This is most definitely untrue.
Yes, you’re right. Reading what I wrote back, I realise it sounds like I’m saying literally every older version of Flight Simulator had multiple window support, which is not true.
What I was trying (badly) to express was that multi-window support was a feature that existed in the product back when it was still a Sublogic title. Flight Simulator II for the Atari ST, Amiga and Mac in 1986 was the first version to introduce multi-window support.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 was a Microsoft-branded PC version of Sublogic Flight Simulator which did not have multi-window; neither did MSFS 2.0. Multi-window support was added to the PC port in MSFS 3.0 in 1988, after it had first appeared in the Macintosh version of FS2.
Multi-monitor support came later when MSFS added the ability to ‘undock’ a view from the main game window and put it on any attached monitor. But multi-window support - that is, the ability to have more than one discrete viewport, each from any available camera, open on-screen at the same time - has been in the product since 1986. That was the point I was supposed to be making.
Edit: you can see multi-window at work in the Atari ST version of FS2 in this video. It’s primitive and limited to two windows, but it’s there, and every version of the game after this had improved multi-window support right up to FSX. MSFS 2020 removed this support except for glass-cockpit pop-outs and toolbar windows, and IMHO that’s a giant regressive step that needs to be fixed.
hi not sure if this is relevant but i dont use air manager at all. got everything working the way i want it using a mix of periperals, logitech panels, streamdecks and touchscreen and non touchscreen monitors. also spad.next to control most.
tomjc.
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That is a very nice and impressive hardware cockpit set up you have there @Tomjc106
And relevant (i think it is) but i leave that to the topic author to decide as i believe he is talking about
To get his sim instruments on a second screen aligned with the top view
Sebastiaan
I just switched from FSX to MSFS 2024. Boy, was I surprised. I thought MSFS would be FSX on steroids. Wrong. Simple things that FSX did well, MSFS either doesn’t even do, or is difficult to do. For example, multi-view you had mentioned earlier. FSX, easy as pie. Create a new view, Undock window and boom, done. And I used it all the time. So easy, functional and fun. MSFS no way. Doesn’t make sense as to why they would take this away. And I do believe there are a lot of users that would love to have this functionality. If FSX had the graphics that MSFS 24 has, I would switch back.
Even creating a new window in MSFS is a pain. Create new window, use three sliders to try and guess what you need to see. Rinse, repeat multiple times until you eventually get it right. Who in the heck designed this? The worse UI imaginable. Again, in FSX…click screen and use keyboard or HAT switch to simple move and adjust the view. Simple.
If I’m missing something or doing something wrong, please let me know.
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Welcome to my world in 2020. Finding out that the newly-hyped instalment in the Flight Simulator series had dropped a bunch of the features that its predecessor had, and in particular that this would heavily impact my use-case as a home cockpit builder, was a huge disappointment. It kept me on P3D for months after the MSFS release, until I realised that P3D was no longer going to be supported by the majority of 3rd parties.
It does if you think about how the sim was developed, who it was developed by, and who the primary audience is.
Long story short, Asobo is a game studio and they primarily make titles for single-screen desktop gaming or consoles. That’s their DNA. That isn’t a criticism per-se, many games are awesome without needing multi-screen support, but IMHO that background, plus the day 1 requirement for the sim to run on Xbox, is what did this.
To do what they did with the new sim they would have either needed to do a LOT of work to bring the FSX rendering engine up to speed with modern standards (something Lockheed Martin did piecemeal over many years with P3D), or replace it. They chose the latter, and they used an in-house engine which didn’t natively support multi-monitor.
FSX having the fundamental multi-window design that allowed for multi-monitor + multi-view and ultimately things like multi-projector blended perspective-corrected displays was a historical accident. It wasn’t designed for multiple monitors, because in those days no-one had multiple monitors. It was designed to allow multiple view windows to exist on the one screen at the same time, so you could see the view out of the cockpit alongside a view of your aircraft from outside. When multi-monitor became a thing on Windows, it was easy enough to allow users to ‘undock’ these windows onto a different display, and easy enough for 3rd parties like Fly-Elise NG to build the software to allow for advanced display setups.
You’re not. We can hope that Asobo will improve the UI experience for multi-monitor setup in 2024; and maybe that they’ll give us more options in terms of view placement etc. But I think a wholesale change in the display system architecture back to what FSX / P3D has is not going to happen. I and others have been agitating for that for years and we’ve made precisely zero progress.
Not that wishlists and lobbying don’t have an impact - we only got multi-monitor support at all because people kept voting for it. But that took 2 years + to happen. Patience is very much a virtue on this platform.
Hope you stick with it!
Vote for better multi monitor support here…its the only they to get noticed
I still think this is the best way to do
Connect a bunch of monitor together on a pc with whatever way possible and make a videowall
So i have made this one pc running with 9 monitors mix of 19 inch and 22 inch
Use 2 triplehead2go which use 2 display ports which connect 6 monitors
Than i have 1 monitor connected through 1 other displayport and on the last hdmi port
These fills my graphicscard, which is a asrock A770 phantom 16GB card
On my processor i have also a displayport and a hdmi connector from here i have the 9th screen running on the displayport,
My processor on this pc is a intel i9 ultra 285K
These are connected on my Z890 pro wifi-p msi mobo
Which have lan and wifi, wifi is important for me to connect with my old laptop to connect the screen as a 10th screen.
