Technical Overview RetroUI Pro & SuperSize

Transcription

1 Technical Overview RetroUI Pro & SuperSize RetroUI Pro v3.0 with SuperSize - Spanning Multiple Monitors with Windows 8 Store Apps and the Windows 8 Modern UI using an inexpensive software only solution.

2 Abstract Windows 8 offers many benefits over previous versions of Microsoft operating systems. One of those benefits is the Windows 8 Start Screen and Windows 8 Store Apps. These things combined together were at one time referred to as the Metro UI and are now referred to as the Modern UI from Microsoft. Throughout this document we will collectively refer to the Modern UI, and you should know that we are speaking of the new Windows 8 Start Screen (which Microsoft has also called Live Tiles) and also Windows 8 Apps. Windows 8 also has a classic Windows desktop that we refer to as the classic desktop. When Windows 8 is used on a multi-monitor desktop PC, the Modern UI appears on only one monitor, and the classic desktop is show on all of the other monitors. Within Windows 8 there are now powerful options to configure the taskbar to appear on one monitor or on all monitors. With these powerful features, one major feature is missing. That feature is the ability to span the Modern UI across multiple desktops. The ability to fully utilize all of the monitors on the system while running the Modern UI Start Screen or Windows 8 Store Apps has been impossible without using specialized video cards that cost hundreds of dollars. SuperSize is a feature in RetroUI Pro. This is new, patent-pending technology from Thinix which allows the Modern UI and Windows 8 Store Apps to seamlessly span across all of the monitors on your system. So, if you have three monitors attached to your system, you can play Games, view Movies, News, Sports, and much more while using all of the monitors on your system. 2/1/2013 Page 2 of 21

3 Spanning Windows 8 Apps without specialized hardware: The goal of SuperSize was to build a system that would allow users to quickly and easily toggle their ability to span Windows 8 Apps across multiple monitors. With the introduction of RetroUI Pro v3, users now have this ability. You certainly cannot do this on an ipad..! Using multiple monitors with Windows 8 without SuperSize, the Start screen and Windows 8 Store Apps are limited to using one monitor at a time. 2/1/2013 Page 3 of 21

4 Windows 8 Apps with RetroUI SuperSize : Using multiple monitors with Windows 8 with SuperSize. Here you see the Windows 8 App - Angry Birds Star Wars edition, running at 3840 x This is enabled completely via RetroUI Pro SuperSize technology which joins the adjacent monitor areas into a single virtual display. Here you see the Windows 8 Travel App, running at 3840 x This enables 3D visualization with a real-world display showing about 4 Megapixels. 2/1/2013 Page 4 of 21

5 Technical Challenges & The SuperSize Geometry Engine: Some of the technical challenges faced by the Engineers at Thinix are due to the fact that Windows 8 supports thousands of different monitor configurations. You can have small monitors, and large monitors arranged in any combination, all attached to your system. To further complicate things, some users may want to dedicate some monitors to the classic desktop, and dedicate others to the Modern UI and Windows 8 Store Apps. The solution was a geometry engine that could examine the available displays, and calculate the largest possible window which could be displayed across a group of monitors. To better understand this we will give you a simple example of a Laptop PC connected to a higher resolution desktop monitor later in this document. This is a screenshot of the Windows 8 Travel App running on dual 1920 x 1080 desktop monitors with SuperSize running. The resulting experience is spectacular. It gives users the ability to pan 360 degree views with an edge-toedge experience. This is all done in software and requires no special hardware. 2/1/2013 Page 5 of 21

6 The advantage of a software based solution: Windows 8 is a great operating system, with huge benefits for mobile users and desktop users. We wanted the ability to span Windows 8 (not stretch) but present the App with a virtual display which enables the app to run at very high resolution. Until now, the only way to span Apps across multiple displays was to purchase specialized video cards with specialized software. This frequently costs hundreds of dollars, and isn t really an option for users with a simple setup such as a laptop connected to a desktop monitor. The advantage of the Thinix SuperSize solution is that it allows multiple displays to be integrated together into a single, large, virtual display. This technology is then integrated into RetroUI Pro, to allow the user to do things like toggle Apps from resizable/windowed, to full-screen borderless by simply pressing [F12]. This technology can be easily turned on/off when desired and needed. This is a screenshot of the Windows 8 Maps App running on dual 1920 x 1080 desktop monitors with SuperSize running. The resulting experience provides a high-resolution view of the map giving the user the ability to see more map detail than possible with a single monitor. 2/1/2013 Page 6 of 21

7 Applications for SuperSize: SuperSize allows multiple displays to be fully utilized for Windows 8 Store Apps. We have tested several Apps that work great, and a few (such as the normal Windows 8 Photos App) that don t work well at all. Interestingly, most of the games we have tested, and dozens of other Windows 8 Apps work great. This technology can be applied to advertising, interactive technologies in a museum or trade show booth, at the desktop level for productivity applications, in medical applications for 3D visualization, architectural applications for virtual walkthroughs, as well as for watching movies, and for immersive gaming experiences using native Windows 8 Apps! This is a screenshot of the Windows 8 Video App running on dual 1920 x 1080 desktop monitors with SuperSize running. In this screenshot you will notice half of the video playing on two different monitors. 2/1/2013 Page 7 of 21

8 General rules-of-thumb for SuperSize: Generally Windows wants to have a Landscape desktop (which is wider than it is tall). Typical applications are configured for 16:9 displays. So, stacking monitors vertically will technically work, but will result in a non-optimal experience in Windows 8. Generally speaking two or three monitors located side-by-side works well. Or an array of four monitors stacked 2x2 works well. Note that, monitor configurations of more than four monitors should be possible and should just work, however these configurations have not been tested and are therefore unsupported at this time. This is a screenshot of the Windows 8 Finance App running on dual 1920 x 1080 desktop monitors with SuperSize running. The resulting experience provides a high-resolution view of the information giving the user the ability to see more detail than possible with a single monitor and reducing the need to pan the display. 2/1/2013 Page 8 of 21

9 A real-world example configuration for SuperSize: b a align bottom Example: using dual displays with SuperSize: (a) Laptop Monitor Resolution: 1366 x 720 (b) Desktop Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080 As you can see in this example, the two monitors are adjacent to each other, aligned on the bottom, and different resolutions. If we look at this combination of monitors, we can calculate the largest possible window size as: ( ) x 720. Taskbar Placement: One thing to make note of is that the taskbar(s) on both monitors must not be adjacent to the other monitor. In this example, this means the taskbar on Monitor-a, cannot be on its left side, and the taskbar on Monitor-b cannot be on its right side. b a 2/1/2013 Page 9 of 21

10 Resulting SuperSize (Virtual) display = 3286 x 720 Unused Area SuperSize window 3286 x 720 Real world screenshot of this configuration: This is the Windows 8 Store App - Angry Birds Star Wars, running across dual monitors with similar geometry as described above. 2/1/2013 Page 10 of 21

11 This is the Windows 8 Start Screen, running across dual monitors with similar geometry as described above. 2/1/2013 Page 11 of 21

12 General Recommendations for SuperSize: Use monitors with the same resolution if possible Align the monitors to a common axis, and place the taskbars on all monitors along that axis. In our example this means we align the bottom of the monitors using Windows Display Manager, and we place our taskbars on both monitors on the bottom of both monitors, and we make the taskbars the same height on both monitors. It is not required that taskbars exist on all monitors, and it is not required that the monitors are aligned to the bottom. The number of configurations for monitors in Windows 8 is endless. As a demonstration of this fact, here is another valid configuration for the same two monitors: align center In this configuration the monitors are aligned along the center axis, the taskbar is on the right side of Monitor-a, taskbar is on the bottom of Monitor-b SuperSize window 3286 x 720 2/1/2013 Page 12 of 21

13 Geometry Summary: SuperSize automatically calculates the largest possible window between adjoining monitors. If the monitors are to be used with SuperSize, the taskbar cannot be placed along the adjoining edge of either monitor. If the monitors are not the same resolution, SuperSize calculates an area which is unusable and places a black background over this window when SuperSize is active. 2/1/2013 Page 13 of 21

14 Using SuperSize: To make setup intuitive and simple, a SuperSize setup wizard was written to allow users to easily assign monitors to be included or excluded from the SuperSize group. Setup takes under a minute. After monitors are assigned to SuperSize by running the setup Wizard, the user needs to enable SuperSize. SuperSize can be enabled globally, so that when you login everything uses all of the monitors or it can be turned on/off by the user as they use their computer. To make this process easy, SuperSize can be turned on/off using the hotkey Control+Alt+F5, or via an application that runs in the tray on the computer. After SuperSize is turned on We suggest that you make the Tray icon for RetroUI visible as this icon will not appear automatically (this is a design feature of Windows 8). To make the RetroUI tray icon visible: 1. Select Show Hidden icons (which is the arrow to the left of the RetroUI tray icon in the image below) 2. Then select customize 3. Then select RetroUI Enforce, then select from the dropdown menu Show icon and notifications 4. Then select OK. Once this is done you will see the RetroUI Tray icon. RetroUI Tray Icon Enable / Disable SuperSize via the Tray icon Using this icon you can easily enable / disable the SuperSize feature (or you can press Control+Alt+F5 on the keyboard to do the same thing). 2/1/2013 Page 14 of 21

15 Turning SuperSize On / Off with the keyboard: On the keyboard press these three keys at the same time: Control+Alt+F5 Note that the hotkey assigned to SuperSize can be enabled/disabled or changed using the RetroUI Settings application. Tray icon Features: 1. By clicking the RetroUI tray icon, you can also enable or disable Supersize 2. Run the SuperSize Setup Wizard 3. Configure RetroUI Pro which opens the Settings application 4. Reset/Clear Stored settings: This feature will clear all stored window positions for Metro Apps, and also clear all entries for Metro Apps which are excluded from resizing. RetroUI learns about Apps that cannot be resized based on intelligent algorithms within RetroUI. On occasion Apps can crash, that can be safely resized, so this setting allows you to clear the list of Apps which are excluded from resizing. 2/1/2013 Page 15 of 21

16 Using SuperSize with Windows Store Apps: Apps can be toggled to full-screen (SuperSize) spanning across all monitors by first enabling SuperSize (by pressing Control+Alt+F5 or by enabling SuperSize via the tray icon), and then pressing the [F12] key on the keyboard. Here we see the Windows 8 News App running across two displays. Pressing [F12] a second time reveals the Taskbar. 2/1/2013 Page 16 of 21

17 Pressing [F12] a third time, places the SuperSized window in a resizable window and hides the blanking (black) background window. Apps that work great: Microsoft Apps: o News, Travel, Finance, Sports, Weather, Bing, Store, Weather o Internet Explorer for Windows 8 (App)* Fruit Ninja AngryBirds StarWars Edition The GunStringer Apps that don t appear to be compatible with SuperSize: Microsoft Photos App Netflix Microsoft Mahjong Conclusion: SuperSize is an integrated feature of RetroUI Pro, which allows users to span the Windows 8 Start Screen, and Windows 8 Apps (collectively the entire Modern UI) across multiple monitors. Monitors do not need to be of the same size or resolution but having identical monitors is preferred. Configuration is simple, and with the RetroUI Tray application users can turn SuperSize on/off easily. Once enabled, SuperSize creates a virtual display which is used for the Windows 8 Start screen and Windows 8 Apps. Most of the Apps which have been tested work when SuperSize is enabled, however not all applications work. Thinix cannot predict or make assertions of which Apps work, so the user will need to test SuperSize to see if it works with the users desired Apps. 2/1/2013 Page 17 of 21

18 Other Images: This is a dual monitor configuration with two 1920x1080 monitors in a stacked configuration, with taskbar hidden on the upper monitor. Screenshot of the classic desktop running at 1920 x 2040, stacked displays. 2/1/2013 Page 18 of 21

19 Screenshot of Supersize running with the Windows 8 Start Screen running at 1920 x 2040, stacked displays. Notice that the Taskbar and Start Button are visible at the bottom of the image. 2/1/2013 Page 19 of 21

20 Screenshot of Supersize running with the Windows 8 Store Maps App running at 1920 x 2040, stacked displays. Notice the edge-to-edge high resolution display. 2/1/2013 Page 20 of 21

21 This is a screenshot of the Fruit Ninja App running on dual 1920 x 1080 desktop monitors with SuperSize running. In this configuration there is no taskbar on the left monitor and the taskbar is on the right edge of the right monitor. In this view we have pressed [F12] to reveal the taskbar on the far right. The resulting experience provides a highresolution game experience with far more detail than possible with a single monitor. Internet Explorer for Windows 8 has some visual artifact (redraw) issues with RetroUI (resizing) in general, and uses the F4 key within the application. However, it does work. This is a screenshot of the Windows 8 Internet Explorer (IE) App running on dual 1920 x 1080 desktop monitors with SuperSize running. 2/1/2013 Page 21 of 21