Dual Monitor setup

[Xerol]

Ok, I finally got an S-Video to RCA adaptor for my laptop, and after hooking it up, I set my TV up as a second monitor. The quality isn't that great, so I just use it for watching videos/etc. The problem comes when playing Civ with KeepRes=1 on. The screen is extended over onto the TV, even though it's at a different resolution, so I end up with an L-shaped video surface, and the whole lower-right console thingy is on the TV, and my action buttons are split across my laptop's screen and the TV. I need to play with KeepRes=1 on because the laptop LCD is 1280x800, and won't run in 1024x768 clearly. If I remove the line, it'll run at 1024x768, however, but since it's an LCD it's 1) stretched and 2) blurry. I can't set the resolution in-game to anything higher, because everything but 1024 is taller than 800 pixels, which my screen doesn't support. I can turn off the other screen, but then I have to reboot twice before I can use it again, and that's just a pain. Any idea why Civ splits across the screens like this? No other fullscreen program I have does this, just Civ with KeepRes=1 on.

 

[Turner]

Try putting Video Mode=1024 in the .ini file, see if that keeps it to the laptop screen.

 

[Xerol]

Try putting Video Mode=1024 in the .ini file, see if that keeps it to the laptop screen.

Yeah, that does, but since it's a widescreen, all of the graphics are horribly stretched horizontally (it's a 5:3 ratio). But CivAssist II doesn't scale properly (it's still running at 1280x800) and I can't get to half of the program, nor can I get to the start menu/anything else I've got running.

 

[Turner]

Can the TV handle 1024x768? If it can, you can make that the primary and run Civ3 off of that, maybe.

 

[Xerol]

The max on the TV is 1024, but it's really blurry(I can't even read text on it when I've got it set to 640x480). I only got the cable for the purpose of watching movies on the TV, which it does fine, but for anything else it's crap. I need to figure out a way to enable/disable the second "monitor" without rebooting.

 

[Turner]

Well, I don't know your laptop, but on mine I simply unhook it, and go to Display Properties. On the settings tab, click the '2' window if it's still there and uncheck 'Extend Windows Desktop to this monitor' or somesuch.... Like I said, I don't know how to do it on yours, but that's how it works with mine.

 

[Xerol]

Well, I don't know your laptop, but on mine I simply unhook it, and go to Display Properties. On the settings tab, click the '2' window if it's still there and uncheck 'Extend Windows Desktop to this monitor' or somesuch.... Like I said, I don't know how to do it on yours, but that's how it works with mine.

Pretty much the same thing here, but it wants to restart the computer before it'll apply the settings.

 

[Turner]

Go to the 'Advanced' tab in the settings, and click on "Apply changes without restarting".