Widescreen Gaming Forum

I've used a triple monitor setup for gaming for a few years now, and I actually make use of my 5760*1080 resolution in maybe 1 in 5 games. There are more games that will switch to my resolution but unless they do it intelligently, like getting all the hud in the middle monitor rather than hidden in far corners in your peripheral vision, then I don't prefer it. It didn't come as a surprise that most games don't properly support triple monitor setups since we are a very small minority, but I assumed things would get better over time, but now I'm having doubts that it will.

I've been looking at video card reviews lately, just picked up 2 AMD R9 290x cards, and reviews for running them in crossfire mention that its not a smart buy if your only playing on a regular 1080p monitor because it would be overkill. This is all fine, but then it goes on to say the only reason to put these into crossfire would be for very large resolutions, and then proceeds to mention 2560 x 1440, 2560 x 1600, 4k, and then nothing about multiple monitor resolutions. This got me wondering. Is the trend going to be more towards higher resolution single monitors, rather than multiple monitors, leaving us just as bad or worse off trying to get our games working on multiple monitor setups?

Now hang on something in your statement isn't right. Im just curious because I have been running an eyefinity setup since they first came out with the HD5850 series video cards, and my current resolution is 5760 x 1080...

Now there are only a few games that I cant play in that resolution, very few, probably somewhere in the number of 1 in 20 is unplayable on my system. Granted some games I use things like Flawless Widescreen, or Widescreen fixer but the majority of the games that are coming out now support Widescreen resolutions. So with that in mind you have to assume that if more companies are supporting the multiple moniter setup then there has to be more people buying these setups.

So I guess my question to you is what games are you playing that you cant play on that resolution? Because I have a lot of games and other then games like Blacklight Tango down which is completely broken for Multiple moniter setups, or StarCraft 2 where the game is intentionally gimped against widescreen setups even the majority of games dating from the mid to early 2000s play just fine on my resolution.

I've been using triple screen since eyefinity came out and currently on nvidia. pretty much every game i play works in triple screen. maybe 1 in 10 at the most does not. using the 2 widescreen fixers sorts most games that have issues.

I even played jedy acedemy recently on triple screen

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I think it is growing, I've been a triple screen gamer since the nvidia geforce 4600ti+440, it was not true SLS tech like eyefinity, but it was possible to stretch a windowed game across this space, and have it working, not fast admittedly, but back then games where also less demanding.

We are seeing more and more games now support multi screen, and many of our older favs have had workarounds found by various members here too.

We also see a lot of new members joining our forums and enquiring about what adaptors to use, what gpu's to purchase and how to get various games working.
We also have quite a strong multi-monitor user base here.

Companies marketing will try push for 4k displays as the next big thing for the average consumer, try pry them away from 1080p, while those of use with triple displays are already using 3k.

Fact is that it is now becoming much more affordable than was previously and a hell of a lot less complicated too now that a number of cards require no adaptors at all to run 3 displays.
Friends to whom I have shown my rig all love it, and al wish to recreate such a thing, but where previously limited by cost, they now see this as a viable and very immersive way to go.

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Some of my recent games that either don't support the resolution, or will allow you to set the wide resolution but the HUD has items hidden in far corners making it hard to keep track of things like minimap, pop ups, life bars.

cities in motion 2
of orcs and men
orcs must die 2
san-froid
spec ops the line
tropico 4
walking dead

So I guess for the most part its not so much that they don't support the resolution, but rather most do it in a way that I find very inconvenient to play, and as a result reduce the resolution back to one screen. There are games that do it right, like sleeping dogs, that keeps all the hud on the center monitor. Maybe I'm in the minority here, do you guys tolerate when your hud is hidden in your peripheral vision off in the far corners?

Depending on the game I can tolerate the HUD placement at the far sides, but only on a few games, ie GTA4 and Just Cause 2 for example, something that's not incredibly fast paced, like TF2 which required a HUD mod to be playable at such wide resolutions.

For the likes of Company of Heroes id return to single screen as i dont like the HUD/button placement in ultra wide.

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| Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi Skt2011 | i7 4820k @4.4GHz Watercooled (Ivy Bridge-E) | Corsair Vengence 32GB @2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T Quad-Channel (8x4GB) | AMD R9-Fury-X 4GB @1140/505MHz + EKWB Watercooled | 256GB Crucial MX200 SSD | 8x 1TB Samsung F3 SATA-II | Corsair 850W TX PSU | 3x Dell S2209W 22"wide TFT's (5760x1080res) | Logitech Z-5400 5.1ch speakers | Win7 Ultimate x64 |

I'd def say its growing.

I've been using 3 monitors since around 2004ish or so, only got out of it (for gaming) a little while later because of the GPU power it took to push that many pixels, but when Nvidia Surround was released I jumped back on since I had the GPU power again. Before it was few and far between, mostly only in sims that I'd encounter someone else running more than 1 screen period, let alone for gaming. I think its become more affordable because the TH2G device was quite steep, like buying another monitor or a nice GPU at the time. Recently a few gamer friends I play with have picked up a couple more screens and run Eyefinity/surround because its now supported by Nvidia and ATI.

While the common res is 5760x1080 because 1920x1080 was pushed so hard a few years ago, I think its too wide (because most games don't support multiple view ports) and games that are not set up for surround become unmanageable. This puts off quite a few people. Probably the #1 reason I put together a 3d printer instead of buying new monitors recently.

I think a lot of developers get lazy when it comes to PC support of video games in general. Games seem to be designed first and foremost with consoles in mind, with the PC taking a backseat (if it's even allowed in the same car). Multi-Monitor support like centering HUD elements or changing FOV isn't something that's extremely hard to do, it's just that the PC gaming market is such an afterthought that it either never occurs to them, or they figure it's not worth their time to design for it. It's depressing when the FOV is locked in at a wrong angle, you can't configure your keys at all, and a Video Options page is nowhere to be found. Why even release it on PC at that point?

It has always been up to developers to care enough about their game in order to do things "the right way" instead of the easy way, and that includes native Multi-Monitor support for new releases. Reward those that get it right by buying their products, and bug those that get it wrong with emails and snail-mail letters to their corporate office.

Not even just for multi-mon gaming. FOV sliders have been missing in so many titles for a while now. Developers don't understand that not everyone plays on the same size screen from the same distance away and have the same preferences. Console games are the worst because they are so zoomed in. Anything that is not customization (especially input device setup) is totally unacceptable. I have taken quite a few games off my list because of lazy developers that do a piss poor job on PC titles. Its even worse when they cite poor PC sales when it is their own fault for poor PC support/configurations. Just more evidence of how disconnected from gaming many of these game developers are.

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