Multimonitor gaming

[b0redom]

<Dons flameproof suit>

Hi All,
I've just finished setting up my new fully loaded iMac, and have connected it up via a Displayport to a Dell 2713 monitor. It seems to have a lot of GPU grunt, so I thought I'd give a couple of games a go in multimonitor mode.

Although Win7 seems quite happy to run the screens as an extended desktop, I can't find a way of getting games to run on more than one screen. Am I missing something obvious.

The GPU in the iMac is a GTX 680MX.

I am aware that the iMac is not a gaming platform, and I didn't buy it as such.

</Dons flameproof suit>

[jim]

I'm not quite sure why you expect the games to run in multi-monitor?

EyeFinity etc came out so that you could run games in multi-monitor, and turned it from separate screens, i.e. extended desktop, into one huge screen. I presume the nVidia solution works in the same way, but either way, I'm fairly confident that extended desktop isn't the answer.

I guess you could run the games windowed and then stretch the window across both monitors, but I suspect that would be awful, if it even worked.

Some games have multi-monitor hard-coded in (I vaguely recall that World in Conflict might have done), but it's not the norm, by any stretch of the imagination.

Or am I missing the point?

EDIT: Apparently for nVidia you have to tweak the 3D settings.

http://www.techradar.com/news/comput...nitors-1074313

[Champman99]

Extended Desktop will never run games accross multiple monitors. You (at least on windows, on a normal PC) need to go into Catalyst Control Centre and Create an Eyefinity Display Group. Once that happens the system will see one monitor, for instance 3 1080p monitors would show as a single 5760x1080 monitor, with the taskbar stretched all the way accross the bottom rather than just being on the primary display.

Then if the game supports it you will be able to choose that resolution in the options (usually until you do the game will show up as clone).

Multimonitor rarely works well with just 2 monitors, because that means the centre of the screen (where most of the action happens) is at the intersection of the monitors, hence you have bezel issues.

[b0redom]

Yeah, I suspect Eyefinity isn't going to work great on an nVidia card. I actually have 2x27" displays and a 24" one. Just interested to see if it works really. From clicking around inside the drivers though, it seems like it'll only work with SLId cards. Bit rubbish that a SLId GTX 2xx series will work, but a single 680MX won't.

[jim]

Well, IIRC, Eyefinity was designed to run up to 6 screens off one card, but nVidia cards could still only do 2 screens per card.

Therefore to do genuine multi-monitor gaming, since two wouldn't work, you need SLI to power the 3 screens.

I could be wrong on that, it's just a vague recollection.

[kylina]

Isn't hard/gives you a headache having to focus on so many monitors when gaming? Isn't it harder in general?

[Shamble]

Not necessarily - it depends what you are running. For example, for a flight sim it's somewhat easier to see what you are doing (and more immersive) to have it span multiple monitors.

[kylina]

Huh, now that I think about it. That does seem pretty cool. Though I wonder what other games would be cooler with multimonitors.

[jim]

If you think about it, you don't need to focus on all of the monitors.

In a typical FPS, you've got your reticule in the centre of the screen, and that's where you aim your fire and your focus. Now, if an enemy soldier runs in from the left, and you have a single monitor, he'll be outside your field of vision. However, when he gets close to the centre, he'll appear on the left edge of the screen - you'll see him and can fire.

Imagine the same scenario with 3 monitors. You're focussing, as usual, on the centre screen where the reticule is. At the left-edge of that monitor, you see clear space. But, out of the corner of your eye, on the left-hand monitor, you see something moving. You glance in that direction, and see someone running towards the centre. You turn, so that your reticule (and thus the centre monitor) is focussed on him, and begin firing - on a single monitor, at this point you wouldn't even know that someone was there.

If the game is designed properly, so the HUD and menu etc are just on the single screen, then there's no need to focus on all of the screens at once. What it does give you is excellent peripheral vision - and in that respect, it's much more like real life. If you had to walk around all day, and could only see things occurring inside a 24" rectangle, it would be a very bizarre world.

Of course, one solution is a giant screen or projector, so that your peripheral vision is filled with the screen, but the resolution will be far too low for it to look good.

[ste852]

Well, IIRC, Eyefinity was designed to run up to 6 screens off one card, but nVidia cards could still only do 2 screens per card.

Therefore to do genuine multi-monitor gaming, since two wouldn't work, you need SLI to power the 3 screens.

I could be wrong on that, it's just a vague recollection.

The GTX 600 series Nvidia cards can run triple screens off one card, they are the first generation to do so, the 500 series and before needed SLI to run triple screens, this still doesn't change the fact that the AMD cards run triple's better off a single card though.

Ste852