Thanks again Russ for the deep dive on Multimonitor support! Your research, knowledge, and perseverance in making our hobby of sim flying more realistic is so very helpful. Some day I hope to actually meet you and chew the fat on our backgrounds in military aviation, “FLIGHT SIMULATION”, and aviation in general. I’m really interested in your home built knobster and Arduino knowledge.
Hi Russ, just back from a two week holiday in another part of Scotland that we have not explored before. Had a blast but glad to be back where my Sim-Pit is.
It's so refreshing to hear Microsoft are finally implementing multi-monitor support.Thanks for the tip on the matt finish screens. I also think the view would be greatly enhanced if builders used curved monitors to help ensure even illumination, and better eyepoint focusing across the entire screen at close viewing distances. If I ever lose the ability to use VR, this is what I'll have to build. Thanks for sharing.
Just to add a furthe comment, I have been flying and fiddling with settings and muti-monitor a lot in the last two days, after watching your videos, and I am blown away with it. I just flew through London (Photogrammetry and Orbix) at a couple of hundred feet in the JPL Cessna 154 including through Tower Bridge. I achieved 30fps, or close to it, with high and medium settings and the scenery and immersion was just amazing on 3 x 1080p 21 inch monitorswith my NLR Motion Platform, X52 stick and TrackIR. Smooth and no stutters. I won't be using my HP Reverb 2 VR on this RTX2080, i9 9900K processor for a while, maybe not until I get a new PC. It may be a disappearing thing to have triple monitors in a world of VR but I can recommend it to anyone with a system like mine. It takes some work to get it all installed and running but I did it a few yaers ago for sim racing and I am glad I did.
Thank you for this video. While I do not use a multi-screen setup, I do use a 50" screen. What I always loved about X-Plane was I could measure my eye distance to screen and use a simple online calculator with that and my screen size to get appropriate field of view and then just plug that number in X-Plane. Even with P3D, while it also used zoom, there was a relationship with FOV that was easy to figure out the appropriate zoom needed. Been lost on how to get there with MSFS, but this helps answer that. Used that chart/graph and am now all set up. Things now seem true to scale in front of me.
Bit late, but the reason FS uses percent is because each plane has it's own base FOV, and the slider modifies from that, so this chart is only accurate for the cessna.
Other things to consider are dude viewing angle and input lag Look at this website to see gaming TV and detailed info in specific brands www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/video-gaming
Hi Russ... I've been waiting for this, and like you, I wasn't interested much in FS2020 until they finally got the multi-display / multi-view setup working. I used 74% zoom to get close to 60° FOV and -/+ 91° for the left and right screens as per your ninety-degree rotation offset suggestion to do what is really plus or minus sixty degrees. I have three 55" displays and the 91° setting took care of the bezel correction.
Thanks so much for this video. I have a Samsung 49” curved monitor, recommended by the guys at Flight Velocity, with TrackIR but just getting tired of trying to make it work all the time. I bought 2 Q8 QLED 55” monitors and I am going to do my best to stitch them together. I’ll try and let you know how it works, but I was lost of how to setup MSFS2020 until your video. Thanks so much.
The issues with reflections and having the correct geometry and eyepoint and FOV also happens in high end FFS visual systems on mylar mirror visuals, though not on direct projection system, and I've worked on CRT/calligraphic systems, maxvue, SPX, Vital 8, and LCoS systems RSI, Tropos, Rockwell Collins , CATI, with FOV up to 220 x 60 degrees and your experimentation with the 90 degrees angles in in the right track for flat screens. Though working wth beta software is tough. On the high end systems is has taken some creative ways to eliminate the cross view reflections. You are doing great. Well done.
Thanks for another masterpiece, Professor. You never disappoint. 1 -- You had one Air Manager in the second half of the video, but in the opening part you had 3 monitors and two touchscreens for AM. What hardware setup did you employ to support 5 monitors? AM with Air Player on a networked computer? 2 -- From your experience with X-P and MFS, do you have any opinion on the pros and cons of using curved monitors in a 3-monitor?
Great video. I too am a fellow flight sim/racing sim content creator/player. I’m pumped they finally released triple screen. I built my simulator based on this game and not having triple rendering killed me.
