Touch designer not working when TH2GO DP connected

General TouchDesigner Discussion
1

Are there some kind of settings that I don’t know about that will fix this issue? I have a TH2GO DP edition with two monitors hooked up to it running at 1920 x 1080 each. Everything seems to be working fine except touch designer wont start up correctly and if it does seem to as soon as I double click to add something it freezes. Even when I disconnected the monitors and just plugged my main screen directly into video card it would still not fire up but once I disconnected the TH2GO usb it worked fine.

I uninstalled Touch and reinstalled it as well to try and correct this problem

Also wondering what happened to the DMX out/in chop in the newest builds? I am using build 17260

I’m running it from a Quadro 2000, Win 7 64, 3.6ghz duo core w/ 8gb ram.

2

There is a known issue when installing the Triple Head drivers. Did you install them or just use the triple head device? Try uninstalling them and running without the triple head connected.

The DMX CHOPs are still in there, not sure why you aren’t seeing them. Have you tried the latest experimental build 17640?

3

Ben,

Thanks for the reply…a little confused though. Are you saying that I should run the th2go without drivers or what exactly? I am just about to hook up this computer that I built onsite where I am doing an installation and not being able to use the 2 th2go’s would throw a huge wrench in my plan :confused:

(EVGA SR/2, 2 xeon 5620’s, 24gb ddr3, 2 quadro 4000’s, 2 th2go dp, 8 dp to hdmi adapters, 8 hdmi to component converters, 1 8x8 component matrix being controlled via serial through touch, muxlab component baluns, and 7 - 52" LCD’s) Also running an output of the matrix back into the computer through a blackmagic capture card for additional processing of live tv signals or dj video.

4

It might be your mobo. I received an EVGA SR2 this past winter and found I had various problems when running more than one graphics adapter in the machine. I sent it back and support was able to reproduce all of the problems and haven’t found a solution yet, I’m hoping they’ll replace it with a different mobo.

You might want to try this to see if your having the same problems I did.

With two graphics cards installed(no TH2GO) and monitors hooked up to each card:

-run a heavy project in performance mode in TD and take note of the framerate.
-run a project in two different instances of TD using GPU affinity each on there own card and take note of the framerate

With just one Quadro card installed (no other PciE cards) run the same project(s) and take note of the framerate.

If your framerate is slower with 2 cards and or TD and or Windows is sluggish, then your experiencing the same problems I did. For reference, on the machine I’m using right now (Asus P8P67 deluxe) I get just as good and sometimes better framerates when GPU affinity with 2 cards.

I also noticed my problems with the SR2 were worse when it was overclocked but still there when not .

If your not overclocking your board and you can’t find a solution you might want to consider replacing the board with a Tyan.

5

Yes, we’ve found that the Matrox drivers sometimes do not work well. I’d recommend trying to run it without the drivers.

6

I was under the impression that you needed to have the drivers installed for the TH2GO to work at all.

The good news is though I was running the initial trial with the th2go’s on my personal computer when it was not working. After I installed drivers and hooked it up to the computer pictured above it works fine…thank god. Just finally figured out the settings last night to get the system to work with the hdmi to component converters. I went for all cheap stuff that I found online and everything works perfect except some of these cheap hdmi cables and dp to hdmi adapters I got.

Speaking of faulty crap I actually received a faulty DP to DVI adapter from NVIDIA…the one that came with my Quadro 2000. I had a 10’ x 20’ led screen that I was using at a show and it was hooked up and working fine all day and then one hour into the show I plugged in a usb on the back of my comp and barely nudged it and no more LED screen for the whole show. I had been having all sorts of problems at some other shows as well but never suspected the adapter. All it cost me was a verbal altercation with the promoter at the end of the show, $700 in missing pay, and two weeks of no access to the club I work at after I got into it with the owner and threw my club keys and keycard across the club and told them all I quit. Ahhhhh technology :smiley: Live and learn though…now I own three of those adapters

7

A more professional solution for video splitting (but more expensive) is the Datapath X4 box. May be worth it to avoid the hassle the Matrox’s cause.

8

So I’d like to follow up on this as well. I have a th2goD. Spent the whole dya trying to get it to do my bidding yesterday. Iwas able to get win7 to recognize it, and make a huge 3 screen desktop.

But so far touch only recognizes the first ‘cell’ of 3. I’m really confused about Window Placement even without the th2go in the setup.

here’s some questions/assumptions:

from what I can gather the ‘Window Placement’ dialog is out-dated and isn’t being used anymore, or is in the process of ‘going away’.

From what I can gather the ‘Window’ op is the ‘new’ solution- to outputting to multi-screens and projectors. Does this mean that the f1/esc combo is dead? or should be dead? What should a default TD project look like these days ? Should it not contain f1/esc perform functionality?

i have removed my second video card becasue it wasnt a quadro. Im using one gts250. It has a vga out and a DVI out. I’ve tried all manner of configs to get 1 monitor where I can build my touch project, and 2 additional screens. Is this unreasonable as a goal ?

I’ve heard people describe their TD process and say 'oh no, you cant have perform outputs AND a touch editing window open at the same time- you either have to run ‘headless’ or you have to build an interface. Is this true? Is it problematic to have a screen dedicated to building my project and have 1 or more output screens up and running at the same time ?

What approach should I take to achieve this:

I need a 768x2048 output projected tall out of two 768x1024 projectors.

