11th October 2004 23:37 UTC
A few words on using AVS with multiple monitors: easy to use help! And..need help :)
Ok to start off, I just want to throw in some answers to questions I know are being asked and not always answered:
Please note: all settings told are for optimal, hopefully failsafe use. If you already know about these options, do as you wish, but if nothing else works...hey, give it a try- Windows users realize that well...windows does some really stupid stuff and will error because of the smallest little option.
ALSO--- For the users who have a great knowledge of winamp and using multiple monitors, PLEASE look at the bottom and read my problem!
I want to be able to have winamp fullscreen on one monitor, but still be able to change options and such / use another application on another monitor without it exiting fullscreen!
This has a fairly easy fix:
Make sure (of course) all monitors are working (I for example am currently using 3 monitors [VGA] plus one plasma screen [S-video])
Right click on your desktop and go to properties. Under background, select none. Click the pattern button, and once again select none.
Click the settings tab. Click on the monitor you want the visualization to run on. Click "Use this device as the primary monitor" Click OK.
Open Winamp. Move winamp to the screen you wish to use to control from / run another application on. Go ahead and put on some music: can't work without music right? :) Run winamp avs. Right click on the avs window and go to the AVS editor. Click Settings, then go to display. Under "Windowed Settings" click all the check boxes on, and set performance to Higher framerate. These you can change later, but first lets get it working. This way you can go back, and if you change something and you dont like it, you'll know what it is. Under Overlay mode, click both check boxes on, and click default for the color. These must be on.
After click these both on, you should see the visualization playing as your desktop background on the primary monitor. If not, some computers seem to like active desktop turned on, so click on your desktop, go to Active Desktop, and make sure Show Web Content is turned on. Now you most likely have the problem of icons being in the way. Two very simple solutions: 1) Select all your icons and drag them to the other monitor. 2) Right click on the desktop again, go back to Active Desktop, and turn off show desktop icons. Taskbar and start menu in your way? Also simple. One way is to right click on the taskbar (don't click on any icons though - empty space!) and go to properties. Turn on auto hide. Another way: Click and hold the blank space immediately around the start button, and drag the taskbar to the other monitor. You should now have an AVS playing full on that monitor. to adjust the resolution, its simple: just go to the avs window, and resize it as you like. then just minimize winamp or hide the avs behind another window. :)
And here, Just to be extra nice, I have also put a link to a page which has pictures of everything I'm doing step by step!
Note: You may or may not notice something...odd about these pics...You may see your background instead of mine! This is because of how winamp overlays the avs, and it doesn't quite catch in screenshots...not too sure why.
That should take care of a lot of questions I have seen while plunging deep into the forums of the avs in search of an answer to my own problem. And here that is:
Ok, I have 4 screens:
1) Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 SE (AGP)-
VGA out to monitor [A], S-Video out to Plasma screen [B]
2) ATI Radeon 7000 PCI
VGA to monitor [C]
3) ATI 3D Rage PCI
VGA to monitor [D]
Row of three: [C][A][D]
plasma on bottom: [B]
Screenshots of my setups
Settings are as described above, newest version of DirectX installed, etc. When I run a regular screensaver such as starfield sim or mystify, the screen will span across all 4 monitors. Yet (of course), I cannot get winamp avs to do this. I have tried WinampSaver, and other screen saver plugins etc. None seem to work. If anyone has any ideas, PLZ, e-mail me, or reply to this post (which will automatically e-mail as well, but will also help other people out :) )
Anyways, I hope I was able to help some people out, If you have any questions, just ask, I'd be glad to help.
Justin