Widescreen Gaming Forum

Microsoft Flight Simulator X Demo ... works in TripleHead ... JUST

See here for info and screenshots ... http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=55169#55169

When the Microsoft Flight Sim FSX comes out later near year end, I plan to set up Triplehead with three 19" LCD monitors to run at 3840 x 1024.

Judging from the screen shots you posted, seems you have already tested this setup. So, would you share some more of your experience with me? In particular, I like to know:
1) did you test it with Windows Vista (beta version)?
2) which graphic card are you using? and what framerates are you getting during flying and during taxing on ground?
3) did you use three dell 2405 to produce the 3840 x 1024 screenshot which is at the very bottom??
4) I do use the 2D cockpit view a lot now for FS9 and plan to use it in FSX. From your screenshots, the cockpit view is strectched and the looks of the gauges is not acceptable to me. Any way to correct this (to produce a normal looking flight panel just like what you see in a single 19" LCD mon)?

Any other comments and inputs are welcome too.
Thanks.

1) did you test it with Windows Vista (beta version)?

No ... Windows XP

2) which graphic card are you using? and what framerates are you getting during flying and during taxing on ground?

I'm using my quad system ... the drivers are very new and not the best for frame rates ... :(
I'm getting around 20fps at 3840x1024 everything in high and AA is turned on. It has settings for very high but if I try to use it the game junks out to desktop. It runs better on the normal SLI system (2 x 512Mb 7900GTX ) so I think it is the Quad drivers ... but even then I think it could do with some more fps.

3) did you use three dell 2405 to produce the 3840 x 1024 screenshot which is at the very bottom??

I used 3 x Dell 2001FP (3 x 20" 4:3) for all the TripleHead shots (not the 2405's as in my sig/system specs)

4) I do use the 2D cockpit view a lot now for FS9 and plan to use it in FSX. From your screenshots, the cockpit view is strectched and the looks of the gauges is not acceptable to me. Any way to correct this (to produce a normal looking flight panel just like what you see in a single 19" LCD mon)?

Not that I could find ... :(

I would say that it is only just playable in TripleHead because of the zoom feature and so if I were you I would try to get to see it somewhere if you are going to spend out on TripleHead just for this game.
Hopefully the framerates will improve with newer drivers and DX10/Vista

That 2D cockpit overlay looks horrible. I would expect better from Microsoft. Does FS9 exhibit this same stretching?

What I am thinking is this:
If you dont show the panel/gauges and just show the view outside, then 3840 x 1024 does show an excellent and undistorted scenery.
However, if you turn on the 2D cockpit view, then the panel/gauges would be stretched aross the entire 3840 width and would be distorted.
So, is it possible you first display the outside scenery on 3840 x 1024 and then open another window just to show the panel/gauges and then undock this window and adjust its size to a ratio of 4:3 and then move this undocked window to the monitor in the middle and this window will occupy about the lower half of the monitor???

(read in Tom's hardware that Quad is only good for high resolution eg 30" 2560 x 1600 and with high AA and AF turned on. Anything less than this would make Quad slightly inferior to sli. So, I am thinking of getting a single 7950GX2. Actually, I am waiting for the G80 to come out at year end)

Wow...I really didn't expect this.

I thought FS9 supported multi-monitors/widescreen natively, and well...

FS9 does support multimonitors. But remember, the TripleHead2Go reports itself as a single monitor.

Widescreen is a different issue, though; if the FS9 3D cockpit works without stretching on a widescreen monitor then this issue is surprising.

Paddy, have you been in touch with Microsoft about this?

Personally i only ever use the virtual cockpit as it is the most realistic. The problem for me with fsx is the framerate. The game runs much slower than fs9. I have fs9 with many of the 3rd party addons and i get ultra smooth framerates with my machine but its very choppy in this beta of fsx. I hope they do something with the performance of this pig. Its also very buggy.

That 2D cockpit overlay looks horrible. I would expect better from Microsoft. Does FS9 exhibit this same stretching?

Yes but you can resize it both in FS9 and FSX. The pic is FS9 but it looks the same inf FSX (my setup is just a cheap try I wanted to make before buying the big TFT's, a 19' central and 2 old 17' laterals):

http://serllo.freehostia.com/3h2g/IMG_0135.jpg

When I click that link it redirects to http://www.100webspace.com/ and I see no image.