Widescreen Gaming Forum

Good day all,
Thank you in advance if you will be reading through this lengthy posting.
I am seeking support and do not know where to start. I cannot read through anymore unrelated data and would very much prefer to get right to the Step-by-Step process. Does such a process exist on this website where I could follow instructions to setting up my displays?

Rather than to shove it all in the closet to collect dust due to failures, I thought I would make one more attempt to resolving the issues here at WSGF.

I would be more than happy to compensate for any working solution either through direct contributions to WSGF website or any one individual that would be willing and able to support my issues through to resolution.

My 2 wishes are as follows...

1 – Set up my 3 monitors to span the display of a game/simulator application to display as one screen and have them run without failure.
I have gotten 1 or 2 to work for short periods then they crash due to memory or something just reboots the machine or turns screen black.

2 - Resolve crash issues, this is basically related to item 1 because All apps run fine in a default configuration mode.

My PC consists of the following hardware

• 3 of HP ZR30w monitors each running at 2560 x 1600 through DPI connections
• CPU Intel core i7 4930K Ivy bridge-E 3.4GHz no overclock
• Asus X79 Sabertooth Motherboard Rev 04 version 4302
• 64 gig of DDR3 Viper RAM at 1600
• 1 of GPU Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Titan 4gig 1240 MHz clock
• 1 of OCZ SSD VERT EX3 256g HDD 1st of Dual boot dedicated to work.
• 1 of Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500G HDD 2nd of Dual Boot for Gaming and partitioned to launch EXE files on extended partition
• 2 of 2TB WD Black internal mechanical HDD’s used to store the bulk of gaming SW
• 1000w Power Supply
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS

A few SW Applications I just purchased and would like see working over 3 monitors.
• Portal 2
• Crysis 1, 2, 3
• DCS World
• Microsoft Flightsim X
• X Plane 10 or 11
• DeadSpace 3

If relevant, here are peripherals to the HW
• 2 external E-SATA connected housings containing 12 of various sized WD external mechanical HDD’s for storage 16TB in total
• Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle and Joystick
• Logitech’s Z5000 speakers
• Microsoft’s wireless Xbox controller
• Hammer & Chisel for emergency situations
• UPS 120v power protection

I don't wish to express my frustrations, especially considering I am new and this is my first posting however, I have just spent another 3 hrs going through yet another iteration and instructional video to installing software that would provide a working solution.
After changing the contents of the configuration files and rebooting several times, none of it resulted in a fix.
Actually it ended up messing up the machine and even a system restore won't fix the new problem.

I have reached a point where I want to dig a hole in my backyard, and bury something in it.
The way I see it is, since I have contributed so much to the cost of setting up this custom system along with the purchases of SW and peripherals, what's a few more bucks going to matter at this point.

I'm not kidding when I say that I will compensate any one individual or contribute to the web site in order to help me get this working.

In this last attempt I am using third party software 'SoftTH' which seems to be easy to follow but it did not work for Portal 2.
I see there is one consistency throughout all of the chatter, the contributing factor could be related to directX versions.
If I'm not mistaken, it wants to see directX ver 9 which I cannot install on my machine.

Windows 7 comes with 10 as a default and I have upgraded to 11, but I cannot downgrade from my current version of 11 to 9.

I see many videos on YouTube where 3 monitors are being utilized.
If you have a link that will provide step-by-step instructional video, that would be so appreciated.

The black screens and your Direct X comments might be one clue...

The thing that springs to mind is your statement that you cannot install DirectX 9 on your machine.
You can have any version of DirectX on your Windows 7. Just install it as normal.
The files will install, they will not overwrite previous versions or 'downgrade' your current version. They just sit there and work when and as required by a game.
I have DX8,9,10 and 11 on my Windows7.

Important: You will need to install DX9 files to play a DX9 game, since they are not included with later versions of DirectX.

