Triplehead2go and the zoom issue

the final result:

this is what we achieved after editing some numbers in the lua files :) happy days.

the original post:

finally i got my hands on one of these little devils and all i can say it wow.

most games work a treat once you set up the resolution, aspect ratio and/or FOV.

as we know in lockon FC when you use the th2go,

instead of getting extra viewable side area, you get an increased zoom in

resulting in much the same horizontal view area and far less in the vertical.

its not totally bad, as the increased zoom does let you see alot further and more detail.

what i was hoping for was to maintain the same single screen view and gain some more side view.

example pics coming.

what we need is some info on manipulating the config to provide the ability to zoom out futher, thanks.

a brief description will be below each picture:

note: this image, and only this image is a mock up, not thru the th2go

ok this one is what i hope to achieve, its approx the default centre screen view with extra side screen area.

note: make no mistake, this is not a th2go image, its a fake setup i created to demonstrate what i am hoping to achieve.

all subsequent images below are indeed displayed using the th2go.

and this is what i am currently getting when fully zoomed out, its like the original centre view with the top and bottom cut off.

this is the default view with default zoom, before zooming out.

a view of the instruments, unlike my photography the onscreen image is amazingly clear and all instruments are very easy to read.

just a shot to show the F2 view, notice the two su's in the background of the centre screen, would not have seen them b4.

and another F2 view, see the ants near the leaf :D , (my sense of humour...)

just to recap, i am hoping to achieve a similar result as the top image.

any advice on whats needed to get the desired of result of more zoom out will be much appreciated.

i am happy to try any suggested mods to config or lua files etc.

thanks for looking, extra thanks for helping :) ggg87.

Looks like your radar is blocked pretty bad? can that be fixed.

a trackir sorts it out as you just have to move your head a little.

but ideally i would like to be able to zoom out more and get all the innstruments all into the centre screen.

might be onto something here :)

thanks ruggbutt,

yes i saw his review,

hopefully joe might see this and possibly do an update.

would also like to take a moment to say what a good job all you guys, (ruggbutt, zorlac, and wbk to mention a few) are doing in reguards to TB, i think thats next :)

looks like i found out how to do it, pretty simple really...

check it out....after huntng around i found that by modifying the:

view.lua iF-15 camera view angle limits to 20.0, 175.0 (was 20.0, 120.0)

any more than 175.0 seems to make the pc very unstable, locking up etc. (theres no need, 175.0 is sweet)

i got the desired result, half of it at least.

now if i can make it default to that view on startup, that would be nice also.

it seems now i have created another issue of a very limited range with the trackir

eg: can only look down as far as the bottom gauges, and not to the throttle and beyond.

i will take a guess and say it might be in some other limiting figures that need modifying. (pretty safe bet i think)

and with any luck just a matter of finding them.

without the trackir on, even the numberpad views were restricted, so thats a good sign...

more testing after sleep, very happy i am.:thumbup:

I think projectors are way better and no blocking of view.

thanks 4 that, please keep focused on topic

I think projectors are way better and no blocking of view.

But the issue is that not everyone has £1000+ to spend just on the viewing solution. You can get a Triple Monitor setup, which is essentially a 45" screen, for about £550 for the cheapest now.

I have the same general issue when I use dual monitors, but I have 2 CRT's, so I just use that for taking cool pictures in 2560x1024.

The software driver for Th2go makes it so the operating system (therefore the programs) see three monitors as one. E.G. 3840X1024 pixels. I wonder how come you don't see that resolution in your FC graphich setup?

=4c= Hajduk

Veljko,

even without any software installed, win xp see the box as you said @ 3840x1024.

this resolution is available in the lockon options menu, although it did set the aspect ratio to 4 instead of 3.75 so i did that manually.

there were several other changes i made in the config to keep the menus displayed on only the centre screen.

the resolution was fine, it was just the zoom limitations, which i have found the settings for.

now i need to locate the panning limitation figures as now the trackir range is restricted some what.

Last year I used the matrox parhelia card with three monitors. Had the same problem as you, couldn't zoom out much. The maximum zoom out was still not enough, seeing too much of the cockpit. Several others also reported this problem.

I would love to get the th2go, as the parhelia card is way too slow. The th2go would allow me to use my faster ATI card. But waiting for ATI to resolve its driver support issue for the th2go. As reported in reviews, the th2go works fine with nVidia cards and not ATI ones.

for your sake and any other ati card owners wanting a th2go, ati will hopefully get their drivers working to provide full support.

can't see why they won't.

I did some research on this problem and found there seem to be a miscalculation of the drawn area in the code. If the aspect ratio becomes larger, the drawn area becomes smaller than the one supposed to be. If the aspect ratio goes smaller, the drawn area goes larger.

You can compensate this by offset the zoom angle, but it causes other problems. The most serious one is the amount of the graphic calculations. The calculations will be done according to the offset zoom angle, not to the drawn area. If your aspect ratio is very large, the graphic calculations for the outside of the actual drawn area will be tremendous and you will get very poor framerates to gain a decent view angle. The another problem is the restriction of the view rotations (you already encountered). You can compensate this by enlarging the angle limits in \Config\View\server.lua, but the downward limits at the both sides will be remained because they are hardcoded and you can not do the compensation in online plays because you will be forced to use the server's server.lua.

Anyway, here are things you can do right now.

1. Increase CameraViewAngleLimits numbers in \Config\View\view.lua. (You already did.)

2. If you use the TrackIR zoom, the default zoom angle will be the average of the first and second numbers of CameraViewAngleLimits. So, increase the first numbers, too.

3. If you don't use the TrackIR zoom, the default zoom angle can be set in \Config\View\snapviews.lua. See here for details.

