Twinview and Games

[b0uncyfr0]

Twinview works fine but games are spread out on the 2 monitors . I want to have them on my first monitor. Ive had a look at ubuntuforums and theres something about adding NULL to my xorg.conf but i just dont get it. Heres my xorg.conf:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Wed Jun 13 18:40:26 PDT 2007


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "RandR" "on"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "AOC 210V"
HorizSync 31.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "BenQ FP73G"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1680x1050 +0+0, DFP: 1280x1024_75 +1680+0; CRT: 1680x1050_60 +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0; CRT: 1680x1050_60 +0+0, DFP: 1280x1024_75 +1680+0; CRT: 1680x1050_60 +0+0, DFP: 1280x1024 +1680+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
EndSection

[SheeEttin]

Re: Twinview and Games

The easiest way is to set it to run windowed, with one monitor's geometry, in the upper left (or right), and without window decorations.

And I just set Firefox to not use window decorations, and apparently I unset the key combination to get it back. Anyone know how to do this? (Edit: Never mind, I just reopened Firefox. Anyone know where the config is for that shortcut?)

[mweishaa]

Re: Twinview and Games

I have had a dual-monitor setup for a couple of years now, and when I wanted to play games I would just fire up the old Windows box. But I recently installed Unreal Tournament on Linux, and wanted to play. The game was spread across both screens, and I just wanted it on one. So my quest led me to update my xorg.conf file to add additional metamodes as follows:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1600x1200 +1280+0, CRT-1: 1280x1024 +0+0; CRT-0: 1600x1200, CRT-1: NULL; CRT-0: 1280x1024, CRT-1: NULL; CRT-0: 1024x768, CRT-1: NULL"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

The original metamode was the one that was working perfectly, but once I added the other metamodes (with NULL in them) those are the only ones that work. After restarting X, I get a dual-monitor login... but as soon as I log in, it switches to the first NULL metamode. I can't get dual-monitors to work again. I realize I don't have an Orientation setting, but it has been working great so far. CRT-0 is on the right, CRT-1 is on the left.

Any ideas? Is this a bug in KDE? Surely I should be able to switch between twinview and single monitor to play a game. An I tried running Unreal in a window, it really bites and isn't really a solution.

[mweishaa]

Re: Twinview and Games

OK, to reply to my own post... I just reverted back to my original configuration, and it worked fine. So then I added a metamode without a NULL:

Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1600x1200 +1280+0, CRT-1: 1280x1024 +0+0; CRT-0: 1280x1204 +1280+0, CRT-1: 1280x1024 +0+0"

(I just changed the resolution on CRT-0)

Restarted X, and when I logged in, it only started CRT-1, CRT-0 went blank. So this doesn't seem to be an issue with NULL at all, but with configuring metamodes.

Any ideas?

[mweishaa]

Re: Twinview and Games

OK, looks like I got it fixed... sort of.
I had to turn on the Xinerama option for it to work:
Option "Xinerama" "1"

After that, I could switch between the NULL metamodes and the dual-screen ones. I don't like having the Xinerama option on for two reasons...
1) windows pop up in the middle of the screens (i.e. where they split) which makes it annoying
2) the KDE panel doesn't fit exactly on one screen... I have to make it extend a certain percentage, somewhere around 55% because my screens are different resolutions. With Xinerama off, I could just display it on one screen and it was perfect. I guess I'll just have to live with it.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Twinview and Games

You could always just run in windowed mode without decorations...

[mweishaa]

Re: Twinview and Games

tried windowed mode (with decorations) but how do you keep the mouse from running off the window? In a FPS game where you use mouselook, that becomes an issue.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Twinview and Games

The game should grab the mouse and keep it centered. As long as you don't move the mouse as fast as you can in the direction of your other desktop, the pointer shouldn't escape the window.