Gaming with dual monitors

[entropy1982]

Does the second screen just stay black, show your desktop, or can it be adapted to show part of the game as well (i wouldn't want this)?

 

[ArchAngel777]

I am not an expert in terms of this question. However, I will say, based on my experiencec that only one of those two displays has 3d hardware accelleration. That may have changed, but I remember that being the case on a several systems with dual monitor support. If you tried to play a game on the secondary device, it was choppy, but when move to the primary, it used the accelleration to render. A lot may have changed and as I said, I certainly am no expert with dual monitor support.

Edit **

With that said, I also remember Matrox having a card that could do three displays at one time in a certain flight sim... So it might be card dependent. Basically, what I am saying is this: "I have no fricking clue"

 

[bdoople]

It will show the desktop on the 2nd monitor unless you somehow enable it to show the game on the 2nd. I have Trillian, Y'z Dock, Rainmeter and Rainlender on my 2nd monitor all the time and they sit there and play nice when I'm playing a game. If you have any other questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help ya out.

 

[Busithoth]

I've used ATI's Catalyst Control Center to manage dual monitors, and the extended desktop would be to the left (in my case, you could put it to right) of the gaming monitor. A couple of times, in menus, my cursor would slide over to the desktop (clicking on an app running on second monitor would pop game into pause, but alt-tabbing would get me right back). That only happened outside of the game engine, though (not in gameplay).

Short answer: It's possible to do what you want. As far as displaying black, I'd turn off the secondary monitor if the glare was noticeable.

 

[linkinpark342]

I'm running two monitors with the Omega Drivers (ATi tools/cat 5.7) with CS: Source and what happens for me is that my main monitor displays Source while the secondary monitor remains on my desktop or whatever application you put on it (maybe teamspeak ). I like this so that i can have a little monitor to see who's talking in the TS server. In my experience I never had the problem busithoth had so i am guessing that is entirely game dependant. So far I haven't tried benchmarking or anything to see if there is a major performance hit but i haven't noticed one. Of course that's not saying alot because my gfx card is probably running slower due to lack of $$$ for rest of computer parts. And as busi said, just turn off the monitor to display black, and if you do notice a performance hit make sure you turn off extended display if your using ATi Tools.

 

[entropy1982]

lol no guys i wouldn't want it to stay black otherwise there woudl be no point of the monitor ... no i actually want it to display desktop but how do you keep the mouse from going off the screen? it doesn't ever go off during gameplay busi? and if so how do you put it there if u do want to go there eventually

 

[bdoople]

It will display your desktop or whatever is on the monitor when you start a game, and during gameplay it's locked onto that monitor uless you go to a menu or alt+tab out of the game.

 

[Busithoth]

Originally posted by: bdoople
It will display your desktop or whatever is on the monitor when you start a game, and during gameplay it's locked onto that monitor uless you go to a menu or alt+tab out of the game.

Quote for Truth.

Some games seem better than others about keeping in the window, but it's an inconvenience that's pretty rare, and not during the action (unless you hit esc accidentally)

 

[entropy1982]

Thanks for the info guys