Punning PixInsight on Multiple Monitors

[Niall Saunders]

For those of you fortunate enough to have, for example, two monitors connected to your PC, how do you actually 'run' PI in this multiple-monitor environment?

Is it possible, for example, to have each monitor displaying a separate workspace?

If not, then is it possible to have the 'dividing line' set such that all the iconised processes and images can be stored on the 'other side' of the dividing line - effectively on the screen 'real-estate' of the second monitor.

Is it possible to have all the 'menu structure', processes, real-time previews, etc., on one monitor, whilst the image being processed sits, in all its glory, on its own screen?

Juan, it seems to me (initially, anyway) that the workspaces cannot be 'un-docked' to their 'own windows', which means that they cannot therefore be 'floated' out of the parent PI window, and cannot therefore be 'floated' over to a second monitor. Am I correct?

Why all the questions? Wll, I may well be heading for a second large-screen monitor to compliment the 28" Hanns.G that I am already using. I have now got used to using dual-monitor systems here at work, and out in the observatory (both as a result of adding a second - very cheap - monitor to the -very cheap - HP docking stations that are now so readily available). So, I just feel that I can now justify the outlay to upgrade the home Desktop somewhat - the current intention being to increase the 4Gb RAM to 8Gb, and to add a second 28" monitor.

Am I the only fool trying this 

Cheers,

[Carlos Milovic]

Hi Niall

One way to "easily" have a dual monitor setup is using a laptop

You cannot show different workspaces at the same time, however, you may extend the workspace to both monitors, and combined with the full screen mode, make use of the whole area of both monitors.
There is one problem with the line, wich is that maximized windows will be placed at the left of the line only... so, if you setup your workspace in a way that the right monitor is the calibrated one, for display, you have to avoid maximizing things. Not a big issue, but to be considered.
Other than that, this is my favorite configuration. The right monitor is much more clear. I just leave all the explorer windows, processes, most bars, etc., at the left.

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Carlos,

Thanks for replying.

In fact, since I posted the start of this thread, I have been Googling may way around the 'net, and have come across a discussion page that seemed to be dedicated to the use of 'multiple monitors', with a 'three-monitor' setup becoming one of the most common.

I may now revise my approach, and look for two smaller monitors that will give me 1200 x 1024 resolution, but - because I will then use them in 'portrait' mode, I will actually have 1024 (w) x 1200 (h) - the advantage being that the 1200(h) will match the vertical resolution of the centre screen, and thy physical 'width' of the two new monitors will also (hopefully) be a (close) match to the current physical height of my 28". The cost of this option, due to the cheaper price of 'smaller' monitors, can actually compare favourably with the 'dual-screen' choice (although I may need to add a second, identical, graphics card to my system - not a problem as I did NOT go for a 'gamer-spec' video card first time round).

I still wonder whether PI might need some sort of 'screen layout mode' that will allow a 'workspace' to be 'un-docked', and thus be capable of being 'floated' over to the main (central, and ultra-high-quality, colour calibrated) screen, leaving the original PI 'main window' sitting happily on one of the side screens, with the second auxilliary screen showing a direct 'hotline' Skype connection to someone as skilled as yourself - so that I can actually figure out what I am SUPPOSED to be doing in PI !!!

Food for thought ......

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Niall,

PixInsight should work without problems with multiple monitor configurations on all supported platforms.

To work under optimal conditions, the following conditions must be met:

- Multiple monitors are assembled as a single virtual desktop. Multiple desktops are simply ignored by PixInsight.

- Multiple monitors are assembled as a single row. PixInsight's workspace cannot be spreaded vertically.

- The primary monitor is the leftmost one. Note that this has implications to both workspace geometry (e.g., a maximized image window will always be anchored at the upper left corner of the workspace) and color management (the primary monitor dictates the ICC profile used for all onscreen image renditions).

- All monitors have the same vertical resolution. If this condition is not met, parts of PixInsight's workspace will be inaccessible.

- On Linux/X11, Xinerama extensions must be installed and properly configured on the X server. In practice, this is no problem at all with all modern Linux distributions.

On multiple monitor configurations, PixInsight's maximization limit (the blue vertical line) is automatically located at the right edge of the primary monitor. In this way you can maximize image windows and they never cross monitor boundaries.

