Wow, I'm surprised by all the feedback I've gotten on this already. I think there may be a little confusion as to what my original intent was, so I'll reiterate the reason why I posted this topic:
Matrox is falsely advertising their product. This is a direct quote from their website:
Matrox TripleHead2Go is the only solution on the market to enable Surround Gaming by expanding supported 3D games across three displays and providing a much wider in-game field of view (FOV)
And, in some cases like Guild Wars, WoW, etc, that is absolutely
not true (you actually get less FoV). Nowhere on the site is there any mention of "some games may perform differently than others", or "the top and bottom portions of your screen may be chopped of", etc.
I understand the concept of Vert-, I have no problem that it exists on some games, and I don't really have any problem with the games or developers. I have a problem with Matrox lying.
Now, I'd like to respond to a few of the folks who were kind enough to give their thoughts:
umm.......are you sure you know what you're talking about?
- Yes.
Have you looked games who are supporting this natively, because what you see on you pics are some vert- games. With true hor+ you get the result you want.
- Yes. Which is why I said above that some games like Half Life 2 look great, but that's not the point of this article.
That's quite a post just to arrive at that one reasonable conclusion. The problem here is with poor FOV and aspect ratio support in games, not anything to do with Matrox.
- Wrong. I have no problem at all with poor FoV support in games. I do have a problem with Matrox lying on their website. Let me give you an example that may explain my frustrations better:
Lets say you go to a website that offers a miracle hair growth product, and on the site they say "Hairplex TripleHair2Grow is the only solution on the market to enable Super Hairgrowth; providing a much fuller head of hair." Elated, you order the product, use it, and your hair falls out (i.e. less hair for you).
Now, you could have done a little research and found out that in some cases TripleHair2Grow actually causes hair loss... but what about the statement printed blatantly on their website? Is that not false advertisement?
Yeah, ok, go ahead and sue them. I'll be waiting with baited breath to see how you make out.
- I didnt say I was going to sue them. I just said they deserved it... the jerks.
Matrox has pretty good support from what I've heard and the company should be commended for pioneering new immersive gaming technology, not sued. While I suppose it would be nice to see some sort of explanation of the effect that improper FOV has on triplehead gaming, if you do your research before buying a TripleHead2Go, the potential issue should be readily apparent.
- From what you've heard? Well, I've experienced it directly, so I think that makes me the expert in this case (please see the link to the email correspondance I provided). If anyone else out there loves Matrox support and has nothing but happy-fuzzy-bunny-warm feelings for them, please put me in touch with your support guy ;)
In this very forum and the sister "Surround Screenshots & Videos"
forum you will find screenshots and descriptions of the necessary steps to make games work in triplehead. There you can see whether they are Vert- or not. You can also see screenshots of games here for a quick comparison.
- That's partially correct. The link you sent me gives me a crappy little "blow up" screen shot of Guild Wars, which is actually incorrect since it's a Vert- game. That should be clipping off the top and bottom, not stretching the image.
I did, however, manage to find
this article via a Google search (don't know why it wont come up in the WSGF search) which does help shed a little light on the subject. Unfortunately, here are the steps one would need to take to get to the conclusion that Guild Wars doesn't work as Matrox advertises.
[list]1. Don't take Matrox at their word, start researching
2. If you manage to find the "Surround Gaming" article here on WSGF, come to the understanding that the TripleHead2Go essentially gives you one big widescreen monitor (i.e. they don't have any other magic up their sleeves with this product).
3. Read the WSGF FAQ after that and draw the conclusion that Vert- games will perform on the TripleHead2Go just as they would any old widescreen.
4. Possibly find some article (like the one above) that indicates Guild Wars (or whatever game you're looking for) is a Vert- game.[/list:u]
...thats a lot of if's and assumptions that, I personally don't think the average consumer is going to experience before buying a product like this.
Come here and do some research. Have you explored whether Guild Wars and WOW have options to increased the FOV?
- Yes. Yes I have.
Brokunn's opinion is honest, he did spent a lot of money and didn't get what he was looking for. And it is a good thing that he speaks about it because his post can prevent other gamers from doing the same mistake.
However Brokunn, you are primarily to blame yourself. As you discovered, these issues are well known, from Bioshock to WoW. You should have done your homework before buying it.
TH2G is a terrific product, I hope you can find interest in some other games than MMORPGs.
- Thank you! That was a very nice reply. And once again I'd like to re-iterate that I'm really not that hurt about my particular game not working, I'm angry with Matrox for not saying anything about these well known issues on their site.
The extra interface space far outweighs the lack of FOV in my opinion.
Here's the WoW thread if you are interested. Looks like it has the same problem.
- Wrong. You absolutely do not get extra interface space. Take another look at those screenshots above. You could move all of your HUD menus to the top/bottom third of the screen and still achive the same the same FoV that you get with the TripleHead2Go.
Thanks to everyone who has responded!
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