As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
What can I do with my dual screens?
EliteLamer
__BANNED USERS regular
__BANNED USERS regular
I have had dual screens for quite sometime but I feel they are hardly put to any use. For one thing I can't switch between windows at all while in games and I feel their should be a way to do that. With all the dual stuff I have in my computer I feel like I should be able to treat the other screen like a whole new computer. The only thing I don't have dual of is cards but I do have the slots for SLI. Also, what bothers me is that while in a game I just have a background but no screen saver comes on. Is there anyway to have the screen saver stay on the other screen until I use it? Anyone know of any good programs for dual screens?
SEGA
EliteLamer on
0
Posts
As for uses, I fill up my second monitor with random crap like AIM, xfire, Vista's sidebar, digital post-it notes, a media player, and more. This way I can have Firefox or Word maximized on my primary monitory, and still see the random crap I occasionally use on my second monitor. Oftentimes, I'll have Firefox up on both or Word on both, or Word on one and Firefox on the other (for research reports or something).
For gaming, two monitors are pretty much useless. Supreme Commander and Flight Simulator X are the only games I know of that use both monitors and I doubt there are many (though I'm sure there are some) others.
As for switching between monitors while in games, all you can do is either run the game in windowed mode or alt+tab. There's no other way. You also can't have one monitor in screen saver but the other monitor stay active. I'd just turn off the second monitor when you don't want to use it.
2 monitors isn't really a gaming thing, its a productivity thing. You wouldn't be using the second monitor in any kind of shooter, and sometimes its better to disactivate the second monitor before loading the game (many EA games require you to do this). MMORPGs are much better with it. You can be running the game windowed-maximized in your primary monitor, and be having your wowhead/ventrillo/whatever up in the second monitor. Everyone else essentially has to go afk for 30 seconds to a minute to look up some info on a poorly explained quest, you do it nearly instantly. Ditto if you need to interact with Ventrillo during the course of play.
For multi-media rigs their nice, it allows you to use them both as a computer and a TV at the same time. In fact, I'm watching last weeks Simpsons episode on Fox On Demand as I'm typing this. Also, HDTVs suck as computer monitors. But plug in a computer monitor in one port, a 40inch LCD into the other, and you have the best of both worlds.
Productivity is really the point though. Writing a document on the primary with sources on the second. Far better than alt-tabbing or tiling. Have your workflow program primary and a group-chat client on the secondary. Hell, just having their email client always visible and active is the best thing since the spell-checker.
I generally have code maximised on my small (19") monitor whilst the big (24") monitor houses a resized-to-1024px stacked IE7/firefox/opera window, a squashed FTP client and then usually documentation underneath. Really increases productivity.
For gaming the second monitor is basically useless apart from the clock in the Vista sidebar. That's useful for checking between rounds for when I should go to bed.
Or when i'm testing software i'll often have multiple virtual machines open on my right monitor whilst I do work stuff on the left.
Multimon is handy but nowhere near as good as Ultramon. But, it is free unlike Ultramon.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Wow, that really makes me sound bad. I've only done that once. I do plenty of stuff with her without WoW involved.
The uses for dual monitors are myriad. Here are some of mine:
Graphic Design. Image on one screen, toolbars on another
Or Image and tools on one screen, reference image on the other, etc..
Gaming, I have two Eve Online accounts and will run both of them simultaneously. Much easier than alt-tabbing between.
General file system access. Much easier to drag and drop files between seperate locations when you can have both instances of explorer open each on its own screen.
Browsing. I like to watch movies on my computer, and sometimes want to check a website or my email without disrupting the movie.
Lots of other uses. I'd say if you have the two monitors already and a dual-head card, there is no reason NOT to use it.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Somebody besides me has to think this is fun.... I feel so lonely. :P
X3 Reunion can use multiple screens, curiously enough X3 being a copy of your namesake.. Elite.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
T-shirts | Last.fm | Flickr | dA
I didn't even know Forged Alliance came out till a few days ago, and now I'm broke. I love SupCom and I'd like to play more (even though I suck total shit at it).
The second monitor for the map though is awesome. You can zoom in with it if you'd like so you can always know what's going on at your base while you're leading your units to an enemy, for example. That and I got an idea (from these forums, I think) of playing over a network with a buddy of mine, and set up the second monitor as a projector screen, so my friend and I can both use the huge map displayed on the wall. I think it'd be totally fucking awesome.