View Group Help needed for multi monitor setup

[737Andi]

Hi,

Im unable to get my triple LCD monitor setup working with the P3D v5.1 view group function. I also tried Fly Elise Immersive LCD Pro without any success.
1x 16:9 3480x2160
2x 1:1 2048x2048 monitors.

The best result actually comes with the auto detect function of P3D. I would therefore like to start from there and fine tune the values. Does anyone know if its possible to get the auto detect values somehow so that I can tweak the ViewGroups.xml file?

Thank you very much!

Best regards Andi

[Beau Hollis]

Unfortunately, P3D does not have a way to save out the calculated values generated by auti-fill view group. The auto-fill view group uses the Viewport method for defining the views. It uses the desktop coordinates from the OS and fits them into a box. So assuming your wide display is in the middle you just the the relative size of the two side displays to figure out the viewport points. The wiewport width of those displays would be 2048 / (2048 + 2048 +3480) = 0.27. That is the right side of first viewport. Left side of last view port is 1 - 0.27 = 0.73. Your your view group in XML would look something like this:

Code: Select all

        <ViewGroup>
            <SideAngles>-45.000000,45.000000,0.000000,0.000000</SideAngles>
            <Name>Three Displays</Name>
            <View>
                <DisplayID>1</DisplayID>
                <Viewport>0.000000,0.270000,1.000000,0.000000</Viewport>
                <Name>left</Name>
            </View>
            <View>
                <DisplayID>2</DisplayID>
                <Viewport>0.270000,0.730000,1.000000,0.000000</Viewport>
                <Name>center</Name>
            </View>
            <View>
                <DisplayID>3</DisplayID>
                <Viewport>0.730000,1,1.000000,0.000000</Viewport>
                <Name>right</Name>
            </View>
        </ViewGroup>

You can also do it all through the UI which gives you validation and preview cabilities. The key is just getting the viewport and display id correct. Viewport in XML is in Left Right Top Bottom order.

[EDIT] This is based on how we do the auto-fill but the auto-fill doesn't know about the physical size of your displays. For the best possible results, you'd want to measure the width of the displays and re-do the math above with the physical measurement rather than the resolution. It also assumes you want to wrap displays around you. You can change the view group type to flat if you intend to place them side by side on a wall for example. The good thing about using Viewport method rather than raw frustum values is that it's easier to calculate, and you can adjust field of view of the entire group, support zooming, and switch between flat and cylinder mode without re-working through all the math.