Split monitor into unequal parts?

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Samuel Neff

2 discussion posts

I love the new monitor splitting feature in DF 5.1 but is there any way to control the allocation of the monitor? I see I can split it into 1/2/3/etc equal parts, but I'd really like to split it unequally, like take my 1920x1200 monitor and make it into a 1600x1200 monitor and a 320x1200 monitor so I basically have a tiny utility monitor on the far right.

Thanks!

Sam

Sep 4, 2013 • #1

At the moment it's only possible to do symmetrical splits. We're hoping to add the ability for asymmetrical splits in a future version though, so we'll be sure to post an update if/when we're able to.

Thanks!

Sep 5, 2013 • #2

Samuel Neff

2 discussion posts

Thanks

Sep 5, 2013 • #3

John Morey

3 discussion posts

Samuel, I am also looking forward to being able to do an asymmetrical split as I do the exact same thing as you splitting a 1920x1200 monitor into 1600x1200 and 320x1200. Right now I work around the problem with AutoHotkey and scripts that automatically size and position the windows for me as if the two different screens exist.

Sep 6, 2013 • #4

@John: I've added your vote to the feature request

Sep 6, 2013 • #5

ronzie009

41 discussion posts

Add my vote, as well. I am currently using the 7 Sidebar gadget to make an area on the edge of my monitor for various gadgets, like clocks, temperature readouts, etc. I would like the ability to have such a dedicated area for non-gadget apps, since Microsoft has discontinued support for gadgets.

Sep 6, 2013 • #6

Roscoe Rush

2 discussion posts

Add my vote as well. Thanks.

Sep 10, 2013 • #7

Shawn Barnhart

20 discussion posts

Another vote for asymmetrical splits!

Sep 10, 2013 • #8

Votes added, thanks!

Sep 13, 2013 • #9

Jcee

205 discussion posts

ive already posted on the subject, but ill throw my vote here for collaborations sake

Sep 13, 2013 • #10

Moridin

4 discussion posts

Another vote for this feature, please add it!

Oct 28, 2013 • #11

Votes added!

Oct 29, 2013 • #12

Diego Pacheco

1 discussion post

Hi.
I have a big monitor and really need to split it asymmetrically.
Please add my vote.

Jan 14, 2014 • #13

Done!

Jan 14, 2014 • #14

Nillaz

15 discussion posts

I was thinking about this yesterday and how beneficial it could be to some of us. Please add my name to the vote!

Jan 14, 2014 • #15

Vote added! I'm going to stop replying every time someone adds a +1, but rest assured that your vote will get added to the feature request list

Thanks all!

Jan 14, 2014 • #16

Shawn Barnhart

20 discussion posts

Is this feature actually planned for inclusion at this point, or are we still just voting for it?

Jan 14, 2014 • #17

Sarris

121 discussion posts

Quote:

@ronzie009 and anyone else interested.

I personally use Windoze 7 x64, but ran across this: Gadgets for Windoze 8 are available here: http://8gadgetpack.net/

Jan 14, 2014 (modified Jan 14, 2014) • #18

@Shawn: This feature has a number of votes, so will likely make it in at some point. Unfortunately I can't offer an ETA on when that might be though. We continue to track votes on feature request, right up until it's implemented, so that we know who to follow-up with when it's available

Jan 14, 2014 • #19

seth18

1 discussion post

I would like to add my vote for this feature too. I don't know if it is possible but I also want to be able to split the monitor like this:

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sorry for bad ascii

Mar 10, 2014 (modified Mar 10, 2014) • #20

@seth18: The ASCII does the trick

I've added your vote.

Thanks!

Mar 11, 2014 • #21

Jake Lauer

2 discussion posts

More votes! This would be a fantastic feature.

