Windows 10: Nvidia GameStream with a multi seat and multi monitor setup

Hi, I have a somewhat complex question.

I am trying to force Nvidia GameStream (lets call it "GS" from now on) to start on my secondary monitor.
I've read on the Nvidia forum that it can't be done, and have tried to tinker with it myself. No luck so far. I will try to note my use cases, and try to explain them a little bit, maybe someone can think of a workaround. *Cool

I have a multi monitor setup (as mentioned above). The first issue I have is that games that are using GS can only start on the primary screen. This is a no-no for me for several reasons. I will try to keep it simple for now.

Goals:
1. My primary screen "LG" has the fully featured task bar, and all apps start on that screen. I want to preserve this behavior for that screen.

2. My secondary screen (extended display) is an HDMI headless dongle, in other words, its not a display, but a display emulator. It's sole purpose is to be used as a display for GS, while my LG display should be available for usage simultaneously.

More complex explanation:
My goal is to use Aster, a multiseat software to separate workloads on one PC. To stream a game that is running on the GS display somewhere remotely (to my living room TV), AND be able to use the LG display as a standalone work space.
Aster itself works beautifully when you have two or more normal displays and allows for several independent work spaces on one PC. But when you throw Nvidia GS into the mix, things start to become complex, and I was not able to setup everything I wanted. The main reason is that GS forces me to start games on the Windows primary display. Meaning that if I would reorder by displays to make the LG as a secondary display, I would have a hard time use the primary monitor for anything, as it's not an actual display.

Any help would be appreciated.

:)

 

Blurry text on secondary monitor in multi-resolution, multi-DPI setup


This is probably the most painful issue I have with Windows 10 right now (and likely previous versions as well, but I didn't have a multi-monitor setup back then).

The monitors I have are as follows:

1. 3840x2160 (4K UHD) monitor with preferred DPI: 144 (150%)
2. 1920x1080 (Full HD) monitor with preferred DPI: 96 (100%)

Whenever one of these monitors are set as primary, all desktop applications displayed on the secondary monitor (doesn't matter which) has blurry text. Exceptions are the Windows Store Apps like Windows Store and Microsoft Edge, along with the Taskbar/Start Menu, the Taskbar/Start Menu settings screen, the Taskbar context menu, and the desktop context menu which passes the DPI test with flying colours, with crispy text on both monitors (occasionally a DPI switch bug gets in, but I can mostly ignore that). The problem is, as you can probably guess, is that >99% of the applications I use aren't Windows Store Apps.

Here are some screenshots. The "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" text is what the text should look like while the Visual Studio 2015 text is an example of the text most desktop apps get. The blurry image is what happens when the UHD monitor is not the primary monitor.
Attachment 48493Attachment 48494
Note: Both of these screenshots came from the 150% DPI monitor so it's best viewed at that (144) DPI level. The 96 DPI monitor is similarly affected.

Things I've already tried:

• Reinstall the graphics driver (this was unhelpfully given by a Microsoft Support Engineer). Did this multiple times in fact for unrelated reasons.
• Reinstall Windows 10 (through Reset This PC recovery option). I did this for also unrelated reasons but it definitely doesn't fix this issue.
• Use the XP Explorer "fix". Merely worsens the problem.
• Adjusting ClearType options. Alleviates the issue a bit but see next point.
• Disabling ClearType on the affected monitor. The text obviously sharpens, but it's painful to read and a close inspection of the text reveals the issue isn't solved at all, only mitigated slightly.
• Replacing the video card. I swapped this in with my older GTX 560 Ti but it's obvious the problem remains. Both it and my current card are NVIDIAs though, so it's vaguely possible the drivers or the cards themselves are the cause. I don't have an ATI/AMD card (that still works, at least) to test the setup and every Intel iGPU I have either has only one monitor output or is incapable of handling UHD resolutions.

Things I won't try:

• Setting both monitors' DPI to 96. Text would become microscopic considering the UHD monitor's actual size.
• Use the text resizing feature instead. I'm going take a wild guess that this is not monitor-specific and would cause everything on the HD monitor to be far too large to the point that I'd rather unplug it.

Does anyone have a multi-resolution, multi-DPI, multi-monitor setup with or without this issue? The text is painful to read on whichever is the secondary monitor right now, and is extremely apparent whenever the background is dark.

 

Multi display setup

Hi Bert, below is a very good article on everything that can be done in a multi-monitor setup in Windows 10 - I think the part you are looking for is Part 6 on that page - dragging and dropping monitors!

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21084-multi...

 

Windows 10 Multi Monitors in remote desktop

It would appear that this is the issue. However I find it odd that when I had windows 7 pro I could remote connect to a windows 7 enterprise computer and I got multi-monitor support. But when I have windows 10 pro (where multi-monitors is supported), I do
not get multi monitor support.

It doesn't matter though, I have since upgraded the other computer to windows 10 pro so I have multi monitor support.