Intuitively, you might think that as DirectX progressed it would include the previous versions within its structure but this is not the case. So always install the DirectX version the game comes with or needs.
In addition reinstalling DirectX versions again does no harm, if the files are already there it will just skip them. Indeed it can help to renew files after crashes.

Hope this helps.

Hi ChuckBytes,

I cannot tell you much about the Setup progress of Nividia Surround as i have an AMD card.
Nvidia has a user guide on their Homepage
You most likely have already seen most of the video guides on Youtube right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lat2BJ6PM4M | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiloqpx91Js

Once you have a 7680x1600 Desktop and can span any programm (i.e Browser or Explorer) over all 3 Monitors you're ready to go for gaming.

But that does NOT yet mean that all games just work. Sadly Triplemonitor support isn't a standard for games. So it's more like luck to get them working without tinkering.
For the Games you're playing we have an entry in our MasterGameList
• Portal 2
• Crysis 1, 2, 3
• DCS World (well... we don't have one for this game)
• Microsoft Flightsim X
• X Plane 10 or 11
• DeadSpace 3

Native Support means you should just select 7680x1600 ingame as Resolution and it should work.


SoftTH is not the Programm you're looking for as it works only with Direct X9 and is mostly made for Setups which do NOT support normal nVidia Surround.

DirectX11 is pre installed on Windows7, if you install an older game which needs some special DirectX9 libraries most of the time they will be installed from the game installer, or have a "Redistributable" folder somewhere in the game folder.

If you still want to you can install DirectX9 from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/downloa ... aspx?id=35




That does not sound good.
You definitly need to do some troubleshooting.
1: It only crashes when gaming?
2: What kind of crash? Screen frezes/goes black and making a *beep* sound then restarts? Sounds like a Powerfailure.
3: Stability of the system is proofen? Try running Prime95 and Furmark for a few hours. Does that work or does it crash?

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

ChuckBytes,

Some other tests you could do.

1. Run dxdiag (Windows utility). Under its tab "Display 1", what Feature Levels are listed? (should read ~ 11.1,11.0,10.1,10.0,9.3,9.2,9.1)
Feature Levels lists the DX versions installed & usable on your PC. If missing "9" type numbers, you need DX9 install.

2. Crysis 3 is DX11 only. If you test it & it fails, your problem is not DX9-specific. If it works, you have proven your problem is likely DX9.
(I think X-Plane 10 & Crysis 2 have DX9 option, & rest are straight DX9)

3. There are manual spread instructions for many games (ie not using Surround); I wonder if they work on your PC. For example, Portal 2 instructions below. When you failed it, did you use this exact spread method? If not, try it again. (DX9 game)
http://www.wsgf.org/blog/imusrt/2015/04/01/portal-2-2011-manual-plp-instructions


4. You may have connection compatibility issue (card VS connection types & quantity of each). Sometimes when multi-monitor doesn't work, switching up connection types fixes it, or at least helps pinpoint the connection that is the problem. You may also need an active adapter for this, not sure. I am saying that DP across the board may be a problem for your card, & connections may be worth mixing up to find out. Someone else may know exact compatibility for your card or known issues.

Thank you for clarifying this. i did try to install 9 but when I typed DXDIAG it only showed results for 11 so i thought that was the only version running.
If you look at my reply further down, you can see that 9 will not install as DirectX won't allow it.

This is great information, thank you for spending the time.

To you points, yes i have installed the spanning correctly and the 3 monitors act as one but with a resolution of 7680 x 1600 but I was not aware that each game requires it's own configuration.
When you stated "you're ready for gaming" the resolution of 7680 x 1600 did not appear as a choice in Portal 2, it did provide a choice of 5760 x when I initiated the SoftTH for the first time, but when chose it, the game would not start, it only showed a black screen, hence the concern with Direct x 9.

You have provided me a link to master game list, thank you for that. However I am not sure what to do with it yet.
As you explained, native support means I should choose or select the resolution at which I am currently displaying my monitors.

