Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi,
A forum post said this is the ideal place to help me with my frustrating problem, so here goes.

I have FSX running on a new Gateway FX6800-01e computer with 3, identical Gateway 19" Widescreen Monitors. I also have X-Plane which seems to work fine so far in all view modes. I just installed Matrox TH2G Digital edition and FSX works fine in 3D Virtual view with over 30 fps but as soon as I go to the 2D view I just have an outside view with nothing but black where the cockpit panel should be across all 3 monitors. In other words the whole bottom third or half of the monitors is black. It seems to be the case with all aircraft, although with the default Cessna 172 and Garmin 1000, all the partial panels seem fine except that direct forward view. In addition, the mouse cursor is flashing rapidly and the little "busy" windows circle is also flashing like crazy. When I return to 3D view the view is back to normal across all 3 monitors, but the cursor is still going nuts, and framerates are down to about 20 unless I reboot FSX asn start over. The 2D, 2 and 10 o'clock views seem fine, it's just the direct forward view.

A few answers to my posts in Avsim and Flightsim acknowledge the same missing panel problem, but said they just ignore it and stick to the virtual view. Others say they have no problem with FSX and TH2G. My concern is if I accidentally open that window, the cursor problem seems to mess up the whole session. I have my 3 monitors set to native 4320x900 resolution. I'm not really familiar or experienced with the workings of displays and resolutions, but some posts suggest this problem is definitely related to wide monitors. Here are my specs if it is any help in solving this. Please let me know if any additional info is needed. Any solution will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Tom
Gateway FX6800-01e with Vista HP SP 2 64 bit; Intel Core i7 cpu 920A 2.67 GHZ.; 3.00 GB DDR3 Ram,; ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series; ATI HDMI Audio/Realtek High Def Audio; Gateway HD1900 19 Widescreen LCD Monitor; 1440x900 native; 16:10 Aspect Ratio

Get a fourth monitor for your 2D panels. I used to have that set up :) I haven't encountered a similar problem as yours. Maybe the culprit are the drivers. There's no other reason...I think. Try to run FSX with only one monitor first.

Thanks for the help, Yui.
I have been flying FSX with one monitor until recently when I got the TH2G. It worked fine. As a matter of fact, I also got X-Plane 9 to try it out and it works fine too in both 2D and 3D. It's just that darn 2D mode in FSX. While in 3D mode, I tried to open the pedestal window and the cursor started going crazy again and framerates went way down. Ther real killer is that is the end of my performance for the rest of the session until I reboot FS and start over.

Is it possible to have the 3D virtual cockpit view in the surround configuration across the three monitors and when switching to 2D have the displays go back to single mode so that the display is restricted to single monitors? In other words, I could have the front cockpit view just in the center monitor, maybe a throttle quadrant in the left, fmc in the third or something like that?
Regards, Tom

same problem here with FSX.

I bought TH2GO mainly for FSX and now i cant play it anymore, great.

2D Panels black
Flashing mouse cursor and halve of the frames
and the bug that i cant get 5040x1050 with the newest Nvidia drivers

unplayable

Matrox do something.

cu
chriz

Did you try installing the older drivers and the latest matrox software/drivers? Also install SP 1+2 for FSX. It should work. But I dont use 2D panels since it looks to big I think.

Thanks for helping guys. Chris, I thought it might be my ATI card since I'm hearing NVIDIA is better but if you have an NVIDIA I guess that's not the problem. What kind of monitors do you have?

I just updated my ATI driver as well as the Matrox driver and I have Acceleration (SP2) for FSX. Are you saying I should roll back to my older ATI driver and keep the new Matrox driver?
Regards,
Tom

i had the same thing. uncheck AA in fsx and use graphix card for AA fixed it for me

Thanks for the help, Dart74. I held my breath and turned AA off in FSX and enabled it in ATI. I also restarted my system and FSX but no luck. Still the same.
Someone also suggested that they heard there was a bug in FSX that caused the problem when Tool Tips was turned on. Unfortunately mine was already off. Hopefully there is still a solution out there cause with that flashing cursor and drop in performance I am on hold with using FSX. Thanks again. Tom

I emailed Matrox about this issue in June 2009.

From: [Me]
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:12 AM
To: [Matrox technical Support]
Subject: Tech Support - Australia - General - Request ID: 19409

Using Microsoft Flight Simulator X can you get a workable 2D cockpit at 5040 X 1050? I have posted this question at http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10355 Nobody as confirmed they can. Another user reports, like me, that they cannot. Thanks, ....

Their reply ....

From: [Matrox technical Support]
Date: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 23:49 AM

For game setting and optimization you are better off referring your question to the WSGF (as you did already), since we test games only to confirm triple screen support.

We do not test functionality and performance but try to educate the game developers on the product so the games would have native support for all the features in triples screen mode.

Regards,
Trpimir
MGI Technical Support Representative
Matrox Graphics Inc.

@Dart74 Can you confirm that Using Microsoft Flight Simulator X can you get a workable 2D cockpit at 5040 X 1050?

I have the three problems (perhaps from same cause) that TomG628 describes when using TH2G with a 2D cockpit:
* Mouse cursor flashes like crazy.
* Frame rates drop (to between 8 - 11 fps).
* The cockpit disappears leaving a black bottom half of the screen.

My current work around is to not use TH2G (just use independent/native screens driven by two graphics cards), start FSX in the middle screen, undock panels (throttle, GPS, etc), and drag them to the side screens.

Hey guys, thanks for continuing to give some feedback and hanging in there with me on this problem. I couldn't wait to get this setup for FSX since seeing some demos and videos. When I first noticed the problem I thought "No problem, I'll just find a solution in one of the forums." Obviously that wasn't the case. I just can't understand why Microsoft hasn't noticed this issue before and hasn't published a solution or workaround since it seems others have experienced it as well, while others say they have no problems in 2D or 3D views.

I tried to go to the MS website and track down a solution, but all MS is concerned about is whether my program ID number is correct which I couldn't get it to recognize to begin with, then be told that I could always use my credit card for paid support.

I received the same reply when I contacted Matrox, that they are only concerned with their unit itself, and refered me to this website. As far as not using TH2G and using 2 cards, I paid over $300 for the darn thing, and sure cannot afford a second card right now. Besides, I got the TH2G for that added realism and peripheral view. Hopefully someone will read our thread here and come through with some good news in getting this thing to work right. I can only hope. Regards,
Tom