Hi William,To chime in here, I have nothing to add to what Vic said. My reasons are identical to his for paying to be here (I did from the start), *and* help run the joint. But, because of the fact that there are no children here (or adults acting like children), "running the joint" is actually a very easy task.
Multiple monitors.....
I've been using 3 monitors for I guess about 4 or 5 years now. However, until FS9, I could not put a 3d view on a second monitor without a HUGE frame-rate hit which made the sim unflyable. My monitors were/are all on the same PC. Sure, many folks used WideView and multiple *PCs* to run the setup, but that was never a real option for me. So, back then (before FS9), I would put FSNav on one screen, and the radio stack and throttle/prop/mix on another, saving the main view for the 3d world.
Now finally with DX9 and FS9 (hmmm...both 9s<g>) they got over the hurdle to allow the secondary video cards to handle their own stuff, and we can finally have more than one 3d view! There's still a frame-rate hit, but it's most certainly flyable most of the time. I generally fly with the main view up front, and 45 degree views on the other two monitors. My frame-rates (from the default 20) will drop to anywhere from 6 to 15, but generally is around 12. Hell, for the additional views the hit is worth it.
Obviously, the better the video card(s), the better the performance. One option is the Matrox Parhelia which will drive 3 monitors. I have that card on one of my computers with only 2 monitors, but not my main flying rig. The drawback (to me) is that Matrox *stretches* the display amongst the monitors, so in essence you wind up with one elongated forward view. There may be other ways to set it up, but I could not find one. The real kicker with the Parhelia (for me) is that it also stretches the main Window (not using FS here) the same way. I use multiple monitors for everyday work as well, so I might have email on one monitor, Internet explorer going on another, and word running on the third. The Parhelia is mostly game oriented, and does not handle this task the way I like. I'm sure I will be corrected by Parhelia owners here on the above. I'll admit, that I didn't give it a fair shake, but I will report that my setup below has better framerates than I saw with the parhelia. That could be due to the fact that (my) Parhelia is of the 128meg variety, so that's 3 monitors sharing 128meg (~43 meg/display). My setup below is 64meg/display so perhaps that's where the extra performance is.
My FS rig has a GeForce4 Ti4600 (AGP) to drive 2 monitors, and a second Geforce3 64meg PCI card driving the third. This works great for me with respect to both situations above. Using FS, I have my main (forward) 3d view on the center monitor, then open 45 degree views on the other two monitors. Using Windows in "everyday" mode, each monitor is treated as a separate desktop which is the way I'm accustomed to working with multiple displays.
Costwise, it's not cheap...nor is it exorbitantly expensive. Obviously, two more monitors, and if you have the $$ get LCD screens so they don't take up too much room nor generate as much heat. Then the video cards. If you are getting good performance on the AGP card you're using, then you could simply add two PCI cards to drive the other monitors. That's what I did before I got the Ti4600. Decent PCI cards are back in vogue since MM setups are becoming more common, and adding a PCI card or two is generally the cheapest way to get the job done.
I hope this helps a bit. Give me a shout if you need any more info.
--Greenie
**6 miles SSE KSJC**
-= VPC OffLine Reader 2.1 =-
Registered to: Mike Greenwood
-OLR.PL v1.80-
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