Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: HomeBoy on September 17, 2008, 11:01:45 PM

Title: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: HomeBoy on September 17, 2008, 11:01:45 PM
I want to thank HT for adding support for the widescreen monitor.  I am amazed what a difference a couple of extra inches of screen makes!
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: thndregg on September 17, 2008, 11:03:53 PM
Agreed. I can see the lower portion of the Jug instrument panel now.
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Steve on September 17, 2008, 11:05:44 PM
This, combined with my lefty HOTAS, I'm ready!
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: HomeBoy on September 17, 2008, 11:19:10 PM
This, combined with my lefty HOTAS, I'm ready!

What ya know.  I've got a lefty HOTAS myself.   :D
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: BaldEagl on September 17, 2008, 11:23:22 PM
The only thing I was dissapointed with is that now I wish I could reduce the size of the text buffer or at least the text itself.  It suddenly got much larger and looks like old DOS crap.

Other than that it's great.
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: John Curnutte on September 17, 2008, 11:59:05 PM
 Thats funny cause my text buffer got smaller which I like better anyways and for what ever reason my frame rate went way up from an avg of 45/50 to 55/65 so far it looks better to me . :salute HTC great add on
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Chalenge on September 18, 2008, 12:15:10 AM
Thanks HTC! I have decided to order a HD 28" and move my current monitor into the other room as a TV.  :D
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Kazaa on September 18, 2008, 02:43:12 AM
Supporting wide screen was a smart move.  :aok
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Mr No Name on September 18, 2008, 03:15:33 AM
Yup... Thanks for this fellas!  :aok
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Overlag on September 18, 2008, 03:34:56 AM
I want to thank HT for adding support for the widescreen monitor.  I am amazed what a difference a couple of extra inches of screen makes!

bigger the better. ;)
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Bruv119 on September 18, 2008, 04:03:22 AM
bigger the better. ;)
and how you use it what counts  :P
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Overlag on September 18, 2008, 05:21:35 AM
and how you use it what counts  :P

not what my x said  :cry  :lol
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Overlag on September 18, 2008, 05:22:28 AM
on a serious note, what setting should i use for 1680x1050. Just the wide screen option or a manual POV?
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: SD67 on September 18, 2008, 05:26:02 AM
I'm trying to work out how I can get my computer over to the 42" HDTV in the Lounge room before Sarah notices what's going on :lol :D

Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Nilsen on September 18, 2008, 05:59:25 AM
I'm trying to work out how I can get my computer over to the 42" HDTV in the Lounge room before Sarah notices what's going on :lol :D



Gotta be quick!. If females see a cable they catch on pretty quick. My missus hates cables and if there is one new in the house i get to hear about it within a few seconds.  :D
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: scot12b on September 18, 2008, 07:15:44 AM
Works great Ty guys :aok :salute
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: avionix on September 18, 2008, 08:16:48 AM
I love the new widescreed.  Have an issue now though that i did not have before.  When pulling G on the verge of blackout, the blackout reverses and lets me see on the periphery and not in the center.  Any way to fix this?  Kinda sucks in a fight.
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Kuhn on September 18, 2008, 10:26:38 AM
Gotta be quick!. If females see a cable they catch on pretty quick. My missus hates cables and if there is one new in the house i get to hear about it within a few seconds.  :D

Aint THAT the TRUTH!!   :D :
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 18, 2008, 11:23:50 AM
TRIPLE SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Triple head with 145 degree FOV is freakin awsome!!!!!! Best thing to ever happen to this game!

I can't wait till the convention to show off my rig. Running in 6000x1200 with Track IR is an experience.

The secret is, three large screen LCD's (I reccomend all be the same size and make. i.e. Samsun 20"s running 1600x1200) an Nvidia 9800 GX2, SoftTH (software for spanning the 3D image across all screens) and a HDMI to DVI cable.

