Improvement Suggestion: Add virtual multi-monitor feature

[WhiteKnight]

I'm using my host machine with a single monitor installation.

However, some programs - like VirtualDJ - behave significantly different when used with more than one monitor.

To be able to test this different behaviour I'd like to suggest the following:

Workstation should provide virtual multi monitor support, thus providing a way to use more monitors than physically available.

The Workstation Settings GUI should ...

1. allow to assign n virtual monitors to a VM,
2. allow to assign each of those n virtual monitors to any of the physical hardware monitors,
3. if more than 1 virtual monitor is assigned to a physical hardware monitor, VM content should be displayed like this:
   • either only one of the assigned virtual monitors is displayed
   • if more than one virtual monitor is to be displayed, their contents is supposed to be displayed adjacent to each other, zoomed-out to a factor necessary to display all content in ...
     • the resolution of the physical hardware monitor in Fullscreen mode, or
     • the Workstation window client area size in Windowed mode.

The setting of which content is to be displayed should be editable at runtime by keyboard combination, e.g.:

• CTRL+ALT+1 for displaying only VM monitor #1 content,
• CTRL+ALT+2 for displaying only VM monitor #2 content,
• CTRL+ALT+1+2 for displaying VM monitor #1 content plus VM monitor #2 content
• ...

Here are a few examples of what this new feature is supposed to look like:

Fullscreen, Monitor 1 of 2.

Fullscreen, Monitor 2 of 2.

Fullscreen, Monitors 1 and 2 of 2, both having same resolution.

Fullscreen, Monitors 1 and 2 of 2, second having a smaller resolution than first virtual monitor.

RFC

[TXuser]

First of all, let me say, my comments are NOT really about multiple monitors in a VM environment. They are about multiple monitors in the HOST environment that will allow you to do most, if not everything your asking.

1. When I run Workstation the first time from a compiled batch file, it will stop certain services and processes that I do not need when running Workstation and it displays on monitor (1). I'm a little picky about free memory, even though I have plenty.

2. I copied VMware.exe to a file, VMware2.exe and have normal shortcuts to both. If I need another occurrence of VMware.exe running, so I can see two VM's at the same time, I can select on what monitor,  the second occurrence displays on. The first shortcut, VMware Workstation 1, goes to monitor (1) and the second shortcut, VMware Workstation 2, automatically goes to monitor (2).

Let me also say, I have no affiliation with the following company. I am pointing out, one of the uses and it is a great utility, if you have multiple monitors. I have seen a lot of posts, concerning Workstation and multiple monitors. This is definitely an alternative way to fully utilize multiple monitors with Workstation.

Personally, I have no need to have multiple monitors in a VM environment, at least not right now. There is a very good chance, by using a USB video adaptor and running AWM in the VM, you might achieve your results in a VM. You can even divide a monitor, which I have not tested yet. I may try that to see if I can get (3) VM's to display at once or I could resize the second two, which you can do now manually.

This was accomplished with Actual Windows Manager: http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/

Some of the features: http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/help/howto/index.php

You can setup rules for different programs, like #2 above, VMware2.exe, that specify what monitor they display and other great customizing features.

Hope this helps someone,

[WhiteKnight]

Oh, I see. Unfortunately I didn't make myself clear, I'm afraid.

So let me get into more detail about one important fact here:

Virtual multi-monitor support should primairly be a VM feature, not a host environment feature.

However, you are right: it would include your suggestion to open VMs of one single Workstation host window on separate monitors, thus having more than one Workstation program window of the same Workstation instance open at the same time. (Only when virtual machines run that are being assigned to a different host monitors.)

Here's what I believe a VM's Display Settings tab should look like when providing the feature I'm suggesting:

Best regards,

Axel

[WhiteKnight]

Moreover, Workstation should provide tabs for each of a VM's monitors in Windowed mode if more than one VM monitor is to be used:

This way users could switch between any of the monitors.

Host monitor assignments from the Settings screen suggested above would then only be valid for Fullscreen mode.

In order to display more than one monitor in Windowed mode at the same time, monitor tabs should be draggable like the tabs of Internet Explorer or Firefox:

Dragging a monitor tab outside of the Workstation program instance window to the host OS desktop should open an additional Workstation program window (of the same WS program instance) which would then be hosting solely the dragged VM monitor page while the source WS program window would "lose" the dragged monitor page.

Dragging a monitor tab into another WS program window (of the same instance) should move the tab from the source WS program window to the destination WS program window.

Having no more monitors assigned, a WS program window should close automatically after a dragging operation.

[bojolais]

This functionality is also desired in Fusion, especially considering Spaces virtual desktops.

[sunyj]

Hi WhiteKight,

        May I ask you some questions to get more details ?

        First of all, I feel sorry that I am not familiar with VirtualDJ. I just downloaded and installed VirtualDJ Home in my physical machine and I did NOT find any different between displaying in one monitor or two monitors. See "1 monitor.png" and "2 monitors.png" below. So there must be some settings that I missed ? The reason I want to learn about this is I want to have a intuitive view as you did.

        Second, for your display sample as "Fullscreen, Monitors 1 and 2 of 2, both having same resolution." and "Fullscreen, Monitors 1 and 2 of 2, second having a smaller resolution than first virtual monitor." , I think we can get this result by setting 2 monitor in Hardware->Display->Specify monitor settings to 2 and then adjusting the resolution of each monitor in guest. See WSDisplay.png below. I should say that this feature does not work well as your expectation. I just want to double check if this display is what you wanted.

        To be honest, I do not love this feature since my monitor is not large enough to show 2 displays in the same time so I am curious what is your use scenario. :smileysilly:

        Third, from WS10, we can specify which host monitors are used through multiple monitor topology menu. It is a dropdown menu in fullscreen toolbar when you used more than 3 ( >=3 ) monitor in host.

[WhiteKnight]

Dear Sunyj,

sure, here're my answers to your questions:

• VirtualDJ is able to display music videos on a separate screen. Being able to enable this feature in a VM guest would allow to emulate and test program behaviour with multiple monitors. This is true not just for VirtualDJ but also for software being in a test phase of a software programming lifecycle.
• I didn't know this would work. This is very interesting! However, as you said, this setup is not utterly user friendly, because it's hard to read screen contents then. That's why I originally suggested keyboard combinations to interactively switch to dedicated guest monitors in the active Workstation window/tab. So the guest OS would still behave as if it had more than a single monitor connected/assigned, but only one single monitor would actually be displayed in a single Workstation window (or guest VM tab, resp. - see my suggestion above on VM tabs).
• I see. This is very interesting. Do you have a link to some blog/article explaining this functionality?

Cheers,

Axel

[sunyj]

For the 3rd comments,

        Multiple monitor menu is a simple feature. When you attach 3 or more monitors to your host, you will find a dropdown menu in the middle of fullscreen toolbar. Each item that looks like the setting in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display\Screen Resolution represents a topology that you can use. You can easily switch from 1 monitor to 3 monitors topology that is available in host.

        I feel sorry that I do not have the environment at hand now so that I can not send you a screenshot of the multiple monitor menu. Anyway, it is a really simple feature. After you add 3 monitors to the host and enter fullscreen mode, you will easily find it. ( The guest should be vista or later )

[WhiteKnight]

This feature might be very helpful for other Workstation users.

I'm always using only one single monitor, so this feature wouldn't be feasible for me.

I would much more prefer to have multi-monitor virtualization, i.e. multiple guest monitor screens displayed on one single host screen (all displayed adjacently at the same time or one-by-one, as explained above), which would match my setup. I personally dislike working with multiple monitors, yet I need to develop/test software providing this functionality.