WOrking with FS on 2 displays

[Guest Jim Deuvall]

Peter,

I have recently placed the outside forward view on a separate monitor by docking it, leaving the instrument panel on the main screen. Since doing that, the outside vision works very poorly, jerking every one second.

The video cards have 8MB (Both ATI cards but one is a Rage card), the PC is a 1GHz AMD, 512MB.

If I had to select one, which should I do, upgrade to 128MB video cards, expand system memory or go up to 2Ghz processor. Or there is there something else that I'm overlooking?

I appreciate your view.

Jim

[Pete Dowson]

I have recently placed the outside forward view on a separate monitor by docking it, leaving the instrument panel on the main screen. Since doing that, the outside vision works very poorly, jerking every one second.

That is probably because you did it the wrong way round, I think. You'd be better off undocking the panel and moving that, leaving a full screen outside 3D view accelerated properly on your primary display.

The video cards have 8MB (Both ATI cards but one is a Rage card), the PC is a 1GHz AMD, 512MB.

The Rage cards are known to be very poor for FS -- is that the one you moved the outside view to? Try it the other way.

If I had to select one, which should I do, upgrade to 128MB video cards, expand system memory or go up to 2Ghz processor. Or there is there something else that I'm overlooking?

128Mb of video memory isn't a necessity, though a faster modern card (not a Rage) would be better. You can get good dual headed cards by Matrox and by nVidia as well as the newer ATIs (Radeons). You don't need two video cards for two displays any more, and you don't even need to pay for the top cards for good dual monitor performance.

Unless you have less than 256 Mb of memory, the most needed thing is always going to be faster processors, so, apart from moving your 3D display off a slow video card that would be your best move.

I'm not sure you should take my word for all this, though. You might be better asking these sorts of questions on a general FS or hardware oriented forum.

Regards,

Pete

[Guest Jim Deuvall]

That is probably because you did it the wrong way round, I think. You'd be better off undocking the panel and moving that, leaving a full screen outside 3D view accelerated properly on your primary display.

I did this initially, but the instrument panel doesn't dock well because the several subpanels (annuciator panel, compass etc) all have there own frames and title bars which overlap strangely. It looks more realistic to leave the panel undocked. I purchased an Asylum GF4 ASLM440 AGP card. With a dual card, will the outside view still be jerky if its docked versus the panel? I may have no choice.

Would I notice a significant improvement if I get a 2GHz processor?

By the way, when starting FS, the views do not come up when put on two displays. You have to go to the application bar below and click on restore.

Appreciate your work.

[Pete Dowson]

With a dual card, will the outside view still be jerky if its docked versus the panel? I may have no choice.

It's all to do with hardware acceleration. I expect it will not be such a problem with the more recent cards, especially dual headed. Provided the undocked view is still properly accelerated it should be okay.

Would I notice a significant improvement if I get a 2GHz processor?

A faster processor gives you more frames per second. It may or may not reduce stutters/jerks, depending on what was causing those. I think it is always worthwhile getting the fastest processor you can afford!

By the way, when starting FS, the views do not come up when put on two displays. You have to go to the application bar below and click on restore.

Realy, even when you've saved the set up as your start-up flight? Everything should come up the way you saved it.

Pete

[Guest]

By the way, when starting FS, the views do not come up when put on two displays. You have to go to the application bar below and click on restore.

Yes, the default flight is simply the aircraft sitting on the ramp with the engine running and docked and undocked windows as described. When the system boots, FS starts and the FS splash screen disappears (showing desktop), the outside docked view goes black (but you can see the title bar just appearing at the top and the avionics panel LEDs go out. I have to select the program from the application bar and select RESTORE. Then everything comes up. Strange. I'll try it with the new card.