Handling mutiple windows
Since it moved to Windows back in 1995, Flight Simulator has had a great history of supporting newest innovations. Case in point our multiple window and multi-monitor support.
We aim to allow as flexible an experience as possible. When you're running windowed, you can create new windows with different views on the scene (cockpit, spot plane, etc...) and run this all hardware accelerated on multiple monitors and fullcreen multi-montitor.
I don't know of any other entertainment title (or non-entertainment for that matter) that allows you this flexibility. Of course, this flexibility comes with problems, most notably that the messages flying around can cause up to 7 device resets when switching from windowed to fullscreen mode. This usually ain't to bad unless you're running on ATI hardware with older drivers, which can cause lots of monitor clicks and flickering.
Also, of course, our users love to complain about idiosycrasies within the system (which there are many, and of course they should complain about the issues).
Anyhow, time to fix it. Last week I started rewriting the entire system. This should make the code easier to maintain, faster, and cause less instability during transition. We'll see how it goes...
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Hi,
I'm happy to read this is going to be re-written :) as long as we have the ability to run in windowed or fullscreen mode, i'll be happy :D
We didn't have this flexibility in other sims like Fly or Flight Unlimited (or with hw accell off) and it was a shame.