Complete Noob

[JamesB41]

Basic breakdown of my system and what I'm looking to do.

I'm running 2x8800 GTX in non-SLI. XP Pro, 4GB of RAM. Powering 3 Dell 3007WFP-HCs (30" running at 2560x1600). I'm looking to do some surround gaming. I understand that I might have some serious problems trying to run at 7680x1600...but I'm curious what I can attempt.

I'm pretty confused as to how the whole surround gaming thing works. I've heard "Triplehead" thrown about, but I don't really follow what it's actually doing. There's also a piece of software called SoftTH which someone recommended I look into but I couldn't configure that properly.

Ultimately I'm looking to run a number of games, but World of Warcraft is my first target. Will I need any additional hardware? Is there a noobs guide? I didn't see one anywhere.

Thanks so much

[Mach1.9pants]

OK 3x30" ZOMFG!

In answer to the basic questions:
1. SoftH: I don't really know about it is a software hack which should enable you to run a game at that resolution (3x30") but you would need some SERIOUS GPU horsepwer for any new games...WoW is probably OK. But I digress I will let a SoftH expert answer that.
2. 'Triplehead' is the short name for Matrox's TripleHead2Go hardware solution. It is a box which you plug 3 monitors on one side into and you GPU on the other. It means your PC sees all three monitors as 1 big monitor. This allows you (for example) to enable SLI for greater graphics power.
product site

However there are several caveats on this:
the biggest (for you) is that the max resolution that the TH2Go can use is 5040x1050. ie 3x22" res. I run 3x24" (and they have the same ratio as 1680x1050...so there is no stretching) but it means that everything on the desktop is a bit fuzzy. It doesn't bother me at all (I though it would but after a week I don't even notice it). And in games I never noticed it at all. However maybe very different running a 30" screen at 1680x1050 res! Try 1680x1050 on one of your monitors and see :)
the other caveat is that many games do not support such high resolutions. Some you just cannot set them (Some games won't even do 2560x1600 so that shouldn't be much of a suprise) other games set the resolution but the FOV is all wrong ...


The green is what you would see in bioshock (before a fan hack was incorporated into the game!) using TH2Go, the red stuff is the extra bits you see sing a standard 5:4 or 4:3 monitor. So without proper (HOR+) support you get the resolution but actually see less! However there are lots of hacks and work arounds for those games that don't work...especially the popular ones.

With respect to WoW look at the detailed report here
It says WoW is HOR+ (with Wrath of the Lich King) so you will be gaining a lot of visual realestate!


So there you go, good luck

[Paddy the Wak]

Hey ... welcome to the forum ...
I moved this there as it is a more appropriate section for your post ... :D

BTW ... Bioshock now works in TH with a patch from the game devs ...
I just thought I'd mention that in case the pics miss led you.

Many people are not happy with World of Warcraft in TH ...
Some links for you to read ...

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7925

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7501

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/6657

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7833t

[skipclarke]

The WotLK beta server shows proper FOV for TH2Go. You can see two comparison posts here:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7156#comment-146708

Your best bet is the Matrox TH2Go, though you will need to deal with the scaling issues. With your setup and some good AA, I doubt you'll notice. Paddy had the previous max resolution scaling across his 24" and didn't notice.

[p2987]

If you are running 3 and only 3 monitors for your setup, I suggest you to hook up the pairs of 8800GTX into SLI format. The fact that the pairs can only have 1 graphic output should not bother you because it will be connected to the Digital TH2Go device.

You wont get 3 x 2560 x 1600 as the max resolution from the device is 3 x 1680 x 1050. And the image will be scaled up from 1680 x 1050 to fill each panel. Dell 30" doesnt have an internal scaler (if I recall correctly) and so the upscaling will be done by your graphic card. Whether the result is acceptable to you is quite subjective. But I dont recall seeing anyone here in this site complains yet. I, myself, am running 3 x 1280 x 768 upscaled to 3 x 1920 x 1080 and find the image quality to be fairly acceptable. I have yet to try the updated firmware which should give me even more acceptable image quality.

One word of warning here. Guru3d did a review of the device back in April this year and they tried to setup Dell 24" + Dell 30" + Dell 24" but could not get them to work. With an updated firmware from Matrox, they got the 24" to work but still had to remove the 30" as Matrox told them this monitor is not supported. So....
(http://www.guru3d.com/article/matrox-triplehead-2-go-digital-edition-dvi-review/5)

[Vroshnak]

I suggest downloading SoftTH and seeing if you can figure it out. It works with WoW and Team Fortress 2. Also, SoftTH can do any resolution you want and it is free.

TripleHead2Go works with more games and involves less messing around with every game. Also, more people on this forum use TH2Go and you can get good advice.

I alternate between SoftTH and an analog TH2Go. Actually, the TH2Go is just gathering dust because it can't do 3x1680x1050.

I have two 8800GTX cards in SLI, and a 8400GS which I connect my two side monitors to. So you have the option of throwing in a very cheap graphics card and then turning on SLI on those bad boys.

[CyberCrist]

[quote]Hey ... welcome to the forum ...
I moved this there as it is a more appropriate section for your post ... :D

BTW ... Bioshock now works in TH with a patch from the game devs ...
I just thought I'd mention that in case the pics miss led you.

Many people are not happy with World of Warcraft in TH ...
Some links for you to read ...

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7925

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7501

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/6657

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7833]

Paddy, any idea where to find that patch for BioShock?

[Paddy the Wak]

Paddy, any idea where to find that patch for BioShock?

Yeah ..... here ... http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/support/

The steam version should automatically update.

[JamesB41]

Just an update. Was able to get it to work after maybe an hour of tweaking. Running at 7680x1600. Get roughly 30 FPS in Shatt. I'm kinda floored that it can handle it. I doubt it will handle raid instances/super graphic intensive stuff well...and it's relatively unstable (you go to the desktop, and you're doomed to crash). But...it works and it's very playable.

[CyberCrist]

[quote]Paddy, any idea where to find that patch for BioShock?

Yeah ..... here ... http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/support/

The steam version should automatically update.

Thanks Paddy! You da man!

[Dochands]

I see this is an old post but I am trying to get softTh to work with WoW. Can only get 1.7 not to crash and see extended rezs but its still just on the center screen.

This is opposed to HL2 which with 1.9 softTH just works beautifully with no tweaks.

Any help for WoW would be appreciated. I have a center widescreen and two side monitors so none of the hardware options would work.