4. Increase CameraAngleLimits numbers in \Config\View\server.lua.

I think this problem is caused by very simple error of the function and hope fixed in 1.2. But there are many simple defects still left remained in LockOn, so do not expect too much.

TekaTeka,

thankyou for your informative post, much appreciated.

changing the lower figures to get the average is a handy hint indeed.

would be a shame to not be able to look out to the side and down, currently as i pan to the sides, the further i look towards the wing the more it looks up.

similar to how it does in the normal view once you see the wing @ approx your 4 and 8 oclock,

but unfortunately its greatly exaggerated.

will try the server.lua changes and post my results, cheers.:thumbup:

Wow, those screenshots are sweet.

Man, we are so close to the ideal, hopefully it will get fixed!

TekaTeka, your advice was spot on.

i modified the values in the server lua and got the desired result.

server.lua camera angle limits originally (140,-80,90)

still adjusting but something like (200,-120,90) seems to work ok for now, i will refine it futher and post some screens, to give an idea, you can look down between your virtual legs, see the back of the seat and out the side left and right seeing the top sides of the cockpit where the canopy meets the sides.

as far as im concerned thats pretty dam good, cheers TekaTeka.

pics to follow:

the end result after editing camera view angle limit in view.lua (20.0,175.0)

this and all subsequent images are after editing server.lua camera angle limits (180,-120,90) sorry for the hotas in the way.

(note:the last/final image has an increased horizontal limit of 200 providing excellent rear vision)

looking at the throttle etc

out the left, much improved

and obviously out to the right

this i liked, server lua (180,-120,90)

this i liked even more, note: increased the horizontal limit to 200 (200,-120,90)

thanks to those who assisted in getting this sorted.

hopefully this will serve as a simple guide to help other th2go owners configure FC.

edit: after loosing the images i have located and uploaded them again, hope they are all in the right place, pretty sure :)

hey Groove, glad you like em.

look at the top two images in my last post, it almost looks like a full pit.

wonder if you can stack 2 of these th2go units in a 3x2 config. :)

Very nice very nice, I think I would need to buy 3 19 inch flat monitors. My 2 CRT's produce way to much heat. I just wish that flat screens would have the viewable portion closer to the edge. Instead of having a 1 inch or more section in the way. I guess I'll do a google search on this later since there is no link. Once again very nice.

Sweet pics, ggg!

I would like to ask you one thing. How much framerate differences do you see between 3 screens and 1 screen when they are same horizontal FOV? Do you get decent fps over the populated areas at low alt?

Checking to see what 2 more 27" Viewsonics are gonna cost me.............

You can get 2 32 inch for about $1600, but if you get 2 might as well buy the third 1 and give me your 27 inch.

soon i will post some comparisons between the single and triple screen performance figures.

for now here is some general info about the setup etc.

currently i am doing this testing with:

the graphics options all on minimal setting.

my usual resolution of 1280x1024x32 (3840x1024x32 for the th2go).

single screen mode usually allowed me to have most settings set to medium.

still allowing me to get smooth game play.

my current pc is:

amd 64 3400+ @ 2.4g

1gig corsair xl pro

k8v deluxe m/b

6800 ultra 256meg agp

by no means a top end machine, yet not too bad though.

i will be very interesting to see how this display setup works with a more up to date pc.

maybe something like am2 5000+ with 2-4 gig ddr and a single 7900gtx or even sli ?

xmas isn't too far away now is it...

TekaTeka, will get back to you with more info in reguards to your question.

that's if i can ever bring myself to use one screen again :D, hehe...

Sweet pics, ggg!

 

I would like to ask you one thing. How much framerate differences do you see between 3 screens and 1 screen when they are same horizontal FOV? Do you get decent fps over the populated areas at low alt?

to answer this fairly simply:

with the same horizontal fov the difference between 1 or 3 screens is negligable, approx 60fps.

with the zoomed out fov for the triple screen the fps basically is cut in half,

down to approx 30fps.

flying with the zoomed out fov with the th2go is very taxing on the computer, and you explained why very well in a previous post.

to have it running ok i am currently limited to having all settings on low or minimum @ 3840x1024x32.

as for flying low over over populated areas, with the low settings it seems ok, but once i go back to a single screen, it soon makes you realise how much better it runs in the single screen configuration.

not saying the th2go isn't great, it is mind blowing, but it will be a year or 2 before we see its full potential realised in lockon.

its just waiting for a pc with the grunt to power it :).

that being said, if we can overcome the issue with the unseen portions of the zoomed out view still being calculated perhaps then we could see a vast improvement in the smoothness of gameplay, similar to sigle screen performance...

Thank you for your reply, ggg.

It must be much better if ED fix the FOV issue.

I think I should investigate this issue further and post a report in the Bugs forum. Maybe in this weekend.

tekateka,

i for one would indeed be most appreciative if you would investigate and report the issue, as you have a far greater understanding of these things than i do, one only has to look at your list of mods/tweaks to see what i mean.:thumbup:

let me know if you need any th2go testing or anything related i can do to help your investigations, look forward to hearing more on this, good stuff.

getting the 3 screen zoomed out fov running as nicely or near to a single screen performance as possible would be the best thing since sliced bread.

currently it really is struggling compared to a standard view.

just to recap, when zoomed out, lockon is basically still drawing or calculating the graphics for the top and bottom portion of the screen you cannot see, correct?

Thank you for your reply, ggg.

It must be much better if ED fix the FOV issue.

I think I should investigate this issue further and post a report in the Bugs forum. Maybe in this weekend.

thread revival, calling TekaTeka.

wondering if we, i mean if you had any luck with this above remaining issue, would be great to gain a whole heap of performance for what could be a minor fix ( fingers crossed :) )

look forward to hearing from you, ggg87