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Al'Kimiya
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Perhaps this is a minor issue for most people, but I post it anyway...
We've heard that the game will not run in a window, but to be very "alt-tab friendly", where ICQ, Winamp and other programs could be on top.
In newer versions of the Windows OS, there is built-in support for multi-monitor. So if you have more than one graphic card you just plug in another monitor and expand the desktop onto it.
My consern is that when running a full screen game, it often insists on changing the resolutions back and forth on the main screen, thus rearranging all windows, not to my liking. (For instance, the intro movie in Call to power 2 did this).
What I would like is that any movies could be scaled to the current resolution (which I hope can be edited to use the current windows desktop resolution or some user defined). I would also prefer if possible to have the mouse cursor "free" so it can be used for programs on the other screen, while civ3 stays "in place". This is good for IRC and surfing or whatever.
Would be thankful for any comments. From Firaxis or others.
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SlowThinker
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homeless, Praha, Czech Republic
Jan 2000
time: 06:15
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I go with Al'Kimiya.
I use that second monitor for notes about my plans, units, cities of the Civ game that is under way, I browse a scanned tech tree chart etc.
I dislike that fact about non-windowed Civ3 very much.
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Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS
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Hunt Valley, MD
May 2001
time: 00:15
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I'm also using two monitors -- I often use one for the game and one for the debugger (and to browse Apolyton). I haven't had any problems...
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SlowThinker
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homeless, Praha, Czech Republic
Jan 2000
time: 06:15
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quote:
Originally posted by Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS
I'm also using two monitors -- I often use one for the game and one for the debugger (and to browse Apolyton). I haven't had any problems... |
Are you sure? The situation might be different in the case of debugging and in the case of a regular game...
Normally all non-windowed games dissapear form the primary monitor after you Alt-tab, and so you cannot see the game and other windows related to the game (notes etc.) simultaneously.
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Al'Kimiya
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quote:
Originally posted by Gramphos
Or what OS' supports Multimonitoring, is there apps that makes it work for other OS?
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Windows 98/ME/2000/XP supports multimonitoring.
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Al'Kimiya
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quote:
Originally posted by SlowThinker
Normally all non-windowed games dissapear form the primary monitor after you Alt-tab, and so you cannot see the game and other windows related to the game (notes etc.) simultaneously. |
I think Alpha Centauri didn't, not sure though.
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Jarouik
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Helsinki, Finland, EU
Dec 2000
time: 07:15
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quote:
Originally posted by SlowThinker
Are you sure? The situation might be different in the case of debugging and in the case of a regular game...
Normally all non-windowed games dissapear form the primary monitor after you Alt-tab, and so you cannot see the game and other windows related to the game (notes etc.) simultaneously. |
I think that if he has a debugger program and/or web browser on his secondary monitor and he can use them while the game is visible on the primary monitor, it seems safe to say that Civ3 won't change resolutions and/or color depths of your monitors and as such can be used in a multi-monitor setup better than e.g. SMAC, which forced you into 8-bit colors, rendering the apps on the secondary monitor so ugly as to be unusable (and distorting the game graphics completely whenevery you clicked on another program), even though SMAC did allow you to operate windows on your second monitor without alt-tabbing.
So, I can only rejoice that Firaxis has taken multi-monitor users into consideration as well - little things like this make a huge difference when you play a game a lot and wish to use other software at the same time.
And on the topic of operating systems that support multi-monitoring, only the Professional version of Windows XP will support multiple monitors. Even though Windows 98 introduced the feature, it has been removed from XP Home Edition - so anyone who uses multiple monitors will have to get XP Professional, which is more expensive. I won't be upgrading from 2000 any time soon...
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StSz
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Austria
Aug 2001
time: 06:15
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well, I have a Matrox G400 (Matrox makes the _BEST_ TV-OUT and multi-monitor cards), and if I use the dual-monitor feature (quite often) it doesn't matter if a prog. changes resolution or color-depth.
The second screen is completely independant to the first one. I often use 800x600 on the second one (PAL TV)
However... It would be cooool if Civ3 would support Multimonitoring in some way...
