Dual Monitors......A great thing to have???
 

Dual monitors are a somewhat new thing to the computer industry(I dont think 98 supports it). It basically uses 2 video cards(one agp and one pci) in order to get two screens interacting with one computer. When you boot up, you see two desktops(one on each screen). The cursor only appears on one, but when you move it to the far right of the screen, it jumps to the next monitor. You can drag windows into the other screen, and use them as you please. In Maya, you could have the render view on one screen, and the workspace in another. Or you could have all of the menus opened in one window, etc. I do not have a dual monitor setup, but I believe it would be a great thing to have. Does anybody on this site have one, and if so do they think it is a worth investment(all you need is another vid card and monitor)?

I use dual displays on both of my systems, and it is definitely worth the investment.

BTW, dual monitors aren't really that new. I've been using dual setups for at least 7 years now.

ummmm you need two video cards to do that? dam! i was pretty sure my card could support it but i only have one :banghead: anyways, i personally dont think its worth the investment unless you have a spare monitor lying around or could get one cheap. I have like 4 monitors lying around my house so i was planning on setting up a dual monitor but since i need a new vid card, screw it.

you dont need two cards one with dual outs will do it. I used to run two monitors on my system off two cards but it became really unstable because XP doesnt support the older PCI graphics cards very well and as most cards are now AGP it makes it a bit of a pain when your system crashes in the middle of creating your latest model..... ;)

Alan

awsome but....(next question)
Does having two monitors somehow take up video memory the same way lots of programs take up system memory?

no should be fine, you wont notice a difference. The only problem occurs when you lose windows onto one monitor. Happened to me when I put the styles window of photoshop on the second monitor and then got rid of the second monitor and i couldnt reset the window position so I had to re-install photoshop! :o

Alan

You could've just deleted the Photoshop preferences file. :)

will i notice the difference with a 64 meg card? sorry for asking questions but this has really peaked my interest. what about when i game, will i see it across two screens or can i turn that off? last question, is there any program designed specificly for dual monitors? like a program, when running, will move something from one screen to another with the press of a button. or anything of the sort? ;) thanks

You probably won't notice any performance hits with a 64 MB card. When you game, the secondary display will just go black, since there aren't any games that can use 2 monitors (that I'm aware of).

There are a handful of programs that fully utilize dual displays. Softimage and Combustion are a couple that come to mind. In fact, Combustion has different preferences for multi-monitor setups (up to 4 I believe). Final Cut Pro on my Mac has multimonitor settings as well.

no no, what i meant was, like, are there any programs that help make dual monitors easier/better....kinda like trillian is for Instant messaging or mIRC is for IRC :D

Oh, well I think I will set one up then. I guess I need two cards or one card with two video out sources. I have 2 24' monitors lying around. I didnt realise how old dual monitors were. Thanks for the infor danny.

It depends on your display drivers. nVidia drivers, for example, allow you to have multiple desktop setups. You can set preferences for which display a particular application opens to, where dialog boxes popup, different layouts, etc.

alright....absolutley last question: what's the words i want to look for when shopping for video cards to make sure it supports dual monitors? like in the specs feature page, what will it say to tell me it can have dual monitors?

I use Dual monitors and couldn't live without them. They can sometimes be troublesome but it's mostly good. Most GeForce 4 cards support dual monitors, at least the 4600's do i think. 1 DVI and one crt but they come with a converter anyway incase you're not using an LCD with a DVI connector. Maya is great on two monitors. I use the main window on one screen and things like Attribute editor, Hypershade and Outliner all on the 2nd monitor. Always open and never in the way. You should go for it, you won't regret it.

Just a question. Can the dual support easily be switched off, so if you play a game, it dosent appear streched on both. Also, when you click the Maximize button, the window stretches across both screens. Any way to stop this with out manually changing the size

You can go into your display properties and swith to a single monitor, takes seconds. As for Windows stretching, you can disable windows spanning across monitors. This works for the most part but some apps seem to over ride it.

Heehee... I'm using one of Apple's widescreen Cinema Displays. Talk about luxury.

Though I do know a woman who bought two of the 23" Cinema's and has them sitting side-by-side on her desk. What for? Checking email, of course.... :rolleyes:

a couple guys at work use Dual... Pretty cool.

Regarding maya, what types of layouts are you guys using with dual monitors? When I built my current box, I thought of going the dual route because I know for my audio work, it's very handy....have my audio/sequencing arrangement window in one monitor and all my faders, fx routing, and plugins on the other.

i have a dual..
but i dont know how to set up maya for it..
can anyone help?
and yes dual is very very helpfull :)

Well, Couldnt you just scale maya into one monitor and move all of the rest of the stuff you want to work with (attrib. editor, etc.) into the other screen???

It depends on what graphics card you're using. If it's Nvidia and you have Nview installed, in the options you can disable Window spanning across monitors. Now the main application opens on one monitor, you then reposition all the other windows on your second monitor. When you close Maya, your setup is saved for next time.

That would be nice. I have gotta try this out.

sure i got nvidia
but former when i used XSI
i could download a special layout from say some xsi site..
and then it would have a real nice setup all rdy and great for use..
anything like that for maya? :)

Not that i'm aware of. Maya is very easy to lay out just as you like anyway with dual monitors. XSI is another matter. I remember being sent the XSI experience CD about a year ago and i couldn't prevent it spanning both monitors. I guess that's why you need to download layouts for XSI to play nicely.

