Elite: Dangerous Display Switcher

Smack332

S
I updated the EDDS tool today. I especially think the option to quickly enable/disable the second window is useful.

Update v0.2:
Added option to enable second window (to mirror OR)
Added bindings option
Added option to backup and restore original xml-files
Added error checking

View attachment 2855
 

Smack332

S
New update with option to change GUI color.


EDDSv0.3.JPG

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65258
 

ten10

T
That's great ! I was using my own simple system with two easy text batch files. I have a link to the folder of the Elite settings on my desktop - so i click there, and then i click on a batch file called "Elite on Monitor" or "Elite on Oculus" - and in those batch files i just rename and copy the needed relating settings files (special copies with a name extension like "*.mon" and "*.ocu"). So this was working for me easy.

But i'm glad to hear, you've made a little switcher program, that does this job in a more professional way.
I will give it a try, thanks.
 

ten10

T
Have i downloaded an older version ?
I've used the zip-file from your above link.

If i activate "Fullscreen" in the little box, it seems like that your program writes a "<FullScreen>true</FullScreen>" and saves it in the settings file. This seems to be an old version of Elite - now the program uses "<FullScreen>1</FullScreen>" - so a "1" and not anymore "true". With the "true" setting it always starts in windowed mode for me and when i correct this in the Elite graphics options ingame to "Fullscreen" then it copys a "1" - and this is overwritten by your tool again with the not working "true", if saved or by selecting "Monitor".

Otherwise - great job and working !
 
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Smack332

S
ten10 said:
Have i downloaded an older version ?
I've used the zip-file from your above link.

If i activate "Fullscreen" in the little box, it seems like that your program writes a "<FullScreen>true</FullScreen>" and saves it in the settings file. This seems to be an old version of Elite - now the program uses "<FullScreen>1</FullScreen>" - so a "1" and not anymore "true". With the "true" setting it always starts in windowed mode for me and when i correct this in the Elite graphics options ingame to "Fullscreen" then it copys a "1" - and this is overwritten by your tool again with the not working "true", if saved or by selecting "Monitor".

Otherwise - great job and working !
Click to expand...

Thank you for the heads up. It used to be true/false, and I haven't noticed that it's now 0/1/2 for windowed/fullscreen/borderless. I will update the tool asap.

Edit: Fixed.
 
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ten10

T
Smack332 said:
Thank you for the heads up. It used to be true/false, and I haven't noticed that it's now 0/1/2 for windowed/fullscreen/borderless. I will update the tool asap.

Edit: Fixed.
Click to expand...

Ah, great ! Smack332 - fast response and fix - thank you again for this nice tool , appreciate it !
 

Archvillain

Archvillain
Should I assume from this thread that there is no known way to toggle between rift and monitor mid-game?
My ideal setup is a hinge-mounted rift I can hinge up off my face whenever I need to see to check/write notes, etc, and I'd like a monitor to start displaying the game when that happens, but so far it sounds like the game can't switch - any additional monitor has to already and always be running, and if the monitor is to be displaying the game properly (ie not the predistorted rift output), it adds a big extra drain on framerate which requires an extra-beefy rig to keep up.

Is there no way to toggle back and forth between rift and monitor mid-game?
 

redmantab

R
hi there I am interested in this as well, most importantly because I would like to be able to switch to the infamous green text which is supposedly so much easier to see.

Is this wonderful program you created the best way for me to accomplish that? Will it still keep enemies red as many in these forums say can be done while using the green text?

Thanks!
 
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ten10

T
Archvillain said:
Should I assume from this thread that there is no known way to toggle between rift and monitor mid-game?
My ideal setup is a hinge-mounted rift I can hinge up off my face whenever I need to see to check/write notes, etc, and I'd like a monitor to start displaying the game when that happens, but so far it sounds like the game can't switch - any additional monitor has to already and always be running, and if the monitor is to be displaying the game properly (ie not the predistorted rift output), it adds a big extra drain on framerate which requires an extra-beefy rig to keep up.