Before I go on... Maybe I better clarify something . When you explained using the term "Native" I was looking for a selection of 7680x1600 ingame.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, am I actually looking for a choice called "native" .. if so, now I feel stupid ... that's like looking for the "any" key on my keyboard.

Is there a special thing that I need to do before I am able to choose native or 7680 resolution.

The first step I think I should do is to remove SoftTH from the application so that it does not reconfigure at the beginning.
I will take these steps and try it again ...Thank you so much for your support

Uff... i have to admit i've never played Portal 2! But at least in Crysis 3 i was sure you have the 5760x1080 (in my case) Resolution in the Dropdown.


Quote from our FAQ about differen Widescreen Methodes: http://www.wsgf.org/article/widescreen-method
"Native: A game with native support offers access to widescreen resolutions through in-game menus. "

Meaning you do not have to tamper with ini hacks, tools or anything, simply launch the game and select 5760x1080 (or in your case 7680x1600) in the game menues as Resolution.

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

Item 1 - Yes I did perform a DXdiag and as I stated in an earlier post it would not allow me to perform a downgraded installation. Therefore I am not able to have multiple versions of Direct X

Item 2 - When you say "if you tested it and it fails" what do you mean by test, do you mean run the application? A funny thing happens when I try it on crisis three. What happens is that a "developer" screen comes up. That is the best word I can use to describe what I'm seeing. What I see are squares and circles where items should normally appear. It's as though I am developing the game and have not populated the characters yet. Also if I moved within that world, I fall into water and it looks as though I am underwater.

Item 3 - That's an interesting concept you bring up about not using surround. This is where I get frustrated and confused. Because I don't know which of all of the choices I should use. Is there a different configuration that I need to set up for the game?
In order to turn off surround it makes a mess of the icons on your screen and also relocates the position of your monitors. So it is quite an ordeal when it's turned on or off. I have not looked at the links posted yet but I will study them carefully

Item 4 - This is another interesting point that you bring up. Initially I had three HP monitors, two of which were the ZR30w and the third was the LP3065c. The characteristics and specifications of the three monitors were identical in every way except the LP3065 did not have a DP connection. I thought this might be an issue because there were 2 DP ports and 1 DVI port. I struggled with that for a long time trying to get around not having to purchase another monitor as they are quite expensive. As a matter of fact I actually changed video cards. Initially I had EVGA version of 980 Titan which had only 2 DP ports and 2 DVI and 1 mini DP. Then I changed cables, I purchased 3 DVI cables, finally I moved to HDMI, all with the same result.
I was so determined to get this working that I went ahead and purchased another ZR30w. So to your point, yes... I have tried mixing the connection types.

I now have an EVGA Titan which I paid close to $900, it's now sitting in my drawer collecting dust. Same with the $1100 HP 30" LP3065 Monitor. You have brought up some very good points and I'm glad that I was able to dabble in each of them...I am sure you can understand my frustration after continuously spending without results... I think I have learned a lot from these recent posts also supported by your peers, the issue may not be with my hardware but may actually be my lack of understanding on how each game acts differently when being configured to play. I will have to learn what those differences are and how to configure them.

I just wanted to confirm the steps i took to try once more with Portal 2.
After removing SoftTH and rebooting, I set my monitors to spanning 7680 x 1600
Started Portal and the only choice available for video resolution is 2560 x 1600.
it starts on the center monitor.

Something odd just happened.
this time i tried to change the aspect ratio to 16:9 and the full resolution shows up.
Did i miss someone telling me about needing to change this setting. is it so obvious that i should have known.

This is incredible.
I am pleased to announce the solution for Portal 2 has been resolved.
I'm not understanding why the same resolutions would not show up for 16:10 or 4:3
Yet another thing to learn about.

I will now try to play for a while and if no crash, i will move on to testing other games. Crysis is next


This is great folks, thank you.
I feel I've made huge progress today.
Let me get through a few more before i get too excited.