Panel builder & FSX full screen question

[sleightflight 1]

Hi all,

Just wondering if it's possible to get sim plugins panel builder running on a single PC to display guages on a second monitor with FSX in full screen mode.

Every time I go to full screen mode on my main display the guages dissappear on my second monitor.

[Corsaire31 419]

I use a small utility called FSX Borderless which makes FSX look like full screen while still operating in windowed mode, allowing me to have a Plan G  or FSC 9 window opened on a second monitor, or access during flight to any other window (checking screenshots, looking for something on the net, access to FS Real Global Weather window, etc...)  Works great.

[needles 1,010]

Hey Paul,

You're having a nightmare getting your system set up hey.

I have just tried replicating what you say is happening with your guages, unfortunately I can't seem to get the result you are experiencing.

With the GPU you have this should not be a problem.

Can you send me all the settings you have for Panel Builder. That way I can see if there is something amiss.

 

Have you run Nvidia multi screen setup, or something similar?

I have Triplehead2Go running three monitors and my GPS unit running from the second port on my GPU. No probs.

 

I tried all the viewing settings in FSX and still couldn't get the guages to disappear.

Send me all your PB settings and I'll try and figure out what's happening for you.

Stick with it mate, all will come good.

Brian

[sleightflight 1]

Hi Brian,

All I have done regarding the new panel is to get windows to recognise it.

I have run NVIDIA multi screen setup, I forgot about that to be honest.

I am running the demo panel builder at the moment until I can check out how well it all works, I am considering moving my old FSX pc upstairs to run panel builder on and anything else I can move over to it to give FSX more computing power, its an AMD quad core with an ATI 6970.

I moved it downstairs for the family to use but they don't use it.

I will try and get the panel builder settings posted tomorrow.

Thanks.

[needles 1,010]

No worries Paul.

Just make sure that within the PB settings, choose to display it on one monitor and choose your second monitor to see if that helps.

I will wait for you to send your settings.

 

I can recommend Panel Builder. I have got it running on a 2nd PC and it's running fine although you do have to purchase the full licence for FSUIPC and WideFS, to get the PCs talking to each other.

I'm impressed with how it all works to be honest.

Cheers

Brian

 

EDIT: Just a thought, it could well be that you are only running the demo. I'm not sure if the unregistered version is fully functional and, you only get to play for 10minutes with the demo.

[sleightflight 1]

MMM,I can't win with this.

I have set panel builder to single monitor, as soon as I go FSX full screen it either drops the cockpit view onto the small LED display and the guages go and I get a black screen on the main display or I get the fulll screen on the main display and the guages go on the small panel.

I haven't got a clue how to set up Nvidia surround as the two screens have very different resolutions, not sure if it's possible to set two different resolutions.

I have had a look in all the panel builder folders I have and I cannot see a settings folder I'm afraid,

Yes you are correct the demo does only run for 10 mins but it does seem to be fully functional but limits to six guages , which for me is fine.

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense.

Thanks,

 

 

[needles 1,010]

No worries Paul, you're not being dense, it's just very tricky to set up unless you have done it several times, as I have.

We'll get there, don't worry.

I will try and get a pdf together with screen shots shwing how I do it.

Bear with me, it may take a day or so.

[sleightflight 1]

Ok, thanks Brian.

I have purchased fswide.

I am going to connect my other pc up, I feel this will in the long run be the better option.

[needles 1,010]

OK Paul, let's see if we can get you working properly.
 
#1, Right click on your screen and choose Nvidia Control Panel.


#2, Select 'Set up multiple monitors'.


#3, Drag your 2nd monitor to the position you would like it to be. (Mine is where it is in the screenshot)


#4, Click 'Apply'


That should be all that is required for that part.

Now open up Panel Builder.
Click on the 'Operation' tab and select 'Edit Panel'.


Use the settings I have in the following screenshot. Make sure to choose 'No Background'.


Click 'OK', then click 'Start'.

From here, you should see your basic six instruments on your screen.
You can now DRAG and place each instrument to the screen you choose and use the mouse wheel (if you have one) to alter the size of the instrument.

Once you have done this, Panel Builder will remember where you placed them. You can also right click on each instrument and select 'Lock'.

This should be all there is to do.

Let me know how you get on.

Good Luck

 

[sleightflight 1]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for posting the set up procedure.

This looks for the most part like what I did, except I can't drag the second monitor below the main monitor like in your screenshot, mine sits side by side.

It definitely lists my 7" display as screen 2 and my 24" as screen 1.

I did have background enabled however as the screen shows the same desk top image as my main display, is this what it should do ?

I have also discovered that even without any guages being displayed on the 7" it has a very bad effect on the simulators performance if it is just switched on and displaying nothing

I have purchased fswide & already had a registered version of FSUIPC.

Tomorrow I will be buying all the cables I need to be able to network my old PC and I will the try and find out how many of my add ons I can run on my networked PC so my main PC can have as much headroom as possible.

I have watched a youtube vid by Froogle that describes how to do this, but knowing how nothing seems to be straight forward on my system I don't expect it to go smoothly.

Once I have got that part up and running I will get another 7" screen and then get a panel of wood to start to mount things up.

