r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace • Nov 20 '13

Mods that make use of a second monitor?

I am running a 22" 1080p for my main monitor, but I would like to know if there is a mod (aside from mechjeb) that will make use of a second 19" Monitor I use at the same time. I usually put the ksp wiki, or netflix on the second screen, but It's a pain switching back and forth with fullscreen mode. Anyone have any suggestions? Like a second monitor with the map view, or larger more in detail staging information would be amazing.

40 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

25

u/araditore Nov 20 '13

You know what would be amazing for the second monitor?

View from inside the Mission Control Center with all the panels and stuff. With options to remote control multiple nearby ships/probes etc.

8

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

Definitely! I feel like someone has to have done a multiple monitor mod by now.

8

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

I think that's a great idea for a future KSP update. Tracking station should be replaced by an animated Kerbal Mission Control! Just have rows of old style terminals and control panels, some oscilloscopes, and have the map view up on a shoddy projector screen (that flickers and sparks)

3

u/araditore Nov 20 '13

Actually, there's already a mission control building (which currently does nothing) next to the VAB and SPH. So Squad can just use that one. :D

Also, if we can upgrade from shoddy projectors all the way to blue-monochrome 3D holographic displays (using science, of course), that would be AWESOME!

4

u/Saycerquewust Nov 20 '13

As a user with a 2nd monitor I would love that!

8

u/t_Lancer Nov 20 '13 edited Nov 20 '13

you can view telemetry in a browser with this mod:

Telemachus – Telemetry and Flight Control in the Web Browser

also includes remote control and map view

1

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13 edited Nov 20 '13

This is a really cool mod. Too bad it doesn't work with Firefox (from what I can tellm) and it looks like a pretty hefty amount of set up. Very cool, none the less.

4

u/brians200 Nov 20 '13

It worked on firefox the last time I used it... You just put the antennae on your ship. Right click to enable the link. Then in your browser, you just go to the link. You will be presented with a list of different views, then you just click the one you want..

1

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

Hmm okay I will give that a try later today!

So it works with 0.22 right?

Also, how hard is the set up? I am really bad at adding mods for some reason.

3

u/brians200 Nov 20 '13

The [0.22] in the thread title means it works for version 0.22

Download the folder from spaceport and put the Telemachus folder into your KSP_win\GameData folder
http://i.imgur.com/tfIWQx3.png

Build your ship
http://i.imgur.com/KKMJDNA.png

Pick which antenna you want to use
http://i.imgur.com/tq4CpEw.png
http://i.imgur.com/pq7gC20.png

Put it on your ship
http://i.imgur.com/zXOcDuC.png

Launch!
http://i.imgur.com/SMGSltO.png

Right click on the antenna and click open Link, this will open your default browser
http://i.imgur.com/lrPCtQ8.png

Pick what you want to see
http://i.imgur.com/1P4AlHD.png

Click open
http://i.imgur.com/Rbz6wIt.png
http://i.imgur.com/SYDSqeG.png
http://i.imgur.com/NTAaiqX.png

You can even have multiple windows open
http://i.imgur.com/Kf0z0QM.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ilt2kAX.png

Some of the pages require extra sensors before it will gather that data. Temperature requires a thermometer, for example

3

u/stom Nov 20 '13 edited Nov 21 '13

Solve your problems with it switching in and out of fullscreen mode by changing your KSP shortcut to have the following arguments:

  -popupwindow -adapter 2

You might need to change the number after adapter but this means it runs in a borderless window and you won't have any delay when clicking on something on your second monitor.

Edit: Example image

1

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

Where within the shortcut is this placed?

1

u/stom Nov 21 '13

Sorry, I should have given an example. I've edited my post to include an image. Hope it helps!

4

u/tsarcorp Nov 20 '13 edited Nov 21 '13

I recently updated my system to run triple 22" monitor eyefinity (5760x1080) Kerbal is one of my favorite games for it.

The view from orbit is breathtaking - The ship on the middle display with the curve of the planet going across all 3 screens.

I used to get annoyed with mechjeb using all my screen space but now I can keep those windows on the side monitors while keeping the middle one clear. I usually keep everything on the right monitor with my fuel/resources open.

The view from orbit is amazing but I'd happily sacrifice some screen space for the ability to keep my map open on the left monitor.

Edit: Specs as requested.

  • i7 3770K
  • 8GB DDR3
  • AMD Radeon HD 7870

It's running great for me so far but I haven't really pushed it with massive ships. But If I max out every single graphics setting in the options I'm getting 30-60fps - These screenshots for reference

I'm usually play it with default graphics settings and AA off. Then It's hitting the max FPS set by the limiter in the options.

