Hi and greetings from Abbotsford BC Canada

[rebiersteker]

Hi everyone .... I'm a 60 yr old flight enthusiast.
I have a serious issue anad I am wondering if anyone can help me in getting a 3 screen 'pan' view with Fllightsim. I use mainly FSX and have a high end Asus mother board, 2 x 1gigVRAM PCIex 2.0 Nvidia cards. I run a quad core 2.8 GigHrz proc ....... so this thing 'goes'! However my computer hardware supplier has been unable to get it to work on 3 LCD monitors ...for a 'wide view' cockpit/scenery pan around view .... etc. 2 monitors will work but the third stays 'independent. I thought it would work as the video cards each have 2x VDi outputs. Anyone have any idea if there is a way to get all three screens working?? I would be thrilled as it should really give an immersion effect ......
Look forward to hearing from anyone .....
Robert

[warvet]

Hiya Robert,
Welcome, guess were neighbors Im in Richmond. As far as your situation you might want to save yourself a bunch of grief and pickup a Matrox TH2go Box its pretty cheap itll solve your problem in a heartbeat my friend. Anytime your interesting in taking a fly over here your welcome.

Regards
Tim

[rebiersteker]

Hi and thanks Tim ........ yes we are practically neighbours.
I had initially decided on a Triplehead2go box/syst. but the computer store owner had suggested I could do it with 2 high end Video cards.
So far I can get a "pan" view with only 2 monitors as for some reason the second video card is not 'used' as it were. Yet in Windows XP desktop 'Settings/properties' etc. it does pick up the 3 screens. NVidia does not include the third monitor in it's software supplied with the 9800GTX's....... I also noticed that the so-called 'pan view' with FSX is actually ONLY a stretched view of the singular 'Front' view aspect..... Too bad.
I don't seem to get anywhere. YET!!! I have seen it done on other setups some not FlightSim but like on road training. ex. Car comes from the right, (RT screen) and a vehicle/car/truck comes from the left LFT screen).... and YOU are in the middle. (MIDDLE screen)
That is a true 3 views display. Now Can only Triplehead2go do this??

Robert

[autocadplease]

Hello from Nelson,BC! Did my IFR training and night endorsement at Abbotsford.

Using dual video cards will affect your performance / frame rate big time. FSX isn't really good at using dual video cards - I don't think you would like the result. TH2Go is a better solution with FSX.

Are you wanting three separate views? Front, right and left? You should be able to do that by undocking views on your setup (but at the expense of performance).
Or do you want one large view spread over multiple monitors - TH2Go will do that.

Another solution is Wideview (http://www.wideview.it/wideview.htm).

[Trevor Hale]

Welcome to Mycockpit Robert,

Hopefully you will be able to find what you need here, and better yet, I look forward to seeing pictures of your project.

Please keep in mind the Front View in Flight sim is actually the middle of three views. Front Left, Front, and Front Right. Essentially if you wanted the entire "FRONT" view for performance reasons you would want to undock these 3 views across a TripleHead2go. with 3 screens. then you could add 2 more screens for Left, and Right.

But to do 5 views on one computer in FSX, I think you would be lucky if the framerates were even flyable. You could add the Left and right views on a second FSX pc running Wideview software.

Best regards,

Trev

[rebiersteker]

Hi and thanks again for everyone responding. I was afraid I was on my own with this .... but what a wonderful community!. I don't see this as a ,,game,, but a learning tool. For me it is the navigation and ILS/manual approach to runways skill. Having said that it is with some disapointment that software seems to be behind with hardware. ( I stand corrected )
My whole point is ... to.... have the 'side views' follow in sync the front view. The front view having..as if in the cockpit .... the instrument panel etc. It may ofcourse stretch somewhat into the side monitors like the 'pillars' but that is OK. Now here is an interesting discovery:
I ran FSX on my front monitor/main ... and noticed the control tower on the right. side of this front monitor and a radio aireal on the left side as I was on the runway. I then set it up for TWO monitors the same way. ( increased res. to ad left monitor etc. and pan view). NOTE: the exact same view only stretched, filled the screen ...DUH! ... Now admittedly it is nice and wide but were certainly not increasing the arc radius here. I use 3 x 24" wide aspect
ACER monitors .... so... all in all I get a 'nice' view but if I want to see what is actually beside me ( RT/LFT).. so say another 45-90 degree view from the front ... then I have to use my pan button on my Logitech Wingman Forcefeedbback stick. I noticed going to the WEBB site Tr'..2go solves this BUT ..it only gives you a total of 90 degrees I understand and does a lot of stretching! WIDEVIEW needs a seperate FSX program running on each computer and EACH one drives it's own monitor ( to my understanding)
Now... Does X-plane work better in this regard?? or does it simulate the same views. I have the program so I'll see if it might work better.
I hope I am not bothering and boring anyone to death with this issue!!??? but how 'cool' the immersion if you could get anywhere from 150 - 180 degree view!! With 2 monitors I still get very good frame rates by the way. I have 1 gigRAM NVidia video cards .... 2 Gig mb RAM.
thanks again ....
FURTHER: I plan to mount this syst. in my own gyroscope seating/setup
Blessings
Robert

