What do I do with dual displays?

[IBdaMac]

I bought a 9700 Pro a while back and have never really taken advantage of the dual display feature. I now have two monitors hooked up side by side, and have no clue what to do with it now!! Besides the obvious: watching a movie on one and working on the other, and just having extra desktop space.

Is there any games/programs out there that really take advantage of the dual display feature? I mean is there first person shooters that will show me 2 different views at once...or one big view? I would really love to find a game that allows this...

Besides impressing my simple minded friends, I really have no purpose for this extra monitor...unless someone can help me think of something fun to do with it!!

Thanks for any help...

 

[rbV5]

unless someone can help me think of something fun to do with it!!

Get a DVI projector like Sony HS-10 and enjoy the fun of a 100" screen to impress your simple minded friends even more.

 

[IBdaMac]

Yeah I wish I could... Unfortunately I don't have 2000 bucks to spend on a Projector :disgust:

 

[tenoc]

For games, it varies. RTCW, as I recall, won't even run with two displays enabled.

You would have to experiment to see, some racing games might spread across two screens.

The thing is, a few people use computers for actual work. (A shock, I know, but there it is.)

These heretics sometimes find it useful to display a spreadsheet on one screen and a document on another, for example.

 

[IBdaMac]

Yeah, I use it when I build websites as well as using premiere and apps like that. I am just looking for the recreational application of the dual displays.

 

[fogleroller]

Originally posted by: tenoc
The thing is, a few people use computers for actual work. (A shock, I know, but there it is.)

LOL, yup. I use it at work. I was bugging my boss for a bigger monitor 19-21 inch or and LCD, but there is no money in the budget. So, I grabbed a spare video card and monitor and set it up. (I am searching for another PCI video card and 3rd monitor)

I have email and Administrator windows open on one side ready to go if I get a trouble call, and when I am doing some work on our website, I have photoshop open on one side and Frontpage open on the other.

For home use you can watch TV or a DVD on one monitor while surfing/working, or have your AOL instant messenger open (or whatever you have) while working on the other.....bla bla bla...so many uses.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Multimonitor for gaming hasn't worked well in my experiences. The Parhelia's "Surround Gaming" was a nice idea - now they just need to put it on a card that can push more than 20fps. 😛

Multimonitor is excellent for productivity and actual work. 🙂

- M4H

 

[nater]

I'll repeat what everyone is saying about work functionality. I usually have Lotus (BLAH) on one screen and Remedy on the other...so when i'm e-mailing people about their tickets I can just look at the other screen for the details.

 

[IBdaMac]

I heard that they made Doom 1 function with two or 3 monitors. The front view, and the two surrounding side views...is this true?
why did they ever stop making games that could function like that? Even if the card can't handle rendering that much at once, Windows
lets you have as many video cards as you want right?
There has to be a game out there somewhere.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: IBdaMac
I heard that they made Doom 1 function with two or 3 monitors. The front view, and the two surrounding side views...is this true?
why did they ever stop making games that could function like that?

Probably cause the majority of people only have 1 monitor hooked up to their comp, so making games work with something that has such little demand would turn out to be a waste of time and money.

 

[mooncancook]

dual displays sucks for games. if i have a game running in one dispaly and a instant messager or browser running in the other, i can't move my mouse pointer over to the other side to activate the other programs, I still have to use 'alt-tab'

 

[Muse]

I'm trying to figure out how to do this. Just added Planar PX191 to my NEC FP2141 22" CRT, and nView Wizard came up automatically and I configured nView, mostly with the defaults. Using nVidia 4.7.0.2 WHQL certified driver. Right now, I'm seeing the same thing on both displays. How do I set it up so I can have certain applications on one display, certain on the others, and hopefully be able to drag them from one to the other or even overlap? Thanks.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: IBdaMac
I bought a 9700 Pro a while back and have never really taken advantage of the dual display feature. I now have two monitors hooked up side by side, and have no clue what to do with it now!! Besides the obvious: watching a movie on one and working on the other, and just having extra desktop space.

Arnt they good enough reasons?

Is there any games/programs out there that really take advantage of the dual display feature?

There are several strategy games that do Dual Monitors. If i recall correctly, ST:A2 does it. You can have the primary view on the main screen, and an action only view on the other.

I mean is there first person shooters that will show me 2 different views at once...or one big view? I would really love to find a game that allows this...

Not 100% sure, but i`ve read that you can force Q3/Unreal baced games into a dual monitor mode. By editing the configs to do a wider resolution, and setting windows to use both at once. Not sure on the specifics, but search around for it, Google`d be best.

Besides impressing my simple minded friends, I really have no purpose for this extra monitor...unless someone can help me think of something fun to do with it!!

I`d love to have a second monitor myself, but until i do my "Major Upgrade", then theres no way i can justify it. I`d probably buy a second Hitachi CML174. I could have K-Lite or Outlook on one screen, and Opera on the other. Theres loads of different, and useful combinations that i can think of.

 

[FatJackSprat]

I use mine for Remote Desktop to run a second computer.

I moved all my icons over there so I can get them at any time without having to minimize. I also put all the stats from Coolmon on it and the screen with all the stats from Norton System Dr. so they are always visible too.