Thank you for the video. On a side note, there are so many videos like this, but apart from comments on the monitors used, there is little information provided about the actual computer hardware being used to drive this kind of setup and what was your typical FPS, etc. in the areas you were flying?
great video thanks. I should have watched it before I tried to get it to work lol. i am 77mm distance to screen and my screens are 52 cm at 45 angle. I use 92.5 for horizontal offset vertical and roll offsets same as yours. What I have done is set a few custom views that are pretty good and have a button on my controller to swap views then it is fairly realistic. In external view I use the mouse to scroll in until the view is good then I don't change the external view. I don't use the external view much anyway, Thanks again. p.s. By the way it works fine with TrackIR as long as you are sensible with head movement settings. This makes the immersion in total very good indeed.
Hello Russ great video thank you for posting let me ask you in the multiple monitor view mode do you need multiple computers to run it like WidevieW requires?
Another class video Russ. You are at the cutting edge (or bleeding edge!) of flight simulation. You need to get that iPhone on a tripod or ceiling mount to free your hands... Thanks again. Looking forward to the next video. Regards. Peter
Yes I have the technology to do it better but leaving for AirVenture and I really didn’t have time to make a video but was excited to share this… so I did it quickly as possible. Thanks for your comments…you are correct.
Well it seems as a first step into the right direction. But still there is a lot of work to be done. About the placement of the screens, putting yourself or the eyepoint when assessing the FOV (see e.g. 5:43) dead centre of the middle screen seems odd when you consider that in a 2 seater (like most GA, and all airliners) the PIC sits on the left hand side. Anyway, thanks for this instructive video, mr. Barlow.
Than you so much for another great review/ instructional video. May I ask what video card, processor and how much RAM comprise your current setup? I am concerned about frame rates, but your setup does not seem to struggle at all… Thanks in advance! Marco
Thanks for sharing, Sr. It is always very educational to watch your videos. In your opinion, when it comes to TVs, is 60Hz and/or 120Hz, 4K and/or UHD a deal breaker? Would it be okay by havig HD @ 120Hz than 4K @ 60Hz? 4K TVs are somewhat expensive. Oh, thanks for the tip on matte screen and same models TVs.
Depending on your graphics card but if using 3 screens Full HD (1920X1080) with a better frame rate would be my preference. You might also look at the side viewing brightness and if the TV has any input lag. Look at this website as it gives great advice on selecting TV's for gaming. Even 4K will probably be used at 1080p due to GPU limitations. www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/video-gaming
Very informative, thanks for showing it to us. I was asking Asobo/MS for this two years ago. Good to see they’re finally getting it done. Any suggestions on monitors/TVs that work particularly well with this MSFS configuration?
I've been using 4 monitors with MSFS for months. I have an RTX 3090 with three monitors on that and one monitor on the cpu for navigraph maps and fmc etc.
Hi Russ, thank you for posting all these videos. I am a fan. a question regarding three monitors for the scenery. does it matter if these are straight or curvy monitors in order to get the best immersion. Thanks.
Believe it or not the flat monitors will have a more correct image as the image is stretched so as to look correct when the image toward the outboard edges is viewed at an angle rather than straight on. It is not very noticeable except if you use Nvidia surround to make the three monitors into one big super wide Monitor. If you kept all three monitors flat ( in the same plane) it would look right but most people angle them back and viewed like that they look stretched on the outboard edges. All that said, I think any slight distortion on a curved monitor would be near imperceptible
Hi Russ. Another great video! You inspired me to go give the beta a shot! I'm wondering what you were getting for FPS with the 5 monitor setup, and with what graphics settings. Is air manager networked or running on the same PC as the sim? What specs do the PC have? I have a Ryzen 5900x, an RTX 3080, and 32Gb RAM and my 5 monitor setup has brought my sim to it's knees (12-17FPS landing at JFK on Ultra but with my LODs set to 70). If I go lower than ultra I dont see much of a difference (my GPU just sits idle because I'm main thread limited, not gpu limited). I'm also running a bunch of background processes to increase my sim realize and record via OBS. Not surprised by the low FPS, but still trying to benchmark compare to others running similar setups. I'm still limited by my main thread performance, so I'm hoping the production SU10 release and future DX12 and DLSS optimizations will help me get my FPS up. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u7--RQ-94y8.html Thanks again!!
Brilliant video, I just got three Philips 4k TV's and setup as you have but I have to upgrade my GPU to handle the graphics, computer is ASUS i 7 7700 and graphics Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 so I hopefully will have enough to run my XPlane 11.55 and into XPlane 12, thanks for your informative review.