Apr 10, 2014 • #22

Jcee

205 discussion posts

From a user perspective, it seems pretty complicated to make this into a proper gui, especially when factoring in seths example, I'm thinking the best solution would be a text box, and pseudo-language that display fusion interprets. (note: Im not affiliated with the display fusion team, so dont think this is how its going to be, unless stated by someone who is)

Heres a potential implementation:

Seths example; assuming a 1920x1080 resolution:

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//This is a comment, as Im sure most coders are aware. It is not parsed. Pre-set variables would be M1, M2, M3, ect corresponding to the physical monitor number displayed on the screen.
split1 = V(M1,1200)
//Split1 is defined as a vertical split from  the variable M1(monitor 1) 1200 pixels over (from the top left corner of the physical monitor), all variables should be defined from physical monitor dimensions, rather than virtual ones, to simplify things
split2= H(M1,540)
//Note, that split 2 is stopped when it hits split 1, which was defined before/above it

And a second example of a screen divided into 4 equal parts

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split1 = V(M1,960)
split2= H(M1,540)
split3= H(Split1,540)
//Note how in this example split1 is defined instead of M1, this means that split3 will start at split1, and go horizontally until it hits another split, or in this case the edge of the physical screen

Apr 11, 2014 (modified Apr 11, 2014) • #23

Shawn Barnhart

20 discussion posts

Quote:

I can't help but disagree with this. How hard is to draw a rectangle on the screen or move a horizontal or vertical bar to define the regions? That's dead easy to do versus your coding example. I doubt I'd bother using such a feature very much if it meant having to do some kind of clumsy pseudocoding to accomplish it.

Apr 11, 2014 • #24

Jcee

205 discussion posts

drawing rectangles would mean the code would have to be capable of making a non-retangular screen out of the remaining space..

right click a location on the display, which opens a context menu with the 3 options:
Create Vertical line - creates a vertical line, relative to the x position of the mouse when the right-click is made
Create Horizontal line - same as above except horizontal, and y...
Remove all splits from this monitor

and left click-hold to drag the divider along its axis
However this would likely be harder to develop than my example.., and would take a minor precision hit..

It may be that i'm a programmer, and coding comes natural to me... from an outside perspective is the example i gave really that complicated? Im not saying the language should be described in some hidden text file in the display fusion root folder, but rather in the text field itself, as an example, with comments.

Expanding on my suggestion would include 3 gui elements
Enable/disable checkbox,
reset text button (which would paste in my second example + a few lines of comments explaining what can be substituted where, and that 0,0 is just before the top/left most pixel)
and a multi-line text box, for the user to type..

But looking at the way display fusion has been developed in the past, I would put my money on a GUI option, like the one I described in this post.

semi-Unrelated idea: what if there was an alt/tab alternative that allowed the user to zoom in on a specific virtual screen
IE user holds a hotkey, and lines pop up indicating the boarders for your virtual screens, then you click within one of the squares and that screen is stretched/resized to fill your entire physical display
If the user just presses the key it toggles between show last virtual screen, and show all virtual screens

Apr 11, 2014 • #25

Shawn Barnhart

20 discussion posts

Quote:

I wasn't really thinking of the notion of drawing a freehand rectangular region and leaving a non-rectangular region, just the idea of using common GUI methods for defining a rectangular area. Pulling horizontal or vertical lines, similar to the way most drawing programs allow you to put guide lines in a drawing makes more sense. If you drew a rectangle you'd obviously have to anchor it so you didn't end up with non-rectangular regions (we can already do non-rectangular windows by putting windows on top of each other).

It's not that coding the display regions text-style would be too complicated to understand, but it's that drawing a line to define the regions is just so much easier. For pixel-level accuracy, DisplayFusion could have a dialog box with the numerical coordinate(s) so you could tweak the pixel location exactly. Although I think for most users on large displays (eg, I'm using two 1680x1050, and that's small these days) "close enough" is probably good enough unless you really wanted a precise dimension for some reason or other.