(so you are able to move the stat screen, or else to the second screen)
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Jarouik
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Helsinki, Finland, EU
Dec 2000
time: 07:15
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quote:
Originally posted by SerapisIV
Does anyone know of a webtutorial somewhere that will explain how to set up dual monitors. I recently upgraded video cards and have an extra card lying around, so I'm thinking of trying. Also, those of you who use Win98 and dual monitors on two different video cards, any instability problems? |
I don't know of any tutorial, but there really is no need for one - provided that your video cards work correctly with the dual monitor feature (and most do), setting up dual monitors is as easy as installing the second card to your computer and booting up. (If you have one AGP and one PCI card, you will probably be able to select in system BIOS which one of the cards will be used as primary, which is the card used for full-screen games, DOS etc.) Anyway, when you boot, once you have installed the drivers for the second card, you just go to Display Properties and select the Settings tab - it should now have a picture of two displays, and you just need to click on the second display and select Extend Windows desktop onto this monitor.
As for instability problems, before upgrading to Windows 2000 I used dual monitors in Windows 98 with two different video cards (a Voodoo3 2000 PCI and a lousy integrated SiS 530 AGP controller, with Voodoo3 as primary) for over a year and had no problems whatsoever. I don't know, however, if other people have encountered stability issues with the feature.
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BlastDuke
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broadcasting from his captured Thargoid invasion ship
Aug 2001
time: 06:15
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A really good Multi-Monitor website can be found at:
http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon
You will find answers to nearly all your questions and there is also a great database of already working dual-monitor-systems.
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CapTVK
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Voorburg, the Netherlands, Europe
Jan 1970
time: 05:15
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quote:
Originally posted by Al'Kimiya
actually, I didn't mean that, and I'm pretty sure we won't be able to...  |
If that's the case then Civ3 is a step backwards on that account. Civ2 truly was windows based. meaning you could shrink/expand individual windows, move them over the screen, hide them under each other etc....
There was actually a discussion on this a year back (wasn't AH the protagonist in that particular case?) that it should be window based and not full screen so people could use their own messenger services, browser at the same time.
The fact that Civ3 isn't a true windows program, bit of an irony there  , might have something to do with the fact that it requires DirectX8 which doesn't seem to offer much for multiple monitors anyway. Trouble for me is that I use WinNT 4.0 which only supports DirectX3. Civ2MP works like a charm on NT but I know for certain that Civ3 won't. If someone can inform me otherwise I'll be a contend man.
I mean, why does Civ3 need DX8 anyway? It isn't as if Civ3 is pushing polygons to the limit, is it?
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Jarouik
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Helsinki, Finland, EU
Dec 2000
time: 07:15
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quote:
Originally posted by CapTVK
The fact that Civ3 isn't a true windows program, bit of an irony there , might have something to do with the fact that it requires DirectX8 which doesn't seem to offer much for multiple monitors anyway. Trouble for me is that I use WinNT 4.0 which only supports DirectX3. Civ2MP works like a charm on NT but I know for certain that Civ3 won't. If someone can inform me otherwise I'll be a contend man.
I mean, why does Civ3 need DX8 anyway? It isn't as if Civ3 is pushing polygons to the limit, is it?
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While I agreed a while ago that the best way to do Civilization would be in windowed mode (and still do), I can see the reasons for making Civ3 a full-screen DirectX game.
Displaying and drawing graphics in a window is slower than doing it full-screen with DirectX. The game is every bit as much a true Windows program as any else - it has just been designed to run in full-screen mode, as you certainly are aware that most games are. I am certain that if Civ3 were to draw the same kind of graphics inside a window, it would either be a lot slower and more unplayable or take a year or so further testing and optimising to make the windowed mode work fast enough... and yes, the graphics, while a subject of debate, are in my opinion a lot better (or at least look more sophisticated and therefore require more computing power  ) than those of CTP, and I can understand why they wanted to use the latest DirectX - even SMAC, with considerably simpler (or lower-resolution and color depth) graphics, required DirectX 6.
An additional reason, of course, is that by relying on standard Windows interface elements and displaying the game inside a window, while admittedly handy in a game as complex as Civ, does take away a lot of liberty in designing the game interface and certainly diminishes the feeling of immersion into the game world. I think there is also a bit of marketing involved in the decision to run the game full-screen. Therefore, I am content with Firaxis' decision with full-screen, as long as you can run other programs alongside it on other displays with no problems...
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15-08-2001 03:01
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