Multiple monitors support patch – by Nir Hasson

[Assaf Raman]

We have no "networked streaming" render system, it is a good idea - but no one (as far as I know) implemented it in OGRE in the core level.

[spacegaier]

Perhaps put that idea on the HelpRequested wiki page then?

[Assaf Raman]

Mmm, we were never able to decide if a general networked render system should be a part of OGRE.
As I remember - some of the team members didn't think that the networking code should be a part of OGRE core.
Yes, add it, it can be nice to have, I needed the same requirement over and over.

[spacegaier]

Okay, added: http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-ind ... ing_system

Hope it got it right.

[Assaf Raman]

You want to add something about multiple computers used to render a single view and communicate with each other with a network.

[spacegaier]

Okay, it is probably more effective if you just add that, rather than me going through thousands of iterations until it is fine .

[Assaf Raman]

You are right.

[syedhs]

Honestly, I think it is not Ogre-related features. And plus, there are many network libraries around - so which you going to choose?

[CABAListic]

Yeah, this is not a core feature, to be sure. But it could still be an interesting project for an addon (not in the core codebase, though).

[ngcmos]

To go back to the multi-monitor support of Ogre 1.7, I am having a similar problem to juharkonen's and to http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61190.

I am using Win7 with Nvidia Quadro 5000 (Nvidia with Win7 has no spanning desktop available as far as I understand, so I'm using extended desktop), 2 monitors at 1920x1200.

My application runs with 2 borderless 1920x1200 windows, each on one monitor. With the upgrade to 1.7, I get this error:

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OGRE EXCEPTION(7:InternalErrorException): Cannot begin frame - no viewport selected. in D3D9RenderSystem::_beginFrame at ..\..\..\ogre_src_v1-7-2\RenderSystems\Direct3D9\src\OgreD3D9RenderSystem.cpp (line 2819)

This happens also when I use only one window and I move it from one monitor to another. It works well with an ATI card I have, using spanning desktop (but not extended). I hope to find a better solution than to get a new video card; any hints will be welcomed.

What is more troubling though is this. Using the the sample browser in windowed mode, with the Compositor sample, I tried to move it from one monitor to another. It works fine except if I have the B&W or the Heat Vision compositors on - then the sample browser crashes with:

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OGRE EXCEPTION(6:FileNotFoundException): Cannot locate resource RT in resource group Popular or any other group. in ResourceGroupManager::openResource at ..\..\..\..\OgreMain\src\OgreResourceGroupManager.cpp (line 753)

Any thoughts? Anything I should try?

[Assaf Raman]

...Nvidia with Win7 has no spanning desktop available as far as I understand...

There is such an option, look for "stretch" .

[ngcmos]

Thanks Assaf for the suggestion. I can't seem to find any "Stretch" besides the desktop background option. I only have Extend and Duplicate Displays as multi-monitor configuration options. There is also NVIDIA scaling vs display's built-in scaling, but that is on a per-monitor basis. Would stretch be in these categories or is it something completely different?

I should clarify that the problem is more along the lines of this: http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61190. Unfortunately spanning mode does not exist on Windows Vista and Windows 7 with NVIDIA (http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvid ... faqid=2026). In extended mode, for some reason the sample browser would mysteriously crash with the compositors mentioned.

However, I did find "Set up Mosaic" in the NVIDIA control panel (I don't know how I missed that before!). It fixed the sample browser crash problem.

Now for my application, I could not make 2 windows to work each on their own monitor (window in monitor 2 is black) but I can make 1 window that stretches onto both. I guess that will have to do for now.

[Transporter]

Use case: Many monitors joined toghether to form one huge screen, where each monitor has its own PC/CPU. The different PCs now need to update the scene via the network...so stream the scene state. An example could be many screens forming a circle where the user stands in the middle and his/her movements/gestures should e.g. move the scene displayed on the screens around him.

I'm setting up such an environment now. In the beginning I have two rendering computers each with two graphic cards and three displays. I can post the results after I finished but first I need some help how to setup multiple monitors. Has somebody a code example how to setup multiple displays? This is a common question now, It would be helpful to post an example or create a wiki page.

[nickG]

What status on current version?-i'm cannot check now

[Transporter]

Multiple monitors are working with 1.9.0, 1.10.0 and also 2.0.0 out of the box.