Multi Monitor setups
Sunday, April 1, 2007 by konstareal | Discussion: Animated Wallpapers
I'm currently using a multimonitor setup - I have a 24", and a 17" in portrait mode at the side of it.
I'm using an Nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB.
I am able to run dreams on both screens, but it has to be the same dream, which obviously looks daft if it is a dream with some sort of central focal point, as it is appearing twice.
I'm curious to know if there are any plans to implement some level of support for multi monitor setups - ideally the ability to run a different dream on each screen, but failing that, at least the possibility of using a dream on one screen, and a static wallpaper on the other. Regards
I am able to run dreams on both screens, but it has to be the same dream, which obviously looks daft if it is a dream with some sort of central focal point, as it is appearing twice.
I'm curious to know if there are any plans to implement some level of support for multi monitor setups - ideally the ability to run a different dream on each screen, but failing that, at least the possibility of using a dream on one screen, and a static wallpaper on the other. Regards
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BONEHEADdb
Reply #22 Sunday, July 15, 2007 3:58 PM
UltraMon screws up Windowblinds, it's out out of here!
Reply #22 Sunday, July 15, 2007 3:58 PM
I know with UltraMon you can run two different walls. (Ultramon isn't free, though) I don't know how it would work with Dreams.
UltraMon screws up Windowblinds, it's out out of here!
sighsigh
Reply #23 Sunday, September 16, 2007 8:39 PM
Reply #23 Sunday, September 16, 2007 8:39 PM
I run a Quad and 640mb of G/mem like alot of people now prices have come down there must be some way to run to two? I dont think two would tax this type of system that much.
the_great_deceiver
Reply #24 Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:15 PM
Reply #24 Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:15 PM
If I read this correctly, deskscapes works with dual monitors, however it shows the same on each monitor. but this can be changed for dynamic dreams, however at this point none of the dynamic dreams allow me to do that?
a little confused. I have a dual monitor setup and would like to have the collage spread over the entire area of the two monitors rather than each individually (and identical).
looking forward to changes
tgd
a little confused. I have a dual monitor setup and would like to have the collage spread over the entire area of the two monitors rather than each individually (and identical).
looking forward to changes
tgd
Agrabren
Reply #25 Monday, September 17, 2007 11:22 AM
Reply #25 Monday, September 17, 2007 11:22 AM
the_great_deceiver (and Stardock): I think the majority of us would rather Stardock fixed Desktop Collage first to handle randomizing, or multiple photo directories. But yes, I run two monitors, and they always get the aspect ratio wrong on the second display. Would be nice if they'd make it handle the whole thing. Would be *REALLY* nice if someday, they'd open-source something like that. 
Everyone with more than one video card: The problem with multiple video cards is the bus. If you take two monitors, plug each one into a different video card, your performance will drop. As soon as you turn off one of those cards, it's no longer eating up bandwidth. Most video cards support two monitors on one board, so for the majority, they don't need the dual cards (not including SLI or CrossFire). It's possible that if Stardock can make only the primary card run an animated desktop, the usage will go down, but it will not go down to the level of one card. That other card is still talking on the bus, and still using up bandwidth.
Ultramon/Multimon: These use a hack to put different wallpaper on multiple monitors. They take the BMPs you choose, and the resolutions, and create a new BMP of the full size, and tell windows not to scale it. For instance, a 1600x1200 and a 1280x1024 display, side by side. It will create a BMP file of 2880x1200, and paste in both BMPs, with a small region on the lower-right that's blank. Put this up on your desktop, and it neatly fills both.
Everyone with more than one video card: The problem with multiple video cards is the bus. If you take two monitors, plug each one into a different video card, your performance will drop. As soon as you turn off one of those cards, it's no longer eating up bandwidth. Most video cards support two monitors on one board, so for the majority, they don't need the dual cards (not including SLI or CrossFire). It's possible that if Stardock can make only the primary card run an animated desktop, the usage will go down, but it will not go down to the level of one card. That other card is still talking on the bus, and still using up bandwidth.
Ultramon/Multimon: These use a hack to put different wallpaper on multiple monitors. They take the BMPs you choose, and the resolutions, and create a new BMP of the full size, and tell windows not to scale it. For instance, a 1600x1200 and a 1280x1024 display, side by side. It will create a BMP file of 2880x1200, and paste in both BMPs, with a small region on the lower-right that's blank. Put this up on your desktop, and it neatly fills both.
jamesavery22
Reply #26 Wednesday, October 17, 2007 11:43 PM
Reply #26 Wednesday, October 17, 2007 11:43 PM
First off thank you stardock for deskscapes. I too run dual monitors. On my main monitor some dreams look amazing. Unfortunately for most dreams they look horrible on my secondary monitor. I am using a 30" and a 20" rotated into portrait mode. About the only Dream thats acceptable is Mana Shades and Blue Plasma.
As konstareal already said it would be great to be able to "disable" the dream on one monitor.
I'm guessing this is up to MS to handle this though. What Agrabren explained about Multimon is what I've been doing manually with background images for years. I'm sure I'm not the only one. If that isn't handled within Windows by now I guess my request for Dream functionality is pretty far fetched
As konstareal already said it would be great to be able to "disable" the dream on one monitor.
I'm guessing this is up to MS to handle this though. What Agrabren explained about Multimon is what I've been doing manually with background images for years. I'm sure I'm not the only one. If that isn't handled within Windows by now I guess my request for Dream functionality is pretty far fetched
dxm765
Reply #27 Wednesday, November 28, 2007 3:23 PM
ok, what i have realized that with dual moniters, and having a killer pc, is that on mine i use about 5% on 2 of 4 CPU's..Is that i barely use any CPU when running Dreams, my spec's are on my profile, www.xfire.com/profile/logitechdude69
everything on my vista has been customized with Stardock app's, and most of them work, but the best that works for me, is the dreams
Reply #27 Wednesday, November 28, 2007 3:23 PM
If you want to try different videos on different monitors to see what the CPU load would be (or just to see what it would be like) you can try my SSDream application. It doesn't support the .dream file format, but it will play different WMV and MPEG files on each monitor.
