Dual Monitor Support

[Dinkleberry]

Do people who play have 2+ monitors attached to their comp for whatever reason? I think it would be good if you could have the game on the primary monitor and the options menu on the other. You could press the esc. key to switch control over to the menu, whilst watching clearly whats going on in the game. It would also be really cool to have a permanent score screen up on the secondary monitor. I know that windows has good support for working in a 2D appliaction across both displays at the same time, but is it a limitation of the 3D graphics software/hardware to do it with 3D?

 

[NonStopableForce]

THere is support for 2 monitors, but its imposible to play, i tryed it, but it just makes it like you have one big monitor, so yuor cross hairs is split dow, the middle and half on 1 monitor and half on the other, its really hard.

-NonStopableForce

 

[geelen]

Er, that's not really what he asked.

I doubt you can do it easily, but maybe someone could do a mod like that. I wonder if you can create a mod that works with normal cs... probably not for anti-cheat reasons.

Maybe you could make a windows app that queries the cs server to get score information, or something.

 

[NonStopableForce]

Yeah, i know what he asked, but it itsn't possible, with out modding CSS with a mod, or some kind of other file..

-NonStopableForce

 

[TrippyG]

yeah, u would have to use somekinda program/mod to use 2 monitors like that... I'm currently using 2 monitors so that other is displaying mIRC and other is for general use

 

[Dinkleberry]

Ok, that would be a good idea about retrieving server info. I usu have Xfire on the other monitor, but you can't access that fully without switching focus. And thats a really lame thing with source.

 

[DeathIncarnate]

It won't work with fullscreen applications. You can have the game spread over 2 monitors, or have 2 monitors displaying the same. But you can't have 1 monitor fullscreen CS and the other monitor something else.

 

[RK-]

What about 3 screens?

Does playing with multiple monitors just give you higher resolutions are is your feild of vision wider?

-I have mad peripheral vision

 

[Septih]

try having halflife serverwatch running on the other screen and fiddling around with the playerlist section so that you can see the scores on the other monitor whilst playing on the main one

 

[TrippyG]

What about 3 screens?

Does playing with multiple monitors just give you higher resolutions are is your feild of vision wider?

it just gives u a wider vision, unless u change ur resolution...

 

[DeathIncarnate]

Wider vision ****s up the aspectratio. You can also get the 2nd screen to display exactly the same as the 1st screen but that's quite pointless. I wanted to have CS on 1 screen and my desktop on another, but that doesn't work. Maybe if you play CS windowed, but that also gives technical problems. There's just not enough support for it yet.

 

[TrippyG]

Wider vision ****s up the aspectratio. You can also get the 2nd screen to display exactly the same as the 1st screen but that's quite pointless. I wanted to have CS on 1 screen and my desktop on another, but that doesn't work. Maybe if you play CS windowed, but that also gives technical problems. There's just not enough support for it yet.

well like I said I have desktop on other monitor and CS on other... so it does work
u dont have to play cs windowed

 

[DeathIncarnate]

OMG what videocard and what drivers/software do u use!?

 

[Dinkleberry]

Radeon 9600XT. Standard catalysts work

 

[Link]

/me points at TrippyG's siggy...

Personally, I run dual monitors on a 9800pro with whatever the latest radeon drivers are and it works fine. I do use windowed mode, because then the game dosen't minimise when you alt-tab out, or worse, have to reset the resolution. However, I can run it quite happily in un-windowed mode and have stuff up on the secondary monitor.

 

[Dinkleberry]

Link, does it take a while to switch focus back to the game?

 

[Link]

In windowed mode, no, its instant. In fact, in windowed mode, the game dosen't minimise, it just sits there nice and happy untill you click on it again.
If I am running normal mode, at the same resolution as my desktop, it takes about half a second to pop back up.
If I am running normal mode at a different resolution to my desktop, then it takes about 3-4 seconds to reset the resolution and bring the game back.

I personally always run windowsed mode, but each to their own, obviously.

 

[benpatient]

so if 2 screens give you a "wider" view, does it increase your actual in-game FOV, or does it clip off the top and bottom?

I ask because if it increases your in-game FOV to 180 degrees or something more than standard, then that is a serious competitive advantage!

If not, then it is a disadvantage (because you lose top and bottom data).

interesting...

 

[Dinkleberry]

In windowed mode, no, its instant. In fact, in windowed mode, the game dosen't minimise, it just sits there nice and happy untill you click on it again.
If I am running normal mode, at the same resolution as my desktop, it takes about half a second to pop back up.
If I am running normal mode at a different resolution to my desktop, then it takes about 3-4 seconds to reset the resolution and bring the game back.

I personally always run windowsed mode, but each to their own, obviously.

I tried windowed and even the menu was disgracefully slow. Any ideas how to improve this?

 

[geelen]

buy a better video card...

 

[Realchaos1]

My friend Kyle uses dual monitor, one plays CS while the other has MSN/IRC/Winamp running.