I'm running 3x monitors with Houdini and and a Nvidia GTX 670 on windows 7 with this machine.

What I want is to set the entire desktop across all 3 monitors with a resolution of 5760 x 1200, (not 3 separate joined desktops) then run Houdini with the main Houdini window opening in the center of the desktop.(or wherever I decide)

The “save current desktop” option only seems to work and remember the panes that I have separated from the main window yet the main application window itself always opens on the left side of the desktop.

I'm not sure if this is a windows thing or can be set in Houdini.

Does anyone know of a way to set the position of the main application window upon opening?

Thank you

I had similar issues with dual monitors and had to write a 456.py file to do what I needed. I think it all depends on which monitor is set as the main display.

To my knowledge there is no way to have a spanning desktop in Windows 7 though. I would liked that a lot.

On the Nvidia control panel to setup your desktop with 2 or more monitors there is two ways to I have found to setup a desktop.

The standard way where you can configure each monitor separately (even with different resolutions) and then as you mentioned select a primary monitor, Houdini will always start on the primary monitor then.

My preferred choice for a desktop is to use the "span display with surround“ which will take all the monitors connected and convert them into one ”true" BIG desktop 5760x1200…maybe this is what you would like and it works great in windows 7.

Houdini's main app window in this mode defaults to 0,0 (top left) of this desktop when first opened for me and was hoping to be able to change that as the location when closed is not remembered, I'm thinking its probably hard coded, the detached panes work perfectly and always remember the correct location to open.

This surround mode is also really great for Bad Company 2 type games spanning 3 monitors when I'm not working (cough).

Cheers

Try launching houdini with:

houdini -geometry=1920x1200+1920+0

Problem solved

Works like a charm!

Thank you very much Twod.

You're welcome. The numbers mean: WIDTHxHEIGHT+XPOSITION+YPOSITION. The +'s can also be -'s, if the positions are negative ( rare, but useful with certain esoteric monitor setups).

I don't seem to have that option on GTX 580. Is it strictly for 670? I remember searching for this online a year ago but people were saying it's not possible. So not sure if it's changed.

Here it shows that option under SLI, but I only have 1 card:
http://www.pcper.com/images/reviews/946/setup1.jpg [pcper.com]

The image you linked is for a 480 not a 580?

Also I found this on the Nvidia website:

1 - NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround require two or more graphics cards in NVIDIA SLI configuration, 3D Vision glasses and three matching 3D Vision-Ready displays. See www.nvidia.co.uk/surround for more information.

They have this note on every tech spec of graphics card they are advertising including the GTX TITAN, its very possible whoever wrote the website made a mistake would be my bet.

The system I am using is a single card GTX670 with all three monitors plugged into the same card, one of them must be connected via an active display port adapter to make things work but that is only if you want 3 or more monitors, GTX670 is capable of 4

To create surround desktop simply tick the span displays with surround and then click the configure button the rest is self explanatory.

As you can see the final result is one large resolution desktop.

Sorry that image I posted, I just found online to show the GUI. Mine looks like this, so I don't have the SLI options:



I am not very hardware-savvy, but I think 670 is a dual GPU card, so you can still use SLI like features. Mine is just a simple GTX 580

Looks like the GTX580 is one of the cards that the Nividia message relates too about requiring SLI.

I just checked out a guy playing BF3 surround on a GTX580 and his spec shows he has 2 cards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTEpPXJRDW8 [youtube.com]

The 600 series was the first Nvidia single-GPU hardware that could support more than 2 monitors.

Thank you both. I should have waited a bit longer and get 600 Just wanted to try this spanning feature.

Although my current setup is perfect, as I use the network editor/parameters on my main monitor, and a full screen viewport on my second monitor.