PDA

View Full Version : Dual-Monitor support?



Disturbedone0777
August 4th, 2014, 01:03
So I am loving this program. Only had it about a week now and have been playing around with options and such. I've noticed that as a GM I usually could use more table space. I decided to hook up my second monitor, but there doesn't appear to be a dual monitor support option. I can stretch the program across the two screens but since they operate on two resolutions, it looks pretty horrid. Just curious if there is another means of running dual monitors or if there is a plan in the future to add this sort of feature?

Trenloe
August 4th, 2014, 01:56
Stretching it across 2 screens is what you have to do currently.

There is an entry for this in the FG wishlist: https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=54190 Go ahead and vote! :)

Disturbedone0777
August 4th, 2014, 02:24
Up voted, and thanks for the help on both my quandaries.

Samarex
November 23rd, 2015, 23:07
So in that Idea Moon Wizard talks about 2 instances and Connection with the second using "localhost". I tried it and it worked ok (other than having 2 chat boxes and 2 menu sections it was ok).


moon_wizard, 19.07.2015, 13:51
All the things you mention can be done today, by running 2 instances of FG on same machine and placing each instance on its own monitor.

In fact, this works better, since you then have a GM instance with all GM info, and a player instance with player only info that is shared to projected surface. I have heard reports that most GMs using FG for live play use it in this way.

moon_wizard, 20.07.2015, 00:55
Only one license is required to run 2 instances on the same machine. Just connect to "localhost" for the host name when you Join Game on the second instance.

But the issue is that only works for GM's. As a player I would want to be able to do the same thing, is there a way without actually connecting to the host but connecting to mine

Trenloe
November 23rd, 2015, 23:29
But the issue is that only works for GM's. As a player I would want to be able to do the same thing, is there a way without actually connecting to the host but connecting to mine
No, you can only run one instance of FG as a player connected to the same campaign on the same computer.

Moon Wizard
November 24th, 2015, 01:40
Also, you can log into as many characters as you like on each player instance, so there's rarely need for more than one player instance anyway.

Regards,
JPG

Samarex
November 25th, 2015, 08:24
So there is no possable way to get a second monitor involved if your a player. you can only have a second monitor if your a GM.

Samarex
November 25th, 2015, 08:26
Also, you can log into as many characters as you like on each player instance, so there's rarely need for more than one player instance anyway.

Regards,
JPG

Its not the idea of more than one player its wanting to have more space to play the 1 player with.

Samarex
November 25th, 2015, 10:17
Ok I concede on the Dual Monitor .( I have lowered the resolution of my primary mon to match the height of my secondary mon so that I can do the Stretch Option)
This works until hopefully Dual Mon support can be put in. (Or at least into Table Top Connect)
But have a small request I don't think it would be too hard as most of it is all ready there.
Could use 2 slash commands. 1- /saveuisettings 2-loaduisettings
Right now after I went thru and set up all my windows the way I want them on my table top and saved it I searched and found the windowstate.xml. now I copied that in another campaign and loaded that campaign and it worked perfect all the windows open in the same position.
So for save command it would prompt for a file name and save it in a folder somewhere in the game.
then when you want to apply it to a new campaign you could do the load command -select the file from a prompt- and it would save it in the current open campaign as windowstate.xml

Just a Idea

damned
November 25th, 2015, 10:20
Hi Samarex... do the drag across two screens - its not perfect but it does work.

Samarex
November 25th, 2015, 10:30
Hi Samarex... do the drag across two screens - its not perfect but it does work.

Yes that's what I was referring to by the Stretch Option. Between that and /scaleui down to 65 its all readable and I can get everything I want up on the 2 screens

Griogre
November 25th, 2015, 18:24
Typically you don't usually have to change your resolutions unless you have a such a large difference that you lose the PC or token buttons on the right side. Try just putting the text heavy Combat tracker and/or character sheet on the screen in lower resolution. This will help with the text. Even if you do lose a button on the right side of the FG desktop you can just drag FG back over and press the button but during actual game play once you gotten your character sheet open, I think most people only mess with the Library and Notes buttons.