Incredible game!!! I love it!
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: HomeBoy on September 18, 2008, 12:28:24 PM
rockdog,
Can you post a photo of a P51-D sitting on the runway.  I'd love to see 145 degree view.  That really must be incredible!
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 18, 2008, 05:15:23 PM
Fighter View

(P-51)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008053.jpg)Normal View :rock
(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008052.jpg)Gunsight
(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008043.jpg)Six View
(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008044.jpg)Starboard Side View

(F4-Uc)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008047.jpg)
(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008048.jpg)

Bomber View

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008050.jpg) Cockpit (Normal Zoom)
(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008051.jpg) Rear facing

Field Gun

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008046.jpg)

Tank looking back

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/09182008049.jpg)

FPS is set to Vsync and is always pegged at 60. WHen I turn off Vsync I get tearing when I turn my head using Track IR. With Sync on everything is glassy smooth. I run the HiRes pack at ~6000x1200 with everyhting maxed out.

The secret is in the SoftTH program. You can run the actual color depth and resolution of the two side monitors much lower resolution and color depth (think 800x600 at 16 bit), but because the conversion happens between AHII and the Nvidia driver, there is almost no loss in picture quality. Because the software uses only one card to do the rendering and mine happens to have three outputs (2DVI and one HDMI) I run all of this off a sing 9800 GX2. I highly reccomend using three monitors that are the same size and pixel count!!!! The reason mine does not look as good as it could is because I have a 25.5" in between two 20"ers.


HTC guys, if you want to see it in person, I'm just down the road in Midlothian TX.


Here is the site for the free software:

http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/ (http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/)

I'm including my config file text below:

----------------Cut below and paste into a text file named SoftTH.cfg-------------------

;
; SoftTH configuration file
; by Kegetys <kegetys[ät]dnainternet.net>
;

[config]
; deviceIDLeft/right: Direct3D device ID's of left and right monitor, or 'auto' for automatic
; secondaryWidth/Height: Left & right monitor resolution, or 'auto' to use same as middle screen resolution
; secondaryRefresh: Refresh rate of left & right monitors, or 'auto' for automatic
; secondaryFormat: Secondary device image format, 'RGB32', 'RGB16' or 'YUV12'.
; antialiasing: Level of forced anti-aliasing
; anisotropic: Level of forced anisotropic filtering
; borderSize: Size in pixels of frame border between monitors that is discarded
; noHotkeys: Set to 1 to disable all hotkeys
deviceIDLeft=auto
deviceIDright=auto
secondaryWidth=800
secondaryHeight=600
secondaryRefresh=60
secondaryFormat=YUV12
antialiasing=0
anisotropic=0
borderSize=128
sideExtraWidth=0
noHotkeys=0

[Direct3D]
; ** Advanced setting for Direct3D games **
; cylindicalCorretionAngle: Amount of cylindrical correction done, use with sideExtraWidth
; hideNondefaultDevices: Hides all but the default adapter from the game
; forceHorizontalFOV: Forces horizontal FOV to be three times as wide
; forceResolutionWidth/Height: Forces device to be created with this resolution
; force16bitDepth: Force game to use 16bit depth buffer, can improve performance and reduce memory use
; sleepBeforeRead: Time in ms to sleep before reading back buffer data from video card
; useMultihead: Uses multihead features of primary card if available, can increase performance and reduce memory use
;               Set to 2 to force multihead initialization even if game doesn't create device with TH resolution
; delayedPresent: When useMultihead enabled, delay primary monitor present to sync with secondary head
; swapOrder: Swap order at which the frame contents are copied
; autoSquash: Automatically squash output to middle monitor if only pretransformed (GUI) elements are drawn
; d3d8dll: Path to D3D8.dll/D3D9.dll to use or auto for automatic (system32 dir)
cylindicalCorretionAngle=0
hideNondefaultDevices=0
forceHorizontalFOV=0
forceResolutionWidth=0
forceResolutionHeight=0
force16bitDepth=0
sleepBeforeRead=2
useMultihead=1
delayedPresent=0
swapOrder=0
autoSquash=0
d3d8dll=auto