Thanks Russ, I might have to put my cockpit back together now! I see the Roll rotation offset (etc.) parameters - do you think this means I can get my old 'twisted' view with the outside screens tilted downwards?
When surround and elimination of 3d cockpit implemented, will be where fsx was 10 years ago. Still happy with my fsx set up. Pity we couldn't just upgrade to msfs scenery to fsx.
love to see the cockpit feature working as i have 1x55 inch and 2x 32 inch screens for cockpit feel , undockable screens for sides be great if they going that way.
It's beautiful settings, I see you have a homemade cockpit, awesome this means you also don't like flying with your fingers and mouse, yes this is reality 🥰👍👍👍I have x-plane 11 but since I see x-plane 12 I'm very much disappointed, because on version 12 the sceneries are more hazier and it becomes darker even with full sunlight. Thanks for sharing 🥰👍
Great video but there's one thing you didn't talk about that would make an amazing difference. Head Tracking!! MSFS supports trackIR which is absolutely game changing with multi monitor setups because you can setup the camera in game to track position (but not rotation). This basically allows you to move your head within the space to see around the aircrafts B pillars etc.
Moved from TrackIR to using the FaceTrackNoIR software and a converted PS/3 camera for head tracking. Once tuned, it works as good, and no need to wear anything on the head.
@@mughug9616 thanks, I'll try again. I tried with trackir if I recall. Did not have good luck with it, or facetrack. I'll try facetrack again. It would be fantastic to get it working with msfs!
Great video, thanks. The main issue i'm having is setting zoom so I can see some instruments as well as the view - I don't have the separate instrument display panel.
That is why we have added separate panel monitors. There is a landing view in the cockpit camera settings that raises the view a bit to see over the glareshield but you can only see the top row of instruments. I prefer a instrument panel with Air Manager so I can have a better scenery view at all times.
@@rbarlow Thanks, I'm looking at airmanager now, one or two touch-panels maybe. Do they all run on one PC or is it going to be too much? I really cannot get what i want with just the three screens, even with TrackIR, so it looks like i will need to add the panel displays.
@@dave-j-k depends on your graphics card and cpu. Obviously most graphics cards have four video ports but there is a device called a Pluggable that can use USB 3.0 to create additional ports. I have a i7-9900K and RTX2080ti and I can run MSFS on three 1080p TVs plus two 1080p touch screens. I think you might just add a single touch screen first for a basic Air Manager instrument touch panel, possible with Knobster
Wow. Almost there. I use three flight screens and two more touch screens with knobster. I’m a monitor person and will standby until they launch it formally.
I was busy preparing to attend AirVenture in Oshkosh Wisconsin this week and didn’t really get a good look at their performance but I didn’t notice anything that stuck out. I will revisit the subject when I get home.
Hi Russ, is it possible with projectors to get half dome? Great that you have 180 horizontally, but 90 degrees vertically, so you could look up would be fantastic. This of course is ideal for bubble canopy aircraft. Your thoughts? Is this possible with Microsoft flight sim?
So, I am trying to get this all setup. My main monitor is a different resolution then the right and left. Could that be why things are not lining up properly? If there was a way to zoom in on the left and right it would be perfect.
I'm not sure about going this direction. When I was using FSX, or Prepar3d I was using multiple window views. I had 2 monitors for the front view, 1 monitor for L and 1 monitor for the R. It was a fantastic setup. I also being a real pilot need realism for practicing procedures. I was not impressed with the monitor stretching everyone seemed to be experimenting with. I've only seen a few setups like mine. My system was built in 2009 with the fastest components on the market at the time. For the latest release of FS, it will need to be updated. I have it all in the closet for now. I would love to jump on board with the 2020 release but without the multi view option I'm afraid it wouldn't be of much use to me. I'm waiting to see how the developers are going to bring this option back to life. I wish they would get with it. I love the views in FS 2020.
That may be why they made it such a low priority, because they knew it would be a significant enough performance hit so all but the highest end players with 3080/90 cards would find it un-usable. From my point of view coming from the world of sim (car) racing, multi monitor support is a basic feature that players take for granted. Any game that does not have it can't even be considered a sim and most players won't even give it the time of day.
