SECOND MONITOR HELP

[Raymondpotter13]

Hello all who are reading this.Okay i just recently started using second screen projection and i would like to know how to project the actual game to one screen and then like a map or such to the other ive seen professional gamers do this and youtubers so i was wondering how to do such ive looked it up on youtube,google,bing and ive turned to you guys please help a fellow gamer in need.

[ViaFernandez]

i don't know the answer to this sorry.

[Vagrant0]

Unfortunately most games played in fullscreen either try to extend to the second monitor, or run into issues when alt+tabbing. Usually you need to run the game in windowless mode and just have whatever else up on your second screen.

 

Keep in mind however that having two screens up can lower framerate significantly, and in some cases can lead to images being burnt into your second monitor from having something displayed there too long without variation.

[Werne]

professional gamers

I do not know why but this sentence amuses me. Anyway, what you're trying to do is a bit tricky.

 

On Linux and UNIX based operating systems that is a normal behaviour, even on a single monitor setup. That's because every Linux/UNIX distribution features something I find quite handy, virtual desktops that are separate from eachother, other than sharing icons and taskbar (even that depends on the desktop environment, KDE can separate them completely):

 

 

 

 

 

The dual screen split is achieved by splitting virtual desktops across monitors (let's take my 1x4 as example), that way you get two separate desktops that can run two separate programs without them expanding to the other monitor (with 1x2 each). It's like having two different computers controled by a single keyboard and mouse. KDE does it easily, it's done a bit more complicated on GNOME-based desktop environments like mine.

 

 

 

Windows is completely different though, it's a single-desktop OS so it can't do it that way. Unlike most Linux/UNIX distributions, it sees the second monitor as an extension of the primary and expands the desktop across it. That way you have a huge desktop across two monitors, and unfortunately, games will try to expand across both.

 

Now, I believe splitting the screens for games on Windows should be possible, but I'm not sure how hard it would be. Each graphics card has different settings that also change with driver version, which makes helping someone to change his settings even harder. :confused:

 

It may be possible to achieve using something like fake fullscreen or running it in windowed mode but I'd rather take a look at settings first and see if it can be done that way, not every game has things like fake fullscreen and it may fail to work too.

 

 

 

So, let's start with the basics, take a screenshot of your dual-screen settings in Catalyst (if having an Nvidia card, take a screenshot of whatever Nvidia uses for settings). Then take a screenshot of your dual-screen settings from Control Center. Open each drop-down menu in there and post each setting from it in your post. I'll examine them and see if (rather how) it can be done.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Werne

[bben46]

I use a dual monitor setup on Win7 - and pretty much see what the linux user described as normal linux behavior. While it is not exactly the same as linux, Windows has had the same capability for quite a while now. :thumbsup: I can run separate programs on each monitor, or separate programs in multiple windows on a single monitor - It's not unusual for me to have 3 or 4 separate copies of my browser - or even 2 or more different browsers or programs running at the same time. Another handy trick is I can move any process from one monitor to the other either with a hot key or dragging. The mouse can freely go across from one monitor to the other with no special clicking.

 

If that is not enough, I have a program that allows for me to switch to a completely different desktop - with different icons, wallpaper, taskbar and everything else associated with a desktop - you could have one desktop for games, another for social activity and a third for work. And could toggle between them.

 

There is a setting that allows extending your desktop across both monitors (or even 3 or more), and that one is the default. But for gaming, and nearly every other application, that would leave the critical center of the viewing area with the divider running through it. It does work better with 3 screens - and that is easy to do in Windows, but you have to play around with the resolutions on each monitor to keep from stretching everything on one screen while squeezing it on another.

 

Windows does not natively allow a completely separate desk top - with all of the icons on each. One of your multiple monitors must be designated as the 'master' and that is the default place for all icons and the task bar. However there are programs for windows that do allow you to do that. I found that useless, but I do have a program that puts a separate task bar on my second monitor - it only shows those tasks that are being run on that monitor.

 

The way windows works, it does see the multiple monitors as a single viewing space. with each application in it's own window - but it can treat each monitor as a separate window to be opened, closed, minimized, maximized or resized and manipulated independently of any other window. I have not looked at linux to see how it handles these tasks differently. But I suspect it is similar to my desktop switching application (which was probably 'borrowed' from linux)

 

The one thing I haven't seen yet is a completely separate desktop on each monitor - but I would be willing to bet that there is a Windows application to do that - but the typical Windows user is far less computer savvy than the linux user and wouldn't know what to do with it - My computer - with its dual monitor setup is often used by my Girlfriend and several of my grandkids - and none of them have figured out that they can even have more than one window open at a time- let alone on the second monitor - I see them close their browser to open facebook. Then close FB to look something up using their browser. http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f351/charonn0/ohgeez-1.gif

 

Now that said, it would be wonderful to be able to play the game as said, with a map or inventory on the second screen. Even better would be the ability to have several windows on the second monitor, local map, current loadout, inventory and others. Unfortunately, the way the game engine works it will not allow that. So, it's not a Windows limitation, but a Gambryo limitation. I have great hope that Beth will dump the ancient 32 bit Gambryo with its 1997 design limitations and come up with a true 64 bit engine AND multi screen multi window capability.

I would like to be able to set it up for gaming with 4 monitors, a larger center with the game spread across 3. then the fourth mounted above with the map/loadout/inventory and other windows as needed. :cool: