Introduction

This article will explain how to run a Windows PC-based Intuiface experience on an interactive wall or table comprised of multiple touchscreens.

Important Notes

• Only Composer's Play mode, Player running on Windows and Player Classic can run an experience across multiple displays. Player running on the other supported platforms is limited to a single display.
  • BrightSign Model XC5 supports multi-screen displays, however interactivity is currently limited to one display. We will update this article when the XC5 models are ready to offer interactivity across all four displays.
• We recommend using one powerful video card rather than multiple GPUs (as performance with multiple GPUs may be lower than expected).
  • With compatible GPU you should always use Nvidia Surround for best video performance playback across multiple displays.
  • In our experience, the most powerful GPUs support up to six Full HD displays or four 4K UHD displays.
  • With a video splitter or daisy chain, each 4K UHD output could be converted into 4 Full HD outputs, increasing the number of displays in a display wall.
    • Planar offers a good solution for splitting video output for multiple displays.
    • Samsung UED Series displays - driven by a Windows PC, not the onboard Samsung Smart Signage OS - enable daisy-chaining via their support for the DisplayPort 1.2 (or later) standard.
  • If you really need several GPUs, we recommend using an NVIDIA GPU, especially the GTX1080 family of GPUs with SLI, rather than similar AMD GPUs. If you are using an AMD GPU, we recommend not to use the AMD Eyefinity feature as it appears to reduce Intuiface performance.
• We highly encourage you to experiment as soon as possible with the targeted hardware and, if necessary, modify Intuiface projects based on performance results. You may ask for advice from Intuiface Tech Support, but Intuiface cannot test all possible video wall setups, so our recommendations will in part be based on feedback from other users.
• For Player Classic, we recommend using Windows Media Player in the Video Asset. This may require installing video codecs if you are using Windows 7 SP1. On Windows 10 or Windows 11 you will not need additional video codecs.
• It is necessary to ensure the font size of each screen is identical. If the font sizes don't match, this incompatibility can cause orientation issues. 
• An alternative to a single-experience display wall is a multi-experience display wall in which an independent PC runs each display. Through remote actions, these experiences can communicate with one another. This article is specific to a single experience stretched across multiple displays.
• 2-in-1 devices must be set to Laptop Mode if used with multi-screen displays. Tablet Mode does not support a multi-screen environment.

Preparing Windows OS for Multi-Display Use

Configure Windows to use multiple displays

• After connecting your displays, right-click on Desktop and select Display settings

• From the "Multiple displays" drop-down list select "Extend these displays

• Make sure all your screens are using the same scale factor, e.g. 100%

• You are now able to drag and position the displays in the order that suits your setup. Press Apply when finished.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• A user logout (or machine restart) is necessary after configuring your display positions.
• We recommend direct use of Windows display settings instead of using external sources like Mosaic (NVIDIA) or Eyefinity (ATI).

Configure Windows to recognize each touch display in your layout.

• Open Tablet PC Settings then click on Setup...

• Select Touch Input and follow the steps for each screen.
  Do this once for every screen in your layout.

Calibrate the touch display

To calibrate the touch display, the Windows calibration tool must be used. The Calibration tool can be found under Control Panel -> Tablet PC Settings. Find more details in this article

Creating an Intuiface project targeting an extended display

If starting a new project, select a Custom resolution. Enter the Width and Height corresponding to the total resolution of your extended desktop. If modifying an existing project, use the Composer menu option Project -> Project Settings to enter the appropriate extended desktop resolution.

EXAMPLE ONE: Consider two Full HD (1920 x 1080) displays in a side-by-side horizontal layout. In Composer, create a project with a 3840 x 1080 resolution. Your work scene will now look like this:

EXAMPLE TWO: If you have a 3 x 3 Full HD wall like the one at the top of this article, set the project resolution to 5760 x 3240. That is (3 * 1920) x (3 * 1080).