[hooks]
; Win32 API hooking settings - Used for some extra compatibility and game-specific fixes
; doHooking: Enable/disable hooks in Direct3D, with OpenGL hooks are always enabled
; doScaleMouseCoordinates: Scale mouse coordinates for getCursorPos to fix games which do not handle negative screen coordinates properly
; doScaleFromLeftScreen: Spread out mouse coordinates from left screen to full width
; doScaleWindowRects: Scale game window rectangle to triplehead size
; mouseXoffset: Number of pixels to offset mouse cursor position in X axis, to fix misplaced cursor due to negative screen coordinates. auto = use X resolution
doHooking=1
doScaleMouseCoordinates=0
doScaleFromLeftScreen=0
doScaleWindowRects=0
mouseXoffset=auto

; Triplehead screenmodes to add to resolutions list (width multiplied by 3 and border added)
; Must be last in this file
[modes]
640x480x60
640x480x75
640x480x85
800x600x60
800x600x75
800x600x85
1024x768x60
1024x768x75
1024x768x85
1280x960x60
1280x960x75
1280x960x85
1280x1024x60
1280x1024x75
1280x1024x85
1600x1200x60
1600x1200x75
1600x1200x85
1920x1200x60

------------------------------End of Config file --------------------------------------------

Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: dunnrite on September 18, 2008, 05:19:02 PM
 :O
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Krusty on September 18, 2008, 05:19:31 PM
Ooooooh!!! You LUCKY sob!!!

What kinda frames do you get running that? As far as I understand the vid card has to be able to run such a high res, does that slow you down a bit?
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 18, 2008, 05:20:28 PM
In the pictures, the perspective looks way off, but when playing it looks perfect. The reason is that the distortion is due to the monitors being angled in slightly on the sides and the image is seen in my periferal vision. It really hels the illusion. I have been playing with three monitors and many other programs light FSx, FPS' like battlefield, and driving games, but the perspective in AH looks the best.


Great job HTC!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Ack-Ack on September 18, 2008, 05:27:21 PM
I love the new widescreed.  Have an issue now though that i did not have before.  When pulling G on the verge of blackout, the blackout reverses and lets me see on the periphery and not in the center.  Any way to fix this?  Kinda sucks in a fight.


happens to me occasionally and its a video card related issue not with your monitor.  Usually relogging corrects the problem.


ack-ack
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 18, 2008, 05:28:21 PM
****Text moved to picture post******
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: bsdaddict on September 18, 2008, 05:50:29 PM
lovin' the widescreen support, thank you HTC!  I can see the curvature of the earth now, dunno if that was there before but I hadn't noticed it till now... 
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 18, 2008, 06:49:36 PM
Here are two actual screen shots taken inside the game of the P51 on the pad as requested

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/ahss100.jpg)
(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/Rockdog_Hayduke/ahss97.jpg)
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: HomeBoy on September 18, 2008, 07:31:23 PM
That's really fantastic Rockdog.  Thanks for putting up those pictures.  I am trying my very best not to be overly impressed!   :uhoh

You must know of course, there are lots of angry wives in this world whose fury would rightly focus on you right about now!   :lol
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 18, 2008, 07:53:54 PM
Yah Homeboy, I'm sure there are, and mine is leading them down the street carrying a pitch fork and a flaming torch!
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: SD67 on September 18, 2008, 09:28:11 PM
decisions decisions... 3 screens or the VR headset...
:lol
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Vudak on September 18, 2008, 11:00:50 PM
Very cool, Rockdog :aok

One question though... It seems like you're missing a lot of view above the cockpit (front forward view) that would come in handy for tracking guys in a dogfight...  Do you purposely have it set up that way as a preference, or is that what it defaults to?
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: HomeBoy on September 18, 2008, 11:08:18 PM
Vukak,
It just looks that way because the X dimension is so wide.  His resolution is 6000x1200 instead of my 1920x1200 (for example).

The Y dimension (height) is determined by the native resolution of your monitor.  In my case as with Rockdog's, our native resolution for a widescreen monitor is 1920x1200 which means that the height would be fixed even if he had four or five monitors arrayed along the X dimension.

