Dual monitor with different aspect ratio, problem & solution

[Anonymous]

Ever wonder, while using dual monitor setup, with 2 different resolution/aspect ration, why this get misaligned, or it is hard to precisely click where you aim?

I have recently replaced one monitor from my 2-monitor setup.

I've noticed some weird behaviour inside max.

Here's what I've got. My primary is a regular 1080p monitor on the right, but my second on the left went from 1080p to 1440p.

My issue now is I have trouble with some drop-down menus inside max.

Suppose I want to create an object, I access the drop-down menu under the "geometry" tab

This is how is should be, no problem.

I get the same normal behaviour when I drag MAX to the 1400p. Fine. (although the interface seems zoomed in a bit (text is about the same size, where it should smaller, or have more resolution)

It all breaks when I use both monitors.

I pop up the Scene Explorer and drop it on another monitor (MAX in 1440p and popup in 1080p). Now max is all mixed up.

Now the drop-down is way off. Notice as well the difference in scale.

Same for the contextual menu. In this example, I right-clicked an item on the left list, and the quadrant showed up to the right.

I seems that all this is windows fault. Win10 has a feature that allows for compensating the difference in font size between displays. It was set at 125% by default.

Resetting this to 100% on the 1440p fixes all issues, plus you get high-resolution back!

Even chrome works better now.

I took me some time to figure this one out. Hope it helps someone

Here is the result. Notice on the left monitor the menus and bottom icons get smaller.

Before

After

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous and welcome to the community,

This is a great post.  I really love that you posted this to help others and that you are displaying such a great community minded nature.  To really make this perfect in terms of helping others, a solution should be marked.  Since the first post can't be it's own solution, if you were to post one more time in this thread with all the same information, you (or I) could then mark that post as the solution.  This is good because some people search only 'solved' topics and then your helpful post would be a part of that.  Would you mind posting it all again 1 more time so you can mark the solution and make sure this lives on?  Thanks very much!

Best Regards,

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Again, this is the solution:

• in Win 10, right-click on the desktop
• Under "Scale and layout", choose 100%

You icons will be smaller, but the targetting will be better

[triffski]

Hi,

I came here suspecting the weird UI screw-ups were due to using a 4K and two 1080p monitors and it seems that was correct, but in this instance the solution here doesn't work acceptably. My setup: centre monitor is 4k @150% (Recommended), L and R are 1080p @100% (Recommended). 

I'm getting the same issue where if I open Max on the 4k, everything is fine until there's another spawned window open - medit, UV editor etc - on another screen, and then dropdowns appear tiny and in the wrong location as in the screenshots above.

So, to the DPI fiddling:

- Setting the 4k 100% is eye strain central, 125% is almost usable but a bit fuzzy, 150% is sharp, correct and comfortable. 

- If I set the 1080p screens to anything over 100%, which is the minimum allowed, Windows looks like some Fisher Price OS aimed at pre-school kids, so there's no room for movement there either.

It seems like I need to lower the 1080p screens to less than 100%, which in theory would be fine, but in reality may well be blurred and doesn't seem to be possible. Photoshop is almost humorously ginormous on the 1080p screens, so I know it's not just an issue related to Max.

So what else is there to try? My best idea is to chuck all three displays out of the fifth floor window next to me, steal a tank and go on a rampage. 🙂 

[chriswhy]

Seems like every OS out there has struggled to properly deal with multiple monitors of vastly different resolutions. I have a 1080p display and a 4K display, and it has caused no end of issues. Thanks for the workaround. I wouldn't call this issue "solved", but for now I'll just have to run both displays at 150% until Microsoft and/or Autodesk fix this issue properly, someday... Or I can save up enough money for a second 4K. (I was hoping it would be fixed in version 2018, but sadly, it's not.)