I need to find software packages that will allow me to set up a multi
monitor system (one computer many monitors).  The package needs to be
able to restore each monitor after a reboot (remembers what each
monitor does).  Additionally, it would be nice to have the ablity to
create and run movies that incorperate all the monitors.  I am
planning to put 4 monitors in a store window and run stuff across all
of them (like a commet that goes from screen to screen).  Cool huh?

Hello Ghengis,

You did not indicate which operating system you were interested in so
I'll provide answers for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Macintosh.
There are similar solutions on Unix systems such as Sun or SGI; if you
are interested in one of those, please ask in a clarification request.

For Windows 98:

There are several knowledgebase articles that address this issue
including:

How to Enable Multiple Display Support Using Windows 98
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q179602&LN=EN-US

Hardware Requirements for Multiple Display Support in Windows 98
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q182708

Multiple Display Feature in Windows 98
http://www.microsoft.com/insider/articles/multimon.asp

This latter article also mentions that Windows XP can support up to
ten displays if you need that many.

Other versions of Windows support multiple monitors, a quick search
using a phrase such as
  multiple display windows (version number here)
would provide several such references.

Linux (or Unix):

On Linux, the X server provides multiple display support. I am not
aware of a specific limit to the number of displays - I have a system
with four, but I expect that could be increased to more with the right
hardware. Here are some references that provide an outline of what can
be done and how to set it up. For your application - be sure to enable
"Xinerama" mode to get a single large image the multiple displays.

Multihead Systems under Linux and Windows
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue82/ward.html

Configuring SuSE Linux for Multihead
http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/wessels_multihead.html

These first two describe the capabilities of Linux "out of the box".
If you need more performance, consider a commercial product such as Xi
Graphics.
http://www.xigraphics.com/

Macintosh:
The Mac OS has supported multiple displays for over 10 years. It is
extremely easy to set up:
 - power off the system
 - put the display cards into the system
 - power on
 - use the display control panel to align them to match your use
No special drivers are required (unless provided by the vendor). When
I used a Mac laptop on a regular basis, I had an extra display
attached when in the office to make a single large display. The system
automatically switched between one or two displays whenever it started
up or waking up from sleep.

For reference
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61511&SaveKCWindowURL=http%3A%2F%2Fkbase.info.apple.com%2Fcgi-bin%2FWebObjects%2Fkbase.woa%2Fwa%2FSaveKCToHomePage&searchMode=Expert&kbhost=kbase.info.apple.com&showButton=false&randomValue=100&showSurvey=false&sessionID=anonymous|157173401
describes the use of multiple displays on the Macintosh and has a
reference for display mirroring (same image on more than one display).

Hardware support:

As Skyeflye mentioned, Matrox makes multiple display cards. I like
their product but had some problems getting a couple dozen of the four
display cards on a project and ended up using Colorgraphic cards
instead.
  http://www.colorgraphic.net/newsite/products/multiscreen_overview.asp
You can also generally use a mixture of AGP and PCI display cards and
that will work OK as well. The cost is less if you have enough spare
slots in your PC.

Another hardware solution that may be suitable is a X server such as
from Jupiter Systems (up to 124! displays):
  http://www.jupiter.com/
which provides a variety of multiple display solutions including both
hardware and software.

Applications:

Most applications do not know they are drawing to more than one
display. The operating system handles this transparently for you. This
works particularly well on the Macintosh, but should work as well on
both Windows and Linux. I suggest trying a display program - even
something as simple as running Real Player (for web content) to see
what it looks like. If that isn't good enough, let me know what you
tried in a clarification and I can suggest some better solutions.

If you still need some ideas try searching with phrases such as:
  multihead
  Xinerama
  multiple display
  mirror
  accelerated display
  display wall
with or without the operating system name.

  --Maniac

---

Request for Answer Clarification by ghengis-ga on 09 Nov 2002 07:47 PST

I am really more interested in how to create content for a multi head
system that will take advantage of the increased screen size.  If for
example power point can be used that would be good information for me.
 I think there is a way to create screen savers using flash.  I am
looking for other ideas like these.
Thanks

---

Clarification of Answer by maniac-ga on 11 Nov 2002 04:29 PST

Hello Ghengis,
Two answer the two points in your clarification request:

#1 How to create content for a multi head system that will take
advantage of the increased screen size?