Note:

• Composer has no knowledge that you'll be targeting independent displays; it is only aware of the overall screen dimension. As a result, you cannot use Composer to automatically assign content to particular displays in a multi-display layout. HOWEVER, your design can account for different displays. For example, with two Full HD displays side-by-side in a horizontal layout, create a design that graphically divides the Intuiface experience in half, each half being 1920 pixels wide. The resulting experience will perfectly match the two-display layout. You can even simulate two independent experiences using this method.
• Composer will accept a max experience size of 20k x 20k

Creating an Intuiface project targeting an extended, non-rectangular display setup

If you arrange your displays in a non-rectangular setup (e.g. see the image below, with one landscape Full HD display below a portrait Full HD display), the size of your experience needs to match the encompassing rectangular area. For example, in the case demonstrated below, the experience size must be 1920 for the width and 3000 (= 1920 + 1080) for the height. (In addition, for such a setup, all displays should have the same aspect ratio.)

Configuring Intuiface Player to use a multi-screen display

After an experience is already running

When you run your experience in Player for Windows, your experience will start by running only in the primary display.

After running your experience, press the F11 key on your keyboard. Each press of this button will toggle the running experience through a list of choices:

• Maximize on the main screen
• Maximize across all screens
• Maximize on one screen (each press of F11 moves the experience to a new screen)
• Place the experience in a resizeable window that locks in the aspect ratio of the original experience

NOTE: For an experience accessed through the Windows self-installer, F11 is the only method that will force it to run on a multi-screen display.

When launching an experience

To ensure Player on Windows automatically launches your experience across an extended desktop, run Player from the command line with the argument /extendeddisplay. To keep things simple, create a DOS batch file or a desktop shortcut.

Player (on Windows) - multi screen configuration options

• From a DOS Console (or from within a batch file):
  • Launch Player with the /extendeddisplay argument only
    c:\Users\[ACCOUNT_USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Programs\intuiface-player\intuiface-player.exe" /extendeddisplay
  • Launch Player with the /extendeddisplay argument and the experience to open
    c:\"Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player\IntuifacePlayerApp.exe" /extendeddisplay /id=[experience ID]
• From a desktop shortcut for Intuiface Player, completing the target field:
  • with the /extendeddisplay argument only
    c:\Users\[ACCOUNT_USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Programs\intuiface-player\intuiface-player.exe" /extendeddisplay
  • Launch Player with the /extendeddisplay argument and the experience to open
    c:\"Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player\IntuifacePlayerApp.exe" /extendeddisplay /id=[experience ID]
    

 

Player Classic - multi screen configuration options

• From a DOS Console (or from within a batch file):
  • Launch Player with the /extendeddisplay argument only
    c:\"Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player\IntuifacePlayerApp.exe" /extendeddisplay
  • Launch Player with the /extendeddisplay argument and the experience to open
    c:\"Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player\IntuifacePlayerApp.exe" /extendeddisplay "c:\Users\MyAccount\Documents\Intuiface\BigDisplay\BigDisplay.ifx"
• From a desktop shortcut for Intuiface Player, completing the target field:
  • with the /extendeddisplay argument only
    "C:\Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player\IntuifacePlayerApp.exe" /extendeddisplay
  • with the /extendeddisplay argument and the experience to open
    "C:\Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player\IntuifacePlayerApp.exe" /extendeddisplay "c:\Users\MyAccount\Documents\Intuiface\BigDisplay\BigDisplay.ifx"
    
    

When working with unattended Players (Player Classic)

Whether you use Management Console for remote deployment or rely on an unattended Player to restart itself after a crash or PC reboot, use the following method to force Player to run on an extended display.

1. Browse to the install folder for Player:C:\Program Files\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player
2. Open the file IntuifacePlayerApp.exe.config in a text editor.
3. Search for ExtendedDisplay="false".
4. Change 'false' to 'true' then, using "Save as", create a new version of this .config file named local.config.
5. Put the file local.config in the folder in C:\ProgramData\IntuiLab\Intuiface\Player.

The original IntuifacePlayerApp.exe.config file will be overwritten every time Player is updated. Use of the local.config file ensures you can update Player without losing your specification that an extended display should be used.