I'm trying to set up a desktop app to display across 2 monitors - each showing its own NativeWindow. I can only seem to get Starling/stage3D to appear in one window at a time.
I know Daniel has explained that you can have multiple instances of Starling, but I'm not sure how to have multiple instances of stage3D (in 2 windows).
Any ideas?
I did just the quickest of tests myself, so this is only a suggestion, but based on the descriptions from
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/how-stage3d-works.html
and
and looking at the Starling constructor's source code, here is my take:
when you call the Starling constructor and don't pass the fourth argument (or pass null) for the specific stage3D instance, Starling will default to using stage.stage3Ds[0] and then at the end of the constructor request a context3D be created for that stage3D.
So if you want two Starling instances and each associated with a different stage3D, pass explicit fourth arguments using stage.stage3Ds[0] for one and stage.stage3Ds[1] for the other, and then track and use those two Starlings/Stage3Ds, changing or overlapping the viewport of each Starling instance (which sets the position of the stage3D too) (that article says current impls wont blend between stage3Ds from front to back but only overlap) and I assume you would be able to specify a viewport rect that would map to how each of your two screens are specified (hopefully in a globally shared coordinate system).
Seems you can have up to 4 stage3Ds available but some hardware might not even have two, so best to check for null before trying to use one.
In addition, this technique doesn't solve your 2 windows requirement, but I was wondering what happens if you took the app into fullscreen mode with:
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE;
does the stage fill both of your monitors? I was thinking that if it did, you could map the two different Starling viewport rects appropriately to each monitor
Looks like AIR full-screen mode will always only activate to one monitor (according to the docs).
I would think you could still launch multiple NativeWindows like you suggested, and if needed, use the different stage3Ds[] in each window instance if the stages for each NativeWindow actually shared the stage3Ds[] vector list globally...
Thanks Jeff. I'll give passing the fourth argument a shot and let you know how it works out. The dual-monitor thing is another hurdle altogether, but it's nothing to do with Starling, just an Air limitation. But this will be used in a specific installation environment, so I can absolutely position one window to fill the second screen.
Hmm. No luck. I can't seem to get 2 instances of Starling running at once.
I'm not doing anything especially complex, but my end result is that I need the display to fill 2 1920x1080 displays, and short of this I will need to run 2 seperate air apps simultaneously I guess.
Mind you, I'm probably doing this wrong altogether. In essence, I'm hatching the 2 starlings like so:
var rec:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0, 0, stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
_starling = new Starling(Game2, newWindow1.stage, rec, newWindow1.stage.stage3Ds[0] );
_starling.start();
_starling2 = new Starling(Game2, newWindow2.stage, rec, newWindow2.stage.stage3Ds[1]);
_starling2.start();
I can get either of those working, one at a time, but never both. Thanks again for your help.
I see you went directly for testing in two separate NativeWindows? Ie. newWindow1 and newWindow2 are NativeWindows created in your app?
I tested and successfully created two Starling instances in one window first by using stage3Ds[0] and stage3Ds[1] and putting them on two different non-overlapping rects in the same window.
Maybe as baby-steps, try getting it to work in one window first. Then, it might be a more advanced question as to what happens with two NativeWindows in an app and how stage3D resources are granted then (maybe a question for Adobe on their forums...)
Good call. I did try in one window but I must have missed something because I was getting the same result (only one of the two appearing) but according to your results I must have missed something. I will take the 2-window stage3D question to Adobe's forums and see what comes back.
I can post my quick sample test but it really isn't more than what you had above just sharing the same stage.
Are you using AIR 3.2 RC SDK? Are you using Starling.current in any of your Game code (obviously it would need to all add content based on its current hierarchy and not using a shortcut like Starling.current...)
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