[Hardware] Things *not* to do on the day before pay day...

(Tony R) wrote:

> I am using a TH2go now also with one LCD and 2 CRTs but I don't
> notice the 60Hz issue.

Interesting. Obviously it's early days for me, and I'll have to do some
tinkering. As much as I'd like an excuse to upgrade to matched screens
(especially as three decent 1280x1024 or halfway decent 1680x1050
widescreens would cost me much less than the 17" CRT cost when new!) I
hate waste, and it would hurt to exile the CRTs to the unwanted heap of
junk. So if I get some use out of them, albeit at the expense of a bit
more electricity, I won't mind keeping them on the desk.

The desk will no doubt have other ideas. Every time I come back from work
I expect to find it's collapsed!

Andrew McP

On Sep 4, 1:14*am, (Andrew
MacPherson) wrote:
> (Tony R) wrote:
> > I am using a TH2go now also with one LCD and 2 CRTs but I don't
> > notice the 60Hz issue.
>
> Interesting. Obviously it's early days for me, and I'll have to do some
> tinkering. As much as I'd like an excuse to upgrade to matched screens
> (especially as three *decent 1280x1024 or halfway decent 1680x1050
> widescreens would cost me much less than the 17" CRT cost when new!) I
> hate waste, and it would hurt to exile the CRTs to the unwanted heap of
> junk. So if I get some use out of them, albeit at the expense of a bit
> more electricity, I won't mind keeping them on the desk.
>
> The desk will no doubt have other ideas. Every time I come back from work
> I expect to find it's collapsed!
>
> Andrew McP

Andrew you should try using this util if it'll work for the card/
screen combo you have going.
http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/

Being able to set each screen independantly is a huge bonus.

As you were saying earlier, this isn't like the Track IR - this feels
way more natural. I think it's the closest we can probably get to true
peripheral vision.

(Tim Wheatley) wrote:

> Being able to set each screen independantly is a huge bonus.

Yes, the only thing stopping me trying that was the lack of a second vid
card slot. I do have a vanilla-PCI Voodoo5, but I'm not sure the ancient
3rd party drivers will co-exist safely with an otherwise stable setup.

The refresh rate thing is going to be an issue for me though. I could
never stand 60Hz straight in front of me, and it's worse (for me anyway)
at the sides.

Still, this week has shown me there's no going back, so unless the pound
weakens even more than it is (hardware prices are already rising here!)
I'm either going to have to upgrade my motherboard to SLI for softTH, or
my monitors for the Triplehead. The only good news is that all the racing
sims I've tried so far seem to have managed fine with my 8800GTS 320Mb.
Games like Crysis require some significant cutting back (and absolutely
crawls at high settings), but still manage to run quite respectably. The
gain in width is actually a fair swap for the high levels of special
effects, so I'm too impressed by what I've gained to think about what
I've lost.

I imagine a new vid card will still cross my path before too long... if
only as an investment. If the UK pound tanks much more (and I think it
will) the vid card'll be worth more in 6 months than I pay for it now. Of
course if the dollar starts re-tanking to match the DOW, I may merely
break even. But those are the risks you take when you speculate on the
international hardware markets. :-)

Andrew McP

On Sep 4, 7:31*pm, (Andrew
MacPherson) wrote:
> (Tim Wheatley) wrote:
> > Being able to set each screen independantly is a huge bonus.
>
> Yes, the only thing stopping me trying that was the lack of a second vid
> card slot. I do have a vanilla-PCI Voodoo5, but I'm not sure the ancient
> 3rd party drivers will co-exist safely with an otherwise stable setup.
>
> The refresh rate thing is going to be an issue for me though. I could
> never stand 60Hz straight in front of me, and it's worse (for me anyway)
> at the sides.
>
> Still, this week has shown me there's no going back, so unless the pound
> weakens even more than it is (hardware prices are already rising here!)
> I'm either going to have to upgrade my motherboard to SLI for softTH, or
> my monitors for the Triplehead. The only good news is that all the racing
> sims I've tried so far seem to have managed fine with my 8800GTS 320Mb.
> Games like Crysis require some significant cutting back (and absolutely
> crawls at high settings), but still manage to run quite respectably. The
> gain in width is actually a fair swap for the high levels of special
> effects, so I'm too impressed by what I've gained to think about what
> I've lost.
>
> I imagine a new vid card will still cross my path before too long... if
> only as an investment. If the UK pound tanks much more (and I think it
> will) the vid card'll be worth more in 6 months than I pay for it now. Of
> course if the dollar starts re-tanking to match the DOW, I may merely
> break even. But those are the risks you take when you speculate on the
> international hardware markets. :-)
>
> Andrew McP

