First-person shoot-em-up games on multiple monitors (1 Viewer)

[Francois Caron]

I'm planning to purchase a new computer, an overpowerd build-it-yourself tower model with a water cooling system. How far I'll overclock the thing depends on how much smoke comes out of the grills.
Anyways, I was thinking about all these first-person shoot-em-up games and how dull they look on a single screen. I've once seen a setup where a flight simulator game was running on over nine monitors placed in a half-circle. Although I don't want to go that far, I still wouldn't mind spreading a game such as Quake or the upcoming Doom III on three monitors placed side by side.
Do any of these games support multiple monitor? And can they handle a minimum of three monitors?
Believe it or not, this is just the first step of a highly elaborate plan.

 

[Nick_Murphy]

Hey Francois, you might want to check out the new Matrox video cards if you haven't already. On there site they show games that are at least compatible with their Parhelia™ triple display card.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/surrgame.cfm
Hope that helps ya out!

 

[Danny R]

Water cooled? Go for the gold then with a new Athlon 2600+
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q3/020821/index.html
As for multiple monitors, it depends on the game. Few thus far support dual monitors. I don't believe the latest versions of Quake or Unreal support it yet.

 

[Joe Hsu]

Doom III will support multiple monitors...it's been demoed on the Parhelia card, and lately, the ATi 9700. I imagine that UT2 and possibly Deus Ex 2 will as well.
I envy you...enjoy your water cooling.

 

[Jason_J]

I found an interesting link at Tom's Hardware Guide that would have to be the ultimate FPS multi-screen display. Any Unreal Tournamet players should take a look. The software is free and you only need 2 projectors.
CaveUT 1.2
Just remember to take your Dramamine.

 

[Nick_Murphy]

Now, does anybody know if it is possible to find software to alter say a geforce 3, or even a radeon card to do a triple display. I understand that the matrox cards use two dvi ports and come with adaptors to turn them into 3 D-Sub (or standard monitor) ports. Myself, i have 1 d-sub and 1 DVI to work with, anybody now if it's possible to get a TRUE triple display with these two ports, i know the adaptors are available thanx!

 

[Francois Caron]

Nick, that's EXACTLY what I needed! One card, three RGB outputs! I was afraid I'd have to purchase three individual graphics cards, but the Matrox card obviously solves that problem. And the overall resolution is just right for what I'm planning to do with it. In fact, I'll have to lower the resolution down to either 600 or 768 pixels high once I wire that sucker to the three individual DLP projectors...

You're probably wondering now what I'm planning to do with this thing. If I manage to develop the game controller I intend to use with these games, I'll post some screenshots. But that won't be for a little while yet. Just one single projector is expensive enough. But three of them is a mortgage!

In the meantime, I'm planning to use the multi-display capabilities for some amateur video editing and DVD authoring along with having a more usable desktop arrangement. And I have the means to get my hands on some used 17" monitors reasonably cheap.

Danny, thanks for the heads-up on the Athlon. I originally intended to go with a Pentium based motherboard, but it seems the Pentium chips have limited overclocking capabilities. Plus, they're much more expensive which is no fun if you burn one out.

 

[Gerald LaFrance]

Hi Francois sounds interesting. I would also suggest 3-D glasses from HTTP://www.edimensional.com there truly amazing adds alot to any FPS or Flight sim!!

 

[Francois Caron]

Gerald, the 3-D glasses won't work with me. I have no central vision in my right eye. All those glasses will do is give me a splitting headache with the right eye's remaining peripheral vision trying to understand what the [BLEEP] is going on.