Fun with dual monitors

[NeonSamurai]

Ok well I got myself a new computer (Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop specifically) and Im going to use it as my gaming/desktop system (as well as a portable system), hooked up to 5.1 speakers, keyboard, mouse, joystick, printer, external hard drive, and my 22 inch lcd monitor.

Now since my laptop (obviously) has its own display, I effectivly have 2 workable displays. Now of course the main thing I want to use this for is to play games on the big screen and other stuff (teamspeak, messenger, webpages) on the other monitor.

So getting to my questions.

First off is there any way of running games in full screen and being able to switch focus between monitors with out having the game task switch (alt tab) out in vista 64? I know you can sort of do it in windowed mode but that isnt exactly the best solution.

Or is there a way where I can sort of run the system as being 2 sytems with 2 sets of controls (but 1 physical machine) where i have an external mouse and keyboard to control the big screen, and the laptops controls for its screen, all with out the task focus switching in between monitors (ie task focus is individual and separate between the 2)

PS I am already aware of http://www.playxpert.com but i dont know if the widgets can be moved onto the second display that isnt displaying the game.

[kiwi_2005]

The video card dumps all it's graphic powers to one monitor. If you try to display DirectX output to both monitors your game will freak out. Not all games can be played spanned over two monitors either. Im waiting for the day when this will be easy as cake with no hassles. I managed to play Supreme Commander when running two monitors on one card spanned over both screens, but had to do it in a lower resolution 1024*800 non windowed otherwise system would crash. Best way ive seen it work is to add 2 graphic cards and hook both monitors up to each one, Not SLI setup as in the past SLI running dual monitors was total fail.

For a laptop the Matrox Triplehead2go might work its is a stand alone box that plugs into a single DVI slot in your video card and from there to the Triple head box and the output is to two or three screens.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

Also Display fusion not really for game setups with 2 montiors but adds taskbars etc., to 2nd montior. http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion#download

Then again theres the Dualboxing but is really aimed at playing a game (any game) on multiple accounts with 5-6 monitors all hooked up, they could have some tips.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/

[Thomen]

There is also this:
http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/

Software to emulate the Triplehead2Go, unfortunately the supported number of games are rather limited.

[Arclight]

Would it be possible to have a virtual machine output on the secondary output of the card, and run your teamspeak etc. on that, while the physical machine runs the game and outputs on the primary display?

That way you could avoid the game minimizing I guess, but perhaps would also require seperate mouse & keyboard.

Just a thought, never even used VM myself. :hmmm:

[NeonSamurai]

Hmm ok think you guys missed the point, im not trying to get a game to play on both monitors, but use the big monitor for gaming, while using the laptop's monitor to keep track of other stuff.

The problem though is you can't do it with the game full screen otherwise it will task switch and the game will minimize (or crash out, or freeze the system). Problem though is I hate running games windowed. So I was looking for a solution where i could use the laptop's display with out crashing the game in full screen


Interesting idea Arclight, but I dont think it would work as you would still task switch to the vm software running the vm. Also i dont know if there is a way of running multiple controls (2 keyboards and mice) together as separate input devices off one machine.


So far the only answer i found from digging around was http://www.playxpert.com (http://www.playxpert.com/) which injects directx based windows into games. it lets you use im, surf the net, handle team speak etc, with out dropping out of the game. Theoretically it may be possible to drag the windows it uses in games over to the other monitor (Which is showing the desktop) and thus interact with them with out dropping out of a full screen game, and with out the windows cluttering up the game display.

[Arclight]

That Playxpert is probably your best bet. Personally I only use dual monitors for games like FSX and Supreme Commander, which natively support it. The main reason I don't use it more often is exactly what you're trying to get around; the game dropping out full-screen.

Separate controls for a VM might be posible if you disable one set in a hardware config on one machine and disable the other set in hardware config on VM. Same for monitor output. But if you have to task switch to the VM like you said you're back at square one. :down:

As far as I can find info on it, it's not something anyone has a solution to. :(

[NeonSamurai]

Nope would probably require microsoft to make it possible to treat the 2 desktops as individual with separate task switching per display. Would be cool if one could also assign processors to each display. Unfortunately windows will probably not change any time soon and will still mainly be focused around one primary task from the days when systems only had one cpu.

[SUBMAN1]

Ok well I got myself a new computer (Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop specifically) and Im going to use it as my gaming/desktop system (as well as a portable system), hooked up to 5.1 speakers, keyboard, mouse, joystick, printer, external hard drive, and my 22 inch lcd monitor.

Now since my laptop (obviously) has its own display, I effectivly have 2 workable displays. Now of course the main thing I want to use this for is to play games on the big screen and other stuff (teamspeak, messenger, webpages) on the other monitor.

So getting to my questions.

First off is there any way of running games in full screen and being able to switch focus between monitors with out having the game task switch (alt tab) out in vista 64? I know you can sort of do it in windowed mode but that isnt exactly the best solution.

Or is there a way where I can sort of run the system as being 2 sytems with 2 sets of controls (but 1 physical machine) where i have an external mouse and keyboard to control the big screen, and the laptops controls for its screen, all with out the task focus switching in between monitors (ie task focus is individual and separate between the 2)

PS I am already aware of http://www.playxpert.com but i dont know if the widgets can be moved onto the second display that isnt displaying the game.

