Triple Head Tribes (3 monitors)

So I just picked up 3 LCD monitors from my local university computer surplus sale and I've been setting them up to work in triplehead mode in most of my games so that I can have extra wide vision in my games. Though I've been having trouble getting this to work with Tribes2.

I modified the tribes prefs files and saved them with my custom resolution 3840x1024 and turned off video safemode (whatever that does) but when I start the game it still reverts back to 1280x1024. I tried this again with tribes 2 in windowed mode. I figured if it's in windowed mode it will just size the window to fill my monitor space which would be 3840x1024. It again reverted back upon execution.

I tried setting up custom resolutions in my nvidia control panel and sizing my primary monitor to that 3840x1024 resolution which made everything looked squished, then I set the prefs file for tribes to 3840x1024 windowed mode figureing if it would open at that size then I can just resize my monitor back to normal after the game starts up and the window will fill all 3 screens, this has worked for other games like Eve Online. Still didn't work as it reverted back to the smaller size after the game started.

Thirdly I tried SoftTH which is theoretically supposed to work on any game that runs on Direct3d8 or 9 (Tribes2 is v8 right?). I Set tribes to D3D and restarted the game with all the SoftTH DLL's in the proper place. SoftTH is supposed to force a D3d game to run at a specified resolution thus allowing it to stretch and render across multiple monitors. No luck.

Anybody have any solutions to this problem?

Comments

  • Unfortunately, Tribes 2 queries the size of the monitor marked "Primary" (usually #1) and will not accept resolutions beyond what that monitor can do. This is still the case even if the game is not displaying on the primary monitor. Why? Only the fools at GarageGames could tell us.

    I remember nVidia used to offer nView extensions as part of the driver years ago that could turn all of the monitors into one span (I haven't used same-size multiple monitors recently enough to know if that is still the case). Since the entire 3840x1024 span would appear as one (and primary) monitor after nView spanning, it generally improves compatability with games that make incorrect assumptions (like T2).
  • I figured as much, but I have my windows set up to allow the resolution 3840x1024 on my primary monitor. Both windows and nvidia drivers have an option to allow unssupported "custom" resolutions. But tribes still doesn't allow it. Does it check the monitor itself to find supported resolutions? Because I've got nvidia AND windows both allowing that resolution.
  • If you had $300 to spare, the Matrox TripleHead2Go box does this. You plug it into your vid card and it presents itself as a single monitor of whatever res you specify, then splits the video signal out to the three monitors. I seem to recall it even has a feature to adjust the image to allow for different bezel widths and such. Also, there is a lot of info about multiscreen gaming at http://www.widescreengamingforum.com

    Good Luck!
  • yeah I saw that matrox box. Dont have that kinda cash to spare for gaming right now though.

    I can get T2 to run across two monitors. in the nvidia driver I set it to horizontal span where the nvidia driver will treat two monitors as one monitor and span the image across it giving you an extra wide desktop, ie. the taskbar stretches across both. Then T2 will give me the option to set the resolution to 2560x1024, and interestingly enough my nvidia custom resolutions also show up, 3840x1024, but it squishes it into 2 monitors. Why don't they show up in windowed mode? If I can just get this 3840x1024 to show up in the windowed mode options I'm pretty sure that'll fix my problem.

    Also, if I could figure out how to get nvidia to let horizontal span work across two videocards then that might also fix my problem.
  • Hey, Shadouts,

    I'm a triplehead user. First, know that the triplehead aspect ratio can only be implemented if it's supported in the given GAME'S ENGINE!!

    I once found instructions for how to hack an .ini file or something, to get T2 to stretch. It worked, but the field of view wasn't improved horizontally; rather, the top and bottom of the 'normal' view was off the screen. There was then another script I copied and installed to make the field of view appropriate to triplehead: about 130 degrees.
    There was a hardcoded problem, though, that after you zoom, it would reset to a 4:3 aspect ratio.

    Finally, whereas my desktop resolution is 3840x720; I've resolved to playing tribes at 1280x720 in just the center screen(still maximised). It's still my favorite game; but I've come to accept that T2 is a hardcoded 4:3 game.

    Dissapointing as this is, I hope it helps!!
  • I know this is a old topic but I just got mine all set up and was wondering if any one figured out the zoomed in look?

    It reads in the correct resolution but the FOV is goofed up.

    Any help would be appreciated.
  • There is a setFOV(#); command that takes degrees. There should be scripts that allow you to set it more permanently too.
  • Thanks Thyth!
    Do you know what the max FoV is? I can't seem to get it past 120 I think I need some where around 130-140.

    P.S. I'm using MortsFov and it just does not go that high.
    P.S.S. I'm using an Eyefinity group running 6036x1080, which includes bezel correction.
  • Do you know what the max FoV is? I can't seem to get it past 120 I think I need some where around 130-140.
    The game can render 360, but there's a hardcoded limit of 120 in the datablocks the server sends. You can override that limit with hacks though.
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