I´m getting it...
So, I just need an graphiccard which supports that? Can you tell me the complete name of it? Thanks... :)

Edit: And how does it work? Are there two ports on the card or what?:confused:

I dont know any names. You could probly research cards with dual monitor support. It basically just has two video out ports.

most geforce 4's support it

GeForce FX either?
I think so, saw something like that... nView Multidisplaying Tech. ...:)

Yea, I think so. I dunno. TigerDirect.com gives good details. You could also look for reviews on dual display video cards.

I'm using a softquadroed Ti4600 with two monitors, and there is no way of ever going back to using just one display.

I've built some custom window layouts for certain software, like Photoshop, InDesign and Maya. For PS and ID I have managed to have all palettes displayed at the same time.

Yet no more clutter on the screen...I love it! :love:

I tend to have all my palettes and windows neatly arranged on the second display (17') and the workspace/viewports on the first (19').

And I have to confess: I'm addicted to dual display setups - it's really worth the money.

These are my screen layouts for Photoshop and Maya:

wow, that would be amazing!
just reading this thread makes me want to get dual display.
If i go buy a cheap PCI card, and a monitor, will it work? I have an Agp card now. Or do i have to get a new dual output vid card?

I'm not sure about using a PCI card...

I now you CAN use an additional PCI card to plug in a second display, but I'm not sure about the OpenGL support, as there seems to be something foul about the Windoze OGL implementation.

If you're using Windows' standard dual display setup, there is NO OpenGL support for the second display. That's why you have to use nView with nVidia cards. Don't know abou the ATI or Wildcat devices, but I guess there will be something similiar to nView.

If you have money to burn (LOL! - sorry!), I'd suggest to go out and buy a TI4200 or TI4600 (and download the SoftQuadro patch), as the price has really dropped since the arrival of the FX models.

BTW: what kind of AGP card do you have?

I JUST GOT A DUAL DISPLAY VIDEO CARD!!!!!! It is a geforce fx 5200 verto from pny(i know, im very cheap). I will get a better one later if I like it. There is just one problem.......I dont know how to set up nview. Do i have to have IE version 6. Somebody help me here.

Hmm. I don't know the FX, but the steps should be the same.

First off: I wouldn't use the pny drivers. Get the latest (stable!?!) Detonator and install it.

Then go to >Control Panel >Display Properties >Advanced >nView

Choose >Horizontal Spanning. This step is very important, as you don't get any OpenGL support for the second display if you're using windows standard Dual Display.

That should do the trick.

Ah yes, one more: for Maya you need to enable window spanning across monitors, otherwise you won't get any context menus on the second monitor (drove me bananas when I first fumbled around with nView).

BTW: I'm using a rather old driver (30.82 - but it's stable and A|W certified), which still uses the old nView. With nView 2 the tab layout has changed a bit, but it should be easy enough to come around.

Hope that helps... :confused:

P.S. I have to translate all the menu titles and buttons, as I'm running a german version of Win2000, so don't go too hard at me, if they actually differ from the original english version, ok? :D

All the best,

Renderizer

Nice set up. I am usimg a 21" and a 17". I am not sure Renderizer if enabling horizontal span is enough to get open GL on both monitors. I think you have to enable "treat both monitor as one desktop" instead of "treat as seperate desktop" if you understand what I mean Renderizer. For example when I treat both monitors as "seperate desktops2 with horizontal spanning enabled I can't pay DVD'c on the 17" monitor. The DVD player window goes black. If I move the window to the middle the part that is on the main monitor shows the movie but the part on the secondary monitor stays black. Hypershada does not update on the second monitor properly as well unless I enable "treat both as one desktop"

1-Renderizer- I am thinking of getting another 21" monitor. Will a Ti 4800 128mb card handle 2 -21" monitors?

2- To soft Quadro do I need to do physically anything with the actuall card? DO you really notice a difference after doing the soft quadro?

P.S- Normally it's ideal if you have same sized monitors that can work at the same resolution and refresh rate.

YAY!!!!!!!!!! My setup is working great. I love this. Hip hip hooray for me.

http://www.panoramtech.com
hey guys there is a good monitor inthat webpage go and take a good look at that maybe ull like it ;)

I love it man! :cool:
http://www.panoramtech.com/products/pv230.html

Hi Slickrender,

yeah, you're right, but "treat both monitor as one desktop" is the default setting anyway (at least, that's what it's like with me).

1 - I think the Ti4800 should have no troubles running two 21" displays.

2 - No. You just need to download RivaTuner and follow the instructions.

And yes: you DO notice some differences:

First, it's faster (search Guru3D forum for any charts and comparsions), and
Second, you have access to the professional OpenGL features (there is even a Maya/Studio Tools preset as well).
Have you ever experienced some strange red blobby trails when using Pain FX/Artisan? Well, Softquadro will cure this.

I have two different monitors hooked up to the card, but that doesn't keep me from using the same resolution and refresh rates!

Renderizer


P.S. You can use SoftQuadro4 with all detonator drivers up to 41.03. After that, nVidia have changed the driver's protection scheme.

I'd suggest using 30.82. Yeah, I know, it's rather old, but then it's the only driver that is about 100% stable (along with 29.42). All the other drivers are bug infested.

Go search Guru3D forum, you'll find answers there.