I personally as a GM only use 1 1/2 screens for FG and the other half screen for a PDF, TeamSpeak or a Browser. I have different sized monitors and while I lose some of the Top of the FG desktop on the half screen it doesn't effect the game and the extra space is worth.

midas
November 25th, 2015, 20:05
I didn't have much loss when I had a 1920x1200 monitor and 1920x1080 monitor. Now that my primary monitor is 3840x2160 however, stretching to the second screen isn't much of an option anymore. ;)

Samarex
November 26th, 2015, 00:10
I changed out the second Mon today with the kids, So now they match 1600x900 and 1360x900 instead of having to drop to x768 before.

damned
November 26th, 2015, 11:19
I didn't have much loss when I had a 1920x1200 monitor and 1920x1080 monitor. Now that my primary monitor is 3840x2160 however, stretching to the second screen isn't much of an option anymore. ;)

What do you need another monitor for when you already have 4 full HD screens worth of real estate?
:) Ok, ok, Moar!

midas
November 26th, 2015, 14:56
What do you need another monitor for when you already have 4 full HD screens worth of real estate?
:) Ok, ok, Moar!

For those DMs that make giant maps that I can still barely fit on my screen!

jajen2003
November 27th, 2015, 13:27
Second monitor support would be nice.

Until then, I've figured out a way to reduce my panels used down to just 2: A resized map window and my combat tracker. I link everything but PC/NPC character sheets with either pins on the map or hotkeys along the bottom, opening and closing them when I need to. As far as PC/NPC character sheets, I simply open them from the map/combat tracker when I need them, and then close them when not.

It keeps my screen pretty clear when I play. A middle-click mouse is also a big help, since I can drag the map view around quickly and easily. Best $6 Logitech Mouse I've ever purchased. I used to use my MagicMouse and hotkeys and it was a pain with the single screen.

iiiTRiBEiii
August 21st, 2016, 13:53
Yes vote here. Doesn't make much sense that this ISN'T supported. Being able to keep misc data on a second screen would help immensely and I haven't even started DM'ing yet...

Paranormal GM
August 21st, 2016, 16:23
I use dual monitors like this

15081

Myrdin Potter
August 21st, 2016, 18:37
I use three monitors when I DM at home. Really miss it when I travel and have to use my laptop.

Stretching it over multiple monitors work, but having windows independent of the program frame so I could just drag them over to another monitor would be better. Since stretching works, I hope that other things like UI cleaning up and improvements come first.

The only real issue with stretching you need to be careful about is the maximize button and how you do the initial stretching as you'll often end up snapping the program to your main monitor only if you are not careful.

damned
August 22nd, 2016, 00:18
Yes vote here. Doesn't make much sense that this ISN'T supported. Being able to keep misc data on a second screen would help immensely and I haven't even started DM'ing yet...

Hi again iiiTRiBEiii while you say it doesnt make much sense that this isnt supported... I bet you cant name more than a dozen programs (out of the hundreds of thousands that are out there) that do support this style of multi screen. Its a technical issue. Very, very few applications support that ability to undock part of the screen and move it to another.
You can drag it across multiple screens - which isnt as nice - particularly if you have different size/resolution screens - but it does work.

Galach
August 22nd, 2016, 03:20
I use dua monitor too. To do that, I just need to:

1. "Restore Window"
2. "Resize" FG so it go to the second monitor;
3. Take care to not make the FG Window "touch" the upper parte of the second monitor, like when you want to make a window full screen in windows 8/10; if that happens, you will end with a full screen on the first monitor.

The FG window will be resized to occupy all the are on both monitors. The only glitch I notice is if your second monitor is smaller than the first, the lower part of the window, with the quick slots would no be visible on it.

It works for me on Windows 8, 10 and Linux Mint 17.

LordEntrails
August 24th, 2016, 15:52
...
3. Take care to not make the FG Window "touch" the upper parte of the second monitor, like when you want to make a window full screen in windows 8/10; if that happens, you will end with a full screen on the first monitor.
...
For thos of you who do not like this behavior, it's a Window's setting you can turn off.

Nylanfs
August 24th, 2016, 16:42
What's the setting called?

Edit: Found it, Snap Assist under System > Multitasking

Tuendal
August 24th, 2016, 23:30
So support for Dual Monitor's i understand is or can be difficult to program, but as i saw mentioned earlier, what about allowing elements to be undocked completely and allow those windows to be moved around? Instead of having everything stuck inside the FG main container, could they be allowed to be undocked similar to programs like Gimp? Where you can either have it all as a single window or separate elements that you could move around and thus better utilize dual monitors. I use dual monitors and it would be nice potentially move portions of the menus or other items over to one screen or configure them how i want them to look to allow me to arrange it somewhat more readily for my play style or hopefully future DMing. Just curious of that would be an option to consider.