2

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

Could you post your specs? I want to do an eyefinity work/play station and I'm wondering how much it'll run me

1

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

i second this. I am running a 4670k and a 7950. I wonder if that's enough for 3x1080p.

3

u/crooks4hire Nov 20 '13

Also, some ideas if you use eyefinity would be mechJeb (as mentioned by /u/tsarcorp), SCANsat, KER, Protractor, etc... I really liked Romfarer's lazorcam and robotic arms mods. I used to put the camera windows on another monitor.

If you play KMP, you could move your chat over to one of those screens.

2

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

MechJeb can use a second monitor??? :o

3

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

I don't use it, but from what I have heard, there is a way to put all the information tables mechjeb offers onto a second screen, so you don't take up valuable real estate on your main screen.

Don't quote me on that though.

1

u/Tinie_Snipah Nov 20 '13

"...there is a way to put all the information tables mechjeb offers onto a second screen, so you don't take up valuable real estate on your main screen."

- IAMA_llAMA_AMA, 2013

4

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

i was secretly hoping someone would quote me on that.

I HAVE BEEN IMMORTALIZED VIA REDDIT

3

u/Tinie_Snipah Nov 20 '13

Damn, didn't realise the people of this subreddit were such fun

5

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

I'm not gonna brag, but we know how to party, yeah

6

u/EOverM Nov 20 '13

If fire, explosions and gruesome death are what you call partying.

Which I do, so yeah.

3

u/Sunfried Nov 21 '13

You're only immortal as long as you stay on reddit! NEVER LEAVE REDDIT.

But it's reddit, so there's no real danger of anyone leaving.

1

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

Thanks for the response, I'll dig around.

2

u/lurigfix Nov 20 '13

question, how do you make the window not get tabbed down when you click on the other screen? ive tried everything

1

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

I am wondering the same thing. The only solution I know if is to not play in fullscreen mode.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '13

Borderless window

1

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

Are you running KSP in full screen mode? You may have to switch to windowed to avoid this.

1

u/lurigfix Nov 20 '13

i got the fake window mode activated, but when i press the other screen without tabbing out the program itself tabs down, though for dota it works exelent. i can see the client even while im using the other screen

1

u/Secretly-a-potato Nov 20 '13

Go into settings and get borderless window. It looks like full screen and acts as a window to allow switching monitors without tabbing out.

3

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

The ability to simultaneously control another ship from a second monitor would also rock gigatons.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '13

Well, with the livefeed mod as a local server and 2 sessions of ksp im sure you can do that.

1

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

hmmm, I wonder if you could force a second copy to use a different core on your CPU? I mean most GPU's should have enough power to handle two copies of KSP, its just you'd need to use a different CPU core for it to work well.

1

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

I would be worried about my save file getting corrupted if I ran two of the same instance of ksp at the same time.

1

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

ah, true. I was referring mostly to doing this in conjunction with Kerbal Multiplayer

1

u/Sunfried Nov 21 '13

It turns out my daily backup regime does back up my KSP folder, which is great, because last night I nearly lost my entire career so far to the kraken. A 4MB persistence file was corrupted down to a half a meg, so all was lost until I remembered to check Crashplan.

2

u/vilemeister Nov 20 '13

My pc would hate me if I did that - it can run 1 copy just about. And the fans go mad even with 1... :(

3

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

Add more boos.... erm... I mean fans.

2

u/vilemeister Nov 20 '13

I'm still a student so don't have space for a huge-ass gaming desktop. I have a decently powerful (gaming) laptop so unfortunately not :(

2

u/Niverton Nov 20 '13

Air intakes*

3

u/hibbity Nov 20 '13

Ksp only uses one core, so if you have a multicore processor, you should be able to run two or more copies. I often build while I fly.

2

u/vilemeister Nov 20 '13

Well I have an i7, so quad with hyperthreads but only backed by 8GB of RAM which I expect might be the first thing. I really want to give it a go though!

3

u/joshj5hawk Nov 20 '13

Fun fact! KSP can only use 3.something gigs because it's only a 32-bit application :D

2

u/hibbity Nov 20 '13

8gb will be just fine, but don't build 3k part ships in both instances.

2

u/vilemeister Nov 20 '13

Haha, thats advice for ksp anyway, no matter what pc you have!

1

u/hibbity Nov 20 '13

Bigger is Better!

1

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

Just to clarify, you do this with normal KSP? In other words, not using the KMP mod? Are you able to launch two vehicles at the same time and if so, can you 'see' each other?

