SupCom Xfire Grumblings

[Kreij]

Ok, so I am happily playing SupCom at 2560 x 1600 on my monitor.

Then I think, "Hey, I have another 19" Viewsonic (VB191b) that I could add, as SupCom supports dual monitors"

So I unhook Xfire, set my main to 1920 x 1200 (main GC) , the secondary to 1280 x 1024 (other GC), and fire up the other monitors. WooHoo ... wait ...

SupCom supports dual monitors only in dualhead mode (one GC) not on multiple cards. :wtf:

Ok, I think, I'll just re-enable Xfire and do it that way ... wait ...
No dual monitor support when in Xfire mode. :wtf:

Grumble grumble .... no, I don't want to hook up both monitors to one card and leave the other sit there.

Fooey.

[DanTheBanjoman]

For some reason the option doesn't even light up when I connect another monitor. No matter what I set windows to, cloning, extend desktop etc.

[Kreij]

According to the GPGNET Forum information ...

You enable dualhead from the Video tab in the Options menu within Supreme Commander (note that this will require you to restart SupCom afterwards). If the game can detect a second monitor configuration in Windows, the Secondary Adapter pull-down menu will still list Disabled, but won’t be grayed out and by clicking on it you’ll get a set of possible resolutions and refresh rates that your video card drivers say that the second monitor can run at. Your changes will be stored in the Game.Prefs file and retained in future gameplay.


I haven't tried using the dualhead mode as I do not want to lose performance on the one card just to use split screen of dual monitors.

[Kreij]

I went back to just plain Xfire on my 30" monitor. 2560 x 1600 goodness is better than the extra monitor.

Maybe one of these days Xfire will support muliple monitors.

[DanTheBanjoman]

According to the GPGNET Forum information ...



I haven't tried using the dualhead mode as I do not want to lose performance on the one card just to use split screen of dual monitors.

It is always greyed out for me, care to give me your game.prefs so I can attempt to manually set the option?

[Kreij]

@Dan

I can disable XFire when I get home and see if I can get the dualhead working on my system.
If it works, I'll send you the prefs.

[DanTheBanjoman]

@Dan

I can disable XFire when I get home and see if I can get the dualhead working on my system.
If it works, I'll send you the prefs.

Sounds good, want to use a 12" LCD for the map.

[Kreij]

What patch level are you at?

I have mine patched all the way to the new 1.1.3269

[DanTheBanjoman]

What patch level are you at?

I have mine patched all the way to the new 1.1.3269

No clue, latest since I play online.

[Kreij]

@Dan

Ok, here's what I did ...

I disabled Xfire and rebooted for good measure.
I disconnected one end of the dongle from the slave.
I plugged my second monitor into the second port of the master card.
(So I have two cables in master and nothing in slave)
Rebooted for good measure.
Went into screen properties and set monitor #2 (of 4) to second port of master card,
and told it to extend the screen to that monitor. (monitor #1 is main, 3 & 4 are slave card)
Monitor came on and windows was happy.
Fired up SupCom
Went into options->Video and the second adapter option let me choose a resolution.
Restarted SupCom, monitor worked fine for Map.

My preferences (options) are all at the default except I have the adapter resolutions set to :
Adapter #1 : 2560 x 1600
Adapter #2 : 1024 x 768 (I just used the first choice)

If you plug in both monitors, you have to make sure Windows is happy before SupCom as
SupCom looks to see what if available in Windows. If it still doesn't work for you I am not
sure why, but I will be happy to google my little heart out tomorrow at work (I am on
dial-up here at home) to help resolve you problem.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Hmmm I think I know what the issue might be. 12" > 800×600, if the minimum resolution is 1024×768 it might not show up because of that. Time to steal a 15" panel.

[Mussels]

As a supcom expert (and we have supcom only lans and we ALL use dual monitor) there are a few facts.

You cannot use SLI or Crossfire with dual monitors - that is the SLI/Xfire limitation, and not the games fault.

Two cards dont work - you can only use dual outputs from the one video card.

Performance is taken down around 30% - the second monitor DOES NOT use full graphics quality (its capped at medium) but it still hurts the FPS.

And finally - the second screen MUST be enabled in windows, i personally have it set to the top left of my main screen, so that i can still use the mouse on the sides of my primary monitor for scrolling, and use the 2nd as just a large map.

oh and P.S - the minimum res is 1024x768, so yeah you'll need a monitor capable of that. the game does allow different refresh rates per screen, thank god.


P.P.S - if you enable dual monitors and remove the monitor after the game, supreme commander WILL NOT START without hte 2nd monitor re-attached. Its a real bitch, because it may not be obvious thats the cause (it spits out a D3D9 error)