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Games Entertainment

Games that Support Dual-Head Setups? 37

Posted by Cliff from the two-heads-are-better-than-one dept.
Milo_Mindbender writes "It seems like almost all the new high-end 3d cards now support dual-monitor operation as a matter of course. I'm wondering if the game savvy people out there can recommend games (Linux or Windows) that have special features or modes for playing on a dual monitor system. I seem to remember seeing at least one C&C like game awhile back that let you have two views on the world (one on each monitor), there must be a few more that take advantage of this. Anyone know of any good ones?"
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Games that Support Dual-Head Setups? More

Games that Support Dual-Head Setups?

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  • The closest I've come.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by DasBub ( 139460 ) <[moc.bubsad] [ta] [bubsad]> on Monday July 29, 2002 @12:36PM (#3972292) Homepage
    ...is running two games of Freecell at the same time, different monitors.

    It gives me the feeling of being some huge Chess champion, absently milling about and conquering other players- except that I'm really bad at it and play by myself.

  • 3 monitor (Score:4, Informative)

    by lowtekneq ( 469145 ) <{moc.liamtoh} {ta} {qenketwol}> on Monday July 29, 2002 @12:50PM (#3972365) Homepage
    Quake III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Flight Sim 2k2, Global Ops, and Vendetta all have tripple monitor support (so im guessing two will work as well. And the following games will ship with tripple monitor support, Unreal Tournament 2003, F1 2002, Star Wars Galaxies, Mobile Forces, Realm Wars, Combat flight sim,and Gore

    • Re:3 monitor (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Merlin42 ( 148225 )
      Yeah, but the big problem w/ running a FPS style game on two monitors is the seam. Aiming the sniper scope would be a BITCH if it spans two monitors. I remember hearing that the quakeIII engine supports shifting the view, this would allow you to have one monitor be the front view and the other be one side of periferal vision.

      What I want multimonitor support for is for RPG games. You would have your normal view on one monitor and maps, stats, dialog or whatever on the other. That would be very usefull.
      • "What I want multimonitor support for is for RPG games. You would have your normal view on one monitor and maps, stats, dialog or whatever on the other. That would be very usefull."

        Yes, I do this already when mudding, but with multiple windows and virtual screens as opposed to monitors and you're right, it's very useful. The problem I see is that most game builders build to a lowest common denominator in the context of the market and the game they're building and so avoid adding features that are out of range. Personally, I'd vote for support for multiple windowed games before I'd vote for multiple monitors: it's cheaper and more effective for many types of games. But Windows can't do virtual screens out of the box so it's not a feature we'll see anytime soon unless the game is Linux/Unix only or that feature is built into a Linux/Unix version.

        I can see the value of multiple monitors for vehicle simulators (spacecraft, aircraft, tanks, hovercraft, etc.) where there is actual benefit to having multiple monitors because your vision is improved. Would be awful expensive though; figure the price of additional monitors and the performance hit on the graphics card unless you had multiple cards for the multiple monitors, ouch.

        But oh man, I'd love to play BattleZone with side view monitors, yum!

        • Re:3 monitor (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Merlin42 ( 148225 ) on Monday July 29, 2002 @02:45PM (#3973097)
          Just watch out when doing 'multi-pipe', things can get nauseating real fast. If the monitors do not update in unison then the 'jitter' can be disconcerting enough to cause nausea. This is well documented with profesional flight sims. This is why many profesional($$$$) cards come with genlock connectors that force all the monitors to refresh simultaneously.

  • Winamp? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ClioCJS ( 264898 )
    I've wondered the same. What I want is a dual-head winamp for playing mp3s:

    I'd like to put the standard windows desktop + winamp window with title information on my monitor (so people can see what is playing), while having my visualization plugin on my 2nd monitor (my 36' TV).

    THAT WOULD BE IDEAL

    but NOOOOOOOO... Of course I can't do that. PFFT

    • Re:Winamp? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      i did it, just enable the "multi monitor support" option in winamp, works beautifully on my tri monitor setup. except that the visualization gets a bit sluggish at times, but oh well (underpowered vid card for tv out)
  • I tried this out on a machine that shouldn't have botherered and I got about 5fps, but it did work. The idea works great for flight sims. Does MS Flight Sim in window mode support two displays?

    I think the market is still way to small. Of course I love two monitors for games. I put the cheat codes on my rage 128 pci, and the game on my radeon 8500.
    • In the early 90's there was a mac flight-sim (A10?) that run 3 displays, one front view, and two sides. You hooked up 3 video cards, and sat in the middle of 3 monitors (mmm...radiation), having a view out front and side windows. This ran fine on a IIci (68030 @ 30MHz).
    • I am fairly sure that MS flight sim 2002 works across two displays in full-screen mode...you can setup the instrument panel on one screen which is slick. I am just trying to make that happen with Falcon 4.0 - the greatest military flight sim ever made. :)
    • Which operating systems have good support for dual or tri displays? I've used two and three displays with X Windows on Linux, with multiple single-head video cards. I found that it can be a little troublesome to set up, but it can do all sorts of crazy things once you set it up. (you can even have one monitor as a "preview window" that enlarges a section of the other screen to fit its screen. Which Windows operating systems can support multiple monitors on multiple video cards? How well do they work?