On my:
6600 Core Duo 2.4ghz Over clocked to 3.2ghz
NVidia 8800 GTS
I get a 14% CPU load when I run two MPEG2 videos:
Ripple Purple Rays MPEG2(1152x720) on the 24" 1920x1600 Monitor
Apollo v2 MPEG2(1024x768) on the 21" 1600x1200 Monitor
I get a 25% CPU load when I run two WMV videos:
Ripple Purple Rays WMV(1920x1200) on the 24" 1920x1600 Monitor
Apollo v2 WMV(1600x1200) on the 21" 1600x1200 Monitor
These numbers a on par with what I'm seeing if I add the CPU loads together when running them separately.
On my:
6600 Core Duo 2.4ghz Over clocked to 3.2ghz
NVidia 8800 GTS
I get a 14% CPU load when I run two MPEG2 videos:
Ripple Purple Rays MPEG2(1152x720) on the 24" 1920x1600 Monitor
Apollo v2 MPEG2(1024x768) on the 21" 1600x1200 Monitor
I get a 25% CPU load when I run two WMV videos:
Ripple Purple Rays WMV(1920x1200) on the 24" 1920x1600 Monitor
Apollo v2 WMV(1600x1200) on the 21" 1600x1200 Monitor
These numbers a on par with what I'm seeing if I add the CPU loads together when running them separately.
ok, what i have realized that with dual moniters, and having a killer pc, is that on mine i use about 5% on 2 of 4 CPU's..Is that i barely use any CPU when running Dreams, my spec's are on my profile, www.xfire.com/profile/logitechdude69
everything on my vista has been customized with Stardock app's, and most of them work, but the best that works for me, is the dreams
Excalpius
Reply #28 Wednesday, January 2, 2008 7:15 PM
Reply #28 Wednesday, January 2, 2008 7:15 PM
Neil Banfield said "Regarding the performance problems with multiple display adapters : Deskscapes is designed for systems with 1 or 2 monitors on a single video adapter. If you have more than 1 card then things are going to need to be sent from card to card and that can be slow."
I can confirm this. I was running two monitors off the same card, with a second card going unused/in reserve for SLI gaming. Deskscapes were running smooth and easy this way. However, I thought to myself that it made sense to have one card on one monitor and one on the other, so I switched. Sure enough, now Deskscapes are chugging along instead of baby smooth.
So if you are a multimonitor user, two monitors on the same card will give you much better results that one monitor for each of two cards. Seems counterintuitive in some ways, but apparently sending the video data across the PCIx bus from one card to the other SUCKS.
I can confirm this. I was running two monitors off the same card, with a second card going unused/in reserve for SLI gaming. Deskscapes were running smooth and easy this way. However, I thought to myself that it made sense to have one card on one monitor and one on the other, so I switched. Sure enough, now Deskscapes are chugging along instead of baby smooth.
So if you are a multimonitor user, two monitors on the same card will give you much better results that one monitor for each of two cards. Seems counterintuitive in some ways, but apparently sending the video data across the PCIx bus from one card to the other SUCKS.
Krazie_316
Reply #29 Monday, February 21, 2011 11:23 PM
Reply #29 Monday, February 21, 2011 11:23 PM
Well I was able to make a triple monitor dreamscene but I had to run eyefinity and fraps just to make the video the right resolution so that it would not stretch and distort. I'm still having issues transcoding into .wmv if the video is too long there's always some form of distortion so the video must be short like 10-20 seconds which isn't really that short at all.
This is my desktop note that the jumpiness from the video is not the fault of my computer, but the Droid X I'm recording with in low light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5G5rlXHFEo&hd=1
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Reply #21 Sunday, July 15, 2007 7:51 AM
However, I am thinking of getting into it - I did get WindowsBlinds many years ago in an early incarnation, but never really got further into it. As an impressive side note, many years later I get into GalCiv and discover the full scope of Stardock for the first time. So, I register GalCiv II having got hooked, open Stardock Central in the course of my travels for further knowledge on Stardock, and sitting there is my registration from years back of WindowsBlinds, it wasnt even on my current PC of the time. That was impressive, as I had also changed basic email addys in the meantime, and to be honest had not made the connection between WindowsBlinds/GalCiv/Stardock before, the mindset was Product orientated not source orientated.
Anyway - enough ramblings ....
Advice would be greatfully received. Basic spec is AMD FX60 Dual Core, twin Nvidia 7800GTX 256mb in SLI, 2Gb Ram, 1Tb RAID, ASUS A8N32-SLI-Deluxe motherboard.
Noted discussion above re separate monitors and its effect on Dreams, with the info concerning the preference for a single video card to limit performance issues. With the setup I described, is the SLI pairing of the cards seen by the software as "one card", or two - the mindset here is the comment about its better to have one card driving two monitors with dreams (I have two, a 19" CRT, and a 20" Belina LCD, hooked up, CRT at 1856 x 1392 and the LCD 1680 x 1050 ).
Second and last question - Vista. User views of ObjectDeskTop under Vista? (I have XP Pro and will stay there for at least another year until Vista settles, just peaking over the hill re effect on ObjectDeskTop)
Just general views, nothing intense, I am just touching on all bases in the final stage of yes or no to getting the full blown ObjectDeskTop.