How to Swap Display Identity (Identities)

Hi StevenMartin00,

I think there are a few different things going on here. Let me try to recap what I know about this issue from my own experience. (People please correct me if something behaves differently for you than for me.)

• First of all, there is a hardware enumeration ordering to each monitor which is apparently assigned by the graphics hardware depending on what port a monitor is plugged in (you can tell by seeing that e.g., BIOS boot messages appear on the same monitor Windows identifies as monitor "1"). In my experience, the numbers in the "Screen Resolution" control panel applet always seem to represent the hardware ordering.
• Secondly, there is the Windows concept of a "main monitor" (or "primary monitor") as well as that of monitor "position". You can change both of these using the "Screen Resolution" applet coming with Windows. (It appears when choosing "Screen Resolution" from the desktop's context menu.)
• Thirdly, AMD Catalys Control Center has its own way of numbering and ordering monitors. I think this _should_ usually match the display settings and numbering from "Screen Resolution", but I'm not sure it always does. I'm also not sure how or if this plays into the problems explained below.

Now, there are some things Windows can't do anything about, e.g., which screen the BIOS boot messages appear on. But usually, the hardware ordering of each monitor should become irrelevant as soon as Windows has started because Windows places all important stuff (such as the start screen etc.) on the "main monitor", which you can change in the control panel applet as suits your needs.

Unfortunately, there are some applications and games which ignore the Windows "main monitor" setting, instead insisting on using the hardware ordering to decide what should be the main screen and what should be an auxiliary screen.  This is a real issue because often things connected via HDMI become the first enumerated display, and projectors, TV sets, or Oculus Rifts - exactly the devices which should not be used as the main screen - are often connected via HDMI. I think this problem is what this thread is all about.

To reiterate, this is a combination of these games ignoring the "main monitor" setting and the graphics drivers enumerating displays in hardware order (depending on what port a monitor is plugged in).

Now, for possible solutions:

1. Windows could build in more abstraction, forcing display drivers to always enumerate the main monitor as the first display. This would actually be a good solution because it would work just nicely for every game and every graphics hardware, but it probably requires very significant changes to Windows and display drivers, maybe causing backward compatibility problems with older hardware and drivers. Therefore, Microsoft will probably only implement this change if they feel this is really, really, really important. They might feel the pain if a lot of customers contact them about it. However, this forum is probably not the right way to make Microsoft aware of the problem. This is a community forum, and the community cannot solve this issue. So, if this really bugs you a lot, call Microsoft Support (yeah, that probably costs something unless you have a free call coupon), send an e-mail to the right people (product managers on the Windows team - if someone knows the right contact addresses, please post them here), add comments to blog posts about display- or games-related Microsoft blogs.
2. The display hardware vendors could change their drivers or hardware to enumerate the displays in a configurable order rather than in the hardware plug-in order. E.g., Catalyst Control Center could program the hardware to always return HDMI displays last rather than first, and everything would be fine. Better even: it would work without any changes to Windows, no compatibility problems, etc. This is however a feature request that ine would need to contact AMD and nVidia about, and I'm not sure how easy it is for them to implement this (due to potential hardware limitations).
3. Developers could change their applications and games to ignore the hardware identities and use the Windows "main monitor" setting instead. Actually, they should've done so in the first place (I consider it a bug if they don't), but there seem to be too many games with this problem for this to be a practical solution. Nevertheless - contact the vendors of the games that aren't working and try to get a patch from them. (Some games even already have hidden settings that allow moving the game to a different display. With a little bit of luck the game vendor will tell you you only need to edit a config file and add some obscure setting.)
4. Change the ports your monitors and devices are connected to. For example, try using an HDMI splitter to connect both your center monitor and your Oculus Rift to the graphics card's HDMI port. With a little bit of luck (and by connecting them to the right of the two splitter ports), your center monitor now gets hardware identity 1 and your Oculus Rift gets hardware identity 2.
5. Switch to a different operating system. I'm not sure, however, if this solves anything. I haven't tried, but Macs and Linux machines might easily suffer from the same problems, since it is just a question of how games interpret the data given by the graphics drivers.

Best regards,

Fabian

What's needed is piece of hardware that will emulate the existence of the monitor (or Occulus Rift in StevenMartin00's case) when the monitor is not plugged in.

StevenMartin00:

Try an HDMI EDID emulator for your Occulus Rift:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/edid-emulators/ci/25916/N/3871319890

In the old days, I used to use a VGA EDIA emulator:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1077834-REG/apantac\_dvi\_e\_edid\_emulator.html

For each monitor, I'd keep one of these plugged in between the cable and computer.  It would fool the computer into thinking there was still a monitor connected and I could unplug and re-plug monitors with impunity and the computer would never know.  Notice it only costs $28.

What's needed is a "displayport EDID emulator" that supports 4K resolution at a reasonable price.

Gefen makes this one for $549 but it only supports HD resolution.  No good for computers:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1029265-REG/gefen\_ext\_dp\_edidp\_displayport\_detective.html

I have 2 3k monitors on my computer so I would need two of them.  Even if the resolution were supported, I would not pay $1100 for 2 of them.

So I don't think we're there yet, but hopefully this will be coming soon.

@snerdsnerp

The company GenFen makes HDMI and Displayport EDID emulators with passthrough

Thanks, Mobius Pizza.  

On their product page here:

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/ext-dp-edidp.jsp?prod\_id=10909

Under features, it says:

"Supports 1080p Full HD at 120Hz and dual-link resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA)"

This would just barely be enough resolution in my case.   I have two side-by-side 30" monitors with 2560x1600 resolution on each.   So I'd have to get two of these, at $549 a pop, for  a total of $1098 to solve the problem.

It used to cost $28 with VGA:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1077835-REG/apantac\_vga\_e\_single\_port\_vga\_extender.html

Now that everything's digital it costs 20x as much.   I hope it gets cheaper but I'm not holding my breath.

And if I get a 4k monitor, it will no longer work.