Is there no way to toggle back and forth between rift and monitor mid-game?
Click to expand...

Sure you can switch that stuff in the Elite graphics options, but ...

But, for me it's much easier this way, because you start the game in that mode, you want to play next. If i decide to go for a play session with the O-Rift, then i just click on the Oculus Button in this little program (or like i did before, wrote my own little notepad-editor batch files to switch those xml files around) and when i start the game, everything is alread preset, everything is done and working right away to have the Rift already on my head and start the game instantly, without the need of the ingame options.
Otherwise i would have to go into the Elite graphics options first, then i have to select all the necessary settings needed for the Rift - like resolution, what screen (primary, secondary, 60hz or 75hz and so on ...

If i want to play on the normal monitor later, i have to go again in the graphics options and change all the needed settings back to a none Rift situation !

And the same again for the next Rift session - and so on ...

This way it's just one click on a button and all settings for each mode, Rift or normal Monitor, are done before i start the game !
It's less trouble, lots of clicks and setting changes are done with one simple click and BEFORE i start my special gaming session !

Since the Rift and normal Monitor gameplay are totally different from each other technical wise, there is no easier way to do it ...

When you have setup the Rift as a secondary monitor and leave your normal monitor as primary, then you just need to ALT-TAB out of the Rift mode game and you will be on your normal Windows desktop and you can do there, whatever you want. Then click on the running Elite game icon in the taskbar and your back in the Rift game. When you start the game, any game, as a Rift mode game, you won't be able to view this game in the Oculus Rift with left-right side views and the same time as a normal, single, not 3D stereo gaming view ... how should that work ??
Either the game gets calculated 3D side by side, or normal ... it can't be both the same time - but that has nothing to do with the Rift, if that is, what you are looking for, it shouldn't be possible ... or does someone knows otherwise ??
 
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redmantab

R
I've been considering using your program for a while, as I indicated in my post above. A couple questions.

1 - I know that your utility can change the GUI to green, but will it keep important items red as needed? To do this, what do I do specifically? I ask because I PRESUME that I have to know some sort of numbers and manually put them into fields etc to do the green GUI and the other red enemy indicators stay red etc. This seems of importance because numerous posts in this section talk about it being important to keep some items red and that makes sense to me, theoretically. So, all good, just asking : )

2 - Actually MORE importantly....I am getting very very good gameplay right now by emulating what another user in the VR forum has been doing. I have a gtx 980 superclocked, good new computer etc and am now using the Dynamic Super Resolution 1.20 x and have almost all of the in game settings to ultra/high except for reflections LOW and bloom, blur off, even using smaa and the game works great with NO JUDDER in stations, SCruise, or anywhere EXCEPT when in heavily concentrated by pilot areas such as metereor extraction field belts where, when I first fly in no judder but once there are 25 + npcs flying around the judder starts to get pretty bad. As I engage in larger scale fights and trade/socializing I will want this judder reduced. Again, ALL the rest of the game and even up to 15 ships near me...PERFECT play.

SO loooooooooong story short, is it the fact that I have NOT used my DK2 as primary and turned OFF my main monitors that causes this? It really is nice having my monitor as primary and then just swapping over to my dk2 in extended mode. ED seems to be staying at 75 hz, almost perfect judderless play as mentioned, graphics pretty high combined with 1.20 DSR.....so I'm wondering if doing this would be even necessary? Your thoughts? Anyone's? I tried it once or twice making my DK2 the main and only viewpoint and it was a pain to wink left and right etc and it really didnt seem to play much smoother...but I havent tried it within the heavily concentrated by ships areas such as extraction asteroid belts like I mentioned.