Such an interesting walkthrough and thank you. I noticed you have additional displays and am curious to know if you're using one or multiple GPU? Recently I added a 4 port DP 1.4 MST hub to my AMD RX6700 XT. This enabled me to expand beyond the physical port limits of my GPU. So I can now drive six DisplayPort 1.4 monitors. For the MST hub connected monitors, the limit is 4x1080p@60Hz. It's perfectly stable as long as the MST power source is a USB 2A AC charger. For a higher resolution, four monitors isn't possible on one MST hub and a bandwidth calculation is necessary. If needed, multiple MST hubs can be used. AMD GPUs are poorly documented, for number of connected monitors, and it also varies by model. Nvidia no longer support more than four screens.
Hi Russ in the first 10 seconds of your video it shows your dual touchcreen air manager panel, featured in other videos; are those 15.6"size? I always wondered, why not go all the way and put the gear/flaps/desktop aviator switches along the bottom of the touchscreens. No hardware except yoke and throttle and totally configurable for different aircraft. Im thinking of doing a setup like yours with (2) planar PCT2235s. (22") Whatdya think?
Those are the 15.6” touchscreens yes. I elected to have some limited hardware since the screens aren’t that big and to get too much on the screens makes things unrealistically small and sometimes difficult to operate with touch. Since the VirtualFly Yoko yoke and TQ6 throttle have no basic switches for gear,flaps, lights, avionics, battery, ect like the Honeycomb Alpha Yoke and Bravo throttle I elected to add my own since these are common to most airplanes. This leaves more room for other instruments on the touch screens. On some of my older videos I think you would see I dis exactly what you suggest but on larger 24” touch screens.
Quick question...can you set up a separate screen as a blackout screen to move panels over to so you can finally use the touchscreen. Function on them. I am using airmanager with two touch screens but airmanager does not have everything like the G3X panel
-- You had one Air Manager in the second half of the video, but in the opening part you had 3 monitors and two touchscreens for AM. What hardware setup did you employ to support 5 monitors? AM with Air Player on a networked computer
I'm going to attempt an Ultra-Wide in the center (34" curved Alienware) with a 27" 16:9 on the left and on right, they are all approximately the same height, so that's why I'm going to try it. They are also all 1440 display resolution although I may need to dial that down a bit (assuredly) It will create a very wide, wrapped-around formation. I have experimented in the past with DCS and a "T" formation (4 monitors) which includes a touch-screen down below utilizing the Helios product for cockpit interaction with the help of a competent programmer who was involved in the project. Lots of angles and math are involved (in DCS) but if done right, the results can be totally immersive and I'm eager to try this combination with the new capabilities of FS-2020 (can't be harder than DCS). I will attempt with the following hardware: (1) 34" Alienware ultra-wide 1440p in the center, (2) 27" Asus 1440p monitors PB278Q, (1) 12900K CPU liquid-cooled CL, (1) 3090 FTW III Evga. It's the height that keeps the number of pixels manageable (depending on the resolution used 1440p vs. 1080p) ...although some would see that as a restriction (not getting enough height out of this), I am eager to see tons of scenery on the periphery. I may need to go with paired 3090's or paired 3090 Ti's to get the frame-rates desired (although the 2nd 3090 will not double the capability as you know, far from it)
Thanks for the quick response! I was able to join in. The three views are marvelous, but unfortunately I don't think my 4 year old laptop is up to the challenge. I have 4 GHZ processor speed, and 32 GB Ram, but even with graphics set on low, I only get 20 fps.
Hi Russ. The section of your video that was of intense interest to me seemed to go by very quickly. I was looking for more detail on the horizontal rotation settings for each of the three windows. I noticed the left window was -90° and the right was +90° but I couldn't see what the centre one was. Is it 0°?
Good point. The center window is the default window that has 0 degrees rotation. You only need to set the values on the additional windows you add. The X-Plane approach is easier and hopefully Asobo will make this simpler and easier to understand.
What type/model graphics card (GPU) are you using to drive these? What's the processor on the main computer? Last question. What VR goggles do you use?
If I need to see the instruments in default view ('F'), and don't have them separate (Airmanager or similar), I need a zoom setting of not more than around 53 in MSFS giving a FOV per screen around 76 degrees per your referred table. But it seems the lateral rotation setting in MSFS doesn't make any sense other than in the +/- 90 degree setting or there is huge overlap between screens no matter the zoom setting. Is that experience shared by others? I have a 27" 16:9 4K monitor center, and a 24" 16:10 1920x1200 monitor on my left. That is what I have to work with. How to make this work the best, if I need a zoom setting of 53 to see my instruments. I have tried moving really close, like 40 cm (wouldn't be comfortable) as per the calculator references for that viewing angle, but even then, I don't seem to get lines to line up in the Triple Screen Calibration Utility. How do I optimize what I have available? And if not going for big TVs, if I replace my desktop/office place monitors to something like 2 x 32" 16:9, could I make something reasonable, still see my instruments needing the 53 zoom setting?
