DCS Multi-Monitor Setup 

I'm happy to hear that. When I go back and watch this video now I'm appalled at how I put it together. I think I could have done a better job with it...but I'm glad that it is at least somewhat helpful. Thank you!

Nice! I'm happy to hear it. When I go back and watch this video now I wish I'd have done it differently. But it is kind of confusing so I guess anything helps.

Awesome! I'm always happy to hear that it helped. Thanks!

I really wish I was better at all that stuff. I muddle through it and usually (not always) find some way to work it out but then I can't do it again if it happens again. Windows angers me most days. I'm glad you got stuff figured out though. Sorry it was such a mess.

Fly-Elise. as long as you are willing to pay 200something euros for their software.

My guess is that there are so many different configurations that ED has realized they'll never get everyone taken care of. I think that they've done a pretty good job with allowing seemingly infinite customization with the .lua files and whatnot, it just has some bugs and there aren't any good tutorials to really make it make sense (including this one - I don't understand it well enough to do a proper tutorial). But it would be nice if the .lua files had better explanations, or maybe if there was a dedicated monitor setup setting that explained it better. Anyway, when I had the 3 screens working I had them setup in Windows to be side by side, left monitor as primary, extend displays. Then in DCS I had it set to full screen. I used the total resolution as my screen resolution in DCS (3*1920 X 1080), and had the view ports mapped in the .lua file to put each view port or camera or whatever you call it on each screen properly.

What is gui

I wish I had some good help for you but I've never messed with projectors. I know what you're attempting to do has been done but the ones I've seen were set to eliminate any of the cockpit from the projection since they were using highly detailed sim pits. That may make what you're trying to do harder if you're keeping the cockpit objects in the projection. It seems like there are field of view setting you can mess with as well to adjust how much view you are getting on each display. It's been a while since I've messed with it. The part that looks like it would be above my head is the overlap of the projections though. If you haven't checked it out yet look for The Warthog Project. If I remember right he has a detailed setup where he meshes some projections to get a good wrap around display.

Never mind i just fixed it! Forgot 2 of these ;

@@Prion600 Nice. I'm glad you fixed it. I wouldn't have caught the semis!

@@Prion600 Hey man...I am brand new to DCS and I have the same issue you listed above. What did you do to fix it? Much Appreciated!

I actually tried that and unfortunately it did not work for me. I was thinking that would be kind of clever but for some reason DCS doesn't like it. My left screen was just black if I remember correctly.

I apologize I really don't understand the questions. I'll try to answer one of the others that you asked because I think I understand what you're asking.

No worries. This isn't the best video on the subject anyway. When I watch it now I cringe...LOL. I record things so much differently than I did back then, and I have my DCS menu music muted now anyway. Thanks for stopping by and I wish it would have been a better video for you. I genuinely hope I didn't waste too much of your time.

I'll see if I can put something together for that. Shoot me an e-mail at 311gryphon@gmail.com.

I think that method may work for some scenarios but I don't use it. For one, it ruins the way I have my monitors setup when NOT playing DCS. It makes everything else look like junk and moves my task bar to the wrong monitor. I tried playing DCS with it set that way just to see how it looked but I didn't want to mess with my settings and get those out of whack. I have no doubt it can work for using multiple camera monitors. I'm using extra monitors for sensors/MFDs and from what I can tell it won't work for that. In any scenario I'm likely to utilize the NVIDIA control panel isn't a viable option.

If you have 3 monitors , same size , THIS is your Answer. Done in 30 Seconds. My card is Nvidia w/ Surround.

Sorry, I was confusing with that. I had tried to make it work with me center monitor as the primary but it did not work. I thought I could shift the view port left with a negative value in the .lua but it didn't like that. So as far as I can tell you have to have your left monitor as primary for a 3 monitor surround setup. Did you change the name of the "3camera" file? Not necessarily the file name but line 2 where it says "name = _('3 Screen');"? That should be what name pops up in the game.

311Gryphon Thanks for the quick response. I was able restore it back by retyping back to how it was originally and only took a few minutes to fix but I will to experiment more in the future. I was a little disappointed you were unable to make the center monitor the primary monitor. Perhaps, DCS will change this in the future. Still.... Thanks for the informative video and for all your help.

Yeah, me too. Having to set your left monitor to the primary is a deal breaker for me. DCS is not the only program most of us run so we can't adapt everything we do on the PC to suit DCS. Good luck. I'm happy to try to help if you have any questions. I'm not the best at this kind of stuff and it gets complex, but I'll give it my best shot.

Hmmm. That's odd for sure. I know these are basic questions but just to make sure: 1) is your left most monitor set to be your primary display in Windows, 2) is your total resolution in DCS set to the total resolution width and height of the 3 screens together, 3) is the aspect ratio in DCS set to the total aspect ratio of all 3 monitors together? I'm typing somewhat generically because I don't want to assume you're running 3 monitors that are each at 1920 X 1080. However, if that is the case, your resolution in DCS should be 5760 X 1080 and your aspect ratio should be 5.33:1. Let's start there and then we can try to work on the .lua file.

