Widescreen Gaming Forum

hi there all on the widescreengaming forum.

first of all i want to introduce myself:
my name is oliver and i am 26 years old.
i am from austria and so my english is not perfect cause my native language is german (german support would be more helpful but with a dictionary and a plenty of time i also can understand english text ;) )
so i hope that my postings are readable and all of you will understand what i mean.
especially with the tenses (like have/had do/did for example) i have the most problems :).
for conversation it would be enough i think :)

i am using a 3way sli system of 8800gtx (flashed to ultra) gfx cards on a 24 inch philips widescreen monitor at the moment.

because of folding@home gpu client i plugged my older 19 inch monitors in the other gfx cards.
but then i figured out that it is possible to enlarge the desktop with this both monitors and after some utube and google searching and watching i want to go to surround my system at gaming.
so for the beginning i tried the softth method but this thing never wont work.
gtr2 is the only game with auto settings (all other settings in softth i absolutely do not understand) that work from the first start.
but it looks horrible with different colors on all the 3 screens and the displaced views (the side mirrors of the car looks so terrible).

the homepage of softth promises that games like test drive unlimited, call of duty or company of heroes should work with this software but it wont on my system.
can anyone help me with the configs for softth (think that this is the reason for the disfunction of softth)?
maybe the different resolution of the monitors is the reason? 1280x1024 left, 1920x1200 middle, 1280x1024 right.
is vista x64 the problem?

i also noticed that there is a plug and play method which is called triplehead2go.
this thing looks very interesting and for noobs like me i think it will be the better choice then softth.
but at the moment there is not a enough money to buy a 250€ case and so softth should be the entrance in the surround gaming world.
but later i plan to buy this thing, but will it be work with my monitors or should i go to buy 2 more 24" ?
i think with 3x 1280x1024 th2go will work correct but how does this look on a 24 inch 16:10 monitor?

and as the last question:
i read something about lenses that will disapear the borders of the monitors.
do they work like a reading-glass? will the screen be enhanced because of that?
how will this lenses montaged on the monitors?

hope you can help me with some of my questions and be gracious for my english :)

Welcome to the forum, your english is fine!

The only question that I can answer is about monitors (I don't do SoftH). You can run the TH2Go in either 3x1280x1024 (which would look odd on your 24" monitor in the centre) or, if you have an NVidia graphics card, you can run 3x24" monitors at 3x1680x1050. That is what I do and in games it is excellent. The only problem with my set up is that it takes up a lot of space. Some people don't like the idea of 3x24" monitors because you have to move you head a bit to look at the side monitors when you are using the PC in normal desktop/2D use.

If you have the money (and space) I really recommend 3x24" monitors for games, especially 1st person view games (FPS and sims).

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Dipping bags at Mach1.9

hi there and thx for your answer and your compliment :D

yep i am using nvidia gaphics.
3 8800gtx are plugged into my system.

using them in 3way sli and using th2go will work i think. thats what i readed somewehere over the internet :)

1680x1050 is also 16:10.
think that would be looking so fine as a 1920x1200 resolution do.
but i think the screen do look a little bloated in that case didnt it?
at desktop mode it do look bloated with lower resolution on a 24 inch monitor.

the space is not the problem.
the money would be hehe :)

a last little question:
should i have to buy exaclty the same 24 inch monitor again?
i am a little bit afraid of a colorpark effect with different monitors.
thats what the biggest problem is at the moment at my setup.
adjusting all 3 monitors doesnt work cause every monitor looks always a little bit different to the other.

if i will use th2go sometime in the future i will only use it for mmorpg, fps and sim games.
for point and click adventures or rts games i prefer a single monitor setup :)

