Dual Monitor Support

[groovycthulhu]

What I'm giving a try is opening two Fantasy Ground sessions. One in each monitor. Seems to work OK so far.

[DoubleDanGaming]

What I'm giving a try is opening two Fantasy Ground sessions. One in each monitor. Seems to work OK so far.

Not something, however, that works on macOS. The OS only allows a single instance of FGU to run at any given time. Trying to force a new instance to open simply changes the active window to the initial instance. Dual monitor (or more) support would be much admired!

[dmbrown]

For Mac people if you want to use two monitors you'll need to go to "System Preferences" then click on "Mission Control" and uncheck "Displays have operate spaces". You'll either need to logout and back in or restart your machine. This will allow you to stretch FG across 2 monitors.

If you want to get 2 instance of FGU running on a Mac. Go to the Smiteworks folder in your applications and duplicate the Fantasy grounds app. Then you can name it PC (player character) or something like that. Then start your main FG app and then host a game locally. Then click on the second instance to start it up and then click on join campaign and enter "localhost" in the "Join by IP and Port". It will take a long time but eventually it will load and that will give you the view of a PC.

[DoubleDanGaming]

If you want to get 2 instance of FGU running on a Mac. Go to the Smiteworks folder in your applications and duplicate the Fantasy grounds app. Then you can name it PC (player character) or something like that. Then start your main FG app and then host a game locally. Then click on the second instance to start it up and then click on join campaign and enter "localhost" in the "Join by IP and Port". It will take a long time but eventually it will load and that will give you the view of a PC.

Neat trick, but only useful if you only plan to host a game over local LAN. Utterly useless if you want to run over the cloud.

The other suggestion is more useful, if slightly aggravating to those of us with OCD about such things. Thanks!

[curtcleancut]

So, I have figured out some things with this since I originally posted the question. For FGC, I go in to my NVidia Control panel (I believe ATI has something similar) and set two of my three monitors to span into one display. Then just turn the third one back on as an additional monitor, this let FGC "full screen" stretched across two monitors. Works well enough. If you are also using Discord and have to close it, you'll want to make sure you primary monitors is *not* the spanned display or discord doesn't start properly.

For FGU (which we just started goofing with last night actually) it stretches across monitors a little more cleanly, but it doesn't seem to want to respect the spanned displays. By that I mean, even if the displays are spanned as above, when I full screen, it snaps to only one physical monitor, similar to how Chrome acts if folks are familiar with spanning.

If the dev team sees this (yeah, some thread necromancy has happened) do we know if this one physical monitors snapping is intentional and if there could be an option to enable/encourage snapping to the full spanned virtual display? Having the screen stretched is an ok work around, but full screening hides the windows tool bar and the top menu bar and is just generally cleaner.

Thanks and I hope that helps.

Thank you for the advice and I previously explored the idea to stretch the app across multiple screens, but that still doesn't serve the purpose when the user would like or needs to flip through screens or information quickly such as being able to have separate pop out windows that function independently. Pop out windows are a form of built in functionality for most applications these days. For instance, I could open Roll20, MS Teams, or Excel and work through a single open program, but use pop-out windows to organize my information or quickly flip through the information. This mechanism would especially be helpful with multiple monitors. For example, the DM could have a dedicated fully expanded pop-out window on a dedicated screen for the game map used in tracking and interaction of the character's minis. On the other monitor, the DM dedicated adventure notes with player information before him. Now that two screens are set up, other app can now be opened at the same time to allow the user to flip screens on one monitor without interference of the dedicated map monitor.

The stretch monitors is still cluttered and requires a constant arrangement of open and closed windows if you run out of room to view things. Especially true if flipping screens and apps. It's just less user friendly and less simplistic. Don't get me wrong - I like this application, but this is just a low hanging fruit that most frequent computer users would expect as standard functionality. Again, it's a critique that I strongly think would add value to the product as people move toward this form of gaming.

[damned]

Thank you for the advice and I previously explored the idea to stretch the app across multiple screens, but that still doesn't serve the purpose when the user would like or needs to flip through screens or information quickly such as being able to have separate pop out windows that function independently. Pop out windows are a form of built in functionality for most applications these days. For instance, I could open Roll20, MS Teams, or Excel and work through a single open program, but use pop-out windows to organize my information or quickly flip through the information. This mechanism would especially be helpful with multiple monitors. For example, the DM could have a dedicated fully expanded pop-out window on a dedicated screen for the game map used in tracking and interaction of the character's minis. On the other monitor, the DM dedicated adventure notes with player information before him. Now that two screens are set up, other app can now be opened at the same time to allow the user to flip screens on one monitor without interference of the dedicated map monitor.

The stretch monitors is still cluttered and requires a constant arrangement of open and closed windows if you run out of room to view things. Especially true if flipping screens and apps. It's just less user friendly and less simplistic. Don't get me wrong - I like this application, but this is just a low hanging fruit that most frequent computer users would expect as standard functionality. Again, it's a critique that I strongly think would add value to the product as people move toward this form of gaming.

Some clarity here.
Most programs in this case means less than 1% of all programs.
Roll20 is a browser. It uses the browsers windowing capability.

Windows in Fantasy Grounds are not actually windows and cant be manipulated the way windows are in your operating system.
At this stage there is no immediate plans for pop out windows as the interface does not support them.

[DoubleDanGaming]

Some clarity here.
Most programs in this case means less than 1% of all programs.
Roll20 is a browser. It uses the browsers windowing capability.

Windows in Fantasy Grounds are not actually windows and cant be manipulated the way windows are in your operating system.
At this stage there is no immediate plans for pop out windows as the interface does not support them.

The ability to do so, or even add an option to allow a second window associated with the first, would increase usability quite a bit. I rock 2 27" monitors and a 21" Cintiq, and being limited to one screen even with all the real estate is kind of abrasive. Being able to stretch the window out across multiple screens does help a lot, but actual integration within the program itself would be preferred.

[damned]

The ability to do so, or even add an option to allow a second window associated with the first, would increase usability quite a bit. I rock 2 27" monitors and a 21" Cintiq, and being limited to one screen even with all the real estate is kind of abrasive. Being able to stretch the window out across multiple screens does help a lot, but actual integration within the program itself would be preferred.

i understand that.
But by saying or once or 16x doesnt change whether it can or will be done.
There are an infinite number of things in this world that could be better if....

[DoubleDanGaming]

i understand that.
But by saying or once or 16x doesnt change whether it can or will be done.
There are an infinite number of things in this world that could be better if....

Look, I'm not demanding that it be done. I'm just politely adding my voice to the group of individuals who would like it to be taken under consideration, that's all.

[LordEntrails]

This gets to be a frustrating discussion for folks that have been around the forums for awhile. Its not because we don't want the same things. But its because their are thousands of posts of discussion on this topic. And it is the #1 wanted item on the wishlist.

Jumping in and saying "I want this too" is understandable. But being frustrated by repetitive discussions is understandable too. We all want to answer and engage with every discussion or question, but it can be frustrating too.

If anyone wants to know why this won't be done, search for the dozens of threads on this topic and read the discussions. Pay particular attention to those replies by the Devs (Moon Wizard, ddavison, carlpinder). EDIT: And these comments from the Devs show that they understand the issue, that they would like it too, but that with the way FG is architected its not something that can be done with a reasonable amount of resources. When it can be, it will be.