Hi Gryphon I have succeeded!!!!! I had to set my Nvidia Gtx1050 GPU up which requires a bit of tinkering. After which I followed your steps and got close but with my wings too far forward which I rectified by adjusting the FoV for the aircraft I want to fly (Su25) as I am just new to DCS. I want to thank you and all those enthusiasts who take the time to help others with videos and replies. Thanks heaps Kind regards Dave

NICE! Thanks for the followup. Also, you can probably teach me something. I've struggled with the FOV. I read about it but never got around to playing with it to try to fix the wing issue. How did you do that bit?

I am no expert but on the DCS forum you can find plenty of information in order to rectify this. In short config/view/snapview - scroll to find the aircraft you want to change. Item 13 listed under the aircraft is the default setting. By changing the FOV by increasing or decreasing the value and saving. This results in changes to the FOV. I had to try different settings until I was happy with the outcome which is time consuming as it requires you to load DCS each time. I have done it successfully for SU25 only so far but I assume all others are the same. Not as comprehensive as your video I know but I hope I have helped in some small way. Take note of the value prior to changing it so you can put it back to the original setting should you have difficulty.

I haven't messed with these setting in awhile. I believe they can still work...but there are probably easier ways to get the end result. I currently only export cockpit displays out to a touch screen using Helios, and just have one screen as my camera view, so I let Helios do the heavy lifting and I don't have to go in and edit the .lua files.

Thanks for your reply. The dcs setting didn't agree with my monitors and only displayed it on the left and middle monitors and not so well. Not sure the reason but I try your guidelines

I think I can do that. Shoot me a message to 311gryphon@gmail.com and that will remind me. Is the native resolution on all monitors 1920X1080? If so I should be able to get a file together pretty easily and shoot that over to you.

If you can get into the options menu change the resolution, aspect ratio, and monitors back to what it was before.

Yeah, it would be nice if they'd push some support for multi-monitor. DCS and the other high fidelity sims are the only games that have a large user base that already uses multi-monitors. I know a lot of other games do as well, but it seems pretty big in this community. I'm not sure how hard it is to code a kind of UI customization inside the game but it would be nice. Anyway, if you just want one "camera" view and the rest is all sensors that may be more doable. I'm not sure how easy it will be though if you use your center screen as your primary in Windows though. DCS doesn't seem to play nice with negative horizontal values from my experience. But there are ways to make it work. I may take a look at this and see if I can figure out how to try setting that up.

@@311Gryphon Thanks. I finally got my dream set up and its hard to believe with all this technology. This should be easy for DCS dudes.

@@311Gryphon Just got my Warthog. Putting the J-Pein brackets together. They are slick and cheap. Universal. Looking so forward to finally putting this togetheer. F-14 coming out for real March 13/2019. Perfect. I will measure dimensions of screens i have. Have 2 MFD boards coming in two days. Could be interesting. I recorded a bit of putting together but really a piece of cake. Later

@@MavicAir1 Man you're going to have a sweet setup. I'd love to have some actual brackets and whatnot for my HOTAS, and I've heard nothing but good things about the CH pedals. I have not gotten MFDs yet. I'd like to get them but I just haven't yet...don't really have the space at the moment. However, they should just be regular push buttons / key presses. I don't know how all the modules are setup but if I recall, in something like the A-10C you can map each OSB from around the MFDs. That way the game will register a real world OSB-1 press as an in game OSB-1 press no matter which menu or page you're on with the MFD. It's just a matter of mapping all the buttons and hoping DCS doesn't magically erase the control mapping every time it updates. The main trick is getting your screen resolutions to be correct so it sits right behind your actual MFDs. I have not ever worked with that, and to be honest I haven't had much time to look into screen setup in while. I keep meaning to. Have you gotten your screens setup how you want otherwise? Or I guess gotten them setup as desired but just need to put the MFD's over the top and maybe make small adjustments?

I'm as you might say "Starting from scratch". Deciding what I want now. No twist on throttle is going to be mind F***. Waiting for glue to dry on my sliding drawer for keyboard and then I can fasten to desk and start hooking up peddles etc. Check out the J-Pein Desk Mounts. They are the best solution I've seen other than the ridiculously expensive alternatives. When I get everything hooked up I' send a decent video showing the mounts etc.

It's hard to follow no matter what. But most guides tell you specifically what to enter for a single situation. I'm trying to explain how it all works so people can figure out what to enter for whatever their particular setup will be. It's just a confusing process that's not really helped much by saying, "Enter these numbers in these spots for a 3 monitor camera view setup of 1920 X 1080 monitors" unless that's exactly what you're doing. And it's confusing if you explain it any other way. So my apologies but it's just a difficult subject.

@@311Gryphon I appreciate the video. It definitely opened my eyes to the complexity involved. As someone just getting into it, I was trying to find something that would help with settings. It definitely helped. Don't get me wrong. I'm smarter than I was before watching the video... but I'm also more confused at the same time. lol

@@skoalface3269 I definitely understand that. Even after "cracking the code" any time I change my setup it takes me forever to go back through my notes to try to figure out how to build the .lua files again. It's pretty complex and I wish there was an easier way to configure things. I also wish DCS wouldn't force you to set your left most monitor as your main Windows monitor. UGG.