Love to hear your thoughts! I type fast so forgive typos etc : )
 

Archvillain

Archvillain
ten10 said:
...have to go into the Elite graphics options first, then i have to select all the necessary settings needed for the Rift - like resolution, what screen (primary, secondary, 60hz or 75hz and so on ...
...
When you start the game, any game, as a Rift mode game, you won't be able to view this game in the Oculus Rift with left-right side views and the same time as a normal, single, not 3D stereo gaming view ... how should that work ??
Either the game gets calculated 3D side by side, or normal ... it can't be both the same time - but that has nothing to do with the Rift, if that is, what you are looking for, it shouldn't be possible ... or does someone knows otherwise ??
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, though it sounds like maybe I didn't quite communicate what I was hoping could be done? I would like the game to EITHER display 3D in rift OR display 2D on monitor, but have a rapid way to switch from one to the other, and back, while I am playing the game, without stopping or leaving the game. I don't want to wade through graphics menus, because that (as you point out) would by sucky :)

(Ie I want to play the game wearing the rift, then while I am still playing I take the rift off my face (perhaps so I can write down some notes), but I don't want to be blind so I trigger the game to start rendering regular 2D on the monitor, never leaving the game, never stopping the game, continuing to play the game via the monitor, then I put the rift back on and instantly switch everything back to the rift, mid-game, while playing the game.)

My assumption, based on this utility, is that Elite only reads the graphics config file on start-up, so editing the file mid-game will not cause it to switch to the new preferences mid-game.
Constantly changing the settings via menus by hand in the game would be an unworkable pain in the ass, unless there's a bulletproof series of keypresses that can be inputted by a macro reliably, and I'm guessing odds are against that.

I'm sounding like an idiot because I currently don't have enough parts to play with to try any of this out.

(FWIW, currently there actually is a debug-mode method to have the game render both to rift in 3D and to a monitor (without rift distortion) simultaneously, but it's a big resource drain and comes with pretty severe limitations. I was hoping to avoid those limits by having a mode toggle rather than have to render both types of display, but the design of this utility and the problem it solves makes me suspect that Elite won't allow the thing I want :-/ )
 
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Smack332

S
Archvillain said:
It sounds like I didn't quite communicate what I was hoping could be done: I would like the game to EITHER display 3D in rift OR display 2D on monitor, but have a rapid way to switch from one to the other, and back, while I am playing the game, without stopping or leaving the game. I don't want to wade through graphics menus, which as you point out, would by sucky :)

(Ie I want to play the game wearing the rift, then while I am still playing I take the rift off my face (perhaps so I can write down some notes), but I don't want to be blind so I trigger the game to start rendering regular 2D on the monitor, never leaving the game, never stopping the game, continuing to play the game via the monitor, then I put the rift back on and instantly switch everything back to the rift, mid-game, while playing the game.)

My assumption, based on this utility, is that Elite only reads the graphics config file on start-up, so editing the file mid-game will not cause it to switch to the new preferences mid-game.
Constantly changing the settings via menus by hand in the game would be an unworkable pain in the ass, unless there's a bulletproof series of keypresses that can be inputted by a macro reliably, and I'm guessing odds are against that.

I'm sounding like an idiot because I currently don't have enough parts to play with to try any of this out.

(FWIW, currently there actually is a debug-mode method to have the game render both to rift in 3D and to a monitor in 2D simultaneously, but it's a big resource drain and comes with pretty severe limitations. I was hoping to avoid those limits by having a mode toggle rather than have to render both types of display, but the design of this utility and the problem it solves makes me suspect that Elite won't allow the thing I want :-/ )
Click to expand...

I don't think what you're asking is possible. The xml files are read at startup. Changing settings in EDDS while playing won't do anything until next startup. So as far as I know, there's no other option at the moment than either restarting the game, or turn off the Oculus and change settings in-game. But that's certainly not a one-click solution.
 

Smack332

S
redmantab said:
I've been considering using your program for a while, as I indicated in my post above. A couple questions.