If it helps, I am using a Geforce 7900 PCI-E and 5600 AGP and get
decent framerates with iR. I was very surprised.

(Tim Wheatley) wrote:

> If it helps, I am using a Geforce 7900 PCI-E and 5600 AGP and get
> decent framerates with iR. I was very surprised.

I think it helps that the second card is doing very little work, just
catching data peeled off the main card, then lobbing it onto the third
screen. So in theory even the PCI card I hope to source will cope.
Whether the already congested PCI bus will cope is a different matter!

But something will definitely have to be done. I've no idea how Tony
manages with peripheral CRTs at 60Hz. I've had enough after ten minutes
or so, and it's taken the gloss off an otherwise exceptional experience.

Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

> But something will definitely have to be done. I've no idea how Tony
> manages with peripheral CRTs at 60Hz. I've had enough after ten minutes
> or so, and it's taken the gloss off an otherwise exceptional experience.

I don't know if it makes a difference but I run with vsync on locked at
60Hz. Normally I am fussy about refresh and when I used one of those 19"
monitors as a main screen (without using vsync) I had it wound up to 120Hz.

If ever Windows started without the monitor on it would default to 60Hz
and I had to restart it!

Might be worth trying with vsync if you aren't already.

Conversely I cannot run AA with Softth which is a showstopper for me and
hence why I prefer the TH2Go solution. Better a slightly lower res with
plenty of AA than a higher res with none IMHO as the lines on the track
side get all jaggy.

Cheers
Tony

(Tony R) wrote:

> Might be worth trying with vsync if you aren't already.

I'll certainly investigate further. You sound as fussy as me when it
comes to screen flicker, so I may be missing a trick.

> Conversely I cannot run AA with Softth which is a showstopper

Agreed. It's something I notice almost as much as I notice screen flicker.
Anti-aliasing is one of the truly great advances in computing, even at
high resolution.

> hence why I prefer the TH2Go solution.

It's why I decided to bite the bullet last Monday. Found that Insight (UK)
had a few in stock (unlike most retailers!) and hit the buy button. Apart
from anything else, it's a much more elegant and transparent solution...
though for the money you'd certainly expect it to be! :-)

Andrew McP

(Andrew MacPherson) wrote:

> I'll certainly investigate further. You sound as fussy as me when it
> comes to screen flicker, so I may be missing a trick.

Making sure vsync is enabled seems to help a little. But I'm still
getting eyestrain before very long. I didn't get this with the two screen
experiment (where I could have an 75Hz refresh rate on the CRT, and both
screens were right in front of me) so I'm hoping this is a refresh rate
issue, not an allergy to ultra-widescreen wraparound confus-o-vision(tm).

For the time being it looks like the widescreen experiment is over. Phase
two will begin when I make my mind up about the way forward with screens.
So many options, none of them hugely expensive (unless I get a much
bigger desk), but all of them costly if I regret buying three of
something!

Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

> For the time being it looks like the widescreen experiment is over. Phase
> two will begin when I make my mind up about the way forward with screens.
> So many options, none of them hugely expensive (unless I get a much
> bigger desk), but all of them costly if I regret buying three of
> something!

To add to your option list, SLI multi monitor support from nVidia:

http://tinyurl.com/69274u

Cheers
Tony

(Tony R) wrote:

> To add to your option list, SLI multi monitor support from nVidia:

Er... cheers Tony. Just what I needed, another option! ;-)

Andrew McP