2nd Monitor just for Plan-G questions?

[Wigwag]

Plan - G is my first flight planner outside of the default FSX. I love it, thanks so much!!! The problem now is that I am minimizing one (FSX or Plan-G) to see the other,  back and forth. I am considering buying a sperate monitor just for Plan-G. This should allow me to run FSX in Full screen (my preferance) and Plan-G at the same time on the other monitor.

So now before I run out and get a new monitor, will I lose any frames per second in doing this? I don't know if minimizing either FSX or Plan-G effects the frames per second. Also is this getting this setup to work properly fairly easy as I'm no computer wizz?

According to my 8800GTX manual I can have the same display on each monitor, or span mode, or dual view which are configured independently. Which mode would I want, the third one? And will my 1 mouse work on both monitors? (I have never used 2 monitors before). Thanks for your time.


   

[tim arnot]

If you want to use FS and Plan-G on the same PC at the same time, I'm pretty sure you have to be in Windowed mode. It doesn't make a difference how many monitors you have.

As far as FPS goes, the bigger the FS window, the more FPS you lose, since it has to do more work. But, depending how powerful your CPU is, and how big your screen is, and whether your FPS is locked, you may not notice.

When you plug in a second monitor, Windows will automatically detect it and ask whether it is on the left or the right (make sure it is on the right, otherwise you will get other problems). And from then on it is just like having a big desktop.

It is also better if both monitors have the same resolution (although that isn't essential).

[frankturley]

Due to my office layout I have my Plan-G monitor on the left, and I had to change my primary display to that monitor to avoid the problems already documented elsewhere.

Frank.

[alexf]

I also have two monitors. Use Plan-G on the left (main monitor) and FSX on the right one, capped at 20fps for multi-player. No problems.

[Flinty72]

Wigwag do you have access to a 2nd PC that can be connected to your FS PC via LAN?
If so then you can have Plan-G installed on the 2nd PC and connect it to FS assuming you have FSUIPC for FS2004 or use Simconnect for FSX.
It what I have done & it works a treat.

[Wigwag]

Great info. I only have one CPU so I would have to hook that up the 2nd monitor to this one. I am not familiar with right or left monitors. Just to be clear the current monitor I have now will need to be the primary monitor for all of our computer needs as well as FSX. Then the secondary monitor I get would ONLY be used for Plan-G. 

So I guess what I am asking is, can my (current) primary monitor be designated as the "left" and still be used to do ALL computer stuff/work/FSX, then just designate the 2nd monitor as a "right" just for Plan-G when I use FSX on the primary "left" monitor. Will that work?   

[frankturley]

Hi Wigwag,

If you try to do that you will get some problems with Plan-G - nothing major, but certain things won't work. I found Plan-G likes to be on the "booting" monitor.

Its no big deal though, because you can just move your apps around to use whichever monitor you want. I suggest you plug in the second monitor, then play around with what you can do, I don't think you'll have any problems, unless you really care about which monitor displays the boot logo.

Frank.

[Wigwag]

As I am limited for space I had to look for a smaller monitor. I found a 15" LCD which fits perfect so I tried it out today with two long flights. For the most part Plan G up and runs great on this seconday monitor. Two things I noticed are:

1- Whenever I click on anything clickable in Plan G on the secondary monitor my FSX sound cuts out, then when I run the mouse back to the primary monitor and click (anywhere on the screen) the sound comes back.

2- When Plan G is on the primary monitor all I have to do is drag the mouse overtop of an aircarft on the screen to get the details on it. When Plan G is on the secondary monitor I have to actually "click" on the aircraft to get it's information, and in doing so (as mentioned) the sound cuts out.

Are these issues you guys have experienced, or is there anything I can do for it? FWIW I tried having the secondary monitor on both the left and right side and it seems to funtion the same either way. I have not tried designating the 15" as the primary monitor yet, but I don't think that is an option because I need my 19" monitor to be the primary as thats the one we want all other computer programs to run on (assuming thats what the primary monitor does-run all your programs???). Hope that all makes sense. Anyway I still love the program, but would prefer the sound to not cut out on me if I can help it.

