Forum

Lock render to graphic card output

vvvv beta question
#1

Hello Folks,

I want to know if there is a way to lock a render to one particular output of a graphic card (AMD btw), so it will go fullscreen when there is a monitor plugged in, and stay hidden when not.
I’m fearing that this is more windows related than vvvv’s… if it’s this case, it will be nice if someone could at least point me where to dig into the SO (win 8.1) to find a solution :).
After searching and reading a ton of posts, I found info about multiple cards, but I refer to multiple outputs in the same card.

Thank you!

#2

You can try and patch something using screeninfo and set renderer.

#3

another trick could be to use something like an edid detective to simulate a plugged in monitor…

#4

Thanks for your replies,

@TwoBeAss: yes, but I don’t want to use any external dongles to mess up the setups. I tried some time ago forcing edid settings into windows. Leaded to an ever-present monitor with fixed resolution and refresh rate. It was ok for one setup, but I’m looking for something more flexible, as this will be a patch deployed in multiple machines that will change displays often, and I’m not sure they will be always 1920x1080, for example.

@catweasel: I think those 2 nodes are the way to go. I’m playing with them but to get accurate I need to understand why the Screeninfo node gives out the data in that particular order. I mean the order of the display’s resolution. I change the main display (win7) and drag around the other one in different configs, but still not getting the logic behind that.

Any clues?

#5

I would perhaps add Window (Windows) in combination with naming the renderer something unique so that when screeninfo change it’s output away from the screen resolution you need, you move the renderer away from that screen and when it returns, you place it back on the screen after which you put it fullscreen

#6

Sorry, meant the order of the resolution OffsetXY spread (second pin of screeninfo). Anyway I suppose the order is the same for all pins…

#7

ups, posted without refreshing, did not see your post sunep.

It’s not related to a resolution I need, it more related to get always the same render in the same video output of the GPU, whatever windows display configs are.

So what I need is to get the resolution offsets of each display and move the renderers to those coordenates. But the problem is that I don’t know what order will use the ScreenInfo node to spread out the info data to use it accordingly.
Up to 2 displays would be fine beacuse it states witch is the main display, but 3 and more, there is no way to know as you have 2 or more coordinates with no other reference data.

hope is more clear now :)

#8

from looking at the code of the ScreenInfo node:

we see that it uses:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/System.Windows.Forms.Screen_properties(v=vs.100).aspx
to return its data. and there we also see that it omits the DeviceName property. returning this along with the other parameters should be a breeze and could probably help you getting an idea of which screen is which.

#9

added Device Name to ScreenInfo (Windows), will be in upcoming release

#10

Yes joreg, I did take a look to that node in github as I saw it’s from the addonpack but I patched a workaround that suits me well to my needs. It’s a run once kind-of setup for that machine that stores the config in xml to recall in my root patch. But if there is any changes in the number of displays you have to run it again. It’s designed to be pretty easy to use and not requiring keyboard or mouse to do the render setup. I attach it in this post so anyone could use it too. Quite messy but works.

@woei: that wast fast man! I’ll use that new pin to simplify my setup patch, or even do the job without it.

Any improvement to this patch will be welcome.
Thank you both!

SetRenders_multidisplay.zip (50.6 kB)

#11

opps on read_render_config.v4p the subpatch SetRenderer.v4p is in red. I didn’t save it well. Please drag it into the patch from SetRenders_multidisplay_subs folder to fix it and save.
Thank you too catweasel, for pointing me to those nodes.

#12

Wow, sometimes the timing on these forum posts is amazing. I have been fighting a problem on a multi-monitor setup with Windoze changing monitor numbers with seemingly no logic whatsoever. So when a monitor drops out for some reason, windows scrambles the numbering and placement of all displays and the whole shebang goes down.

I had gotten as far as looking into that screen properties call to get device info, I did not know that the vvvv node was in the addonpack. So I’m looking forward to that info in the next release - it will help make my patches more fault-tolerant so all the displays can still be right when one gets hosed for some reason. Thanks!

#13

@mediadog: already available in latest alphas for testing.

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