Request for multi-monitor experiment in mWorks

Hi Setayesh & Lindsey,

After an unfortunately long delay, support for multiple monitors is now available in the MWorks nightly build. It works pretty much as I said it would:

  • Your experiment must include a stimulus display device for each display you want to use. The display_info parameter specifies the configuration of each display, using the same format as #mainScreenInfo.

  • Every stimulus must be associated with a specific display. This is set by the display parameter of the stimulus. A consequence of this requirement is that if you want to show identical stimuli on multiple displays, you’ll need a separate copy of the stimulus for each display.

  • Display update and clear actions also must specify a display, again via the display parameter.

  • Actions pertaining to individual stimuli (e.g. load, queue) do not need to specify a display, since the stimulus itself is already associated with a display.

An experiment can define as many fullscreen and/or windowed displays as required, although there will be practical limits to how many physical displays the graphics hardware can drive. If the hardware is struggling, you’ll see a lot of warnings about skipped refresh cycles.

For an example of multiple displays in action, please see this experiment. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know!

Cheers,
Chris