Quote:

semi-Unrelated idea: what if there was an alt/tab alternative that allowed the user to zoom in on a specific virtual screen
IE user holds a hotkey, and lines pop up indicating the boarders for your virtual screens, then you click within one of the squares and that screen is stretched/resized to fill your entire physical display
If the user just presses the key it toggles between show last virtual screen, and show all virtual screens

It's not related to this, but I would love to be able to scale window regions. There's a little-known feature of RDP that allows you to scale RDP windows, enabling you to have a larger RDP window scaled down to fit a smaller region (eg, fit 1680x1050 in 1024x76

. It'd be great to be able to define the resolution of a region so that you could make better use of a window region (since some application windows are less useful below a certain pixel dimensions, but would still be useful scaled down smaller without the window's actual pixel dimensions changing.

I sometimes wonder why (or if) display adapter vendors have ever implemented monitor region splitting as a hardware-type feature, where you could define "virtual monitors" that got output to a single monitor. To windows, it would think that you had N displays and treat each one as if it was a separate display

Apr 12, 2014 (modified Apr 12, 2014) • #26

I've been looking for a good solution, and have had erratic results with Displayfusion and the drag to pane working, as well as the inability to customize. I'd really love to see this improve, as it's the only remaining functionality DisplayFusion doesn't offer for me.

May 5, 2014 • #27

Tired85

1 discussion post

I'd like to see it too. When running 3 monitors that are 24" widescreens at 1920x1080, but setup to use nvidia surround, the dimensions of the horizontal split are off when specifically using bezel correction. What happens is that my applications latch behind the bezel by 32-36px. This prevents me from using a lot of options that my browsers has (maxathon, chrome, and firefox). I end up having to manually stretch each window that is open and then keep stretching again when moving to a new window. This is frustrating to no ends.

Anyways, my vote is yes, allow the splits to be customized, even if it's just a basic "drag horizontal over" or "drag vertical split over" to correct any adjustment issues.

All of this was with Auto-split eyefinity and nvidia surround option checked, but it doesn't seem to even work... so... meh

May 22, 2014 • #28

Moridin

4 discussion posts

No support for this in 6.0?

Jun 19, 2014 • #29

Unfortunately not. It will be a huge change, and we couldn't fit it into the 6.0 schedule. It's still planned though, and we'll be sure to post an update as soon as we're able to implement it.

Thanks!

Jun 19, 2014 • #30

Shawn Barnhart

20 discussion posts

Quote:

Any background on why asymmetrical regions are such a big change? Naively, I would assume that maybe they wouldn't be that big of a change in when you already have symmetrical regions implemented.

Any info on what the implementation will look like/work?

Jun 19, 2014 • #31

Intuitive UI design is part of the hold-up, but also just making sure that it works for every possible scenario that could come up in usage. It will require a ton of coding and testing internally before we can even put it out as a public beta, as we need to make sure that it doesn't break any current configurations and whatnot

Again, it is still planned, and we'll definitely let you know when we're able to include it in a public beta.

Thanks!

Jun 20, 2014 • #32

Shawn Barnhart

20 discussion posts

Glad to see its being looked at. I think as 4K displays become cheaper and more popular and people are inclined to move from maybe a dual setup to a single, hi-res display splitting a display into multiple virtual monitors will become a much more in-demand feature.

Jun 20, 2014 • #33

Yeah, definitely! Being able to have a couple of smaller splits on the sides, and then a large one in the middle would be excellent on a 4K monitor

Jun 23, 2014 • #34

Dan Buhler

6 discussion posts

I'm certainly looking forward to this.

I have an LG Ultrawide screen where the 50/50 split is perfect.

But I've also discovered that vertically oriented high res monitors are a great way to have extra space for smaller windows. I currently use a higher resolution screen but want to be able to split the bottom 2/3 into a virtual one. I have gone from 4 monitors on my desk to this.

Sep 24, 2014 • #35

Mark Johnson6

15 discussion posts

+1 on this, definitely.

I used to use ultramon, and this is really the only feature from ultramon that I'm missing in DF.
Ultramon didn't have a GUI for this, it was a scripted feature.
See the scripts that are named starting with 'vmon' here:
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/scripts/

Thanks!

Oct 14, 2014 • #36

DisplayFusion 7.0 Beta 6 is now available, and we've added support for asymmetrical splits, and bezel corrected resolutions. In the Monitor Configuration window, hit the "Splits and Padding" button, and you'll get the window with all the configuration options for the splits.

