Widescreen Gaming Forum

Just thought I'd add some recent experiences with my TripleHead2Go Digital Edition to this thread gentlemen.

My [MESH] PC spec: -

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (build 6001)
CPU: 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad
MOBO: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5N32-E SLI 1.XX
RAM: 4 GB DIMM
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
SPU: Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum 7.1 Surround Sound
HDs: 2 x 500 GB
MATROX TripleHead2Go
MONITOR 1: Taxan 17" 735 TC099 CRT
MONITOR 2: Mirai 22" Digital LCD
MONITOR 3: Dell 19" Trinitron CRT
[I simply cannot afford two more 22" Digital Monitors yet.]

In spite of the mixture of CRT and Digital Monitors this rig works perfectly with FSX and rFactor, using SAITEK Pro Yoke & Throttle Quadrant & CH Pedals for the former and a Logitech G25 FF Steering wheel, 3 pedals & racing H gear stick shift for the latter. For piston engines air combat [IL2 1946 & Red Baron 3D] I use a Logitech FF3D Pro stick and for modern jet air combat [LOMAC & F4] I use a HOTAS Cougar with the CH pedals.

However although all but four of my 18 installed games (all simulators) are listed by MATROX as supported none of them yet run properly with my rig and my TRACK IR Pro 4 as yet closes down the central digital screen to black whenever I start it up, even though it works perfectly in single screen mode. MATROX tell me this might be cured by using a different USB port/hub input for my TIR4.

I just thought that I'd dispel the myth that you can't mix monitors with the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition.

One issue, not really a problem, is finding some way to get the colour temperatures, contrast and hues of all 3 monitors to match. I have been looking online for a free utility that might help with this but have yet to find one. Currently I adjust the two outer CRT Monitors manually using their box controls but there is a difference in the colour temperature of the central digital screen which is warmer and less blue/green. Of course due to the mixture of 17" - 22" - 19" the Bezel Adjustment utility struggles to crisply match things up but the result is acceptable enough for now. I can already see what an awesome righ this will be with three matching 22" digital monitors.

As you gather my main hobbies as a retired person are flight simulation, air & subsea combat & realistic military FPS. These are all awesome in surround, with hugely enhanced additional immersion as result of the 8 speaker surround sound too. (Massive heavy wood block cased dual cone and horn woofer under the desk, 1 central front speaker, 2 front speakers at 45 degrees, 2 middle L & R speakers at 90 degrees & 2 rear. The surrounding 6 are mounted high on the walls & the front speaker is behind the central screen. The finishing touch is supplied by a Buttkicker under my pilot's chair which vibrates as the engine starts up, conveys wheel rumble, simulates recoil and slams me around when taking fire. Turn down the lights, strap on the Fatal1ty gaming head set for comms and I'm good to go!)

Frankly, now that I've tasted a triple desk top and its myriad advantages for a plethora of activities (Document editing, photo editing, sw installations, using system testing utils etc.) I shall never go back to a single screen! This set up has only been running on my desk (+ a side 14" colour TV for live channel surfing and news) for three days yet I already can't imagine how I ever did without it. Awesome.

This is probably the wrong thread to list my MATROX supported games and ask your advice about getting them ALL running with TripleHead2Go but here goes anyway.

ARMA:Armed Assault
Call Of Duty 4
DIRT
GRID
COMMANDOS:Strike Force
GPL [Grand Prix Legends]
IL2 1946
LOMAC [Lock-On Modern Air Combat.]
AIRBORNE
Silent Hunter III
Silent Hunter IV
X-PLANE 9
Soldier Of Fortune: Payback

The one I really look forward to seeing running on 3 screens is SH IV whose seascapes and weather are really awesomely real. I should add that I am a retired North Sea Saturation Diver living in a small coastal seaport and watch the real sea every day, so I am extremely hard to please in the ocean simulation realm but SH IV is amazingly realistic.

well I can answer a couple of questions:
ArmA runs out of the box on TH2Go; I played it fine on my system.

Call of Duty 4: you must use a fixer to run: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/8385 is the thread. Doesn't work for online play with latest patch but you can use it for SP.

hope those help, but search the games list and this forum for info on the others.

This is a thread i posted on our Counterstrike source clan forum about GPL, hope it helps.

http://www.cowswithguns.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=49

If you have a G25 might I also suggest some simbin titles, Race07 or GTR2, the latter being quite moddable with lots of user custom tracks,car skins and modded cars.
GPL can be made to use your stickshift but these can use it out of the box so to speak, and can use native track ir.
Sounds like your going to have fun with your rig anyway, enjoy, I would hate to go back to just 1 screen :)

Thank you very much for these rapid responses guys.