I’ve tried the triple head with the first two outputs to projs. but couldnt get touch to output beyond the first ‘cell’. I’ve tried using all three outs: one, my working interface and 2-3 my projs. Ive tried my 'working ’ monitor out of vga connector and my 2 proj outs out of 1-2 on triple head.

Here’s one thing(of several window placement issues) is really confusing: there are no less than three dialogs for screen res(not Derivatives fault, but …) : Windows 7 has screen res dialog. Nvida has screen res dialogs, and finally Matrox power desk has its set of screen res dialogs. I’m not convinced between those three that they all work together/see each other. Which one should I be setting my res in ? Should I uninstall everything matrox and try again ? Is it just maybe confused (Matrox).?

I took my original configuration apart, which was 2 unequal nvidia cards(9500 and gts250), because I’ve been told numerous times it ‘wont work reliably’ and that the triplehead is the way to go for multiple outputs. Now Im not sure . With my 2 unequal video cards what sort of issues should I be having? Because it seemed a lot simpler than this matrox layer of complexity added on top. As I understand it OpenGL/TD won’t like 2 different nvidia cards. How, though? will it default to the slower speed of the 9500? Will it tear? it might be a better solution for me ad this particular project to re-install my second card.
How can I avoid EVER seeing any dialogs from win7, TD, etc in my output screens ? if things aren’t working right and I need to reboot will my audience see DOS startup and win7 startup screens/icons? (even though Ive gone into BIOS ad reconfigured primary video card settings)

What is the current proven methodology for multiple screens ? Sorry for the cranky words but I am frustrated today and wish I could forget about yesterday entirely. I realize a lot of my rant is beyond Derivative’s control, but I must say I’m really missing the simplicity and stability of OSX’s approach to multiple monitors right now.

oh one more matrox note:
If Im trying to output 2 1024x768 windows does that mean my third (from the card’s second connector, not from the TH2go) has to be the same res also? Initially I thought I would have my card’s VGA going to my local monitor, and my DVI output to the triplehead. Is this viable?

9

So for Windows and Matrox dialogs - ignore them. You can actually use the Triple Head (still connect USB cable though for power) without any software or drivers installed, then just use the Nvidia control panel for your resolution settings.

Quadro cards will only output a maximum resolution of 2560 by 1600 out of a single port (I don’t know about a Geforce but I’m sure it has a similar limitation) so that would be your TripleHead’s max resolution across all three monitors.From the way it looks the best you’ll get with the triplehead is 3 * 800 by 480. If its not to late to trade in the triplehead for a dualhead you could then output 2 * 1024by768 out of the dual head and then use your cards second port for your editing screen. Unless your able to output much higher res out of the Geforce?

As for the “I can’t get output past the first cell” issue I think it’s because your trying to output to different monitor in Touch, meanwhile both Touch and the Geforce only really think 1 monitor is connected (the TripleHead). So instead try to output to a different position of the screen in the window comp.

Also whatever window comp you have selected in the window placement dialog perform parameter is the perform window controlled by F1.

cheers
Keith

10

thanks Keith! that was a very clear reply to my rambling tract. I think I found another solution which is to turn off the third input on the triple via matrox powr desk… testing this out !

regards
cod

11

Indeed, I was able to turn off the third output somewhere in the Matrox Power desk!

12

That’s great news. I wasn’t sure if you could use only two monitors with a triplehead. Did you end up figuring out the other issues?

13

hey keith, are you sure that this is the maximum? I know this is what nvidia puts in their datasheets, but i think people have been using dual/tripleheads with 2xHD on each output for years.

I’m looking into using 2 quadro 6000 in sli mosaic, and split each output (using a triplehead2go DP edition) into two HD signals for a total of 8 outputs from a single system

Can anyone confirm that this will work?

14

You’re correct Achim. The 2560 by 1600 limit is simply the wording of the marketing dept at Nvidia. In reality a DVI-D output is limited by it’s 300Mhz clock. 2560x1600x60hz = 245,760,000. So even there is some room to grow. Assuming you have a device that can read it, any width/height/fps combo can be used (up to the max texture width/height supported by the card). You can get higher resolutions if you reduce the refresh rate of the output. I’ve done 7680x1080x30hz before.
I haven’t tried but I wouldn’t be surprised if DisplayPort outputs could do even more since they have a higher possible pixel clock.
So it’s not limited by the card, simply the specification of the cables you are using.
Remember if you are going from a DisplayPort output to DVI at higher than 150mhz (DualLink DVI) via a dongle you need to use an Active DisplayPort converter with a USB power:
store.nvidia.com/DRHM/store?Acti … =227587600

15

that’s great news,I thought that seemed a little low.

Achim, I just quickly tested my two dual heads on a 5000. 3840 by 1200 came up as a default res as well 3360by1080. I was able to choose 3840 by 1200 on both outputs of the card and able to make a mosiac desktop at 7680 by 1200 (with only one actual 1920 by 1080 monitor hooked up to 1 of the dualheads). I quickly tried to make a 3840 by 1080 custom res for the dualheads but it didn’t work. I only set resolution settings no timing also I don’t have the matrox drivers installed so I couldn’t choose any matrox settings. I imagine it could be done with a little more effort. If someone knows some timing settings I could them a try.

16

Keith I think I am sorted, thanks. At least I’ve reached a point where I’m not configuring the T-head anymore. So I guess no news is good news.