The answer to this depends upon the kind of effects you are trying to
achieve. Let me point out that the viewer's eye is limited in
resolution. For reference:
  http://www.imx.nl/photosite/technical/highres.html
which mentions 6 line pairs per millimeter resolution at a 25
centimeter distance. When you get to a larger display with a set of
monitors (e.g, 3 x 3) you are nearing eye limiting resolution when you
stand at a distance where you can view all the displays.

You can get by with smaller images, but you may want to be able to
create and manipulate images of that size. Using the 3 x 3 example and
1280 x 1024 resolution for each display, you get 3840 x 3072 for the
overall display. You mention interest in Macromedia Flash - some on
line resources include:

Zoomify:
  http://www.zoomify.com/
to provide high resolution images in flash animations (up to 600
Mpixel).

Quark:
  http://www.quark.com/
to generate large images for use in flash (or other programs)

Learing to Draw in Macromedia Flash MX
  http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/9724
mentions some operating hints (e.g., setting resolution)

With Power Point, you can certainly set up images that will display
well on a large display surface and has the "slide show" mode which is
full screen. It is certainly a good approach to get started or to
prototype the effects before using another method.

As a general guide, images generated with line art or scaleable fonts
will look better on large displays than bit maps or video. If you deal
with video, you will likely get blocky images (pixellation) that may
be unsightly. For a simple example, take a video player and a two
display system and have it display in "full screen mode". This is
likely expensive to fix so you should probably limit the use of
oversized video or bit maps unless there is a specific effect you are
trying to achieve.

#2 I am looking for other ideas like these (screen savers).

Screen savers have been modular for some time, allowing you to use
your own images, animations, or plug in programs. Each one is specific
for your system so I still can't recommend one until I know your
operating system. A site with thousands for Microsoft Windows includes
  http://www.galttech.com/ssheaven.shtml
or Xscreensaver (modular screen saver for Linux)
  http://www.icewalkers.com/softlib/app/app_00736.html
though note that some modules only display properly on the "first"
display.

Some search phrases include
  eye limiting resolution
  macromedia flash high resolution
  screen saver

  --Maniac

Why don't you just buy a Matrox video Card like the Matrox G200
Multi-Monitor (Quad)? It uses the normal AGP port in your machine plus
one or maybe two additional PCI ports that act like "slave" video
cards to the first one. The system lets you connect up to 4 monitors
(either CRT or Digital Flat Panel) to one PC and use them all to
create one giant desktop that spans all of the monitors.

Matrox sells them on their own site for $700, but I'm sure that if you
shopped around (using www.pricewatch.com for example) you could
probably find a better price than that.

You will want to think carefully about how you are going to produce
your artwork for the effect you are looking for though. What are you
going to do, create a video and play the file back across all four
monitors? The video file will need to have a VERY odd aspect ratio.
Perhaps there is a screen saver software you could use to get the
effect you are looking for. There is a product called "Screen Time"
(http://www.screentime.com) that lets you use Macromedia Flash to
create your own screen savers. So, you could theoretically create your
screen saver with whatever artwork/effects that Flash could do, and
then make a screensaver of it using Screen Time. Then you would just
play that screensaver on your computer with the four monitors hooked
up to it. Although you also want to make sure (probably with Matrox
Directly) that your screensaver will play on all four monitors as if
they were one, and not just play the same exact thing on all four
monitors simultaneously, or worse yat, only play the screensaver on
the "main" monitor (the one you assign to be #1 when you install the
video card drivers), and black out the other three monitors.

So, I would call Matrox, and find that out, and tell them what you are
trying to do, and see if they could also recommend any software that
would do what you need it to with their video cards.

Good Luck!

I forgot to give you the URL for Matrox. The G200 Video Card is on this page:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/g200_mms/home.cfm

Matrox's home page is, of course:

http://www.matrox.com

The answers given so far seem to be how to set up a multi-monitor
system. This is next to trivial to answer, as has been shown. I
interpreted your question as wanting some sort of content creation
software for multiple monitor systems. Can you clarify if you want
content creation, hardware setup advice, or both?