Now screen 9 and 10 i use to allign screens one to eight, so basically 9 and 10 i use for overscan to get rid of the framework, due to oversize, fun thing monitor 9 is running full with the other eight and the laptop solely serves this purpose and fun is i can also pop instrument on this one and also on number 9 while run the sim main on the first eight monitors
Ive had many setups since 2004 and tried many different setups and config
But running them on 1 pc is just stunning.
While 1 screen is giving me 50fps with full all set as high as possible i turn off either traffic or fauna and if fly online with live weather i turn off realtime traffic to off.
I do this to prevent the settings to clash and there is no need for having the 2 option on at the same time exept for the chatter of atc.
Anyway what im trying to say it is all about balance i guess and what you want to see in the sim but chasing some animals i have no need for cars or ships and so on.
Anyway my usercfg opt i adapt setting my secondaryscaling to 0.700000 from 1.000000 (default) and my primary i have on 0.900000 from 1.000000 (default)
Tlod 400, Olod 200
The reason i do this is to create some space and overhead for the effects like winds and so
and i can also up my primary scaling in the sim to over 100 taa and it turns on supersampling
Now if use the full setup like this my fps is 20fps or below but smooth and fluent
With any plane i use default or 3th party, in cockpit mode, outside view or drone view specially when using headtracking
Sometimes shake camera on and sometimes off
Always turn homecockpit on ( it rules out mouse to prevent unwanted movement) and is overun by controller use.
And camera view in wide angle.
Some pictures here with my previous setup
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Why would you do that. It’s bezel city and ruins the immersion. It’s far better IMHO to use a single or more large displays. 55” TV’s are a great size.
Hi @Sling380
It is bezel city but it is what i have , behind the bezels is where it is happening complete freedom as all move as one screen smooth as silk,
Offcoarse i prefer 2x 49 inch stacked on top of each other but money could be an issue.
These screens i have and got them for free and have run already 24/7 @70.000 hours still no sign off imprinted image from office application, I saved them from being thrown away at my job, for before msfs2020 was on the market and they serve me well.
Also when flying you know they the bezels are there but mind can ignore this, specially when using headtracking.
That’s awesome. I’m trying to get the overhead panel of my jet on my second monitor but can’t get the right angle…still a work in progress.
Hi there @Boeinggirl90 thanks for your reply, i thought i dig up how i did this to see if it could be some help to you and give you some insight on how to get there.
You mean just the overhead panel, and in what version of the sim 2020 or 2024 or maybe both.
Anyway for both versions sometimes it helps to setup position of the monitors
In windows own screen setup to set the topsreen shift some more left or right of the center.
(Just for example i mean in here shift the top monitor see picture)
Also it can help to adjust the physical angle on the top monitor in relation to the front monitors.
(As i did in this picture with two bottom monitors which lay flat with a slight angle physically
and adjust with in sim angle for softwares lateral setting using the sphere of the cockpit)
Good luck with your setup
Sebastiaan
Regarding AirManager, instruments for PFD and NAV for big jets don’t really exist.
PFD is doable but requires development effort to get it right.
NAV is a big challenge for any developer, because of displaying the planned routes and turns.
I recently tried VR at a science fair, and was seriously impressed.
Hello. Thank you for the reply. I have MSFS 2020 and I was able to get the overhead panel on the second screen just wondering when I adjust view ie: looking closer to the FMS to input something, the whole view switches. Your set up pic is exactly what I’m looking to do.
It is a search for the best positions but there is zoom button and also translate view forward, backward, left and right and beside that there is panning. Also par window/ monitor you can set
resolution separate in usercfg.opt.
Then there is the airplanes own aircraft cfg file, here you can initial zoom and xyz and pbh
Handy tool you can find in dev mode under aircraft look for camera blend to find the views
Id guid unique number which correspont to guid in the aircraft.cfg file so you know where to adjust for that like chase, drone or cockpit view.
With these together you can reach a point of perspective to get it done but require patience and
Many restarts maybe nessesary but also it is possible to reload the plane through devmode under tools > aircraft selection
Anyway a lot of things and info but totally worth if you have results
Just take the time to play around with them to get the hang of it and enjoy when it is done.
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Thank you for the info. Yes, I’m finding its a lot of trial and error…but so worth it.
I agree, FSX in terms of user interaction flexibility was miles ahead. MSFS has gotten the reality factor covered with dazzling views, but lacks the actual user interaction of FSX which made it so lasting.
Things that require at least some level of improvement:
1 - Save a flight mid journey and restore it with the GPS and flight plan.
2 - Replays without pre-setting like FSX, full use of multiple cameras
3 - Independent Multi-window support.
4 - Functional ATC which does not send you off on wild altitudes and heading settings. And then loses out completely. FSX ATC was adequate, it was always accurate.
Reality is great, but in a simulation some flexibility is warranted to enhance usability.
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