What’s wrong with expanding your resolution to 5xxxx1080 with nvidia surround and just going full screen? I got triples set like that and I can look around with tobii. Looks perfect to me
You might notice it but the surround creates a wide flat screen on multiple monitors. The sim creates an image that stretches as you move toward the outer edges so that it looks right when viewed at that oblique angle from the center. If you rotate the side monitors back for a more direct viewing angle it looks stretched. The wider the field of view selected the more pronounced the distortion. Assuming your monitors are rotated back on the sides try this experiment. Pick an object directly ahead of you and then turn until it is on the edge and watch how it gets wider. You’ll also notice that objects passing by the side will appear to be moving faster than in real life. The new system MSFS creates three separate views that are all correct for the rotated angles of the monitors.
Link reference videos in the description also. Otherwise, your content generally is useful. You have some video production opportunities to learn, just like I have simulator configuration opportunities to learn.
@Roel you can turn those off by navigating to: Assistance Options >> User Experience >> INSTRUMENT HEADS-UP DISLPAY - CHASE CAM --> OFF (Default: FULL) Hope that helps! 😉
@@Sven2157 oh wait, i did know that option, indeed the hud is gone, but the aircraft remains! For home cockpitbuilders the option like infsx/prepar3d by pressing the w key should be nice. Still miss that
@@Sven2157 What many people with a home build cockpit want is an outside view without instruments or any stuff projected. The only option i know is this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DRS-Qmu5qtg.html But this means zooming in and then edit the cameras.cfg file, wich gives a zoomed outside view. In other sims there is a simple option wich , by pressing a key , removes the entire virtual cockpit. I see in the video by Russ still the cockpit visible. In this case i think this is no problem , but for me this is an issue.
Hi, If anyone has some tips for a 2 monitor setup, please share. The way 3 monitors can build a 180 symmetric view seems ideal for this new feature. It used to work well with 2 mons in Xplane...
Hi. Can you tell me what settings you have in Nvidia. Do you delete the surround and leave it as separate monitors. Also the settings in win 10/11. Do you also leave the monitors as separate or as surround? Thank you.
Yes disable surround. Other nVidia settings don’t affect multi monitor set up. Then in Windows go to Display settings and arrange three monitors side by side with center ticked as main monitor. MSFS should start on that center monitor. Go to general options settings in MSFS and select Experimental menu and then multi monitor. Add two monitors. Set later rotation on one to -90 and other 90. Fine tune Roll and Vertical rotation to tweak and line up side monitors.
I did this. I have a 737 home cockpit with three Samsung 4K 30mhz. 70” TVs. It works pretty good, like you said for the angles. But Major issue I’m having even at 1920 x 1080 my PC which is a beefy RTX 3080, it opens 3 instances (windows) and my graphics are terrible. I have to run medium, and high end actually looks bad too. I’m not using nvidia surround. Any idea what may be going wrong here?
VR now it is just so immersive I’m mostly using that. I have the Varjo Aero and can easily fly instrument flights using Navigraph in cockpit charts, a kneeboard mounted trackball mouse ( with scroll ring to turn knobs) and I have an X-Keys programable keypad to manage basic sim functions like enter/exit VR, reset VR View, adjust eye position and views, and to adjust OpenXR Tookit settings. I can’t wait for hand tracking or Mixed Reality but in the meantime this is fine for me. You simpit can also be in a much smaller place without big monitors
i bought three 31.5 inch monitors.with this size following your excel sheet the distance i need to keep from the monitors is 23.77 inch to have 180 degree view with 60 degree angle(fov). the problem is that having a table as a base I can't get so close due to the size of my joystick and I'm forced to decrease the angle. for now i am trying 45 angle and then i will try 30 degrees and according to your spreadsheet the maximum total fov is 135.5 degrees by 45 and 90 by 30...is this correct,why? can't I get a 180 degree view? one more thing...how do I calculate the offset of the side windows of msfs based on the angle of inclination of the monitors (fov)..and the zoom to use? Thanks, sorry for the long message but i think that with 31.5 inch monitor also the zoom is important .....and to ottain totalfov you slide the zoom....but if the monitor is little i need more zoom to see.
