Getting your simracing games to work without NVIDIA Surround

September 2021

Summary:

Guide to configure and set up triple monitor support on my simracing games, without using NVIDIA SURROUND (which is a pain). In all cases, the setup is for Triples, in 4k resolution. So 11520 x 2160 pixels in total. Spoiler alert: except for ETS2/ATS I was able to get all my other simracing games working.

Why do this at all?

Simply put, I cannot run NVIDIA SURROUND reliably. Not only is it terribly buggy, and leaves my screens in a bad state, but it simply does not work at the high-resolution level. Specifically, I have the following problem:

1. When I try to enable Surround on the NVIDIA control panel, it only gives me the option of 12288x2160 @ 120hz. This is in spite of each monitor being set at the 3840x2160@120Hz resolution. When I select this option, the monitors refuse this resolution, and I have to work to get it all back to work.

2. I tried using the CRU tool to “remove” the 4096x2160 entries from the descriptions of my TVs. When I do that, however, I cannot get each monitor’s resolution to 3840x2160@120Hz, as it defaults to the default 60Hz. I bought these monitors for their refresh rate, and thus it is kind of silly to have everything running at 60Hz.

Fortunately, almost all the simracing games I play can be made to work, more or less, without NVIDIA Surround. The right solution is of course for NVIDIA to improve their software, but there’s little chance of that happening in a timely manner. Hence, this will have to do.

Disclaimer: this is not complete, probably incorrect, and without any guarantees, of course. Writing it up mostly as a repository for myself, so I can remember how to set things up after I have to reinstall Windows, which unfortunately happens often. Also, keep in mind to change the resolution in some of the examples below to yours, and the triple setup (distances, angles, etc) to yours as well. Good luck!

One tool you might need is SRWE. You can download it from here: https://github.com/dtgDTGdtg/SRWE/releases

AMS2

⦁ Native support. Aligning the triples so that it all looks great is a pain, but the results are the best of all sims (visually)

Incidentally, without the ASUS Bezel Kit, and the monitors setup with the floating triple stand, the setup that works for me in ~Documents/Automobilista 2/triplescreensettings.xml is:

<?xml version=”1.0"?>
<Reflection>
<class name=”BRTTIRefCount” base=”root class” />
<class name=”BPersistent” base=”BRTTIRefCount”>
<prop name=”Name” type=”String” />
</class>
<class name=”TripleScreenConfigData” base=”BPersistent”>
<prop name=”Build” type=”U32" />
<prop name=”ForceTripleScreen” type=”Bool” />
<prop name=”AllowTripleScreen” type=”Bool” />
<prop name=”LeftScreen” type=”Fct” />
<prop name=”RightScreen” type=”Fct” />
<prop name=”CentreScreen” type=”Fct” />
</class>
<data class=”TripleScreenConfigData” id=”0x42524D00">
<prop name=”Name” data=”” />
<prop name=”Build” data=”1810" />
<prop name=”ForceTripleScreen” data=”false” />
<prop name=”AllowTripleScreen” data=”true” />
<prop name=”LeftScreen” physicalHeight=”80.250000" physicalWidth=”144.500000" bezelLeft=”0.000000" bezelRight=”0.500000" angleFromForward=”70.000000" distanceToEye=”102.906677" verticalOffset=”0.500000" pixelWidth=”3840" pixelHeight=”2160" />
<prop name=”RightScreen” physicalHeight=”80.750000" physicalWidth=”144.500000" bezelLeft=”0.500000" bezelRight=”0.000000" angleFromForward=”70.000000" distanceToEye=”102.906677" verticalOffset=”0.000000" pixelWidth=”3840" pixelHeight=”2160" />
<prop name=”CentreScreen” physicalHeight=”81.281250" physicalWidth=”144.500000" bezelLeft=”0.500000" bezelRight=”0.500000" angleFromForward=”0.000000" distanceToEye=”101.000000" verticalOffset=”0.000000" pixelWidth=”3840" pixelHeight=”2160" />
</data>
</Reflection>

PC2

⦁ Native support. Aligning the triples so that it all looks great is a pain, but the results are the best of all sims (visually)

Setup similarly to AMS2, they use the same gaming/graphics engine.

ACC

⦁ Use SRWE app to make it work in triple screen support. Guide below.

⦁ Start ACC. In the game, make sure that the options look like below:

⦁ Start SRWE, and “Select running Application”

⦁ Type in the following profile/parameters (or load them up from a previously saved profile, which is what I do)

⦁ When in session, press ESC, select View Settings, and update your preferences w.r.t. EYE distance, angle, and more

The settings in the image below are when using the ASUS Bezel kit. Without it, and after the latest triple mount use: Distance = 1010, Bezel = 20mm

AC

⦁ Native, but use Content Manager with the following setup for best results

⦁ Once in the driving screen, use the Triple Screen and Onboard Settings apps (go all the way to the right to bring up) to adjust to your liking.

DR20

⦁ In:

Documents\My Games\DiRT Rally 2.0\hardwaresettings\hardware_settings_config.xml

⦁ Set the following line:

<resolution width=”11520" height=”2160" aspect=”16:9" fullscreen=”0" vsync=”0" refreshRate=”120" multisampling=”off” supersampling=”1" taa=”1" />

⦁ Start the game, move the window around. It works, but DR20 does not render on three screens (or with three different cameras) so it doesn’t look great. The FOV slider they have is a bit of a joke. What a shame.

⦁ ALTERNATIVELY, you can use SRWE

KARTKRAFT

⦁ Start Kartkraft. If this is the first time, make sure the game is in “WINDOWED” mode

⦁ Start SRWE and select running Application

⦁ Enter or load the following profile:

rFACTOR2

⦁ Native, but this is the setup.

⦁ In

\Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\Config_DX11.cfg

⦁ make sure that:

WindowedMode=1

Borderless=0

CustomVidRes=(11520, 2160)

⦁ Then start rFactor, go to Settings, then Graphics, and change the resolution until you see 1150x2160

⦁ Click APPLY and wait a bit, click CONFIRM

⦁ Then select MultiView ON, and adjust the values for the triples

⦁ Finally, click APPLY, and CONFIRM

⦁ Once done once, unless you change things, it should work every time.

Beam NG

⦁ Support is Native but experimental, and I still need to tweak it to make it look good.

RACEROOM RACING EXPERIENCE

⦁ Native support, sort of. I had to create a custom resolution, as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNSUjriyswY

⦁ I struggled for a long time because I was not able to create a custom resolution that was 11520 x 2160 @ 120Hz. The NVIDIA control panel simply would not allow me. The solution was to bring the frequency down to 60Hz. That allowed me to create a bogus resolution.

⦁ From then on, I simply followed the advice on the video above to set the game up.

⦁ Interestingly, even though the fake resolution is @60Hz, it does not have any bearing on how many FPS the game produces, as that is directly related to the render quality and equipment you have. The monitors always stay in their original resolution/setting (in my case, 3840x2160@120Hz). In maxed-out settings, I was seeing 65FPS, and in low settings, ~240FPS.

ATS2/ETS2

For the longest time, I could not get these to work, as they require NVIDIA SURROUND. SRWE did not work reliably. A reader knew the solution, and sent it to me. I’ve added it to this guide.

Thanks to Paulos, who shared the solution, there is a way to get ATS2/ETS2 to work. I have not (yet) tested these, as my simrig is being rebuilt, but I’ve checked the process out and it seems reasonable.

Check https://roextended.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2163 for the solution, and https://roextended.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2206 for the calculator/sheet.

To a number of youtube videos and webpages that had suggestions and advice. Too many to mention, but easy to find on Google.