Yes you can. Here is your answer:

http://www.maxivista.com/

-S

[Thomen]

Ok well I got myself a new computer (Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop specifically) and Im going to use it as my gaming/desktop system (as well as a portable system), hooked up to 5.1 speakers, keyboard, mouse, joystick, printer, external hard drive, and my 22 inch lcd monitor.

Now since my laptop (obviously) has its own display, I effectivly have 2 workable displays. Now of course the main thing I want to use this for is to play games on the big screen and other stuff (teamspeak, messenger, webpages) on the other monitor.

So getting to my questions.

First off is there any way of running games in full screen and being able to switch focus between monitors with out having the game task switch (alt tab) out in vista 64? I know you can sort of do it in windowed mode but that isnt exactly the best solution.

Or is there a way where I can sort of run the system as being 2 sytems with 2 sets of controls (but 1 physical machine) where i have an external mouse and keyboard to control the big screen, and the laptops controls for its screen, all with out the task focus switching in between monitors (ie task focus is individual and separate between the 2)

PS I am already aware of http://www.playxpert.com but i dont know if the widgets can be moved onto the second display that isnt displaying the game.
Yes you can. Here is your answer:

http://www.maxivista.com/

-S

Erm.. not really. It still doesnt do what he wants.

[SUBMAN1]

Erm.. not really. It still doesnt do what he wants.

How not so? I put apps for monitoring on the second monitor all the time during gaming.

-S

[Thomen]

Erm.. not really. It still doesnt do what he wants.
How not so? I put apps for monitoring on the second monitor all the time during gaming.

-S

You got it all done on one PC or two? He was talking about doing it on one. :hmmm:

[SUBMAN1]

Erm.. not really. It still doesnt do what he wants.
How not so? I put apps for monitoring on the second monitor all the time during gaming.

-S
You got it all done on one PC or two? He was talking about doing it on one. :hmmm:

That is what Maxivista is for - It turns a second PC into a slave for the first!

It acts like 'ONE' PC.

-S

[Thomen]

Erm.. not really. It still doesnt do what he wants.
How not so? I put apps for monitoring on the second monitor all the time during gaming.

-S
You got it all done on one PC or two? He was talking about doing it on one. :hmmm:
That is what Maxivista is for - It turns a second PC into a slave for the first!

It acts like 'ONE' PC.

-S

Saw that.. interesting concept, tho. Gonna have to try it at some point.

[SUBMAN1]

Saw that.. interesting concept, tho. Gonna have to try it at some point.

Its a great app for those that want 'triple' monitors on one PC! :D

-S

[Thomen]

Saw that.. interesting concept, tho. Gonna have to try it at some point.
Its a great app for those that want 'triple' monitors on one PC! :D

-S
Got that allready.. might gonna expand to a 4th via the 2nd PC or Laptop.. :hmmm:
Possibilities... possibilities..

[NeonSamurai]

Neat, though as mentioned I will be running only the one system (the laptop).

[SUBMAN1]

Neat, though as mentioned I will be running only the one system (the laptop).Just re-read what you are talking about. Install VMWare and boot up a second seperate system on your current system, but if you need a second set of keyboard/mouse for it, then you really need another PC. Go buy an older one off ebay or something for $20 to $50 and use that.

VMWare for home users is free BTW.

-S

[NeonSamurai]

I have a pc but I'm downsizing to be more portable.

I've played around with the ms equivalent of vmware. I would assume though that interfacing with it would cause it to come into focus (task switch) which defeats the purpose since that will cause any fullscreen apps/games to minimise or worse.

[SUBMAN1]

I have a pc but I'm downsizing to be more portable.

I've played around with the ms equivalent of vmware. I would assume though that interfacing with it would cause it to come into focus (task switch) which defeats the purpose since that will cause any fullscreen apps/games to minimise or worse.
It would. What you are asking requires its own memory and own screen and own keyboards. You need two PC's, each with its own set of interrupts. And if you game, why the laptop? That's a mistake.

-S

[NeonSamurai]

Like I said, I need the portability for moving (and i needed a laptop for class). So I decided to get the best laptop I could for the money I had.

The laptop i got is pretty potent for its size, its 16" widescreen, 2.8ghz dual core 1066mhz fsb, 6 gigs ddr 3 ram, ati radeon 3670 512mb ram, 500 gb 7200rpm hard drive. I can hook up 5.1 speakers to it, 22" lcd over hdmi, plus with my powered usb hub all my other peripherals (hotas stick, 1tb external drive, mouse, keyboard, printer, cooler)

Its only real weak point is its video card. But if it had anything bigger it would probably melt down.

Anyhow ya I realize to do what i want nativity, i would need a second computer.

However MS should change the way operating systems handle focus to be monitor dependant. There is no reason for that limitation that I can think of for current systems.

[Zachstar]

I know your situation is different but I do not understand the mindset of those that just use Multiple displays for "more viewing area"

16:9 Monitors are almost cheaper than 16:10 displays these days.

The only way outside of I guess running external apps (Which from what I am reading here works not when running full screen) to justify it is one of these triple displays or quad displays meant to simulate most of the forward view in flight simulators and combat sims. I have seen some pit builders do this very well with Fresnel lenses and a some small widescreen displays.

[NeonSamurai]

That is handy also in fps games where peripheral vision is very helpful. Dual monitors is certainly very handy for desktop use such as say paper writing where ill have word running on the main window and sources and other stuff on the second window, that way i can just glance over at things while typing with out having to switch back and forth or adjust the farking windows