Curious there was no multi monitor thread started specifically for ATI Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround, I thought I dig into how this was accomplished in Irrlicht. As a Nvidia user myself, I found the following document for utilizing Nvidia Surround in game development.
Nvidia Surround - http://developer.download.nvidia.com/wh ... sGuide.pdf
While it was very easy to get a screen resolution spanning accross all 3 monitors using irrlicht's built in functions when creating the video device, using the bezel corrected functions from the Nvidia API is something that would make alot of sense when it comes to HUD placement over a standard aspect ratio single monitor setup.
Has anyone begun to look into integrating this (and the ati eyefinity counterpart) into the Irrlicht engine or has this multi monitor feature not become popular enough to implement?
ATI Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround
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Re: ATI Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround
Two problems may have prohibited more concentrated work so far: Test systems and ease of use. Even though I have a multi monitor system, it's on an Intel gfx card system, which means that I cannot test any of the APIs live. And it's problematic to add more libs without having a working version with and without the availability of the libs. I'd like to avoid having too many additional libs being required for Irrlicht, so support has to be optional and users should be able to easily compile for any lib without much overhead.
But yeah, if you provide some code to support additional screen resolution tests or setup code it would definitely help. The patch tracker is a good place to insert those code fragments.
But yeah, if you provide some code to support additional screen resolution tests or setup code it would definitely help. The patch tracker is a good place to insert those code fragments.
Re: ATI Eyefinity and Nvidia Surround
Multi monitor setups have increased in popularity; more and more games are added to the supported list on ATI and Nvidia's website every month. I, for one, am more inclined to allow HUD objects to be "unlockable" and be user customized, either through .ini configuration or in game. Irrlicht is able to detect the current screen resolution but the trouble is introduced with the user customized bezel corrected resolutions. The options at that point become introducing the Nvidia/Ati APIs to the irrlicht engine for a default HUD placement, or allowing the user to manually set the locations of them.
Its been long enough since I have worked with the Irrlicht GUI system to remeber exactly, but I'd imagine it might be easier to put objects in window containers and just make note of the window placements in an .ini when they are "unlocked" and "locked".
That may be a good quick fix, but I'll have to do some more research on the other problems introduced by multi monitor gaming and monitors that may not be orientated lanscape.
A good example of a "badly supported" multi monitor support is League of Legends. The game will render across all screens, but animation and special effects stop outside the central screen "view port", and the HUD is changed only by manual .ini edits by the user outside the game. I want to make sure any game I release would deal with those issues better then that. Its primarily the negative experience with this game that has inspired me into making sure mine will support multi monitor setups.
Its been long enough since I have worked with the Irrlicht GUI system to remeber exactly, but I'd imagine it might be easier to put objects in window containers and just make note of the window placements in an .ini when they are "unlocked" and "locked".
That may be a good quick fix, but I'll have to do some more research on the other problems introduced by multi monitor gaming and monitors that may not be orientated lanscape.
A good example of a "badly supported" multi monitor support is League of Legends. The game will render across all screens, but animation and special effects stop outside the central screen "view port", and the HUD is changed only by manual .ini edits by the user outside the game. I want to make sure any game I release would deal with those issues better then that. Its primarily the negative experience with this game that has inspired me into making sure mine will support multi monitor setups.