Feature Request: Multi-monitor support

amarshan

New member
Hi all,

Knife Edge support suggested that the best way to get new user-requested features into RF was to post the suggestion to this forum; if a sufficient number of people respond, they will consider the feature for inclusion in a future release. So, if you think the following feature would be useful to you, please respond to this thread!

Problem Description: I'm running two monitors for RF. They are configured as a single desktop, 3840x1200 resolution. It works, but because RF tries to center the plane, the image of the plane is always split across the two screens, which is distracting to say the least. Forum readers have suggested a few workarounds, but they are inelegant and clunky, at best!

What I'm trying to do: I'm a pattern and IMAC competitor, trying to use RF to learn the new aerobatic sequence for each year, and keep fingers sharp during the rainy season! I would like to increase the field of view to 90 degrees or more, so I can retain spatial awareness of where the aircraft is, and just fly within the visible screen real estate.

Feature request: What I'm looking for can be achieved in a few different ways. Any one of the solutions below would achieve what I'm looking for:

(1) A camera "offset" - rather than keeping the model centered, offset the image by some percentage of the screen real estate. Ideally, I'd see more of the landscape in the direction I'm flying.

(2) An "avoid horizontal panning" option - this would allow me to have a very wide field of view, and fly within that region only. All aerobatic competitors fly within a "box", so as long as the entire box is visible on screen, panning to follow the aircraft is unnecessary. Zooming in would still be okay.

(3) A "situational awareness window". The problem with just tracking the aircraft with no ground reference is that you can't tell whether you're following a straight track, parallel to the flight line, which is crucial for aerobatic competition. A separate window showing ground track relative to the flight line could provide this information. I think I prefer solutions (1) or (2), but I could make this work.

What do you guys think??

Amar

PS - here's what I'd really, really, really like ... I currently run a full scale flight sim at home, based on Xplane 9. It's a networked solution: multiple copies of Xplane cooperating across the LAN. One computer drives my 30" display, showing the view forward; while the other computer drives the two side views on 24" displays. Works really well, and I'd love to use the same setup with RF! But this is probably a bit too specialized for this product ... :rolleyes:
 
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Dave-B said:


I don't think so, Dave. The Matrox card just pretends to be a very widescreen monitor to your graphics card, then spreads the output across two screens. My graphics card will already drive two screens, and present them as a single virtual screen to RF. The problem is the placement of the airplane on the screen (it'll be right at the split between monitors), and the panning of the display, as I explained in my original post.

If I use the Matrox triple head, then the airplane will be on the middle screen, which is okay, I guess. However, Matrox is pretty limited on the resolution they can support by the time you get up the 3 screens. It won't drive my monitors at native resolution (1920x1200 for the 24" screens, 2560x1600 for the 30"), and it won't support mixed resolutions either.
 
The "offset" idea is probably a doable item if KE could introduce an offset parameter into the INI file. It would not have to be exposed to the average user, just there for the hacker to utilize.

It would be interesting to see what the actual demand for such a thing would be however.

Most people who have multi-headed systems already run into this problem with many other programs so they tend to favor the three screen solution, when floating view windows are not available.

Floating windows with settable view angles is a much better solution, but Realflight does not support this in the current version(s).
 
opjose said:
The "offset" idea is probably a doable item if KE could introduce an offset parameter into the INI file. It would not have to be exposed to the average user, just there for the hacker to utilize.

It would be interesting to see what the actual demand for such a thing would be however.

Most people who have multi-headed systems already run into this problem with many other programs so they tend to favor the three screen solution, when floating view windows are not available.

Floating windows with settable view angles is a much better solution, but Realflight does not support this in the current version(s).

Actually, both the "offset" and "avoid pan" would be easy to implement... as you say, the question is "what's the demand?" Hence my hope that many people on the forum will speak up!

Cheers /Amar
 
The camera won't pan at all if you are in walk mode. Just use the WASD keys to walk around and the mouse to change where you are looking.

Jim
 
Hi, I think we need multi-monitor support. Then let us assign looking left to one monitor, looking right to another monitor, looking up and looking down to two more monitors at a minimum.

My main monitor is a 32" TV, but I've bought two 17" flat screen monitors from a local thrift shop for $12 ea. They work great to see what's to my left and right on everything except RF9! But even flying in a standing position it would be nice to be able to see more of what's to my left and right as I fly around the castle or other aerodromes.

For contests and combat this is also a great asset.
 
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