Thanks ever so much for your time and effort so far, I will post back here when I have got somewhere or got stuck again.

Thanks.

[needles 1,010]

One last stab at this Paul.

Right click on your desktop, select 'Screen Resolution'.

Left click and hold on your 2nd monitor. Can you drag it now?

If you can, place it where you want it to be. It may not let you. I am using Triplehead2Go, so it's slightly different for me.

In the 'Multiple Displays box, select 'Extend these Displays'. (Yes you should be able to see a portion of your main screen).

 

Click on 'Identify' to make sure your PC is recognising it as a 2nd monitor.

If all this is true, you really should be able to drag your instruments to the 2nd monitor.

Make sure you are dragging towards where your 2nd monitor is situated in your settings above.

Let me know how you get on.

 

As for things slowing up a tad when you run Panel Builder, it does have a small effect on FPS and due to that fact, I'm running it on a networked PC.

 

Don't worry about asking more questions, we are here to help if we can.

Good luck buddy.

 

[sleightflight 1]

Hi Brian,

 

Yes I was able to drag the display below as in your screenshot,

I set panel builder exactly as you described, every setting, again as soon as I go FSX full screen mode the guages disappear off the 7" display.

I bought  the ethernet crossover cable and a new multi socket power cable for my other pc and ancilaries I connected my other pc to the 7" display, set my drives on my FSX PC to sharing as per Froogles vid, the drive did not show up on the other PC as in his video.

Both PC are Win 7 64 bit, both PC are named the same.

I tried setting up a new network, my FSX pc is wifi to the internet connection so I had the ethernet cable connected to the lan ports on both machines, all I ended up doing is spending  an hour trying to get my wireless internet back as it screwed it up.

I'm beginning to think maybe this is beyond me.

[needles 1,010]

Hi Paul,

Networking really is a bitch to set up correctly and I am having some problems in this area also, so don't despair.

 

I have just thought of something, which should have been glaringly obvious to me.

Have you installed Panel Builder on your 2nd PC?

If not, this may be why the guages are disappearing.

 

I'm hoping you haven't and this is the problem.

Let me know

[sleightflight 1]

Hi Brian.

I have only installed panel builder on my FSX pc so far, and I had both my main display and the 7" display connected to that one pc.

Once I can get the pc's talking to each other and not lose my wifi Internet connection in the process I will install panel builder onto the slave pc.

I think the reason your not losing the guages must be the triple head hardware.

I wrongly thought that just plugging in two computers with a crossover ethernet cable would allow them to instantly access each other.

[needles 1,010]

Yeah Paul, but I think when you install PB on to your client\slave PC, it should be ok.

Let me know.

Cheers

[sleightflight 1]

Ok I will give it a try.

[needles 1,010]

Hey Paul,

How are things progressing at your end?

Have you had any luck at all?

Cheers

[sleightflight 1]

Hi Brian.

Well what a story, I had a hell of a game getting the two pc's to talk to each other, even though they were connected via the ethernet crossover cable.

It turned out the problem was because my slave pc wasn't connected to the Internet, my router being downstairs it has to be via wifi, my wife with her industrious tidying managed to lose my original wifi dongle and my usb mouse dongle for that pc so I've had to buy new ones.

Then I set too in installing the FSX SDK and updates for sim connect on both machines following Froogles guide including the updates, I couldn't get the panel builder to talk to fsx, so I installed the fswide server on the slave pc and the panel builder fsuipc software and finally this morning I've got it working.

My next thing to overcome is the entire desktop is visible behind the guages ? It used to be blacked out running in windowed mode on my FSX machine, panel builder is set for black background.

Thanks for keeping in touch.

[needles 1,010]

Thats great news Paul, I'm glad you seem to be almost where you want it to be now at least.

As for the PB screen colour, play around with the monitor choices i.e, choose the monitor you want the guages to appear on then set that monitors background to black.

I'm sure that must work.

Good luck in the meantime and don't worry about posting further questions if you have any.

It's what the forum is all about.

Cheers for now

Brian

[sleightflight 1]

Thanks Brian.

I don't think I would of got through getting this to work without your fantastic assistance.

[sleightflight 1]

OK, I've tried various settings but always there is the desktop behind.

What I have done is got rid of all the big icons that were showing off the desktop & then set the tool bar at the bottom to auto hide, I'm happy now.

Thanks for everyones help, next is to get some wood and start making the panel.

[needles 1,010]

And so it begins.

You are now on the slippery slope of a never ending hobby that will engulf all of your being, all of your spare money and all of your spare time.

Enjoy and don't forget to ask.......

[sleightflight 1]

Ordered a second 7" lcd on black Friday, just my luck it went missing in the post, the replacement came yesterday, didn't get to plug it in until today and surprise surprise the networked pc with the msi 6970 card isn't picking it up, done some research and I think the pirt I'm connected to is a DVI D, getting a hdmi to vga converter cable.

Once thats sorted just want the Saitek multi panel then I'm going to start mounting everything into a panel.

[needles 1,010]

Good stuff Paul. Looking forward to some pics.

[sleightflight 1]

http://www.mediafire.com/folder/f32h7xbblukrq

Still need to get some wood to mount it up.