That is doable but I'll have to research to remember how to do it. I've got to go eat some dinner but I'll be back!

Okay, so when I did this I had my main monitor on the left and both MFCD's on my right monitor. I think you may have to do it that way since DCS demands your main monitor be on the left anyway. Also of note, this same setup will put both MFD's of the Hornet on your second monitor and hopefully the Viper as well. You'll have to set up the screen width inside DCS to whatever your total width is (both monitors) and the aspect = width of both / height. Then I can send you a .lua that you can use and inside the setting in DCS you'll chose "Camera + 2MFCD RIGHT" as your .lua to use. Download the .lua here - www.dropbox.com/s/rjulub53shurkg6/Camera%2B2MFCD%20Right.lua?dl=0

To further clarify I'll use mine as an example when I had this setup. I have two 1920 X 1080 monitors. I created that .lua file inside the DCS>Config>MonitorSetup folder. Then inside DCS I set my screen width to 3840 (1920*2) and my height to 1080. Then my Aspect was set to 3.556 (3840 / 1080). This tells DCS that it has that much real estate to play around with. I'm not sure why they need all those because it should be able to calculate the aspect ratio based on our width and height but maybe there's a reason. Select the proper .lua inside DCS. Then you may have to restart DCS. At first the screen will probably look odd but if you click on your second monitor it should go black and the GUI will look correct on your main monitor. Then fire up the Hornet and you should have your main screen as your camera, LMFCD on the left half of your second monitor, and RMFCD on the right half. Good luck and let me know if that needs more explanation!

@@311Gryphon Dude... I freaking love you right now. No homo. But thanks it works!!!!

@@TheGreatMinecraftBeast LOL! Glad I could help. Happy flying!

I chose to have my smaller monitors "cut off" part of the scene. I "tricked" DCS in the .lua file to treat them like they were bigger screens but started the corner off screen. It's hard for me to explain but I did some rough math to figure up what starting point to put in the file so the smaller screens were scaled the same as the bigger screen.

It is possible to set the screens up that way. I've been struggling to figure out how to get a fixed view of a part of the cockpit though. If you figure it out let me know because I'd really like to rig up some touch screens to show the MPCD/MFD/UFC etc with all the buttons and knobs around them.

@@311Gryphon.. I'm actually beginning to think that going the VR route is the easiest path. I will opt for the Vive Index if I can be assured it will work with its controller design.

@@missionforward1774 I think there would be a lot of positive reasons to go with VR. I don't want to because on the control setup I have and what I want...but I think in the end it could be cheaper, easier, and result in a better experience to go with VR and a good HOTAS.

@@311Gryphon.... Air Manager for desktop allows setting up a a smaller cockpit screen with all the avionics below your main screen looking out. Then there's a product available from XForce PC in South Carolina called "The Knobster" which allows controlling the functions once you have selected it on the touchscreen. This may only work for X-Plane 11...I'm not sure. But here's a start of something to look into 311Gryphon... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PpuSqC0dHVM.html

@@missionforward1774 Awesome info. Thanks! I'll look into those.

happened to me,i sort it out some time ago,i found answer in steam,some body left a comment how to do it,cant remember how to do it now.google how to & u will find it out,it isnt hard

Yeah it worked for me. So are the screens actually flipped 90° inside DCS but not in the OS?

@@earthexplorer579 I found it there also. Thats how I fixed it. Saved link in favorites to fix. Stupid situation.

Are you trying to get just the screens exported or the buttons as well? If just the screens I can probably help with that. If you need the buttons as well that's something I haven't done yet but there's a program that supposedly can do it.

@@311Gryphon No just the screens. I have thrustmaster MFD panels with 7inch LCD screens behind them so basically i just want to display the right and left screens from the F/A-18C. Main monitor is 2560X1440. The two 7 inch screens are 1024x600. I do have a 2nd monitor i use but will not but displaying DCS on it.

@@414mayns Sorry for the delay. I've been "RU-vid lazy" lately. I'll try to work up the calculations today or tomorrow sometime. You might e-mail me at 311gryphon@gmail.com. Then I can send the .lua file or at least give you the text to copy in.

@@311Gryphon Cheers mate...I sent ya an email

I use Notepad++. It's free and much, much better than regular Notepad. I've used some other programs before that have more functionality but honestly, N++ is plenty of program to edit DCS .lua files.

I do have a discord but I don't use it much. I can try to send you a friend request. I'm on a different machine right now so I can't check but I think my user name is just 311Gryphon on discord. You can also shoot me an e-mail at 311gryphon@gmail.com. I'll do what I can to help.

It's a difficult subject. Believe me, I spent 2 months gathering information, tweaking files, testing to make sure it worked, etc. This is probably the most complex subject I've ever covered on two different RU-vid channels. Sure it could have been done more professionally but I don't have the time to do that kind of video unless I want to quit my real job. I've never made a cent off of these videos and I'm just trying to help people as much as I can. I apologize if it was unhelpful. Thank you for the feedback though.

Ungrateful