[tim arnot]

Clicking outside of FS always disables the sound. Nothing we can do about it.

As far as Windows is concerned, both monitors are just one big desktop (in theory). I think "primary" only really means that's the screen your PC boots on.

[Wigwag]

Thanks Tim.

[Navman]

Works fine for me on the LEFT monitor, except that I cannot drag the Plan=G Window to be larger than the monitor screen. My 'main' monitor is the right one, where I also run FS on (in Windowed mode, always, just makes things so much easier ;-) ).

[markself]

I run a 22" widescreen monitor at 1600x1200 on right and a 17" normal  at 1024x768 monitor on left.  It really works great.  When I boot Plan-G it comes up on the right monitor full screen.  Then I click on the "Maximize/Restore Down" button in the upper right corner of the screen.  I then drag the Plan-G window to the left screen and doubnle click on the "Menu Bar" at the top of Plan-G window.  Plan-G then fills the left screen and away I go.

I bought the 17" monitor expressly for use with Plan-G and it was worth every cent I spent.  I had always been interested in a second screen.  But thought it would be to complicated.  Plan-G begs for a second screen so I figured it couldn't be to tricky.  It wasn't.

[mykv]

Wigwag  Hiya,

I currently run my main monitor on a widescreen 19in TV in front of me and have a second monitor on the right, which is a LCD 19in monitor. To get this very happy medium right, go into your control panel in Apperance and Personalization/Display and look for the setting to do with your display settings, it is within this feature you will find a setting that asks if you want to extend your desktop to this monitor. Which you should have identified as monitor 1 and 2 and set their respective resolution to. And as previously mentioned, keep the new monitor on the right to avoid problems,ie NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE YOUR DESKTOP PROPERLY or even some of the messages and icons that pop up from where-ever.

With this two screen adaption, you will soon wonder why you did not know or do something about this a long time ago. And it will or should have no impact on your frame rates, unless your graphics card is not up to the job, and if there is a slight loss in frame rates, just find on various sites, what settings that there are to play with to re-adjust the situation. Wether ,with-in Flightsim or your graphics card or screen resolutions.

Hope you find this of some help, cheers for now  Myk

[tom]

Got a bit of a curly one for the gurus.

I run a Viewsonic 26in monitor (1920x1200)as the primary. On the right, I have set up an Acer 17in (1280x1024) for Plan-G as the secondary display.  Simply plugged it into the second outlet from the 9800 GX2 - and set it up using the nvidia control panel - it all seemed to work fine for an hour or so, till I shut the system down for the night.

When I fired things up the next day, on it came just fine - BUT .... after a minute or so, the secondary display blanked out with a "no signal" message.  Went into nvidia control panel - all seemed OK - tried reversing primary/secondary - and bingo, screen comes to life again, so let it revert and all was well again, but for the screen icon redistribution.  All stayed as should be for hours, till shutdown time.

Next day, and since (week or so now), the procedure has been the same, BUT, some days the secondary refuses to start at all (but will run as the primary if I reverse the plugs at the computer, indicating that the monitor is fine), some days it stops after a few minutes and will restart by switching to primary then back again (via nvidia panel), and other days it restarts and runs without further problems. I think the problem is getting worse.

The 9800 GX2 is stock standard (not OC'ed) - the OS is Vista 64. Have tried a new DVI cable to no avail.   Would seem to be a GPU problem, or setting or something. The GPU runs generally at high forties to low fifties degrees, which to me would seem in order.

It is a wonderful way to fly (when it's working), but I think its sporadic operation will eventually drive me insane.

Any thoughts anyone ??

Cheers  Tom

PS I'm currently running the 195.62 driver - installed during this problem period - made no difference to the problem, or anything really.

[frankturley]

No signal message - means the monitor isn't getting the video signal, as it seems intermittent you need to check cable and connections, try using some contact cleaner.

Frank.