SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
As I look for a new computer (laptop), I am looking at higher res screens to make coding, photo editing, etc. much easier due to extra screen space. But running outside of native resolution (1024x768 game, for example) will look a little fuzzy. So I'm wondering how you signify the game to run on a second monitor. Offhand all I can think of is to tell the OS the second monitor is the main monitor and the laptop screen is secondary. Thanks for help. Just trying to do as much research to give me ideas. |
samw3 Member Posts: 542 From: Toccoa, GA, USA Registered: 08-15-2006 |
Usually there is a checkbox under display settings labeled "Use this device as the primary monitor", but my laptop doesn't let me change the secondary monitor to be primary. I don't know if this is a driver limitation or an idiot-proof measure. ------------------ |
Mack Administrator Posts: 2779 From: Registered: 01-20-2001 |
MS has a pretty good write up on what you want to do: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/hwandprograms/monitors.mspx Dual View will allow each display to have it's own properties. So you can run at the native res. for each display, avoiding any ugly. |
|
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
Right Sam, that's exactly what I was thinking, but I'm not sure if I can set my secondary to be primary. You can even see that in the link Mack sent. The second monitor is selected but the checkbox is disabled. I use dual monitors all the time at work but have never made my external the primary. Maybe I'll try fiddling around tomorrow at work. Mack. That's not quite the problem, but thanks for the link. I want to know how to get a fullscreen game to run on the external monitor instead of the laptop monitor. Is there a way to tell the OS which monitor to use for running fullscreen games? I suspect, by default, it wants to use the primary screen. |
|
Mack Administrator Posts: 2779 From: Registered: 01-20-2001 |
Ah alright, I wasn't 100% sure what you we're aiming for. I believe you could also run it in clone mode so whatever the primary displays the secondary will display. Then just set the rez. to whatever the secondary likes the most. |
|
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
Ohhh. What is clone mode? Will that mean I'm rendering the image twice? |
Cohort X Member Posts: 126 From: The Great Pacific Northwest Registered: 09-16-2006 |
I use a laptop and an external monitor as my primary when I'm at home. Here's the deal, and it makes zero sense, but sometimes to turn the external monitor into your primary you have to drag the monitor in that setup window to the left of monitor one and then you can put it back. Magically you can now set that monitor as primary. |
|
Mack Administrator Posts: 2779 From: Registered: 01-20-2001 |
quote: Yeah, the same image will display on both screens. Good for presentations and the like. |
|
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
Ohhhhh....of course. I gotcha Mack. Or I can even tell it to not use the laptop screen at all. That's right. Thanks for the pointer. Wow Cohort! That is also a terrific idea. I will try that as well. Thanks guys for the input. I now have a few options and I can see my idea is feasible. |
|
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
YES! Mack's suggestion is what I want. I just tried it out at work and it will work perfectly. I just set the only monitor to be the external and that's perfect. No output on the laptop to slow anything down during game playing. Then with another few keystrokes, I can be back to two monitors for development work. Now I just need to find out if Zoo Tycoon 2 and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 will run fine on Vista. Then I can get my kids playing these again on a decent computer...that is, after I actually buy one. I found what I want, but it's more than I had hoped to pay, but it seems to perfectly fit my needs. I still need to try Cohort's suggestion. I think that will be what I need to use if I work on fullscreen games. It may let me run fullscreen on one monitor and debug on a second. I ran into some problems running fullscreen on multiple monitors with some of the CCN contest games. |