2 activities on 2 monitors

[Callipygous]

i have dual monitors working with seperate graphics cards (not a splitter or anything). i am using Ultramon so i can set up things like different screensavers and desktops. but i want to be able to watch a movie on one screen and play a game on the other. i start the movie, but then when i go to play my game it says something about direct draw resources and closes the movie. is there anyway i can make this work?

[ydoaPs]

why would you want to? you would either pay more attention to the movie or the game. even if your attention was split equally, you wouldn't get as much out of either.

[Callipygous]

1. it doesnt matter why, im just looking for information.

2. the game im playing has lots of mods that dont really take a lot of attention, especially because i play them enough that i dont really have to think about it any more. i just want one of my favorite movies going while i play.

[5614]

i start the movie, but then when i go to play my game it says something about direct draw resources and closes the movie.

is the key part.

seemingly your computer cannot handle two high resolution programs running at the same time. the fact that you have them running on seperate graphics cards will not change this fact. because this is talking about direct draw resources, this is seperate from your processing power.

[Callipygous]

is the key part.

seemingly your computer cannot handle two high resolution programs running at the same time. the fact that you have them running on seperate graphics cards will not change this fact. because this is talking about direct draw resources' date=' this is seperate from your processing power.[/quote']

 

yeah, it said something about them(direct draw resources) already being in use. if not processor or gfx cards, what would this rely on?

[5614]

well, graphics cards are like mini-proccessors, rather than having the main processor doing all the work, as computers became more powerful, seperate 'processors' were build, graphics cards, sound cards etc etc.

 

direct draw is part of directX which is microsoft's API (application programming interface) for developing games and multimedia applications for windows. this has its own resources and this is what is running low.

im not sure how you can enhance your DirectX's resource power... i'll have to look into it, but i doubt i will find an answer.... if i do though, i'll post it here in the next few days/a week.

[Callipygous]

yeah, graphics cards are like mini-computers. there are actually versions of linux that can run on a gfx card. but thank you for the directx stuff. for some reason the error message gave me the impression that it wasnt a quantitiy of resources issue, just that direct draw can only do one such thing at a time. it made it seem like it would have to run directx twice to do it. ill try to get the message again if i get a chance.

[5614]

can you post a copy of the error message, maybe a screen shot or something, just save it as a jpeg and attach it... click 'post reply' and then theres a 'manage attachments' button [grey] near the bottom of the page, click that a little pop-up thingy comes up, click 'browse' locate the saved image and click 'upload'

 

it probably wont appear on the 'post reply' screen, but when you click 'submit reply' it will be there

 

yes, directX is meant for one monitor, im not sure how it handles double monitor, that probably your problem.

[Callipygous]

here you go

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Nice to know you use Firefox.

First of all, I reccomend you don't have all of those programs on at once-that contributes. Now if you really want to do this, you probably could just get a larger and more powerful graphics card(s) and therefore help it more.

[Sayonara]

why would you want to? you would either pay more attention to the movie or the game. even if your attention was split equally, you wouldn't get as much out of either.

That's irrelevant. If he did not need to know he would not have asked. In future, please exercise better discretion before posting.

[mossoi]

Try setting the AGP aperture size(s) in the BIOS to the maximum supported by the video cards (the memory size of the card). It's a long shot but it'll ensure that you're using the full resources of the AGP.

 

PS. (Mossoi's standard disclaimer when advising BIOS tinkering): Please don't blame me if this causes any problems with your PC or causes it to fail to POST. Ensure you know how to perform a hard reset on the BIOS before changing any advanced settings.

[Callipygous]

thats actually what i think made it crash the last time i messed with my bios. yes i do know how to do a hard reset.

 

as for setting it to the maximum supported, how do i find that number? also, they are two very different cards. one is a geforce 4 ti4200 128mB, the other is some garbage card that i got for free from my computer class. its a pci card that i dont even know the make or model of (im not currently on the computer in question) it has either 32 or maybe 64 mB.

 

why is it good to kno that i use firefox? does it really matter that i am using other programs? i have never had issues with the ammount of multitasking i try to do with my memory and processing power (512 2700ddr and p4 2ghz).

[mossoi]

Changing the AGP Aperture will affect the card in the AGP slot (geForce). The maximum aperture size is the VRAM of the card (128mb) but...

 

I think we've found the problem in the fact that you are using "some garbage card". It's not gonna be able to do what you are asking it. Have you tried running just one of the apps on the monitor driven by the PCI card? Does it work? It may be able to run the DVD but it's going to struggle with any decent games and it's going to use more PC resources.

 

If you want to do this properly I would look for a decent double headed AGP card.