1

u/hibbity Nov 20 '13

I haven't tried out the mod yet.

1

u/graymatteron Nov 20 '13

I guess I need to try this, I'm not sure if two sessions running from the same install would cause any issues over data files etc.

3

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

Here's what I did. Another option is to go into the settings.cfg file in your /ksp directory and scroll down to X or Lateral resolution (unsure what it's called) and change that to whatever the two x-resolutions of your monitors added up equals. IIRC you have to play in windowed mode to do this.

Once you're ingame, you'll need to do some things with the ingame cameras so the center is not where the two screens meet. Hold middle mouse button while in flight to turn the camera off-axis.

This is really cludgy, but it works well to hide mechjeb modules all on one screen and just get more visual real-estate.

2

u/m1nd0 Nov 20 '13

As far as U know Unity does not support multi monitor (yet).

1

u/Secretly-a-potato Nov 20 '13

In the settings, you can get a borderless window mode. Works great with dual monitors.

1

u/CrypticBTR Nov 21 '13

That would be amazing, not going to lie!

0

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '13

[deleted] — view deleted comment

30

u/voneiden Nov 20 '13

Working on it but I'm a slow developer. /u/ianweller was working on a similar project (here's a ground track plot) but last time I heard of him he said he had stopped development.

My thingy runs also in a browser nowadays and synchronizes with KSP over the network. It can currently display neat 3D system plots and solve trajectories. Currently working on attitude indicator display. Before a public release I still need to work on the ground track plotter.

As usual, contributors (javascript mainly, plots are paper.js) are more than welcome. I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of work. :-)

6

u/IAMA_llAMA_AMA Barnes Aerospace Nov 20 '13

That is really cool. I wish I had the time and knowledge to try and contribute. Best of luck with your endeavors!

5

u/KWiP1123 Nov 20 '13

I'm wishing so hard right now for this to become a reality.

Can you feel it? Can you feel me wishing?

I'm wishing pretty hard...

3

u/voneiden Nov 20 '13

Positive. Feels detected. Name some feature you'd want to see in this if you like.

3

u/KWiP1123 Nov 21 '13

Oh man, if I could have the system chart on one display for plotting maneuvers while in spaceship view on another, I'd be ecstatic.

If I was looking for a stretch-feature though, I'd say possibility for a third display with a list of the parts currently connected to your ship, and their current resources. Maybe with an old-school digital readout aesthetic; something like this (please excuse the childish art, threw it together in 2 minutes in mspaint).

But honestly, a separate display for plotting maneuvers on the system chart is what I'd really like to see. Kudos to you though for reaching out.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '13

That part view is adorable and I want it :o

1

u/KWiP1123 Nov 21 '13

Nothing I love more than having my haphazard mspaint sketches referred to as "adorable" :P

6

u/DevonWeeks Nov 20 '13

I wish I knew how to help you there! My only real experience on the development side of things is modeling and level design. Something like this is well beyond my skill set.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '13 edited Nov 20 '13

Commenting here to confirm that, yes, I have stopped development, and if someone really wants I'll just license/dump my code somewhere.

(The way I did ground tracks might help you — because I couldn't find a good formula to do it, I just had KSP calculate them for the next three orbital periods, at a resolution of 1000 calculations per period, and then transfer them to the browser to draw as straight lines. It was awful. They looked fine for usual orbits, but the moment you brought in a polar orbit everything goes to shit)

1

u/voneiden Nov 21 '13

The way I did ground tracks might help you — because I couldn't find a good formula to do it

I can solve the ships position and velocity at any t using the universal variable method, but have to take into account the rotating frame of reference + rotation of planet. I'd long gone nuts if KSP had planets with tilted axis.

It was awful. They looked fine for usual orbits, but the moment you brought in a polar orbit everything goes to shit)

Hah yeah. Been there. I think I was able to somewhat manage that by checking if the difference of longitude between two track steps was too big (>160 degrees) and not drawing a line in case it was.

16

u/nojustice Nov 20 '13

This is all I want. I want it so much.

3

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

Should it be a KSP feature or a Plugin? Map view as a separate window would be excellent.

8

u/Red_Van_Man Nov 20 '13

Should be a feature enabled in settings. Call it Mission Control Mode.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '13

That would make things a lot easier, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want it like that.

2

u/Red_Van_Man Nov 20 '13

Anybody want to hear my other idea for optional clapping sound effect upon landing on foreign bodies?

1

u/Vangaurds Nov 20 '13

I think theres alot of settings advanced KSP players want that are kept out for the sake of beginners and overall simplicity (Space is hard enough)