True Multitasking (Gaming 1 screen, surfing on the other)?

[serulin]

Hi,

I am looking for a dual monitor solution that will allow me to game (full screen) on one monitor and surf the web / do whatever else on my other screen "WITHOUT ALT-TABBING".

I know extend feature can do this already, but it minimizes my full screen game whenver I try to click on my other monitor. That is beyond annoying. You would think you can just move your mouse over like if the full screen were in windowed mode no?

I have no problems with windowed mode, however not all games support my resolution in windowded mode. The game will either be too small or too big and extend onto my other screen.

Is there anything out there that can achieve this?
Is this something that the OS has to implement? Or graphics drivers? Or some 3rd party program?

I am currently running win7 with ati 5870.

 

[happy medium]

My 5750 can't do this either. I never found a solution.

 

[serulin]

My 5750 can't do this either. I never found a solution.

Yea, I thought ATI's Eye Infinity would solve this, but it didn't. They advertise on their main site with a picture of the middle screen having a full screen game, the left one surfing the web, and the right one watching tv.

So either I don't know how to set it up (And there are like NO GUIDES) for eye infinity, or they lie.

 

[Qbah]

You need to run your game in "fullscreen windowed" mode and then it won't minimize. Only a few games offer such a thing - SC2, WoW, ME2, Shadowgrounds 1 and 2 from what I know. Just run games in normal windowed mode and you're set. Something like 1770x1000 on a 1080p screen works great (I use that when I play a game windowed).

EDIT: You can use Eyefinity like that. You can have a fullscreen movie on one screen, a browser on the other and the focus on gaming on the third screen. I do gaming+movies sometimes on my dual-screen setup.

 

[Kyanzes]

Yeah, interesting that you can't have two mouse pointers at the same time. You can hook up several keyboards or mouses but they will be in the same focus all the time. We used to do that with a left-handed colleague as it was annoying to move the mouse to the other side of the keyboard all the time.

I'm not sure how this post could further your cause but I felt like sharing

Anyways, I'm also interested in a solution to this problem. Is there anything else to do this without Eyefinity?

 

[serulin]

You need to run your game in "fullscreen windowed" mode and then it won't minimize. Only a few games offer such a thing - SC2, WoW, ME2, Shadowgrounds 1 and 2 from what I know. Just run games in normal windowed mode and you're set. Something like 1770x1000 on a 1080p screen works great (I use that when I play a game windowed).

Yea, I know. I'll use this as my last resort. It's just the game I'm playing doesnt support resolutions that fit exactly in my 46" hdtv.

EDIT: You can use Eyefinity like that. You can have a fullscreen movie on one screen, a browser on the other and the focus on gaming on the third screen. I do gaming+movies sometimes on my dual-screen setup.

REALLY!?! How so? I tried grouping my two monitors into one extended display. Thats all I know how to do with eye infinity. But even with eye infinity, would the game still minimize if I went to change something on my other screens?

 

[lopri]

I don't know if it's logically possible without two input devices. If the game uses a controller or joystick then I can see it being possible, but with a single mouse how would it work? I mean, when you move your mouse around inside the game (to turn around, or to go to a different area, etc.) you don't want the mouse pointer to drop out of the game screen.. unless the game screen is static (like.. Texas Hold'em?) it'd be incredibly annoying when you meant to do a right turn the mouse pops out of the game and go to the nearby monitor.

 

[Qbah]

REALLY!?! How so? I tried grouping my two monitors into one extended display. Thats all I know how to do with eye infinity. But even with eye infinity, would the game still minimize if I went to change something on my other screens?

Don't run the game in fullscreen mode? Run it in borderless windowed (aka windowed fullscreen) or regular windowed.

 

[serulin]

Don't run the game in fullscreen mode? Run it in borderless windowed (aka windowed fullscreen) or regular windowed.

I guess I will just have to do play window mode then since it seems impossible to achieve what I am trying to do (as easy as it seems).

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

I forget the name of the systems or company who made it but they did originally have some some lanbox systems designed around having 2 people doing different things at the same time. The OS was XP and I'm fairly certain they had just separate user accounts. It's been about ~8 yrs IIRC. I will look and try to see what company made it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I forget the name of the systems or company who made it but they did originally have some some lanbox systems designed around having 2 people doing different things at the same time. The OS was XP and I'm fairly certain they had just separate user accounts. It's been about ~8 yrs IIRC. I will look and try to see what company made it.

Jetway had their "MagicTwin" boards, but that technology got sucked up by NCompute systems, they make thin clients.