What do you use multiple monitors for?

The other thread sparked this question. I've seen people post that they use 2 monitors for SL and I wondered 2 things:-

1. What benefit(s) does the second monitor give?

2. How do you connect and use 2 monitors on a computer? (the simple overview of how - not all the technical details.)

1. It makes somewhere to put all those programs with little windows that you want to get at, but you can still run stuff that covers the full screen at the same time.

2. Plug it in.

Thankyou for that, Viktoria.

Plug it in how? My computers only have one VGA socket.

ETA:
Cancel that question. I've just seen that my newest machine has 2 VGA sockets.

1. It makes everything else visible that would otherwise be hidden under your SL window. SL doesn't behave well on a secondary monitor, but Photoshop, for instance, does, which makes my life so much nicer since I can snap pictures on one monitor and edit on the other while still seeing what is going on around my avatar.

2. Windows natively supports multiple monitors, if your graphics card does. Many of the higher-end graphics cards that people buy for SL these days have two ports for monitors on them. You may need to go into your Monitors control panel and change your settings so that your computer knows which is on the left and right side, but it's close to plug and play.

Ditto Viktoria.

Also it makes it a Hell of a lot easier to run multiple avs and have fun doing so at the same time. I use an ancient Mac for all my graphics needs besides my twin-monitor PC - Adobe can go take a running jump into liquidation if Photoshop 6.0 wasn't good enough.

Right now I'm running WinAmp, Skype, Thunderbird, Firefox and two instances of SL. Lubbly-jubbly. If I shut everything else down, I can run four instances of SL very comfortably. Having paid my dues with a crap set-up for my first year or two, the slack FPS is fairly easy to handle.

All the same it does make it harder to get away for a fag and a beer (it is Friday night after all).

I can't try it yet because my newest machine is doing its recovery after its hard drive died, but when it's finished, I'll plug a spare monitor in and see what happens. It has a VGA socket in the graphics card and another for the built-in graphics, so I'll see how I go with those two. The card also has a wider connector - like the normal VGA but wider. I suppose that's simply for a different connectory type rather than a second monitor, but maybe not.

You can also add in a second graphics card. Just have to check compatibility and power supply capacity.

I find two standard aspect ratio monitors give more usable desktop space than a single large widescreen. I have a 21" and a 19" and have the 19" off to the side where I park email, system monitor, IM and odd note windows. I then use the main screen for stuff I'm working on.

The nice thing with two monitors is if you maximize the window on an application it fills the screen of whichever monitor it is on at the time. Doesn't hide anything on the other.

For apps like Photoshop you can yank all the pallets and toolbars off to the second monitor and save all the main screen for editing.

Rime

My left monitor is 24" wide screen and on my right is a standard 19" diagonal monitor. SL runs in a maximized window on the left. I usually have Firefox opened on the right, sized to about 3/4 of the screen. If I need it, Photoshop will open fullscreen on the right. Qavimator and LSL Edit also open on the right and have shortcuts on the right monitor desktop.

Right now I'm stuck with one monitor but am looking for a laptop with a decent screne on the cheap so I can mount it upside down over my main screen to use as a fold down.
I use to use 2 monitors for making web pages. One for my HTML editor and the other automatically updating the page in IE and FireFox for the best in WYSIWYG.
In SL I will be in world and the forums, playing poker, watching YouTube, checking email, or to run a second client. Right now to run 4 clients to play multilayer games by myself I have to shrink each viewer to 1/4 my screen size. I will probably still do that but I'll have the option of splitting up the viewers to different screens.

I have an external monitor for my laptop at home. It is handy to have a web browser open in the second panel for chat, forums, looking up obscure puns, that sort of thing. I got in the habit from working on web pages...I'll have source code on one screen and the browser on the second. In photoshop you can have toolbars on one monitor and your image on the second.

None of my current systems have multiple monitors, but I've done it in the past, in a work environment. Macs and Windows can bothh do it pretty easily.