The preferred configuration is to set the main window in "Full Desktop" mode. In full desktop mode, PixInsight's main window is resized to cover the entire virtual desktop, but it isn't maximized so it can be resized. This allows you to uncover a region of your desktop. You can disable the "Maximize at startup" option in Preferences, and in this way PixInsight will remember your last configuration. You can select also the full screen mode. Unlike most applications, PixInsight's full screen mode covers the entire virtual desktop.

With two or more monitors, I personally prefer to "float" all explorer windows (console, process explorer, etc) as top-level windows, and move all of them to the secondary (rightmost) monitor. The secondary monitor should also be used to store all process icons, and to keep all process windows outside the image area. This requires extending the main window to occupy a part of the secondary monitor.

Finally, PixInsight's workspaces cannot be detached from the main window. They are organized as a stack, all of them occupying their parent window completely. This may change in a future version, although I have no current plans to implement a splittable main window, a multiple main window scheme, or detachable workspaces. This is more likely a PI 2.0 feature... (Oh my! I said that number! )

My recommendation is to stick to a dual monitor setup. Unless you have some really complex tasks to carry out (are you a broker? ), three monitors are probably too much, and having to cross two monitor boundaries is something to avoid if possible. Given that you already have a good primary monitor, you can buy a second one with the same resolution but cheaper. Or, if you can/want afford it, two identical monitors are always preferable. This is just my opinion, of course.

[Cheyenne]

I have a dual monitor setup, however they are not the same size/resolution, so what usually ends up happening is that my bigger monitor has PI running in it and the other one has a web browser pointing to either the PI forums or one of the tutorial videos

What would be nice (my wish list item) - allow the dialog boxes for process modules and the process console to be "detached" from the main frame of PI.  That way I could move them to the other monitor.  I don't mind having to keep all the images, icons, workspaces, etc on one screen.  But to be able to move the dialog box itself off the main screen would be nice. 

[William McLaughlin]

I would hope for better multiple monitor abilities in 2.0 as well. Because of the geometry of my office space I have three 1920 x 1200 LCDs mounted two on the desk Right/Left and one above on the wall Right. It is very convenient when doing things like webpages where you have a couple browsers, a text editor, Photoshop, and several file windows all open. Pixinsight is much more limited than most other programs in where you can place individual dialogs and image windows. For example, it would be great to be able to put a large real-time preview image on one monitor, the main source image/preview mode on another, and process dialogs on yet another. In other words, the same freedom you now have with explorer windows. Being able to use a LARGE preview window and LARGE (for example) Histogram dialog would be very helpful in obtaining the precision one wishes more quickly.

Take Care

[Niall Saunders]

Hi,

According to feedback from Juan, PixInsight will soon be able to run in 'multi-instance' mode, with the ability for each instance to access all the data in the other instance.

Perhaps this may help in the multi-monitor environment? We'll have to wait and see (I tried it in the current setup, but didn't like the behaviour, so abandoned things and have currently returned to single-monitor use).

I am still just using one 28" monitor at 1900x1200 - and will ahve to decide on my best upgrade path once 'multi-monitor' PI becomes available.

Cheers,

[Juan Conejero]

Hello there,

Yes, I agree that the current support for multiple monitors is far from optimal in PixInsight 1.5. This is especially true on Mac OS X, where multiple monitors are almost unusable due to a poor adaptation of PI's desktop to Mac OS X peculiarities.

I must work hard to improve multiple monitor support. Specifically, the following items require a full redesign/reimplementation:

- The fact that PI's workspaces are tied to the top left corner of the virtual desktop. A future version will allow you to configure the workspaces to be left- or right-attached.

- The fact that process interfaces cannot be detached from PI's workspace, as top-level windows. This feature will be implemented in a future version, probably 1.6 or 1.7.

- The fact that process icons and image windows must share the same workspaces necessarily. As I said in a previous message, a future version will provide multiple main windows. In this way you'll have several main windows (user-definable, just as workspaces are now), each with an independent set of child workspaces. Then we'll be able to move workspaces between main windows, and other niceties. This is perfectly doable; it's just a matter of restructuring the interface. PI's object orientation makes these changes relatively easy.

A lot of work, but these are some guidelines of future PI development.

According to feedback from Juan, PixInsight will soon be able to run in 'multi-instance' mode, with the ability ofr each instance to access all the data in the other instance.

I confirm this. This feature is intended for version 1.6 or 1.7.

[RobF2]

That'll be nice   8)

I've gone back to multiple monitors of late, and was surprised how clunky PI was across them.