Hi all, I would like to know how I can switch the 2nd display on a system off. Many games fail to work when the 2nd display is enabled (or don''t start at all). So I thought it would be a nice idea to write a little prog that can be run from a batch file. Any idea''s ? TIA, Hightree Reality, is that where the pizza delivery guy comes from ?

Those games are bugged then - report the bug to their authors.

If they don''t work on a desktop PC with that setup, then they won''t work on a laptop either (the LCD is one monitor, the docking port is a 2nd one!), or even some TVOut cards.
Which at the end of the day is pretty lame!

This is often a driver specific thing, but you can usually disable the second monitor trivially in the first page of the display settings of a multimon setup!.


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Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

Ok, I''ll write mr. Carmac a note
I have this problem (not starting) with Medal of Honour, and I''ve seen it in more Q3-gased games.

I know one can disable the display manually, but I want to do it by software.

Maybe there''s some DirectX function to do this ?

CU, Hightree

Reality, is that where the pizza delivery guy comes from ?

Send the publisher a note - a broken game is a broken game - (maybe I''m biased though since every commercial product I''ve written graphics code for HAS worked on multimon ) I''d also guess Mr Carmack probably had nothing to do with that part of the Q2/Q3 engine code.


To fix it properly you''d probably need to work out *why* the game was going wrong with multimon first

- is it because its assuming that adapter 0 in a DirectDraw call is the monitor the user wants to play on ?

- is it because its expecting the desktop to be a certain size ?

- is it because of a mode enumeration problem ?

etc..

and related to that you''ll have to find out why its making that assumption, i.e. *how* its doing stuff - for example does it use DirectDraw at all ? it may be using the ChangeDisplaySettings() call for example.

Also beware that MOH does have other *bugs* some of which seem to the be related to the way it (appears to) starts its server in a separate process. The commonly known issue is the game locking up, crashing etc with auto-dial set in their dial up networking options.


AFAIK the Windows and DirectX APIs only contains direct functions to *enumerate* the monitor configuration of a machine rather than *set* it. You''d probably have to go to the DDK level or hardware profiles level to disable a monitor programmatically.

If I do think of a way I''ll let you know.


--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

if I remember correctly in Nvidia''s drivers OGL is disabled when multi-monitor support is enabled. At least with my GF2MX multi-monitor, I don''t know if its the same with the GF3 series or ATI cards.