Dual monitor screensaver

**scudsucker** · 07-12-2005, 08:32 AM

Wow... what happened to the standalone forum? last time I looked there were pages of queries, now just 7 threads?

Anyway... I have just got dual monitors at work, nothing fancy, but nice none-the-less. So I have a 2048 x 768 desktop... how can I make myself a screensaver to fit?

MDM's otherwise excellent Zinc cant do it- it only allows 100% width across the primary monitor.

Any other suggestions?

**Northcode** · 07-12-2005, 05:19 PM

How is your dual monitor system configured?

Is it one big virtual screen like the dual head cards create? Is it a real dual monitor (dual video card) system? Are you using different resolutions on each monitor?

Any or all of those things could be affecting the ability of the screensaver software to accurately determine the size of the desktop.

Normally if the video hardware creates a virtual screen, everything will work because the video hardware doesn't really expose two monitors to Windows or running applications, it just looks like one monitor.

**scudsucker** · 07-13-2005, 04:37 AM

Hi Northcode - I'm not that much of a techie, so I'm a little dubious about the details, but on both home and office monitors I have a Nvidia graphics card with a normal monitor out, and a s-video out to which I have added an adaptor for monitor 2

If it helps.. I have the same res on both (1024 x 768). The task bar is only on my primary monitor, and my desktop wallpaper is duplicated on both ( though not set to "tile" ) which I guess says that its not a "real" dual monitor system

But the swf I made is 2048px by 768, so it should, at 100% fill both screens. When I just run it as a .swf it does.

**Northcode** · 07-13-2005, 11:24 AM

If the SWF running fullscreen looks right and other applications running full screen cover both desktops then there's no reason that your screensaver shouldn't work. I have a little test utility that reports screen geometry (number of monitors and size) which I can send you, if I can find it

If not I'll rebuild it, won't take long. The output of that will tell us what your system is capable of. I can also build you a couple of Flash based screensavers to try, with and without dual monitor support just to see what happens. Hang on and I'll post some links for you...

**Northcode** · 07-13-2005, 12:13 PM

The app to detect your monitor info is http://www.northcode.com/misc/monitorinfo.exe. If you can run that and post the results we'll know a lot more about how your video is configured.

The other two downloads I have are a couple of simple screensavers I whipped up for you. One has multi-monitor support and one doesn't. The one without multi-monitor support should run only on the primary display unless your video driver is creating a single monitor extended screen. In that case both screensavers should fill both monitors.

Give these a whirl and let me know what happens...

http://www.northcode.com/misc/saver1.scr
http://www.northcode.com/misc/saver2.scr

**scudsucker** · 07-15-2005, 03:24 AM

Wow, Northcode.. I didnt expect such a generous and time-consuming response.. Thank you very much!

I had subscribed to this thread, but only got an email on the first response.. or esle i would have been a bit quicker to respond. Anyway, i'm downloading teh file snow, will post results...

**scudsucker** · 07-15-2005, 03:31 AM

OK.. monitorinfo.exe says:

Code:

monitor count: 2

desktop height: 768
desktop width: 1024

<monitors>
	<monitor handle="65537"> 
		<displayarea left="0" top="0" bottom="768" right="1024" primary="true" />
		<workarea left="0" top="0" bottom="740" right="1024" />
	</monitor>
	<monitor handle="65539"> 
		<displayarea left="1024" top="0" bottom="768" right="2048" primary="false" />
		<workarea left="1024" top="0" bottom="740" right="2048" />
	</monitor>
</monitors>

and saver1.scr covered only the primary monitor. saver2.scr covered both.

I assume you used your product ( swfstudio? ) to create them? How do I go about reproducing saver2.scr, or am I going to have to purchase swf studio?

**Northcode** · 07-15-2005, 08:13 PM

Yeah, I used SWF Studio V3 to make the screensavers. If you have a plain old SWF that you want converted, you can send it to me (support@northcode.com) and I (or one of my minions) will turn it into a screensaver for you, and send it back to you... no charge

**Flash 'N Pack** · 07-16-2005, 12:41 AM

Originally Posted by scudsucker

Wow... what happened to the standalone forum? last time I looked there were pages of queries, now just 7 threads?

Anyway... I have just got dual monitors at work, nothing fancy, but nice none-the-less. So I have a 2048 x 768 desktop... how can I make myself a screensaver to fit?

MDM's otherwise excellent Zinc cant do it- it only allows 100% width across the primary monitor.

Any other suggestions?

Hi scudsucker,
Here is the list of all third party tools that can do the job for you and some of them are FREE For personal use...

www.flashnpack.com (UNLIMITED TRIAL)
www.screentime.com
www.multidmedia.com (FREE FOR PERSONAL USE)

I hope this helps.

**scudsucker** · 07-18-2005, 03:15 AM

Cheers, Flash'n'pack, but :

MDM's otherwise excellent Zinc cant do it

Northcode- thanks for the offer- I'll take it up once I haver actually created a suitable screensaver!! Thank you very much for your help.

**ninjabiscuits** · 07-27-2005, 07:38 AM

Hi Northcode,

I have a similar problem to the one you responded to. I have got 3 monitors and want to display a swf flash movie with annimations across all three. I downloaded your screensavers and the first one only worked on my primary monitor while the second screensaver worked on all 3 monitors.

How could I do this for a swf movie and not a screensaver??
The fscommand only works for the primary monitor leaving the other 2 blank.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Ninjabiscuits

**Northcode** · 07-31-2005, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by ninjabiscuits

Hi Northcode,

I have a similar problem to the one you responded to. I have got 3 monitors and want to display a swf flash movie with annimations across all three. I downloaded your screensavers and the first one only worked on my primary monitor while the second screensaver worked on all 3 monitors.

How could I do this for a swf movie and not a screensaver??
The fscommand only works for the primary monitor leaving the other 2 blank.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Ninjabiscuits

I think I created that example for scudsucker just before we released V3. If you download the V3 trial you can do it yourself for any SWF file, just enable dual monitor (or multi-monitor in your case) support and build a projector instead of a screensaver.

**ninjabiscuits** · 08-03-2005, 02:09 PM

Thanks Northcode! That works!
I'm just wondering how long the trial lasts for? I am a Masters student using flash as part of an University exhibition for my final project and need to use swf studio until October 2nd. Will I be able to use the trial for that length of time?

Thanks so much for all your help
NinjaB

**Northcode** · 08-03-2005, 03:33 PM

The trial version of SWF Studio itself will NEVER expire, you can continue to run in trial mode for as long as you like. The projectors and screensavers you build while SWF Studio is running in trial mode only work for one day after you first run them then they expire. We'd really prefer it if you bought the product if you're going to be using it for an extended period, but you can just rebuild your screensaver each day if you're suffering from poor studentitis

**ninjabiscuits** · 08-04-2005, 07:45 AM

Thanks northcode! Thats great. Its such a great application, so glad to have found it. As I have a bad case of studentits at the moment I cannot buy it just yet, but will definitely buy it in the future. Will recommend it to all.

Thank you so much for all your help,
ninjaB

Thread: Dual monitor screensaver

Thread Tools

Display

Dual monitor screensaver

Posting Permissions