Multiple Monitors - Best Practice... NEWBIE

[SEHatmaker]

Hi All,

Moving from FSX / PM to Prepar3D / ProSim737 with existing full cockpit and 180 degree wrap around screen with 3 Ben-Q 1080 Projectors. Use nThusim on current system which works well at blending. All 3 projectors run off 3 DP connections on one Nvidia 1080TI card. Works fine in current system and now moving to Gaming configured PC on Win10.

So set up Nvidia Surround for the 3 projectors in Win10 and that all looks right across screen. When I run Prepar3D, it squishes onto the left-most projector screen (Win10 primary) and I can't seem to figure out how to get it all the way across the 180 degrees. I am not at Sim for a few days so questions are:

I see video card in display dropdown and resolution is 5760 X 1080 X 32 I believe and I checked the Auto-Fill Main View. Yet screen only on left third of screen (left projector). What am I doing wrong?

As I read through a boat-load of posts, I think I saw where you can stretch the main screen across the expanded desktop and then hit ALT-ENTER or something like that to make it full screen? Is that the right way or does that mess up perspective on the wrap-around screen?

Should Nvidia Surround be active?

I have tried to look at View Groups and starting to understand a bit more but still fuzzy. If making Full-Screen work as I asked above (with some distortion), are View Groups a better way to do it to make blending and assignment to projectors better for looks and performance?

With View Groups (if that is best) do you still need blending software to set projectors up prior to running Prepar3D?

I will give it a whack which ever way but just trying to focus my time in the proper direction to make the 3 projectors look and perform well...

Thanks for any help on this...
Scott

[Rob McCarthy]

Hi Scott,

As you said there are numerous ways to set up multiple displays each with their own trade-offs. A single, very wide view may perform slightly better in some cases but it will tend to have some degree of distortion. You may want to start with using view groups and see what your results are there. You will want to disable surround in this case and have each monitor act as its own display. In most standard multi monitor configurations the auto view group will give you good results. You will most likely still need blending correction done with your projectors but that depends on your setup.

Regards,
Rob McCarthy

[seedosip]

Hi,
I will share my experience with multiple screens. For many year I have used projector for the external view and monitors to display instruments in the home build cockpit. I wanted to go 3 projector way, but there was not enough space so I had to go for TV. A few month ago I have finally installed 3 55” TV and started to experiment with different ways to make it work.
For starters, using nvidia surround (TVs run from GTX1080) I just made one huge screen and tried different resolutions, even 11520x2160 on default F22 would work quite well in terms of FPS, but the distortion for me was way too much. I have tried the V4.3 fix but still did not work for me, as mentioned in other thread I had massive AA problems as well.
Then I have started to experiment with view group, 3 views set at 60 degrees each. This worked like a charm, beautiful and crisp picture, no distortion. As Rob mentions in his post, surround must be switched off for this to work. In terms of performance, with viewgroup I am aiming at 30 (with vsync and TV set to 30Hz). I am still experimenting with different settings and configurations, have seen no change in performance from 1920x1080 per TV to 2560x1440 which is set now, 4k per tv is a bit too much 
I have tried locked FPS at 24, 25, 30 etc… but without Vsync I get microstutters…

Actually I wanted to ask a question about Vsync and how does it work with multi monitors. As I have mentioned I have a home cockpit which runs 3 GPUs on 1 PC, GTX1080 runs 3 TVs and 2 Gt710 Run 4 monitors used for PFD/ND, EICAS etc.
If I do not undock any windows for the instruments and only run the outside view on 3 TV set at 30Hz via viewgroup, I get stable 30FPS with vsync on in the sim.
If I undock multiple views (PFD,ND etc) and set them on the monitors which are set on 60Hz, does vsync I this case will try to match fps with 60Hz from the monitors although main P3D window (the outside view) is being displayed through 30Hz tv? The reason I am asking is that as soon as I undock instruments and use them on monitors I don’t get 30 stable FPS as in case with TV only.

