Two monitors

I want to be able to set up two monitors for full screen programming. One to run the full screen app and the second for my compiler debugger. Is such a thing possible? What hardware options are there? Asus TwinView? Two Video cards? How do you specify which app goes where?

If you find a really good solution PLEASE let me know (bwb@n-space.com).

Currently, I am running two different video cards, an ATI RAGE XL PCI and a DIAMOND VIPER II Z220. I’m using Win2k and the RAGE XL PCI is set to primary. The Viper II is setup in the registry as the only card with an OpenGL driver (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLdrivers). I can run our app full screen on the secondary monitor (the ViperII) and code/debug on the primary. I have added complications of having a crappy motherboard that doesnt support setting the AGP slot to be primary (otherwise I could have used the company supplied ATI RAGE 128 PRO instead of bringing in my Viper II, which is a better card). I could not use both ATI RAGE cards due to the fact that the OpenGL drivers couldnt figure out which card to use (they kept going for the PCI or none at all). I beleive that if I had been able to set my AGP as primary instead of the PCI being primary it might have worked.

There has got to be a “real” way to do this by enumerating the display devices and what-not but given the short amount of time I had to get my system running before turning back to the project I was unable to figure out the proper way to do it.

Hope this helps (or at least gets someone to tell us how to do it right

I Just tried the two card solution with fairly impressive results (For first attempt). I have a Geforce2 AGP and an old 2MB S3 PCI. Win98 picked everything up, added the second monitor, and after I changed the display settings, I have a double desktop. I’m fairly sure that the Geforce is primary (#1 in the display settings), and I’ve successfully produced full screen on the gforce with codewarrior on the second. The only problem is that I seem to be losing hardware accelleration. I’ve dropped to less than 10 frames per second with less than 100 polygons. Is the second card (Non-openGL) forcing both to software mode? Is there anyway around it? (other than a second geforce)

I am pretty sure that you can not get both hardware accelerated. Perhaps has MSDN the answer?

Okay, your gonna love this one…

Disclaimer: BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE BEGINNING!!! I take absolutely no responsibility for any damages caused by this information. I’m just related what I had to do. If you dont feel up to registry hacking, then call tech support (I’d get the tech support for both companies on the line at the same time if possible .

Check All the entries under this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\PCI

Until you find the one that represents your PCI video card (it will have the video card’s name & model in the DeviceDesc key).

Okay, now in the same key there will be a ClassGUID value. Then goto:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class

and open up the key with the same name as the ClassGUID key from above.

Under there you should have some more keys that are four digit numbers 0000, 0001, 0002, one for each video card you’ve ever installed.

Find the one that Says its a GeForce (again DriverDesc key) and there should be a Settings key under it. Make sure that DisableOpenGL is 0.

Find the numbered key that represents your other card and make sure that DisableOpenGL under it’s settings is also 0.

There may be easier ways to do this process, but I dont know them.