I think that the slight blurring you get when not using the standard res on the desktop is fine. I thought it would really annoy me but I found after just a day or two that I didn't notice it. Set your current 24" to 1680x1050 and use it for a few days, if you can't stand it maybe 3x22" is better (and cheaper!) for you.
As for different monitors, as you said even the same make and model look a bit different. Maybe t would be better with 3 the same but if you are willing to work a bit you can get them looking very similar. I have an older model Dell as my centre monitor and 2 of the (cheap version, but newer) E 24"s as the outer. Because they are outer monitor it doesn't worry me at all...in games the surround is more for immersion than actual use. And I love it, I get annoyed when playing FPS now that doesn't support TH... like Battlefield series, a clan favourite but where is my immersion!
And 3 way SLI works, I have tried it (until one of my GTX280's died :()

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Dipping bags at Mach1.9

thx for your answer.

well i think the better way than this softth thing would be th2go.
its not cheap and so i have to put my money aside but...better to have it and use it as long as itself dies and have not this stupid errors that softth brings with it.
and maybe in the future matrox brings out a firmware update that allow 3x 1920x1200.
3x 1680x1050 was also been implemented a few month ago am i right?

after my posting i testet the 1680x1050 resolution at much games and youre right.
as i use the same ratio its not blurring at all if you play a little bit longer.
different ratio is the one that looks horrible :)

3way sli also works?
great...then my 3 8800gtx also makes sense :)

with the different colors i realised it a little bit more then you i think.
only gtr2 and 5 minutes of lord of the rings online i was able to run with softth and that looks so extremly bad.
with fps i havent tested yet casue softth wont work at all.

look to the future and will buy th2go and 2 another 24" philips.
the monitor itself is really great...especially at fast fps games.
so using 3 of them would be the coolest thing ever...and my wife are more questioning me if i am crazy lol

thx 4 your help and all the best.
will take much time until i get my th2go system running :)

Yeah my wife laughs at me too!

I don't think the current set up will ever go beyond 3x1680 because of the bandwidth limitations on the DVI cable. However I am sure one day we will get a TH that uses DisplayPort and then 3x30" will be OK!

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Dipping bags at Mach1.9

yeah but until that happens the resolution which th2go is currently able to send out is more then enough :)

but one question still got no answer.
that lenses.
how are they been fixed on the monitors?
how does the screen looks?

on utube i saw a video with 3 of these lenses and it looks...erm...not really good for my eyes.
the borders are not in the direct sight...thats cool but if you not looking exactly in 90 degrees in front of your primary it looks so awful.

does these lenses really makes sense?
are there differences between cheaper ones and expensive ones?

don't know anything about the lenses that 'hide the bezels'. I think you are mistaken in that you can run Left 4 Dead in 3d using cheap 3d glasses (not NVidia 3d glasses which require a 120Hz monitor). Have you got a link?

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Dipping bags at Mach1.9

SoftTH should work fine with that monitor setup, but it doesn't work with SLI so that should be turned off. It's real picky about the config as well.

don't know anything about the lenses that 'hide the bezels'. I think you are mistaken in that you can run Left 4 Dead in 3d using cheap 3d glasses (not NVidia 3d glasses which require a 120Hz monitor). Have you got a link?

The lenses he's referring to are fresnel lenses, I use them myself. If you have lcd monitors with very thin bezels it might not be worth the effort, but they do create a seamless surround effect. The effect is far better than it appears from youtube videos etc. Not great for reading/surfing through though.

As to mounting them you have to figure out a way to build a frame that will hold them a few inches from the screens and line the edges up. Like this:

http://home.comcast.net/~seekeating/r/th2go/

I suggest the F550 from 3dlens.com where I got mine. This one is the best available for large [ 19" and larger ] screen monitors. I use with 21" screens. The thing to look for is a large lens with a high number of 'grooves per inch'. Higher = better quality image.

I would suggest buying the th2go rather than messing about with softth. Th2go is far easier and a better solution. Although expensive, it is worth it for the surround experience.

Left for Dead in 3d, with cheap glasses!:

http://gamerslastwill.com/2009/02/02/3d-left-4-dead-for-free-oh-yeah-heres-how/