For those that are using bezel corrected Surround/Eyefinity setups, here are some basic steps to get you started:

Assuming you have three monitors, use the "Preset Splits" button to select the 3x1 option.
Click the "Show Preview" button.
Select each split, and set the "Width" and "Height" values to the actual resolution of your monitor (not the bezel corrected resolution).
Select the middle split, and using the "Left" box in the Location group, increase the value until you see the white line on the left side of the middle monitor.
Select the right split, and using the "Left" box in the Location group, increase the value until you see the white line on the left side of the middle monitor.
Verify that all three monitors have a white line on all four sides, then click OK, and OK again.

When you've had a chance to test it out, please let us know how it goes! We're looking for any feedback on functionality, as well as usability

Thanks!

Nov 4, 2014 • #37

Nillaz

15 discussion posts

Quote:

Assuming you have three monitors, use the "Preset Splits" button to select the 3x1 option.
Click the "Show Preview" button.
Select each split, and set the "Width" and "Height" values to the actual resolution of your monitor (not the bezel corrected resolution).
Select the middle split, and using the "Left" box in the Location group, increase the value until you see the white line on the left side of the middle monitor.
Select the right split, and using the "Left" box in the Location group, increase the value until you see the white line on the left side of the middle monitor.
Verify that all three monitors have a white line on all four sides, then click OK, and OK again.

When you've had a chance to test it out, please let us know how it goes! We're looking for any feedback on functionality, as well as usability

Thanks!

You, sir, are THE MAN. I'll be installing this as soon as I get home in about an hour. You have absolutely made my evening and I look forward to providing feedback!

Nov 4, 2014 • #38

Moridin

4 discussion posts

Yeah, thank you!

My first impression is very good. I´m able to do exactly that i want.

If you want to improve the usability, you could integrade an "auto-auto-fill"-checkbox. I think the default behaviour should be, that there is no "unused" space. At first i overlooked the "auto-fill"-button and calculated the width by myself.

Nov 4, 2014 • #39

Dan Buhler

6 discussion posts

This is amazing! The padding feature is perfect. I wouldn't have asked for it and didn't realize how useful it would be.

Nov 4, 2014 • #40

Thanks for the feedback guys! We'll look into some sort of "auto auto-fill" option

Nov 4, 2014 • #41

Suggest Dev looks at gridmove. I'm a long time triple screen user and after extensive searching this is the best implementation of "zones" I've seen. I really would live to use your app for this as well but there are a few key changes that would need evaluation...

Middle click drag on any window could automatically have you drop any size window. Maximized or not to a "zone".
Overlpping zones is possible to allow multiple flexible zones to drop into.

Always recommend your app so as a Dev to another Dev please consider trying out gridmove to give you some creative ideas. Might even be able to reuse it from donation coder with some type of permission as development has stalled for a while.

Thanks for listening!

Nov 5, 2014 • #42

Berzerker

9 discussion posts

The split doesn't seem to be sticking for me.

I have my set up here: http://i.imgur.com/JAqT3WY.png

But as you can see, it still just has a giant "1" for the entire setup. I've gone through many times and hit OK through all the windows. The split seems to stick in the settings, it just doesn't seem to apply properly.

Nov 7, 2014 • #43

Moridin

4 discussion posts

This feature seems to be a bit unstable.
Yesterday there was only one taskbar at a monitor splitted in 2 virtual monitors, split settings were OK, some applications recognized the virtual monitors correctly (e.g. Notepad++), some not (e.g. eclipse).
Today ( = after restart) these problems are gone.

Also the split monitor settings take there time to get applied - more than 3 seconds for me. But that´s just a minor issue.

Nov 7, 2014 • #44

@Andrew: It's expected to still just see the "1" on that screen, as it shows only the physical monitor IDs, and a preview of the splits on it. Are you having issues with the splits not working?

@Moridin: It sounds like the hooks may not have been fully loaded, since everything was fine after a restart. If you run into trouble again, please let me know

Nov 8, 2014 • #45