Triple Monitor Display

[Camate]

Greetings,

We've been receiving comments and questions from those of you using three monitor displays that mention that the middle monitor and side monitors have different aspect ratios, and the side displays seem a bit stretched out.

Below is a quite lengthy explanation from Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to this topic.

Jumping right ahead to the final conclusion, we are unable to eliminate the distortion on the side displays with the current hardware and display specifications.

From here on out, it's going to be a bit complicated, so feel free to skip over it.

When you project 3D onto a 2D plane, there will always be distortion in the image. Due to this, when the game's 3D space is projected onto a display, which is a 2D plane, the same distortion arises.

Depending on the method in which the 3D space is projected, how the image is distorted will vary.

I'll use maps as an example. When using a type of map projection known as “Mercator projection,” the closer you get to the north and south poles the planar dimensions become distorted. Likewise, when using another type of map projection known as “Mollweide projection,” in exchange for maintaining accurate proportions, the shape becomes distorted. This is all due to the fact that depending on the method of projection the distortion appears differently.

With the current real-time 3D graphics, speaking in terms of maps, the general drawing method is similar to Mercator projection and thus the image is stretched laterally. FFXIV uses the same graphics drawing method as the processes for projection are simple and quick.

By the way, it’s also not the case that the middle monitor is displaying the game properly either. There is still very minor distortion that you can't really feel. Other than the special drawing method of “orthographic projection,” where size variations do not arise depending on depth, there will always be distortion.

On the other hand, for the world as we see it through the lenses of our eyes, objects that should be straight lines are viewed with a curved distortion due to visual periphery, though this is not normally perceived. In order to replicate this kind of distortion with CG, you have to calculate the trajectory of light as is passes through the lens, and compared to the basic drawing method of stopping with straight line calculations, the amount of calculations are greater and drawing becomes extremely slow. Due to this, for game application, most games do this by using a pseudo-procedure that forces curved distortion to the image after it has been drawn with the basic drawing method.

Even if we were able to make drawings that are distorted with curved lines, there wouldn't be a noticeable effect with the display monitors as they are now.

However, with recent hardware improvements and developments such as the Oculus Rift and curved displays, there might just come a day when you can play on displays where the image is displayed naturally with minimal distortion.

[Defmetal]

Ok but what about giving us tools for triple monitor?
Like: Give us the Game Resolution, but also a Menu Resolution. If they are split, I'd be able to say, have the game at 5760x1080 and the menus at 1920x1080 therefore only confined to the middle monitor (if that's what I wanted - which it is) and this would fix a lot of the issues the game has on triple monitors like Cutscene Display, and also whenever you complete a dungeon or join a fate you get that giant text that spans across all 3 screens that you can't move or adjust. Like the fate joined or the congratulations text.

It's quite annoying.

I like triple monitor gaming, and so far the only MMO to do it right is Guild Wars 2 (which puts all of your menus on the middle monitor automatically). FFXIV is close, but it's not there yet - but it could be with a little bit of dev support. WoW also lets you set a menu resolution (though it has to be done with a / command or a macro).

[Dannythm]

I'd love to be able to move UI elements out of the main screen and leave them on a secondary monitor, but I guess that won't happen.

[Alyko]

Oculus Rift support in FFXIV?

Oh my god.

[Defmetal]

I'd love to be able to move UI elements out of the main screen and leave them on a secondary monitor, but I guess that won't happen.

You can do it right now, actually. You need to be using Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround.

[Crevox]

Oculus Rift support in FFXIV?

Oh my god.

They never said anything like this. Read the post before freaking out cause you read "Oculus Rift."

[Kantide]

UI elements can be moved off the center screen if using eyefinity or surround. The problem when using a borderless window or single screen is that the UI elements cannot exist outside the gamespace.

[Defmetal]

Well you can't drag a game element outside of the game ... I don't think that's something square enix could fix or has the willpower to fix.

However notice that Duty Commenced. It takes up all 3 monitors, and if you have bezel correction letters get chopped off, plus it looks huge.
That's what I referred to in my post.

Yes, UI elements CAN be dragged off screen, but it's a real pain to move each thing one by one and get their positions right. Something easily remedied with a "Menu Resolution" option (which should shrink the Duty Commenced text).

I don't want my UI elements on the other monitors because I don't want to turn my head 45 degrees to read the game UIs... and yes I can drag them all on screen but it's never the same and there are lots of little problems.

Menu Resolution fixes every problem I have with triple monitor gaming in 14, though I recognize some others it might not.