Kind regards,
Sergej

[SEHatmaker]

Hi Gentlemen,

So we have 3 Ben-Q hooked to 1080TI card on brand new gaming spec main PC. I have pretty fast (newer) Display computer that has the Capt & F/O displays hooked to a GTX-570, Upper & Lower EICAS displays connected to on-board video (VGA and DVI) and the Capt & F/O CDU's connected via USB --> VGA adapters for 6 screens in all. All the MIP displays work fine along with Capt CDU. However the F/O CDU will come on and configure fine as long as default IP address is there (127.0.0.1) but obviously not functioning in ProSim at that point. Once I go into config and put the Main PC IP address in F/O CDU, the screen goes black and I have no control. What I didn't think about was that I had no power on via ground or engines since was just checking config. If I have no power on the aircraft, could this keep the F/O CDU blank until power is added?

As for the Main PC setup, let me see if I have it...
I can use nThusim to blend a large screen of 5760 X 1080 and have nVidia surround enabled but I may not like the distortion this gives. If I decide to try View Groups, then surround needs to be disabled and I need to define the view groups as you mentioned with 60 degrees each and maybe 1920 X 1080. When these are setup, is there overlap? Rob also mentioned the "auto view group". Where is that and how do I activate it? Is there any setup I need to do to use it or is it "auto".

Again sorry for being such a newbie but just don't need to reinvent the wheel here if I can just read who ever made a good tire already...

Let me know and thanks again for your patience,
Scott

[AndyK1812]

Hi Scott,
As far as your problem with ProSim you may want to check that CDU Role is set to F/O CDU in Config/Option tab.

[SEHatmaker]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for taking a stab at this...

Yeah I have it set to F/O in the config. But I believe that I didn't have any power on the airplane (P3D not running) because I was just in the config. I could see the FWD-OVRH but didn't know how to get into Instructor station. Not only was my F/O CDU black (with power running backlight and in Task Manager), the F/O MIP displays and the Lower EICAS were black. Now that I think about it, not sure if I tried changing the config and adding the correct IP once I fired up P3D and had the airplane powered. Could this be the issue and I just need to test again with all power running? Is that what battery only allows (Capt MIP displays and Upper EICAS)?

[OE1CGA]

"Is that what battery only allows (Capt MIP displays and Upper EICAS)?"...

Yes...

Chris

[SEHatmaker]

Hi All,

Thanks Chris...

Was at the simulator yesterday and indeed once I had power on airplane, F/O CDU fired right up along with other F/O displays so all good there.

On projector setup, just using nVidia Surround at the moment with some distortion obviously so that I can finish getting things hooked up to fly and test. I will have to study the View Groups stuff before tackling it. Looks like it is a little complex at first glance...

Anyone have good tutorials that I can get a pointer to besides just searching...

Thanks again,
Scott

[seedosip]

Hi Scott,
I have used this as tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUCJEPHeB3k

Very well explained, in 10 min I had the viewgroup set up. Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Sergej

[SEHatmaker]

Hi Sergej,

Wow, thanks for the link. I now understand so much more about how View Groups work...

I now understand that with View Groups you don't use nVidia Surround in Windows and you don't need a separate blending software like nThusim or other such programs. You are basically setting up 3 distinct views with edges tweaked together that will have less distortion than one large view stretched and Surrounding the cockpit.

We have 3 projectors which I have mentioned prior and they overlap about 25% between left and center projectors and 25% between right and center projectors. However, there is no offset in height between the 3 projectors. SO, using the flow of the tutorial, I would set the center projector up and then move on to the left (right would also be fine). Working with the left projector, we are basically swinging the camera center alignment around to the left to make its own view along side the center view.

Question: Since there are no bezels on the projectors and they currently have overlap, would I reposition the physical projectors on the left and right to just have minimal overlap to start. If so, how much overlap is customary? Then swing the camera (view center) left or right to make the edges blend in a smooth way? Tweaking once I get it close.

OR: Can I leave the projectors in their current positions with 25% overlap and swing the camera (view center) around and again make the edges blend smoothly with tweaking? This would result in less of a defined wrap-around view. This would result in perhaps 150 degrees of view instead of 180 degrees with a minimal overlap? Degrees are not exact but I think you get the picture... So to speak...

Is one way better or easier to set up than the other...
Thanks and I hope I am actually understanding things now that I have taken the time to read and watch...
Scott