Dual Monitor multi Tasking

zeldar21

Hey guys Im zeldar, I havn't posted alot on here but I read alot of the stuff on here and im not sure if this is the right place for this but Ill give it a shot.

I was wondering if there was a way to set up your dual monitors in a way you could have a game running on one monitor and be able to do other things on the other monitor without it minimizing the game. If anyone has any suggestions let me know or even know of some where to search. Thanks

Judas

The only way to do this atm, is by running ALL your games in a window that fits the full demensions of the screen.

Although there are a FEW games that don't minimize or anything if you click OUTSIDE of the games application area, HOWEVER there are ALOT of games that forcefully LOCK the mouse pointer within the games area refuseing to let it go until you've either minimized it, or hit "ALT" to allow the course to be freed. This is usually the case with FPS such as ut2004 and counterstrike.

Try windowed mode if you can, (usually open the game and browse through the options area, if there is no way to disable full screen mode, try hitting ALT+ENTER keys at the same time which SHOULD force a program to run in windows mode, but remember, not all games/programs support this feature correctly, OR will run VERY poorly in this mode)

H3X4D3C1M4L

Yeah its a pipe dream.... very few (if there even are any) games will let you work like this... usually the general consensus is that when you're playing the game you're not trying to do other things because you're focused on the game

Judas

Well with MMORPGs, this has become actually quite the opposte, alot of people are trying to multitask ALOT while playing MMORPGs, usually while buffing, sitting, waiting for other members of a party to finally get thier act together. Specially if your managing a teamspeaker/ventrillo server, or having a conversation on Windows Messenger.

Although a FPS, your not going to be doing this, but a few other games it's damn handy to have that extra window IF the damn game wouldn't minimize or do weird things.

Mousey

lol at the moment i'm watching Blade Trinity on my tv as a second monitor and i'm posting this and doing a few new tags in photoshop
earlier on i was talking to someone on msn and playing guild wars, and yeah you aint gonna do it during an fps unless you don't mind losing ;p

H3X4D3C1M4L

Well for talking to people in games like Guild Wars I use Xfire. (Not ATI's dual card setup). Beat the crap out of MSN.

zaim

i would never go back to 2 monitors. ever.

i'm actually considering buying a 3rd 22"

Judas

Well i never thought i'd go back to a single monitor after using 2 for about 3 years, and then 3 for about half a year. But after this dell, you really don't NEED more then 1, but it would be damn handy at time, just so much desktop space to work with, it dwarfs what 2 monitors combined could provide.

IEMC

With my experience, most games just turn the second monitor black when you start playing. Thats if you dont have it on widescreen.

Never tried using a game in windowed mode, though. Probly the only way.

Judas

one thing to make sure though..


If you run 2 displays @ 1280x1024 each (example resolution), the primary while running a game should be set to the desktop resolution or the 2ndary display won't work properly, everything will be offset usually.

H3X4D3C1M4L

As long as the resolution of the game on the primary is greater or equal to the resolution on the 2nd one its all good.

Judas

sometimes, i've tried to play a movie on one monitor while gaming another another, if the gaming resolution changed at all, the dvd playback would screw everything up..

The only major issue i guess would be that either going small or larger then the desktop resolution, is that all the other programs that you may be using at the time, will shift accordingly. If you go big, some of the programs will shift into the gaming monitors desktop, while going smaller will result in those shifting off into nothingness until you exit the game.

Zardon

how about if a user had 2 24 inch Dells ?

so

30 inch screen 2560x1600
24 inch screen 1920x1200 x 2 3840x1200.

Not only that but you arent stuck with only 1 input on the dell 30 inch screen - but have an array of inputs, even component for an HDTV source. and more real estate. plus you could rotate the 2nd screen to portrait for webpages so 1200x1920 = amazing for forums and "longer" webpages.

Zardon

Hang on, are you saying you want to game on the same pc on one screen while you watch a movie on the other screen?

what??

Judas

Typical desktop monitors are either 1280x1024, sure the new widescreens are larger yet,

But cmon, not a WHOLE lot of people are running much beyond that, I could hook up 2 21" 2048x1536 monitors for a grand total of 4096x1536 desktop space. but how many people have that option, very few.



Games such as MMORPGs are kinda handy for having other tasks that you could be doing, specially if you loungeing out with a sell or buy shop up in the game. There would be no purpose to watching a movie while playing a FPS or real time strategy game....

Zardon

mmmm Id say less than 5% of users (even enthusiast) have a 30 inch screen, whereas quite a few enthusiast users are moving or already have a 24 inch LCD panel. In a typical scenario a user wanting more deskspace could actually get this by adding another 24 inch LCD as I explained, right? If we take away the fact that a gamer might want 2560x1600 gaming (which is a seperate issue), the pixel count of two 24 inch LCDS is higher than a single 30 inch. Which is the point you were making was it not? It is not correct. I also gave some benefits of dual screen over a single larger one. (rotated secondary, an often uncommented upon benefit) as well as masses more inputs.

You can't really make a comment then change the context. Both you made are wrong anyway.

Necrosis

Zeldar, what games have the problem? Also are you running any thing like Ultramon?

H3X4D3C1M4L

I say 19" is a more common screen size for LCD's, 19-21" for CRTs

I run a 21" CRT and a 17" CRT and I'd never go downwards in size or numbers.