1 - I know that your utility can change the GUI to green, but will it keep important items red as needed? To do this, what do I do specifically? I ask because I PRESUME that I have to know some sort of numbers and manually put them into fields etc to do the green GUI and the other red enemy indicators stay red etc. This seems of importance because numerous posts in this section talk about it being important to keep some items red and that makes sense to me, theoretically. So, all good, just asking : )

2 - Actually MORE importantly....I am getting very very good gameplay right now by emulating what another user in the VR forum has been doing. I have a gtx 980 superclocked, good new computer etc and am now using the Dynamic Super Resolution 1.20 x and have almost all of the in game settings to ultra/high except for reflections LOW and bloom, blur off, even using smaa and the game works great with NO JUDDER in stations, SCruise, or anywhere EXCEPT when in heavily concentrated by pilot areas such as metereor extraction field belts where, when I first fly in no judder but once there are 25 + npcs flying around the judder starts to get pretty bad. As I engage in larger scale fights and trade/socializing I will want this judder reduced. Again, ALL the rest of the game and even up to 15 ships near me...PERFECT play.

SO loooooooooong story short, is it the fact that I have NOT used my DK2 as primary and turned OFF my main monitors that causes this? It really is nice having my monitor as primary and then just swapping over to my dk2 in extended mode. ED seems to be staying at 75 hz, almost perfect judderless play as mentioned, graphics pretty high combined with 1.20 DSR.....so I'm wondering if doing this would be even necessary? Your thoughts? Anyone's? I tried it once or twice making my DK2 the main and only viewpoint and it was a pain to wink left and right etc and it really didnt seem to play much smoother...but I havent tried it within the heavily concentrated by ships areas such as extraction asteroid belts like I mentioned.

Love to hear your thoughts! I type fast so forgive typos etc : )
Click to expand...

1. You can set any values you'd like, so if you find the values for green with red enemies, just type them in. I'm not sure if any of the current presets give you this, I haven't tried them all. I'll update the tool to let you save your own presets when I have the time.

2. I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. All EDDS does is let you change some settings prior to launching the game instead of having to do this in-game, as well as give you the option to enable the second window and/or change GUI color. If you're using the second window on your monitor while using the rift as your main, it will decrease performance. If not, it shouldn't matter much whether you use the DK2 as main or secondary.
I have three monitors. When I turn on my DK2, two of the monitors turn off and DK2 becomes secondary. You can set this up to your liking in Nvidia CP. Then I use EDDS to change between Monitor and Oculus settings, always keeping my monitor as primary and DK2 as secondary.

In any case, you can just download EDDS and try it out. It will not break the game. Make a backup of your original files (you can do this in the EDDS menu) and then you can quickly restore those if you're not happy with your changes.
 

SJT

S
Great app. With regards to Refresh Rate, it appears there is only a selection of four frequencies in the drop down list, 60, 70, 75 and 120 Hz. Is it possible to add others (My monitor runs at 144Hz). Also, although the app switches fine to 75Hz when I click on the OR button, it remains on 75 Hz when I click the monitor button if I have 120 Hz set for Monitor (it's fine if I have 60 or 70 set). Cheers.
 

redmantab

R
Smack332 said:
1. You can set any values you'd like, so if you find the values for green with red enemies, just type them in. I'm not sure if any of the current presets give you this, I haven't tried them all. I'll update the tool to let you save your own presets when I have the time.

2. I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. All EDDS does is let you change some settings prior to launching the game instead of having to do this in-game, as well as give you the option to enable the second window and/or change GUI color. If you're using the second window on your monitor while using the rift as your main, it will decrease performance. If not, it shouldn't matter much whether you use the DK2 as main or secondary.
I have three monitors. When I turn on my DK2, two of the monitors turn off and DK2 becomes secondary. You can set this up to your liking in Nvidia CP. Then I use EDDS to change between Monitor and Oculus settings, always keeping my monitor as primary and DK2 as secondary.

In any case, you can just download EDDS and try it out. It will not break the game. Make a backup of your original files (you can do this in the EDDS menu) and then you can quickly restore those if you're not happy with your changes.
Click to expand...

Basically, what I'm asking here is ... generally speaking, do I really NEED to make my dk2 my PRIMARY and ONLY monitor in order to get the BEST performance. Many player's here seem to believe that you HAVE to do this and you seem to be one who may have an answer. In your reply above it seems as if you do what I do and use DK2 as secondary.
 
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