As others stated, you can use the second screen for other things, like a graphics app of a messaging application or e-mail, while leaving your full screen available for SL.

From what I have read, SL dosn't like being on the "Second monitor". It wants to be on the same one that your menubar or toolbar lives on.

Some video cards have two ports for monitor cables. Or you can have on monitor on the built-in video port on the motherboard (usually low quality, but OK for e-mail and messaging), and additional monitors on addded video cards. Most computers can manage at least one dual-port video card, and some of the beter ones can support two video cards, with two ports each, or up to FOUR monitors! The OS will sense you have more than one, and a control panel allows you to designate which one is the primary monitor.

(Like being on the bridge of the Enterprise, surrounded by screens: "Mister Sulu, engage! Spock, you have the con while I check out that green-skinned lady Ambassador from voluptia 4."

I would say that, if you're seriously considering a second monitor, it's probably best to buy two of the same model at the same time and rig them together. I wouldn't like to work across two monitors with varying resolution and different colour management and I certainly wouldn't like to jump through hoops trying to get them to match.

I wouldn't buy an extra monitor for it, but I do have 2 spares - both old 4x3 ratios. I'll try one of those as the second one and see how it goes.

If I could get away with it I would have three. 2 X 19" on the sides and a single wide screen for the center. But I think that would be more than the rest of the family would let me live with

I have a wide screen 24" that I use for SL and use the screen on my laptop to keep email, web browsers, Adobe Bridge, etc...

Do it.

I went crazy in September and fitted two Philips 22" monitors on my PC. I don't know how I managed before then.

You can do that? How do you get the main machine to recognise and use the laptop's screen?

They are plugging an external monitor into a laptop and using both screeens.

Ah. That way round. Ty

I have my iMac screen that I use to run SL - that's 20 ", and a Samsung 22" that I use for browsing and twitter, or photoshop.. it's always in use, and it comes in really handy when I am editing, as during long renders the last thing you want to be doing is tabbing between things. Editing usually takes a while and I want to be able to talk to people while I am doing it .. it's dead handy if I am filming with others and need to use skype or something for directions.

I wouldn't be without it, and it's certainly speeded up my workflow ion terms of machinima.

Actualy we use programs like MaxiVista and Synergy to turn a laptop into a second monitor. The programs work laptop to laptop and laptop to desk top too but since most desktops have more horsepower....
Like I said I want a cheapo laptop with a decent screen to mount above my main monitor to use as a flip down so it doesn't take up desk space.

Yup, I went to a laptop as my primary machine a few months ago. Before that, I was using a standard tower with a video card that supported two monitors. Once you've had multiple monitors, you can't ever go back.

Unfortunately, my Vista doesn't want to know a second monitor plugged into the built-in connector. Looking in the help files, it seems it's only interested if it's a "mobile PC".

All is not lost, though. I can continue using 2 machines.

You have to tell it to use two monitors, just plugging the other monitor in won't do it. Depending on how your system is set up, either go into Display settings or if you have an NVidia card you can do it through the NVidia control panel. Once you tell it to go to a dual monitor set up, you choose which monitor will be your primary (where your start button and task bar will be located, on a laptop I'd go with using the laptop screen as the primary.) You can choose whether you want to extend your desktop across both monitors or configure each monitor independently.

Probably DVI - The type used by most flat panels (though some cheapy ones still are VGA only I think).

If you have the on board video enabled as well as the separate card then you could have 3 screens on the go, but you might not be able to persuade the computer to turn on both graphics adapters. My current PC has on board basic NVidia (6100) graphics, and I've fitted an NVidia 8600 with two outputs. I've tested, and I can actually run 3 monitors without it complaining at me, but as I have a 15" for main use on the desk and a 22" wide screen on a unit next to the desk for TV/ movies it doesn't seem worth sacrificing more space for a third display.