Question. To anyone who also uses the Logitech G25, pedals and stick shift - did you have any problems getting the shift to work in manual H box mode? Mine only seems to like working in automatic, which defeats the point really as I got the rig primarily to enable the use of a realist clutch and stick shift while racing & to keep my real-world driving skills in practice as I haven't owned a car for 12 years now but may want to again soon.

As for the other SIMBIN racing titles mentioned I already have GTR2 and will install it again on this recommendation. I am especially anxious to get GRID, DIRT and GPL running widescreen and working with the G25 as the only one I have yet got running in surround mode rFactor - really is awesomely improved in every way.

Thanks again for the help guys - this seems an excellent, useful and friendly forum.

Question. To anyone who also uses the Logitech G25, pedals and stick shift - did you have any problems getting the shift to work in manual H box mode? Mine only seems to like working in automatic, which defeats the point really as I got the rig primarily to enable the use of a realist clutch and stick shift while racing & to keep my real-world driving skills in practice as I haven't owned a car for 12 years now but may want to again soon.

Do you mean when incar you press accelerator and the gears change themselves, or that the H shifter only moves forwards - backwards to shift up or down gears?
Also what game is it?
If its shifting with accelerator usually the game is set for auto gears, turning this off in options should do it.
If its the fwds-bckwds then put shifter in neutral and press down on the top of it whislt turning the dial just infront of the stick 180 degress to the right. Shifter should now be in H mode.
However you usually need to tell the game what gears to assign to the H shifter pattern by assigning them yourself.
GTR2 I think has a default setup for the G25 which should work from default, if you are'nt using auto gears and have'nt assigned a gear up gear down setup ie using the paddles on the wheel to shift.
(You may need to toggle hold button down for gear change in the options if it acts strange)

I should mention to add mods/tracks to GTR2 you will have to download and install them yourself, but there are more than enough tracks and cars in the basic game itself.

Concur with the above - you have to properly map your 6 gear selection locations to gears in racing games that support this. All sims will. Some games will and some will not. With GPL there is a special utility called GPLShift that you will need. Do a search at the RaceSimCentral forums to learn what you need to know.

As for getting GPL working in TripleHead, here you go:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=38690

Once again many thanks guys. haven't quite got the G25 or GPL sorted yet even though I can see that your replies contain absolutely all the components, sources and advice that I need. I keep getting distracted. The issue with the GPL is probably that I have yet to find where to allocate the H shift choices in the various racing sims that I have (GPL, GTR2, GRID, DIRT, CRC 2005) because I know about the 180 degree rotate and set feature on the stick. As for the accelerator changing gears on auto, in rFactor it will never exceed 2nd gear, making racing as yet impossible. Trying to set the paddles for up shift and down shift in rFactor also seems a problem so far. I take the point about the shift utility for GPL however. No doubt I'll eventually hack my way through, as always.

Right now I am in the thick of one of the other 'joys' of re-installation after a reformat - trying to get VISTA Ultimate Edition to "see" my 'FATAR Studiologic VMK-188 Plus' midi keyboard controller so that I can actually access my VST plug-ins through Stienberg's Nuendo. with its excellent piano-action weighted keyboard. I think the problem may be with my X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum which seems to have so many options that even setting upa headset mike is a pain and a problem. VISTA has a bunch of options and when you multiply that by the soundboard's 8 or so, the result is absurd excess complexity.

For your interest the excellent glider sim Sailors of the Sky auto opens in surround mode on my TH2Go rig and looks truly awesome. Tricky recovering purchase IDs and sw license however after a reformat when the problem before that prevented me burning any back up DVDs so al the originals were lost.

On the other hand (so far) Virtual Sailing simulator [A kind of hybrid between Microsoft Ship Simulator and a poor man's version of the near photo-real Virtual Skipper 5] refuses to spread across three screens without stretching while the excellent simbin Sierra legacy classic 'Supreme Snowboarding' shuts down two of the screens and insists on the left hand single screen only. A pity as it remains the best snowboarding sim ever.

the excellent simbin Sierra legacy classic 'Supreme Snowboarding' shuts down two of the screens and insists on the left hand single screen only.

You do know you can get new firmware that puts the single-screen image on the center screen?

[quote]the excellent simbin Sierra legacy classic 'Supreme Snowboarding' shuts down two of the screens and insists on the left hand single screen only.

You do know you can get new firmware that puts the single-screen image on the center screen?

No I didn't. Where can I get that? From MATROX own website?

Yes. Just update to the newest BIOS.

Please disregard the link I gave in my first post as one of our members accidently wiped the forums clean.
If in the one in a billion chance you saved a copy of it I would appreciate it if you post it here or PM it to me, i'll then re-post it on our forums.

Hey guys you done your backups lately ?

Ok i've re-posted the article referenced im my first post now and updated its link to point at this correctly.
Lets see how long it lasts before its wiped again :D