Question on networked FS2002's

[Jonas]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-14-03 AT 05:32AM (EST)[/font][p]First of all, I am completely new to this so forgive me if the answers are common things in the cockpit builder community :)

1: Does the GeForce2 MX/400 have support for 2 monitors? If so could someone please explain the process of setting up another monitor so I can build a simple cockpit?

2: If not, is it possible to network 2 computers running 2 FS2002's, one with the visuals and another with a panel? If so, what programs will I need? I already have a network. And this might be totally useless but would a P-166 run FS2002 with just the 2D panel open?

Thanks in advance

[burningdesire]

G'day,
I too am no expert, but I have seen this posted a few times. In fact I asked the same question when I first came to the forum. Unfortunately, I have not had the time or money to actually start building my cockpit.
In answer to your question, there are three ways I can think of to run mulitple monitors.
1) If you have a good enough computer you can either
A) get two video cards. I think there are some restrictions on this but I am not too sure.
B) get one video card that has two separate outputs.
With these, you have to undock your panel from the first monitor and drag it to the second.
OR
2) It is possible to network computers. This can be done with any number, from two to ten. To do this you will need a program called WideFS. This is a freeware program that I think can be downloaded from the flightsim.com file library.

That's about it really. If anyone knows any more about this, please correct me. These are just my assumptions about how it works from the posts I've read here.

Oh well, I hope this helped and when you build this cockpit, please post some photos here, I'm sure we'd all love to see them.

Good Flying everyone!!

Dave

[Jonas]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-14-03 AT 05:50PM (EST)[/font][p]Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, I don't really have the budget for another video card as I would rather spend my money on building the sim itself, and I am pretty sure that my Geforce 2 MX/400 doesn't have 2 outputs. Can anyone confirm this for me?

So I guess I go with networking. I have had some trouble with WideFS in the past (with other cockpit projects, namely some to do with Precision Simulator) but I know where to go if I have trouble this time ;)

Another bummer is that my P-166 might just chug along with networking and FS2002. I hope not. I reformatted everything off it, and now the CD drive doesn't work :@ Worst of all it's running Windows95. I might have to buy another second hand computer with some money left over.

So can anyone here confirm that the Geforce MX/400 does NOT have the possibility for 2 outputs?

EDIT: Looked at NVIDIA website, it says that all MX series have TwinView, a possibility for 2 monitors. But the card I have doesn't have 2 outputs? Do I need a special cable?

Thanks again.

[donbaril]

Hi Jonas, If the Geforce MX400 is like the geforce2 I had, dual output was an option. To tell for sure look at the back of your video card (where the monitor plugs in) if there is another output then you can hook up another monitor.
If not then I suggest getting a PCI video card you can sometimes pick up a used one cheap. I does not require a lot of megs as you could use it to display - control panel, GPS & radio stack, they only use 2d.
As for networking your 166 won't do mutch in flightsim, usually when people network PC's using WideView, they are using them for differnt views. They require a higher processor for that.
Don

[tigert]

> If not then I
>suggest getting a PCI video
>card you can sometimes pick
>up a used one cheap.
>I does not require a
>lot of megs as you
>could use it to display
>- control panel, GPS &
>radio stack, they only use
>2d.

I can second that. Is the videocard on the P166 a PCI one? If it is, you can test things out with that one. Just stick it in the "bigger" PC into a free PCI slot and install drivers etc, and enable it as a second monitor, while the 3D card is the primary display. That's how I do it and it works really well, does not really have a framerate hit at all if you just move the 2D panel to the other screen. The second videocard can really be as low end as you can find, any VGA one should do. It's more a question if you can find a PCI one than if the card you can find is good enough. I have a Matrox Mystique myself, with 2MB of video memory etc, it was a nice card in 1995 or so.. works fine on the panel.

Remember ventilation if you are to build a box around the "panel" monitor, those make lots of heat. So biiiig holes on the glareshield top above the monitor, or a big square hole with some grid or something so it does not overheat.

Tuomas

--
[font size="-2" color="#ccbbaa"]DISCLAIMER: Whatever I say, any modifications you do to your hardware are done with your own risk.[/font]

[Jonas]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-21-03 AT 02:32AM (EST)[/font][p]Excellent, I do have a S3 ViRgE PCI in the 166!

How do I tell the computer though which is the 'correct' videocard to use primarily?

This is working out very, very good :)

[tigert]

>[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-21-03
>AT 02:32 AM (EST)[/font]
>
>Excellent, I do have a S3
>ViRgE PCI in the 166!
>
>
>How do I tell the computer
>though which is the 'correct'
>videocard to use primarily?

First after you add the card Windows probably wants to install drivers for it which is a good idea. They dont need to be the latest spankin' new ones since this is only for 2D, so if it suggests a driver that comes with windows, it might be just fine.

Once that is done, right click on the desktop on the monitor that shows the windows desktop and you should have two monitors there now instead of one. You can select which one is the primary etc.. so click the "new" monitor and check the "(x) Extend windows desktop to this monitor" checkbox and you should get picture on the second monitor. Then you can move panels there once on FS2002.

(IF you have a NVidia card you might need to reboot after you setup or change the monitor configuration - some nvidia drivers have some kind of a bug that Windows complains directX cannot use 3d acceleration if you have changed the screen configurations, took me a week to figure that out :-/ So rebooting and not touching the settings fixed it for me.)

In FS2002 right click a panel and choose "Undock window" and move it to the second screen. You might want to check out FS Panel Studio (or your favorite text editor if you are brave) and make a custom panel that is completely full screen and contains just gauges on black background.

Tuomas

[Jonas]

Great! Thanks for the detailed explanation :) I'll try it sometime this week and tell you whats happening with it.

Just one more question. Say that I want a complicated 3rd party panel (like some of the 747-400 ones in the library, or if there is a TCAS gauge or 'extra' features etc. Will this degrade framerates more than say a simple Cessna default panel? What exactly is the 'limit' for panels on a 2mb card?

[tigert]

>Just one more question. Say that
>I want a complicated 3rd
>party panel (like some of
>the 747-400 ones in the
>library, or if there is
>a TCAS gauge or 'extra'
>features etc. Will this degrade
>framerates more than say a
>simple Cessna default panel? What
>exactly is the 'limit' for
>panels on a 2mb card?

I guess gauges dont use DirectX 3D stuff, but I think you just need to try. You can just drag the panel in question to the second monitor first and see if it works okay there. Then once you find a set of gauges you want, you need to construct a custom panel, you probably want to do one that fills the whole screen - or most of it if you want to have Squawkbox or something take part of that. Or maybe a GPS or something. Takes some planning, a good way to try out if things work is to do some test "panels" from cardboard, just cut holes on it on appropriate places and try what works for you best, then once you find a satisfactory setup, do it from plywood.

Tuomas

[Jonas]

It works! lol. Thanks for all your help everyone, I am able to drag my panels across.. also I didn't tell you this but I also have 3D glasses (eDimensional) and was hoping they would work too and they do! Now I just have to set it all up like a fancy cockpit lol.

Thanks again everyone