LordEntrails
August 24th, 2016, 23:37
So support for Dual Monitor's i understand is or can be difficult to program, but as i saw mentioned earlier, what about allowing elements to be undocked completely and allow those windows to be moved around? Instead of having everything stuck inside the FG main container, could they be allowed to be undocked similar to programs like Gimp? Where you can either have it all as a single window or separate elements that you could move around and thus better utilize dual monitors. I use dual monitors and it would be nice potentially move portions of the menus or other items over to one screen or configure them how i want them to look to allow me to arrange it somewhat more readily for my play style or hopefully future DMing. Just curious of that would be an option to consider.
Welcome to the community :)
You can vote for this idea here: https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=54190

The current application is limited by the underlying architecture. SmiteWorks is in the process of rebuilding/porting the application over to the Unity engine. You can find more information on the Unity migration by searching the forums as it is often discussed.

Tuendal
August 24th, 2016, 23:54
thanks for the link. I have added my vote. And glad to be a part of the community :) looking forward to all the cool stuff coming down the pipe.

damned
August 25th, 2016, 01:46
So support for Dual Monitor's i understand is or can be difficult to program, but as i saw mentioned earlier, what about allowing elements to be undocked completely and allow those windows to be moved around? Instead of having everything stuck inside the FG main container, could they be allowed to be undocked similar to programs like Gimp? Where you can either have it all as a single window or separate elements that you could move around and thus better utilize dual monitors. I use dual monitors and it would be nice potentially move portions of the menus or other items over to one screen or configure them how i want them to look to allow me to arrange it somewhat more readily for my play style or hopefully future DMing. Just curious of that would be an option to consider.

Again - very, very few programs have this support.
One of the primary goals of the Unity project is to deliver native applications for more Operating Systems so the multi-screen support - however its delivered (and this is one option) - will need to be cross platform ready. Im pretty sure that they are testing a cross-platform library for this but there is no official word on how the multi-monitor support might be progressing or whether it will be available with build 1 or later. The devs are certainly aware that many people would like this if its possible.

Unahim
October 15th, 2017, 09:41
I use dua monitor too. To do that, I just need to:

1. "Restore Window"
2. "Resize" FG so it go to the second monitor;
3. Take care to not make the FG Window "touch" the upper parte of the second monitor, like when you want to make a window full screen in windows 8/10; if that happens, you will end with a full screen on the first monitor.

The FG window will be resized to occupy all the are on both monitors. The only glitch I notice is if your second monitor is smaller than the first, the lower part of the window, with the quick slots would no be visible on it.

It works for me on Windows 8, 10 and Linux Mint 17.

My first monitor is 1920 x 1080, my second is 1360 x 760, so I don't lose only the "quick slots", I lose a very large amount of menu options along the bottom or top of the screen, an unplayably large amount.

If I change my resolution on the first monitor to 1360 x 768 as well then I don't really gain any space at all compared to just doing single monitor!

Single monitor, 1920 x 1080 = 2073600 worth of "room".
Dual monitor, 1360 x 760 x 2 = 2088960 worth of "room".

So I gain pretty much nothing, in fact I lose because the menu bar at the bottom of the screen (which I like to keep to switch to my pds and other resources) takes up more room comparatively, and forcing such lower res on this size monitor is a pretty nauseating experience.

"Not many programs have dual monitor support": perhaps true, but not many programs need it quite this badly. I was running Out of the Abyss last week, and at some point I had over 5 "layers" of notes, documents and libraries all open over eachother. It was utter madness to try and find anything I needed. There really is no other feature I care about more at this point.

LordEntrails
October 15th, 2017, 10:10
@Unahim,
I think we all understand your pain. But at the moment there is not much anyone can do except for the things already suggested.

The one thing that I've seen work with other programs on platforms with dual monitors or differing resolution, is that sometime the graphics driver can treat differing resolutions as a single monitor and can scale the window differentially across the two monitors. So, the take-away is play with your graphics driver settings and see if you can get something better.