  • Why? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by WiKKeSH ( 543962 )
    A major disadvantage in a 3d shooter would be that your crosshair would overlap on either screen.
    This would make it very difficult to aim at your enemies.

    In a RTS, the plastic around the screen would bother me too much to even consider it.

    The only good option would be using this for an RPG. YOu could have the main screen where you play the game (real-time, not turn-based, of course) and save the 2nd screen for spellcasting and inventory.

    All in all, the idea of 2 screens just wouldn't work for most games. :/
    • Well, the three screen thing could work fine though, just use the l + r for the far sides, and see all around you. I think that for a game that's more an immesion based simulation it would be better...

  • A little clarification on what the guy means (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spuffin ( 466692 ) on Monday July 29, 2002 @01:11PM (#3972520)
    He doesnt want to know of games that let you spread the game out over multiple monitors, he wants to know of games that have special FEATURES that use 2 monitors. Such as in the C&C game he mentioned that you can view your base on one monitor, yet the other monitor can be viewing some other place. This opposed to just having a huge view of one location.
  • They have a large list [matrox.com] of games with dualhead support-not all of them simply wrap your display. Serious Sam (and the second encounter) allows two players to use the same computer by giving them independent displays, while Dogs of war allows you to view the battle from a distance while in close on the other. So not only has this been around for quite some time, it also has plenty of current games out for it. This is in addition to the triple monitor support (surround gaming) [matrox.com] which was mentioned earlier.
  • MS Flight Simulator 2002 with three monitors is as close as you can get to flying the real thing on a PC.
    You can have either the left-front-right display setup, or you can have one monitor showing an outside view and another showing the instrument display.
    At least Microsoft knows how to do *something* right.

    • Re:Flight Simulator 2002 (Score:3, Informative)

      by dago ( 25724 )
      Beep. Please replace the 'do' by a 'buy' in your last sentence.

      FS was developped by BAO (Bruce Artwick Organization) until being bought up by MS in 95 (around FSFW95, IIRC).
  • I would love dual display for anything..to bad bryce 5 won't do dual display..mummble.. But the only thing that alot of gamers are still bugged about is the border or thickness around the monitor that would make the seperation of the two screens to far apart, my 19inch monitor's border is almost 2 inches! and getting another one would just be a b**ch because there would be almost a 4 inch gap to deal with. anyone know of any monitor brands that have the smallest broder? I think if makers started to get em down to half a inch, then that would be hella nice.

    Chris.
    • Couldn't you take a dremel tool to your monitor and remove the border? Then perhaps screw the bases of both monitors down to a board or something so they wouldn't move around. Might superglue the existing borders together once your done cutting to make it more solid..

      or perhaps this is too stupid an idea to post.. :)
    • Samsung 181T and 191T LCD monitors make a big deal out of their tiny bezel. 18.6mm all around, leading to some very nice, but expensive multihead solutions.

      And there was a company out there with a triple head monitor made of 3 LCD panals. Since it was all one unit, the gap was really small. Not sure if they are still around though.
  • OK, I know that Matrox makes a dual and 4 headed video cards [matrox.com]. But who makes decent cards for gaming? Does such a card exists, or do you have one monitor on AGP, and the other two on PCI based cards?

  • what games do you have in mind? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CMiYC ( 6473 ) on Monday July 29, 2002 @07:08PM (#3974921) Homepage
    I guess I'm kind of curious if there are games you want to see with dual head support. Personally when I play a game, I play it because I enjoy it. Not because there are specific features in it.

    So my question is, what games would you LIKE to see dual-head support in? I think the obivous have been stated... but that being the case, if you could have it, where would you want it?
    • Most people have posted about the flight sim or FPS mode of using the extra screen real estate to just show more of the field of view, or in an RTS showing a different part of the map. Most games could be made to show 'something else'. For example, Diablo could show the map on one screen and the inventory / heraldic cube display on the other. Flight sims could use one panel for the view and the other completely devoted to instrumentation. You know, basically all the stuff that is usually along the bottom / top / sides of the screen that just make your gameplay area smaller - put all that on the other screen.
    • I would like a two or three head setup to proporly emulate perifual vission in a fps.

  • Doom! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by qurob ( 543434 ) on Monday July 29, 2002 @11:53PM (#3976172) Homepage
    We did this once....just to see if it worked. It required 3 PC's on a LAN, and you started each computer up with a different command line option...Doom FAQ or a README.TXT from 1994, anyone?

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