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Multi Resolution Display Woes

So I've been searching Google, Bing, and LTT all morning trying to discover a solution to my problem. I'm a photographer and graphic artist. At one time I had 2 displays, a 48in and a 32in. They seemed to play nice together as they were both 1080p. One day I get the bright idea to drop a ton of money on a 48in 4K... That's when the problems started. Windows 10 (as much as I despise the new version) has one really good quality about it. That is, its ability to make multiple resolution monitors work somewhat well together by scaling the smaller resolution monitors up. HOWEVER, when I go to display settings, it shows the 48in 4K as being 4 times the size of 48in 1080p and even MORE with the "little" 32in 1080p. This causes all sorts of issues even though they are scales correctly. So, I've been searching the internet all morning for an alternative to the windows display settings. Which finally brings me to my question... Does anyone know of a program that will scale multi resolution monitors while also taking into account their relative sizes to each other? I mean, I have two 48in monitors I would hope there is a program out there that might recognize that (or ask me) and take that into account before it looks at the resolution of each.

I'm running a i7 6850K @ 3.60GHz, with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (EVGA), all on a Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. X99-Phoenix SLI-CF. 

Attached photos are 1) Reality, 2) What Windows thinks it looks like aka print screen, 3) Display settings page.

Help me LTT community your my only... nope nope nope, not going to make that reference. Let's just say, you all seem to be one of the best tech forums out there. I hope you can help me.  fin.

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your issue is confusing, as in, im not sure what your issue is.

 

The sizes of the boxes in display settings is not connected to physical screen size, they are just proportionally sized according to resolution, hence why the 4k monitor shows up in those settings as being 4 times the size.

 

Are you trying to get scaling the same across all the monitors then ?

 

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That's actually how it works. Windows doesn't see the size of your monitors as much as the pixel count.

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It shows the 4K as four times the size of the 1080p monitors because 4K is four times the size of 1080p. As far as this question goes:

Quote

Does anyone know of a program that will scale multi resolution monitors while also taking into account their relative sizes to each other?

No, because monitor sizes aren't given to a computer. All it knows it that the monitors are running at a certain resolution.

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why does it even matter? I am also running two monitors with different pixel density next to each other. The only confusing thing is moving the mouse from one screen to the other. Is that such a big problem for you?

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I agree with all the points so far. I'm looking for a program that will show both 48in screens as the same size regardless of the pixel density. For example, if I pull my cursor from one screen to another, it does not draw smoothly. It might exit in the lower corner of one and show up half way up the next screen. I'm looking for a program that would solve those kinds of issues.

 

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Is is a big deal? no... but if there is a program out there that fixes the issue, I'd like to have it. 

 

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4 minutes ago, HalfBlindProphet said:

I agree with all the points so far. I'm looking for a program that will show both 48in screens as the same size regardless of the pixel density. For example, if I pull my cursor from one screen to another, it does not draw smoothly. It might exit in the lower corner of one and show up half way up the next screen. I'm looking for a program that would solve those kinds of issues.

The problem is that OSes draw their desktops as one canvas large enough to cover all of the monitors and their positioning. This simplifies how to handle mouse events. This is irrespective of the monitor's size or PPI.

 

Since this is an OS level thing, I don't imagine there being a program capable of doing this. And if there is, I really wouldn't trust it to move my mouse around.

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4 minutes ago, Schakal_No1 said:

why does it even matter? I am also running two monitors with different pixel density next to each other. The only confusing thing is moving the mouse from one screen to the other. Is that such a big problem for you?

I'm not asking for you to validate my question... I'm asking if anyone has ever come up with a solution. That's like yelling at some one because they want to find a fix for their 30fps by saying: "I don't understand why you're complaining, you can still play the game RIGHT?!?" well yeah I can still play the game... but I want to know if there's a fix...  Yeah I can work around the issues with the displays... I'm asking if there's a fix. 

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8 minutes ago, HalfBlindProphet said:

I agree with all the points so far. I'm looking for a program that will show both 48in screens as the same size regardless of the pixel density. For example, if I pull my cursor from one screen to another, it does not draw smoothly. It might exit in the lower corner of one and show up half way up the next screen. I'm looking for a program that would solve those kinds of issues.

 

You can move the screen orientation around so the mouse would move in a line when moving from one display to the other. 

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4 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The problem is that OSes draw their desktops as one canvas large enough to cover all of the monitors and their positioning. This simplifies how to handle mouse events. This is irrespective of the monitor's size or PPI.

 

Since this is an OS level thing, I don't imagine there being a program capable of doing this. And if there is, I really wouldn't trust it to move my mouse around.

Sigh, that makes me sad. As much as I hate Win10, I would like to see them come out with a solution to this. Thanks for the help anyway. I guess I could always buy another 4K 48in monitor... I wonder how my GPU would handle that...

=-(

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Just now, HalfBlindProphet said:

Sigh, that makes me sad. As much as I hate Win10, I would like to see them come out with a solution to this. Thanks for the help anyway. I guess I could always buy another 4K 48in monitor... I wonder how my GPU would handle that...

=-(

Desktop work is potatoes to a GPU. If a lowly Intel iGPU can drive two 4K displays, so can any discrete GPU.

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2 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

You can move the screen orientation around so the mouse would move in a line when moving from one display to the other. 

I had it like that and I have just moved the little 32in to the top above the other 2. It has made windows shortcomings much more noticeable 

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2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Desktop work is potatoes to a GPU. If a lowly Intel iGPU can drive two 4K displays, so can any discrete GPU.

Yaeh, I guess you're right. I just worry because Adobe Lightroom is such a hog... 

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  • 2 months later...

I have to agree.  I would pay for a solution.  It would be amazing to be able to make Windows aware of the physical position and size of the monitors, not just pixel count.  I've got a 24" 1080p next to a 28" 4K, and to move a window to the other screen, I have to bring it to the bottom 25% of the 4K just to drag it to the next screen, when they are physically nearly the same size.  Its a bit obnoxious.  I understand the reasoning behind it (Simplicity) but it's 2017!  A solution would be incredible.

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I FOUND A SOLUTION!!!  Kind of....  DisplayFusion has an option called "Prevent mouse cursor from snagging on unaligned monitor edges" and it works perfectly!

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DisplayFusion>Settings>Mouse Management>Prevent mouse cursor from snagging on unaligned monitor edges.  Check.

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  • 4 years later...

God, I know this is late but I had the same issue and found exactly what we're looking for.
Anyway, here's the fix in case anyone else comes here like I did in search of the solution:
https://github.com/mgth/LittleBigMouse

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