[Rodney]

For the pure right and left view folks used WideView. Run seperate copies of the sim on 2 different computers(Lt & Rt). Problem may be the performance. If I were to do it and may still, all 3 computers would be identacle as well as the 2 side monitors. I know Jon Boe over at the FDS Forum used this method prior to getting a TH2Go for his 3 projectors. He discussed sync and performance. You might do a search over there for him and that info too. As I see it, the visual system one decides upon is as important as the pit build itself for the immersion factor. Best of luck in whatever you do.

[rebiersteker]

Hi and thanks for your response Rodney ......
I have tried the same 3 screens method in X-plane as I did in FSX and basically I get the same results. Once you change resolution you basically 'stretch the 'front view' that's all!
I also still can't get a full pan view with my TWO NVidia cards in 2 PCIex 2.0slots and using THREE monitors. I can't believe it .... all that hardware, and FOUR! DVi outputs with the two cards together. ....man ...!!!

Anyway it looks like I have no other option? than a '90 degree view' totalled with the TripleHead 2Go box .... or spend a lot of money on exact same computeres and run WideView. That's beyond my 'hobby' budget ha ha ha....
Too bad though. Maybe some changes will be forthcoming soon> I remember with video editting, no end to 'RE-rendering and tons of memory plus " FREEZES" .... Now it's breeze with 'realtime' rendering ......
Hopefully Tripl' .... will bring out a version that has about a 150 degree viewing radius ....... Now that would sell I'd think!

If anyone has some more ideas "Let it rip". Much appreciated!!

Robert

[brynjames]

Nic d'Alessandro uses a TH2GO through 3 projectors displaying a total of 5 2D screens giving an overall field of view of greater than 270 degrees. All on 1 computer!

Check out the thread here:
www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?p=75058

and also be sure to visit Nic's site for more details.

--
Bryn

[rebiersteker]

Thanks you so much! .... What a great site. I do have anumber of questions ...so I sent him an email right away..within the site you supplied. Sure appreciate your help.
How do you solve the 90 degree view limit with TRiplehead2
Go??? ........ or do you use the one monitor?

Robert

[brynjames]

Using a 3D virtual cockpit at 0.31 zoom (max zoom out without tinkering in the drop down view menu boxes) I get 107 degrees FOV across 3 1280x1024 monitors using the TH2GO.
Someone else here reported 150 degrees I believe, using the *Digital* TH2Go with 3 1650x1024 monitors.

The 107 degrees is not a problem, it provides a very satisfying degree of immersion, and very closely matches the actual physical FOV from outer screen edge to outer screen edge as seen from the sim pilot's eyepoint when sitting at a typical viewing distance from the screens. No doubt 2 full side views would be interesting, but if running on separate computers there is the issue of AI traffic and weather not being synchronised (although this may be solved now - not sure about that).

--
Bryn

[rebiersteker]

Hi again everyone ..... Hooked up my new Tr ...2Go/digital edition .. and it works fine , only I end up with a HUGE WIDE ..... cockpit. it is actually too close and it seems ..again!... that all I achieved is a very wide/cockpit/scenery viewpoint. I tried to zoom the cockpit (VC) further away from me but at max. I'm still too close to the screens/ cockpit windows...so to speak .... ( 0.30) I read a lot about 'undocking views'... and ... I know about the extra drop down 'boxes' in FS9 and 10 ... but what is meant by getting an actual rt. front/full front/ and lft. front view with the TRHead 2Go...??? I set the res. to around 3800 x1024 but still get the very wide and 'stretched' cockpit.
I also noted that FS9 seems to be used alot more? I checked the link to the cockoit being completed by Nic. Allesandro in AUS. and they seem to get a real wide view with the TR...' unit but! ... they use FS9!.... Any reason?
I could send them an email again to ask but I'm afraid to bother them all the time. They have a 3 projector set up ... but the addditional view etc. I find I ave to study much more as I got a bit lost in it......

Robert ( HEY! ... I'm sixty ...still learning)

[Michael Carter]

To repeat what Rodney said, If you want separate views rather than one large stretched out front view, then a network solution called Wideview can be used. You can hook up as many monitors as you have computers.

Each computer will run a separate copy of FS and will synch to the server computer. You can place any outside view you wish on each monitor.

The downside is the amount of computers you need.