Dual-Monitor DreamScene
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 by dude500 | Discussion: Windows Vista
Got vista ultimate and just downloaded the dreamscene preview today. I'm running a core duo laptop with mobility X1400 ATI graphics. 7.1 latest vista catalyst drivers. I have dual monitors (two 1680x1050 high-def screens) and in dual monitor mode, the graphics card just barely can't handle the dreamscene and it glitches at about 15 fps and skips now and then. Very annoying. On one monitor it's as smooth as silk. Is there a way to keep dual monitors but use dreamscene on only one of the screens? right now i've just got my secondary mon off for the moment.
Excalpius
Reply #2 Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:05 PM
Reply #2 Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:05 PM
Another interesting byproduct of dual monitors is the pause on fullsceen application behavior.
It makes sense to pause the animation when going fullscreen in Internet Explorer, etc. but DreamScene pauses BOTH monitors at the same time, hehe. So, you go fullscreen with IE on Monitor 1, only to have monitor 2 freeze.
So, a toggle to disable this behavior would be appreciated, gents. Thanks.
The workaround for this is to make IE "almost" maximized manually through dragging the borders rather than hitting the maximize button. That gives you fun animated glass edges, but I found that a thousand times less distracting that the forced stopping/starting of animated wallpaper under the current system. That WILL draw your eye away from what you're doing.
It makes sense to pause the animation when going fullscreen in Internet Explorer, etc. but DreamScene pauses BOTH monitors at the same time, hehe. So, you go fullscreen with IE on Monitor 1, only to have monitor 2 freeze.
So, a toggle to disable this behavior would be appreciated, gents. Thanks.
The workaround for this is to make IE "almost" maximized manually through dragging the borders rather than hitting the maximize button. That gives you fun animated glass edges, but I found that a thousand times less distracting that the forced stopping/starting of animated wallpaper under the current system. That WILL draw your eye away from what you're doing.
Excalpius
Reply #3 Tuesday, February 13, 2007 11:42 PM
Reply #3 Tuesday, February 13, 2007 11:42 PM
One more note for DreamScenes...and this goes for all Windows Media related issues.
CHECK YOUR CODECS
I had installed the "Vista-friendly" trial of NERO only to find that it replaces the Windows Media MPG2 codec with it's own.
The Nero codec caused my CPU use to go from 12% to 32% on my dual monitor setup.
And, of course, there still doesn't seem to be an easy way to add/disable extraneous codecs under Vista (anyone?!)
Uninstalling the trial (thank goodness I didn't buy that uber bloatware!), fixed the problem and now DreamScene is playing in high resolution goodness on my both of my large monitors.
CHECK YOUR CODECS
I had installed the "Vista-friendly" trial of NERO only to find that it replaces the Windows Media MPG2 codec with it's own.
The Nero codec caused my CPU use to go from 12% to 32% on my dual monitor setup.
And, of course, there still doesn't seem to be an easy way to add/disable extraneous codecs under Vista (anyone?!)
Uninstalling the trial (thank goodness I didn't buy that uber bloatware!), fixed the problem and now DreamScene is playing in high resolution goodness on my both of my large monitors.
dude500
Reply #4 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 12:50 AM
Reply #4 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 12:50 AM
bmorenmiami
Reply #5 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 8:18 AM
Reply #5 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 8:18 AM
i have a nvidia 7600gs and my dual set up runs smoth with low cpu usage......how much ram and what speed r u guys working with...perhaps that has something to do with it
dude500
Reply #6 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 5:45 PM
My system is quite fast... 1.83Ghz dual core, ATI X1400 (256MB), 2GB DDR2-667 system memory. should be quite sufficient.
My CPU idles around 35% with MPEG content and 40% with WMV (seems high for my system). Perhaps my dual setup doesn't work because they are high res at 1680x1050 each? what resolution are your monitors?
Reply #6 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 5:45 PM
i have a nvidia 7600gs and my dual set up runs smoth with low cpu usage......how much ram and what speed r u guys working with...perhaps that has something to do with it
My system is quite fast... 1.83Ghz dual core, ATI X1400 (256MB), 2GB DDR2-667 system memory. should be quite sufficient.
My CPU idles around 35% with MPEG content and 40% with WMV (seems high for my system). Perhaps my dual setup doesn't work because they are high res at 1680x1050 each? what resolution are your monitors?
Excalpius
Reply #7 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 9:46 PM
Reply #7 Wednesday, February 14, 2007 9:46 PM
Based on a post in another thread, I've installed the Nvidia PureVideo codec to handle mpg2 video. Not only did it drop my CPU issues and improved smoothness, but I can now play an mpg video in windows media player 11 WHILE I have both of my other monitors playing the same DreamScene mpg video.
I'm running a Quadro FX 4000 with 256mb ram (equivalent of the 6800 series) using the new 100.64 drivers (nvidia.com) on a simple hyperthreaded P4 at 3.2 ghz.
My dual monitors are 1600x1200 CRT and 1920x1200 LCD. My CPU is now at 12% on average, so that's fine by me. And I'm not even running true dual core (HT is a poor man's dual heh).
I'm running a Quadro FX 4000 with 256mb ram (equivalent of the 6800 series) using the new 100.64 drivers (nvidia.com) on a simple hyperthreaded P4 at 3.2 ghz.
My dual monitors are 1600x1200 CRT and 1920x1200 LCD. My CPU is now at 12% on average, so that's fine by me. And I'm not even running true dual core (HT is a poor man's dual heh).
dude500
Reply #8 Friday, February 16, 2007 9:57 AM
Reply #8 Friday, February 16, 2007 9:57 AM
nobody knows of a way to get rid of dreamscene on just the secondary monitor?
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Reply #1 Tuesday, February 13, 2007 9:53 PM
I gotta say though that I A) love this thang, and
PS I know that you are still kicking the tires on this for single monitor setups and expect dual monitor setups are behind in priority.