents, etc), the left monitor usually has Chrome open to Google Wave, Sports, etc, and the main monitor usually has my main web browser (Opera) or a game on it.
There are tons of applications for that many monitors in other areas too. For example, when I'm programming I'll have a web browser on one monitor, code on one, output and file directory on the third, etc. If you're doing 3D work you can have reference artwork on one, Blender in the middle, web browser on the third, etc.
It's scary, but sometimes I still find myself running out of space to the point where I've considered adding a fourth monitor o_O
And just as an added, Eyefinity or the nVidia equivalent makes it much easier to do with just one video card, which could save you a bundle. Unless you needed SLI for performance reasons.
Is there some equivalent of Eyefinity for Nvidia? I have 3 monitors and a gtx 260 w/2 DVI out. I'd love to be able to use the 3rd monitor without having to spend monies on a dualhead2go or similar piece of hardware.
A GTX 260 cannot display on 3 monitors simultaneously.
this works well for my setup where I have a 22" 1080p monitor on my desk for computing and a 47" 1080p display on the adjacent wall for watching tv/movies which is only ever on when I need it to be. Though I was thinking of going back to a dual monitor for desktop computing set-up then having some sort of media connection device (streaming to ps3/xbox360, slingbox, cheap nettop/HTPC, whatever) for the TV, but whenever I think about that I find it easier to drag MPC to the second display.
Edit: Taskbar get's a Window button, clock, icons, and can pin shortcuts to it very nice. It looks a bit different and when you expand the icons rather then getting a window with all of your icons it just shits them onto your Taskbar XP style but better then nothing I suppose.
Edit 2: After spending a hour trying to find out why the deactivation stuff wasn't working on games I found out that it doesn't work on Steam windows.
Edit3: Works on some Steam games but not all. I think it won't work on games that make the mouse cursor invisible like FPS games.
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/
Here is nVidia's list of video cards that currently support 3D Surround: http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dv-system-requirements-surround-technology.html
There is also the Triplehead2Go from Matrox: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/ which is a little pricey but was previously the only solution before Eyefinity. You could possibly find one used for cheap.
I'm not sure why my eyes glazed over the older cards on that list. Point still stands that a single 260 won't do 3 monitors.
$40?! Jeeee-zus.
After searching I found a free alternative that actually looks good. Its called Zbar and can be found here: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/zbar/index.html
I havent used it much but it looks like the best free alternative to using displayfusion or ultramon.
Woo!
wish I could think of more uses for it, although it's awesome for what it does.