SoftTH - A software alternative to TH2G

[joseottawa]

I just wanted to share my widescreen view in FSX with NO Matrox TripleHead2Go at all using SofTH and two video cards in XP. I have FSX working in span mode on three monitors with two video cards thanks to the amazing free software SoftTh version v1.09 rc1 on Windows XP with NO Matrox TripleHead2Go at all. With the hat switch I am able to switch to different views and the three monitors work just like one big monitor. My computer has two Nvidia cards: one is a 6200 PCI card and the second a 8500 PCI express card. Both cards have two video outputs: a DVI and a VGA. So I have 4 video ports and I am using only 3. I got 3 x 19” LCD monitors that I bought used second hand with a max resolution of 1280x1204 eachand I was able to get a span of 3840x1024. The panoramic view in Flight Simulator X looks just amazing.
These are the steps I followed:
-For a three monitor setup configure the monitor properties in such way that the central monitor be the primary monitor "Use this device as the primary monitor".
-Make sure that the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" be selected for the other two monitors.
-Match the screen resolution to be identical on the three monitors. I use 1280x1024.
-In my setup, Windows detects the PCI card first therefore my monitor 1 is the PCI video card. Monitors 3 and 2 are attached to second card 3 in the DVI and 2 in the analog port.
-Apply the settings.
-Locate the file FSX.cfg in
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX\FSX.cfg (replace USERNAME with whatever your XP login is) open FSX.cfg with a txt editor (i used notepad) and under the [Display] section locate the line
WideViewAspect=False
Edit this line to read
WideViewAspect=True
save the file and close it.

-Download the free utility SoftTh version v1.09 rc1" from www.kegetys.net/SoftTH
Unzip the files (there are 3 dlls and a cfg file) and copy them onto the FSX main folder and edit the SoftTH.cfg (I used notepad).

These are my SoftTH.cfg file settings:
---------------------------------------------------------
;
; SoftTH 1.09 configuration file
; by Kegetys, http://www.kegetys.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', 'RGB16D' or

'RGB32CUDA'.
; uploadMethod: Method used to upload image to secondary card(s): 'blit', 'D3D' or

'D3DCUDA'
; forceAffinity: Set to 1 to force process affinity to all processors/cores.
; borderSize: Size in pixels of frame border between monitors that is discarded
; sideExtraWidth: Width difference between middle and side monitors, or 'auto' to

autodetect from desktop resolution
; noHotkeys: Set to 1 to disable all hotkeys
; noOSD: Set to 1 to disable on-screen display when changing settings
deviceIDLeft=auto
deviceIDright=auto
secondaryWidth=auto
secondaryHeight=auto
secondaryRefresh=auto
secondaryFormat=RGB16D
uploadMethod=blit
forceAffinity=0
borderSize=0
sideExtraWidth=auto
noHotkeys=0
noOSD=0

[Direct3D]
; ** Advanced setting for Direct3D games **
; lensCorrection: Lens correction, set to 1 to enable support. >1 to enable by default
; lensCorrectionEdge: Lens correction edge offset
; 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
; delayedPresent: When useMultihead enabled, delay primary monitor present to sync with

secondary head
; d3d8dll: Path to D3D8.dll/D3D9.dll to use or auto for automatic (system32 dir)
; altResetBehaviour: Do not reset lost main device after secondary device initialization

(WDDM crash workaround)
lensCorrection=0
lensCorrectionEdge=0
hideNondefaultDevices=1
forceHorizontalFOV=0
forceResolutionWidth=0
forceResolutionHeight=0
force16bitDepth=0
sleepBeforeRead=2
useMultihead=1
delayedPresent=0
autoSquash=0
altResetBehaviour=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 focus window WindowRect
; doScaleClientRects: Scale focus window ClientRect
; 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=1
doScaleClientRects=1
mouseXoffset=auto

; Triplehead screenmodes to add to resolutions list (width multiplied by three and border

added)
; width x height x refresh rate in Hz
; 'auto' adds current primary monitor desktop resolution
; Must be last in this file
[modes]
1280x1024x60
auto

---------------------------------------------------------
You can copy and overwrite these seetings onto your SoftTH.cfg file.

-Start FSX.
-Center the FSX window in the middle monitor.
-Go to Settings and select the resolution 3840x1024x32 click OK.
-Start Flying. FSX may start in windowed mode. Press Alt+Enter to select Full Screen.
-The two monitors on the side will show the SofTH logo in blue and the central monitor a black screen. This is normal while SofTH spans the image accross the 3 monitors. After few seconds you will see the panoramic image accross the the 3 monitors. See my screenshots. If the span image does not look right you may need to swap monitor positions.
If you have questions there is alwasy the SoftTH forum:
http://www.kegetys.net/forum/index.php?board=1.0

Enjoy the view.
Jose

[lysa elec]

---------------------------------------------------------
You can copy and overwrite these seetings onto your SoftTH.cfg file.

-Start FSX.
-Center the FSX window in the middle monitor.
-Go to Settings and select the resolution 3840x1024x32 click OK.
-Start Flying. FSX may start in windowed mode. Press Alt+Enter to select Full Screen.
-The two monitors on the side will show the SofTH logo in blue and the central monitor a black screen. This is normal while SofTH spans the image accross the 3 monitors. After few seconds you will see the panoramic image accross the the 3 monitors. See my screenshots. If the span image does not look right you may need to swap monitor positions.
If you have questions there is alwasy the SoftTH forum:
http://www.kegetys.net/forum/index.php?board=1.0

Enjoy the view.
Jose[/QUOTE]





i have a problem
for me The two monitors on the side will show the SofTH logo in blue and the central monitor the cockpit

[Danny van Wijk]

SoftTH is great and gives my a nice widescreen view in FSX.
I'am using SoftTH 2.08b, 3 monitors 19" with 2 videocards for the widescreen view in FSX. If you change the softTh.cfg file you can get a widescreen view on as many monitors you want.
My problem is to undock the 2d panels and bring them to the 4th monitor.
Does anyone solved this problem yet or has a neith solution?