Hope that makes sense.  If he could have five monitors for example (two on each side), his "screen resolution" would be 4x1920 X 1200 = 9600 X 1200.   That would be rather obscene of course.   :eek:
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: mg1942 on September 18, 2008, 11:45:49 PM
decisions decisions... 3 screens or the VR headset...
:lol

It's no brainer

get both! :D


EDIT:  or for the price of 3 monitors, get Sony XBR instead :aok
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: mg1942 on September 18, 2008, 11:48:34 PM
Btw, does triple screen mode support widescreen monitors with 1280x800 and 1440x900 resolution?
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: A8TOOL on September 19, 2008, 02:38:31 AM
My screen goes black and i have to tab/alt out to desktop and back to see game again. As I understand, I'm not the only one.

I've been using wide screen support btw.

Other than that, it's been nice all the way up to..wtfjust happened
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Chalenge on September 19, 2008, 02:46:26 AM
In the pictures, the perspective looks way off, but when playing it looks perfect. The reason is that the distortion is due to the monitors being angled in slightly on the sides and the image is seen in my periferal vision. It really hels the illusion. I have been playing with three monitors and many other programs light FSx, FPS' like battlefield, and driving games, but the perspective in AH looks the best.

Great job HTC!!!!!!!

Wait wait wait... this works with FSX? I thought SoftTH wasnt working with FSX?
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: JohnnyT on September 19, 2008, 01:02:41 PM
Quote
I am amazed what a difference a couple of extra inches of screen makes!

Thats what my girlfriend keeps telling me. At least thats what I think she said...


I have a 22 inch screen, and I'm happy with the new widescreen view. Just 'feels' better. Plus I get to see my imminent death a little easier  :O
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Mak333 on September 19, 2008, 01:02:53 PM
Here's another key part that I don't know if anyone picked up on:

You will notice on the 16:10 monitors with the "wide screen" video setting that now the clipboard is also in correct ratio and doesn't take up the whole screen as it did before.  You can easily see more when flying while having the clipboard up.  This makes it quite a bit easier to multitask while in the cockpit.
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Leek on September 19, 2008, 02:03:16 PM
Wow, I now have a serious case of screen envy.  :salute Rockdog
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Pyro on September 19, 2008, 04:28:50 PM
Rockdog, what FOV setting are you using?

Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: infowars on September 19, 2008, 05:36:30 PM
I have a wide screen monitor.  Do I need to enable something to take advantage of the new wide screen capabilities or does it auto adjust?  Thanks
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Spikes on September 19, 2008, 05:38:26 PM
Problems:
I changed it to wide screen in the video settings, nothing happened.
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: BaldEagl on September 19, 2008, 06:07:50 PM
Here's another key part that I don't know if anyone picked up on:

You will notice on the 16:10 monitors with the "wide screen" video setting that now the clipboard is also in correct ratio and doesn't take up the whole screen as it did before.  You can easily see more when flying while having the clipboard up.  This makes it quite a bit easier to multitask while in the cockpit.

You do know you can change the size of the clipboard right?
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: RumbleB on September 19, 2008, 09:39:01 PM
Yea. Was a pain in the ass. I've got a 24" wide lcd native res 1920x1200. I was playing in 1280x1024 with megastretch fatty planes. Got tired of having to bind pagedown to my stick so that I could see my damn ammo :)
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: KTM520guy on September 19, 2008, 11:04:18 PM
I don't know if I set it up right or not. It seems that the top and bottom of my screen are clipped. It's even harder to see some gauges now. Some gauges are also cut in half.

Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 20, 2008, 01:03:48 AM
Rockdog, what FOV setting are you using?




I'm using Custom FOV of 145. I noticed last night that I was having strange behavior though with Track IR and I kept getting towered with the message "You have crashed" even though I was alt X with nothing around. Not shure of these are general bugs with the upgrade or are specific to using that wide of an FOV.

Rock
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Rockdog on September 20, 2008, 01:06:16 AM
Wait wait wait... this works with FSX? I thought SoftTH wasnt working with FSX?

It doesnt work well and took alot of work to make it happen. Its much easier just to spawn three sperate windows and set a seperate view in each that can be lined up into one widescreen view.
Title: Re: Widescreen is wonderful!
Post by: Chalenge on September 20, 2008, 04:00:58 AM
Well I just downsized from 48" to 28" but still wont have room on the desk for three monitors of the smaller size. But if SoftTH works with FSX I might have to buy another desk!