Multiple monitors?

taliesin2 · Post by **taliesin2** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:03 pm

Hi all. Forgive me if this is just too heartbreakingly noobish, but I have recently taken up Oolite again, and I can't seem to get it to work how I want, so I'm hoping for some help.

I have a Macbook Pro connected by DVI to a 23" (1920x1200) monitor. I am using both monitors, so the large LCD extends the desktop out to the side. I can run Oolite just fine in a window (and put it on either screen), but if I try to go full-screen, I can only get full-screen on the Macbook's screen, while the other monitor just goes black. I would ideally like it to run full-screen on the 23", while leaving the notebook's screen alone. This is how I run mplayer, for example. Is there a way to set this up?

Post by **Disembodied** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:10 pm

Hi Taliesin2. Someone with some kind of technical knowledge will be along shortly but to save time I'll ask the obvious questions: what version of Oolite are you running? And what are the technical specifications of your computer?

taliesin2 · Post by **taliesin2** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:14 pm

It's the latest version of oolite, as I just upgraded a few days ago, so 1.73.4, I think. The computer is a late-2006 MBP, 2.33 GHz processor with 2 GB of RAM.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:39 pm

At the moment, Oolite only plays on the main screen. You can reassign the main screen in System Preferences->Displays->Arrangement (by dragging the menu bar).

taliesin2 · Post by **taliesin2** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:46 pm

Ah, bummer. I was afraid that might be the case. Does oolite auto-detect the available resolutions of the main monitor? Because one source of confusion I had was that the largest resolution I could choose for full-screen resolution was 1440x900 (the laptop's native res).

I'll try this when I get home and see how it looks in FS on the 1920x1200. Hoping I'll have better success hitting those distant Cobra Rapiers.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:14 pm

taliesin2 wrote:
Ah, bummer. I was afraid that might be the case. Does oolite auto-detect the available resolutions of the main monitor? Because one source of confusion I had was that the largest resolution I could choose for full-screen resolution was 1440x900 (the laptop's native res).

It should let you select any resolution for the current main display that the OS considers “safe”. (“Unsafe” modes mostly occur on cheap CRT displays.)

taliesin2 · Post by **taliesin2** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:35 pm

So, just curious, why do the "non-main" screen(s) get blanked when switching to full-screen? Is this something that would be very difficult to change?

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:55 am

here's an idea, don't go full screen. Keep your oolite in window and just move it to where you want it. If your clever with your window display and background (maybe hide your dock) then it shouldn't impact on you play.

using this trick dual screen is also possible just expand your window across both screens. Of course as mentioned above you might have to fritz with you resolution a bit.

I still dream for the day I can wire up 4 plasmas and get a cabin eye view of oolite. That would be sweet, vrey very difficult, but sweet. First theres the hardware issue, even before you start titting around hijacking the different screen outputs.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:16 pm

taliesin2 wrote:
So, just curious, why do the "non-main" screen(s) get blanked when switching to full-screen? Is this something that would be very difficult to change?

It’s traditional! It also used to be recommended, back when Apple had interface guidelines for games. That said, it annoys me too, especially during debugging. (If the debugger hits a breakpoint in full-screen mode, the entire UI freezes and I have to SSH in to kill Xcode. Urgh.)

Given the debugging issue, I tried to hack this behaviour out some time ago, but unsuccessfully. I can’t remember what the issue was.

There is one specific advantage of capturing all screens, other than reducing distractions: it’s the only way of changing the resolution of a display without mucking about with the arrangement of other windows and desktop icons.