Triple Monitor Setups - Nvidia or ATI?

[eagl]

fwd-up is one of the most valuable views, so the "best" setup would probably be 3 monitors set up wide, with a 4th set up on top of the middle one.  Since you can't do that except maybe with ATI's latest (?), the next best thing is 3 monitors set up in portrait and adjust the FOV to give you a nice vertical view fwd and up.

120 deg would be nice with only 3 view switches giving you full 360 coverage, but you'd still probably use 4 views to get overlapping coverage so nobody slips past behind the frames.  A head jitter switch moving your head position a bit to peek behind the bezels and canopy framing might also be a nice touch.

Then again, the only virtual flying I've been doing lately has been in the T-6 sim domes, and they have around 240 deg of coverage with extremely smooth framerates and none of that nasty jitter you can see in AH if you look out over the wing and then roll rapidly.  Nifty simulators but a bit above most of our price range

[Chalenge]

If I recall correctly eyefinity was already handled by an another thread, I was only wondering about your three premium level cards. Does Nvidia really require you to get a card per monitor or are they just a performance overkill on your part? IIRC Chalenge has mentioned that FSX players can actually need a TRI-SLI setup but AH2 should run maxed with a single 480 / 5870 card even at triple screen resolutions.

Frame rates in FSX dont actually benefit that much from tri-SLI and by that I mean once FSX has hit 20 fps the game is smooth. The benefit comes in the way of additional processing of AA and AF which allows you to run more addons like weather products and high end texture mods (custom scenery). I think the really big difference between Nvidia and Ati is with shaders but Im still learning about them (actually Im not really interested in learning more about it).

EDIT: As to the three monitor landscape/portrait setup all you need is SLI not tri-SLI because it needs at least three connectors (and you may be able to use just a single card using the HDMI port as the third connector).

[PapaFox]

Sid, That's a nice setup. It's funny because today I was thinking how I would set up 3 monitors for fighter pilot action and you set yours up just as I envisioned. Nice going.

I'm setting up tri-monitors for another flight sim and for flying Aces High in bombers. Consequently, the three 1920x1200 monitors will go landscape. They will be driven by two Nivia 460s in SLI. I have a couple questions though.
1) Is it true that Nvidia only supports horizonal spanning with Windows XP? I hear that horizontal spanning does not work with Vista and with Windows 7. I am using XP 64 bit for this reason.

2) For three monitors, do I set up the 5760x1200 resolution in the video8.cfg file? I tried doing so today but every time I went back into Aces High the resolution had been reset at 640x480. Suggestions welcome. I can stretch normal windows across all three monitors, but I'm not 100% sure I have the Nvidia software set up just right. I have enabled horizontal scanning, however.

Thanks. Looking forward to giving you a triple-monitor bomber to shoot at with your triple-monitor fighter.

[skribetm]

this is with single eyefinity card. i really wish bezels were optionally removable.

http://youtu.be/GNkDX2pcg0U?hd=1

[Chalenge]

Sid, That's a nice setup. It's funny because today I was thinking how I would set up 3 monitors for fighter pilot action and you set yours up just as I envisioned. Nice going.

I'm setting up tri-monitors for another flight sim and for flying Aces High in bombers. Consequently, the three 1920x1200 monitors will go landscape. They will be driven by two Nivia 460s in SLI. I have a couple questions though.
1) Is it true that Nvidia only supports horizonal spanning with Windows XP? I hear that horizontal spanning does not work with Vista and with Windows 7. I am using XP 64 bit for this reason.

2) For three monitors, do I set up the 5760x1200 resolution in the video8.cfg file? I tried doing so today but every time I went back into Aces High the resolution had been reset at 640x480. Suggestions welcome. I can stretch normal windows across all three monitors, but I'm not 100% sure I have the Nvidia software set up just right. I have enabled horizontal scanning, however.

Thanks. Looking forward to giving you a triple-monitor bomber to shoot at with your triple-monitor fighter.

Man move up to Windows 7! You can use the same setup. XP 64 was pretty much a hack job for a 64 bit OS. Do you really need a 64 bit OS? I realize about 50% of Windows 7 users are 64 bit now but the majority of them dont even need it.

[Sid]

Sid, That's a nice setup. It's funny because today I was thinking how I would set up 3 monitors for fighter pilot action and you set yours up just as I envisioned. Nice going.

