Matrox Issues
 

The bad news first:
I've tested the Beta1 and Beta2 with some Matrox G450 Cards:
P4-2,8GHz,Matrox Millenium G450 DualHead with 32 MB, 512 MB RAM
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP1/W2k Pro SP4, Directx 9.0c
Window Size 1280 x 1024 x 32, HP w 2228h Monitor

after first start, bad graphics and artifacts just switched from automatic to 640 x 480 x 16, tryed to start again, only an black screen with sand-waiting-clock is displayed and "ESC" can't stop it.
must terminate the program from "Task Manager" or logoff.
deleting the serenescreen reg-hive don't change anything, system hang-up.
I must delete also the reg-hive with S-...
I've deployed an mini-install-uninstall with WiseInstallation and I'd like to post it when that's possible and needed...

good news:
work fine on:
Toshiba Satellite 5200-801
P4-2GHz,Nvidia 460 Go with 64 MB, 1GB RAM
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 SP2, Directx 9.0c
60-90 fps, Window Size 1280 x 1024 x 32

work fine on:
Mini PC
Intel Celeron M 1,6 GHz,Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME with 64 MB shared, 1GB RAM
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2, Directx 9.0c
40-50 fps, Window Size 1280 x 1024 x 32, HP w 2228h Monitor

Wow, I hadn't even heard the name Matrox in years. Are they even still around? I'd seriously doubt if MA3 will ever run on that card.

even if on some cards MA3 would not work, why should be that system hang-up?
it would be nice to have some error handling implemented like "could not load in optimal time" => then giveup and display an error or write an log-file...

Actually there are a lot of error messages built in, but in this case something so unexpected must have happened that it never got a chance to display any.

Matrox is still around, but nowadays they focus on the 2D market with cards capable of running multiple displays.

The G450 was originally released in late 2000 and has the interesting feature of two RAMDACs with different clock speeds making the card drive the second monitor only at a lesser max resolution than the primary one.

Sounds like a nightmare to program animation for.

Jim, will this product from matrox work with your screensaver?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

If it does, I'll definately buy it as I think your screensaver now is perfect for it considering the width.. I would then have to ask you for support for triple monitor bezel gap adjusting ;) which would be harder to impliment but definately worth it if it does work.

I don't really see how that could work with the Aquarium, since it's an external device. My program has to calculate the viewport and paint the entire scene separately for each render unit. How would the program even know about the device?

It works perfectly with the aquarium. As far as the program thinks - you just have a single display (in my case a 3840x1024 one).
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8829/ma3x3bt2.th.jpg
It's not perfect for everything though. Opening a PDF on the above comp at work results in Acrobat launching over all three monitors resulting in an extremely letterboxed program window.

Running the fullscreen cowerflow mode of iTunes is gorgeous though - I'ts like flipping through your vinyls! :)

Ah, I see - it treats it as a single window. Well, if everyone had that instead of separate viewports, it would have saved us months of programming (Edgar, mostly). No bezel gap, though.

That's great news Tiny Turtle, I will purchase it sometime before Christmas and let you guys know how it goes. Tiny Turtle, after reading this below, it seems this has a bezel gap fixer built into the device already for the digital version. Did you know about this already? I posted a link below.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/surro...hite_Paper.pdf
Tiny Turtle, is this the one below that you bought or did you get the analog version?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...rox-_-15106011

Unfortunately we have the analog version here at work which doesn't have the bexel management. There are some options in the drivers which allows windows to only maximise to a single screen or to all three if you prefer.

The box itself gets really hot and a tip is to not run it with just two screens connected which was what my boss did here at first. The thing died and had to be replaced.

I just thought you'd like a shot of the aforementioned fullscreen iTunes...

Triple head Matrox
 

Hi,

I loaded beta 3 last week and have be running it on the Matrox Parhelia triple head card at 3072x768 and it has worked just wonderfully even with 17 fish had 69 fps on an old 1.7g processor . I also tried it in dual mode at 2048x768 and worked well. I would suggest that in that mode a pause feature to stop the back and forth scrolling. I know I can move it with the arrow keys but a pause would be nice. However, it is great and I look forward to trying it with my threeD glasses when I have the time to set them up.

Really great worth the anticipation.

Brian

Press P to pause the scrolling.

Matrox
 

Hi, Look at the Matrox site. They are very big in gaming with their triple head to go product which will turn any single port to a triple port. The aquarium looks awsome on three 26" monitor.

Brian

Thanks, Jim, Don't know why I didn't think to try that.

Couldn't try. Beta has expired.

You can grab MA3 Beta 3 right here:
https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...ead.php?t=4385