 

It most likely doesn't matter that you are running the other programs as, although they will be using some system resources, they aren't going to be causing the problem you're experiencing.

 

As for the firefox comment, as scientifically minded (and therefore better ) people we enjoy seeing people using a 'real' browser!

[Callipygous]

the "some garbage card" is the one that i put the movie on and yes, i know for a fact that it can handle it. i know it can at least start the game although as soon i saw that the game was running on the garbage one i switched it so i dont know if it can handle more strenuous situations. but it doesnt matter, cause its doing the video. unfortunately i cant follow your advice for doing it "properly" because i am what's normally known as "broke".

 

as for the browser. microsoft let the popups through and i ended up with ones that come up even when im not browsing (cable, constantly logged on). not only that, i noticed that the filthy *how do they feel about swearing on these forums?* built it into the os with no way to remove it. i had to manually block each ip in my firewall. now i have reformatted but it was a pain in the neck before. i also like the "type to search" feature.

[5614]

ok right;

 

broswer is personal choice, there are many threads on that, so not here!

 

graphics cards take the load of the main processor, whilsts 'bad' graphics card will make your screen jumpy, this is non-related to the current problem.

 

the problem you have is related to all of your DirectX software and your powerDVD software.

 

power DVD seemingly does not support the dual monitor [one DVD one game] 'set-up'

 

DirectX is many programs under one title. basically Direct draw [part of directX] is using up directX's resources. directX has limited resources... [and i still cant find out if you can increase them] and playing DVD and a game, both of which have have a high resolution are placing too much strain on directX.

therefore is suggested as a solution,

to turn down the resolution [meaning that less DirectX resources are needed],

close another application [reducing directX resources used],

and update the drivers, [hoping that newer drivers means more resources]

 

the computer wants to open power DVD because you told it to! these above suggestions are ways in which you can decrease current DirectX resources being used, allowing more directX resources to be used on your most recent task [opening and playing power DVD]

[mossoi]

graphics cards take the load of the main processor, whilsts 'bad' graphics card will make your screen jumpy, this is non-related to the current problem

The PCI card is sitting on a different BUS. This is going to cause problems with resource sharing in a situation like this.

 

Reducing resolution and colour depth may work but you may find you have to drop down too far to make this very useable.

[5614]

every little bit helps, we dont know how low the resources are, reducing the resolution is the first and easiest step.

 

resource sharing is probably a problem too, im not sure how that will work.

[mossoi]

A quick chat with a few colleagues has led to some interesting points being raised:

 

The problem is almost certainly hardware (video card) based and most likely comes down to Hardware Overlay. Try Googling for hardware overlay for your specific card to see if there's anything of use - you may be able to switch to Software Overlay with a drop in quality.

[YT2095]

I`m no expert on PC`s I`m recently new to this platform, so this MAY or may NOT be helpfull.

I`ve seen my friend do a similar thing, he had 2 monitors but 1 gfx card, he could slide a window from one monitor over to the other with the mouse (or even have them half and half).

perhaps you could do that instead, it just means opening out the screen width or something, that way it would be just like seeing it on 1 monitor in reduced windows, but over 2 mons instead?

 

if it`s a crap idea, don`t bother telling me, it was just a thought

[5614]

its not a crap idea, what you said was all right, however we are talking about two monitors on seperate graphics cards, with the ability to display seperate images.

so yes your right, but wrong topic!

(what you were talking about, is similar to having one monitor in two, the monitors are inter-connected allowing for the same image to be spread across both...

if you to a warner brothers cinema, you'll see many small TVs linked together each showing a small part of an image, but together produce one big image, this is a similar effect)

[mossoi]

Not a crap idea YT but it won't work. Each monitor is driven by one of the graphics cards. Although it looks seamless, like one big desktop, the window that is being dragged is handed over from one card to the other when it crosses the boundary between screens. The setup discussed above already has this stretched desktop setup but can't handle the type of application being run on two screen simultaneously.

[LuTze]

one is a geforce 4 ti4200 128mB

Doesn't that card have dual outputs? (1xDVI 1xVGA)? Just use both the outputs on this one, instead of the two cards.

 

The problem with games+movies is probably the video overlay. You can only have it active on one screen at a time, even if you're using the same card. I think the nvidia twinview drivers have ways of getting around this.

[Callipygous]

3 actually, dvi, vga, and s-video. the problem is my monitors are both of the vga variety. think you can get adapters to dvi but i dont know where and i dont know how much (and im broke).

[LuTze]

They cost about £3-4 from Maplin, DVI to VGA converter.

 

Do that, it'll work much better and you'll be able to use Nvidia's twinview.