garageCube

[CaseyJScalf]

Hello,

I love MM and it's ability to run on Windows. I have been using it lately to drive lots of multi-monitor/projection installations.

Recently I am integrating these tools using an Intel NUC Hades Canyon NVK to drive x6 Epson 2250u Projectors plus a single HDMI monitor for control.

I have one problem in this world and that is getting the machine to boot up with the screens in the same order. Sometimes screens #1 & #6 are switched, sometimes the desktop is in the wrong place. Keep in mind I am not switching the ports between boot cycles. Also worth noting is they only switch places every 1 out of 10 times (approx) even though the boot cycles are identical.

If this is going to live in an unattended roof based enclosure I don't want to have to go up there and manually correct the sequence of screens all the time.

I write to the community and devs at large to see what can be done? I want MM to be the best tool in the world for this even if Windows' screen settings are not MM's purview it needs to be ironed out.

So lets see if there are any queries that would help:

1) Has anyone else encountered this?

2) Does anyone know of any tool or piece of software that will force monitors to be in a certain order, resolution, sequence, etc?

3) Might this not be a problem if I am using a dedicated GPU such as a quadro, 1080, etc?

4) Are there better solutions for multi-monitor/projection setups than a Windows machine? External GPU, Hippo Scalers, etc?

Plenty happy to give a full gear spec so we can all learn how to do this better and be less stressed out

Thank you,

[CaseyJScalf]

Okay as I dig in I started labeling the projectors in the projector tab with the display it is associated with (i.e. "Generic PNP - 5").

Then, in Windows Settings I can see the associated monitor.

Firstly, "Generic PNP - 5" does not match with what Windows shows in settings in monitor #5 is. Kind of confusing.

Next, examining a boot-up cycle where the screens come back incorrectly I see that in Windows Settings the screens are in the same order, each numbered correctly and identified on each monitor (i.e. this numbering did not change). But (BUT!) in MM under the projector tab the screens are now associated with different monitors.

For example I labeled Projector #1 in MM as "Projector-1 PNP5" that way I knew it was the first projector and was associated with PNP-5. When I examine after incorrectly loading I find somehow the projector instance "Projector-1 PNP5" is now pointed at Generic PNP-7.

I feel this is a bug in MM and I am worried it may be a while before a fix comes out and thus puts this install on the fritz for sometime.

Can anyone provide any clarity here?

Plenty happy to provide any system info to better diagnose.

Thank you

[mad-matt]

We'll do some testing. You can already generate a log file to understand what changes at system level.
Please do the following:
- In MadMapper, Ctrl+Click on Tools menu and choose "Enable Log..." and restart
- At startup MadMapper will log screen setup, so take the log file located in C:\Users\your_login\AppData\Roaming\Garagecube\MadMapper\Logs\
- Reboot your machine until you can reproduce the issue (screen attachments are not matching), take the last log file in the same location
Now you have two log files where, where screeens are not attached to the same projector in MadMapper. From those log file I can understand why. But I suppose the screens coordinates are changed in Windows settings.
Please send the file, we'll check that.

[CaseyJScalf]

Hello,

Thank you for taking a look at this I want to get it dialed too!

Just a heads up to those who might be in the same boat until this is dialed in:

1) Using a Matrox Triple Head 2 Go DP Edition (x2 of them) enabled me to get the desired amount of projectors (x6) setup and also booted up in the same order everytime. I had to downsize the resolution from the native 1920 x 1200 to 1280 x 1024 so that I could squeeze them all into the Matrox THG. Since I am not using a full blown GPU I was not able to go the full 5760 x 1080 as the Matrox THG is rated for but it works!

2) Sequential bootup. We have found success in booting up the projectors a minute apart from each other. This seems to help slow down the process. Still not 100% dialed since if one projector is hard turned off (simulating a power problem) it will now be the problem projector and will be swapped with another one upon powering back up.

Okay, logs. I am going to rearrange some cables back to their problem state and see what we can send over.

Thank you very much for your help MM team we appreciate your support!

[mad-matt]

MadMapper 4.0 will identify projectors / monitors with their serial number (received from the EDID data) when possible. So that should solve those issues. On macOS we use a path which corresponds to a physical output on the machine (ie GPU AMD... / output 3 - IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/PEG0@1/IOPP/GFX0@0/ATY,Palena@0/Colour LCD).
Not that MadMapper handles properly that monitor setup changes after having loaded your project. So if you saved your project with a screen setup, then reloading your project before the projectors are up, MadMapper will restore the associations when they come up.