I'm setting up tri-monitors for another flight sim and for flying Aces High in bombers. Consequently, the three 1920x1200 monitors will go landscape. They will be driven by two Nivia 460s in SLI. I have a couple questions though.
1) Is it true that Nvidia only supports horizonal spanning with Windows XP? I hear that horizontal spanning does not work with Vista and with Windows 7. I am using XP 64 bit for this reason.

2) For three monitors, do I set up the 5760x1200 resolution in the video8.cfg file? I tried doing so today but every time I went back into Aces High the resolution had been reset at 640x480. Suggestions welcome. I can stretch normal windows across all three monitors, but I'm not 100% sure I have the Nvidia software set up just right. I have enabled horizontal scanning, however.

Thanks. Looking forward to giving you a triple-monitor bomber to shoot at with your triple-monitor fighter.

Thanks PapaFox

1) As far as I'm aware Windows 7 is a requirement for NVIDIA's Surround Technology. I use Windows 7 for that reason.



2)Here's a guide to the set up

Having installed the Nvidia Graphics Driver

Right Clicking anywhere on the desktop gives this menu



Windows "Screen Resolution" page looks like this (if any of the monitors aren't active, activate them here).



and the NVIDIA Control panel page looks like this



Also note the options available in the "Manage 3D Settings" - "Program Settings" - "Aces High" look like this (I've photo-shopped the image so all the options are visible without scrolling)



To setup the Surround Mode select "Span Display with Surround" (read all of this post first, you might not want to jump straight into this step)



Follow the Nvidia setup routine pages for setting up the "Display" positions and "Bezel Correction" (Don't worry too much if you can't get the "Display" position correctly setup at stage one, it never seems to work correctly for me, just come back to it after you set the "Bezel Correction")

The Windows "Screen Resolution" page should now look like this (note you can chose to have your desktop "Bezel" corrected or not by selecting the appropriate resolution here)



Any time you change anything in the NVIDIA Control panel - "Configure SLI, PhysX, Surround" page, after "Applying" the change, I always find it best to re-boot the computer, although you won’t be ask to.

To setup Aces High, simply start, select "Video Settings" from the initial splash screen, and select your new "Video Resolution" in the drop down box (No need to play about with the video8.cfg file)



Now for me, and I suspect this might always be the case, having done the above as Nvidia intend, my frame rate is a whopping 10fps.

Luckily there's an option that improves this for me to 100fps+, but the option is rather hidden away and took me ages to find. That's why I said "read all of this post first"

If you look at the "NVIDIA Control panel" - "Manage 3D Settings" - "Program Settings" - "Aces High" page again with "Span Display with Surround" enabled, it's the same as with "Disable SLI"



If your in "Span Display with Surround" go back to "Disable SLI" - apply and re-boot (Note I've found it always best to go back to "Disable SLI" first when changing modes here, if you jump from one SLI mode straight to another, It can cause no end of problems)

Now select "Activate all Displays" instead - apply - re-boot



On the "NVIDIA Control panel" - "Manage 3D Settings" - "Program Settings" - "Aces High" page a new option has appeared: "SLI rendering mode"



"SLI rendering mode" - "Force alternate frame rendering 2" which is highlighted in black because Nvidia has pre-configured Aces High to run in this mode even though it is different to your global settings, great for a single screen setup, not so great for a surround setup.

Change this to "Single-GPU" and apply (Note this setting gets used in "Span Display with Surround" mode just the option to change it disappears. All my GPU's still appear to be being used, just not in "alternate frame rendering 2" mode)



Now go back to "Disable SLI" - re-boot - "Span Display with Surround" - re-boot - Hopefully your now setup to go - enjoy.

One final last thing, if you find you get "tearing" on the outer monitors (particularly when rolling the aircraft), try selecting "Force Vertical sync ON" in the "NVIDIA Control panel" - "Manage 3D Settings" - "Program Settings" - "Aces High" page.

[PapaFox]

Sid,
I'm going to build a statue of you in my front yard and personally keep the birds away. Thanks for a magnificent explanation! I'll report back.
Papafox

[Sid]

I've a feeling a statue of me would its self keep the birds and everything else away!   

I look forward to hearing how you get on.
 

[PapaFox]

I used 3 1920x1200 monitors in landscape orientation, and they work marvelously using Sid's instructions. When the Dickweeds fly a mission with B-17s, we often have 60 or more planes in the air at one time. It's a thrill flying formation with the three monitors because I can see bombers in position on both sides of me. Too cool. I'll send a sample photo soon. Many thanks for the great instructions once again!

[skribetm]

one more Q;
will increasing the field of view value while on landscape fix the stretching of objects on the peripheral view monitors?

thanks.