Implementing a Dual monitor / True Split Feature for a Widescreen.

[Ahmed-Abdelgawad]

I'm using a 3440x1440 widescreen monitor and I'm interested in implementing a true split feature using BetterDisplay. I aim to create two virtual monitors, positioned side by side, within this widescreen resolution, to closely mimic a dual-monitor setup. Could you please provide guidance on whether and how BetterDisplay(pro) can facilitate this specific requirement?

Thanks

[waydabber]

Hi there. Yes, I should write a guide about this.

Generally these steps are needed:

1. Create two virtual screens with an aspect ratio that is horizontally half of your screen (Displays > Overview > Create New Virtual Screen...)
2. Connect the two virtual screens.
3. Open a PIP window for both virtual screens using the Picture in Picture menu under each virtual screen.
4. Set both PIP windows to be above everything, turn off header and window shadow

5. Carefully position the two PIP windows next to each other on your real screen

You'll probably want to set one of the virtual screens as main - this might be a tricky part as things might move around a bit, so this might require some trial&error experimentation. To make your life easier, you can define keyboard shortcuts to connect/disconnect virtual screens quickly or start/stop PIP windows so you don't loose control over your desktop.

I plan to add a more straightforward solution with streaming (#197) in the future, but there is no ETA for this right now.

[Markeljan]

Hey, this is working great for me in combination with betterdisplaycli for snapping and resizing the virtual displays over my vertical monitor. I tucked my monitor into the bottom right corner however I sometimes get apps open in there that I have to go manually quit from. Any tips for this config or is there a way to prevent apps from opening in there? I disabled switch to a space with open windows which helps a lot but would prefer to keep that & disable opening stuff in that display.

My setup:

Thanks @waydabber this has been great product on both my macbook air and macbook pro

[stakis12]

Hello @waydabber I'm trying to implement this. My set up is as follows

Dell Ultrawide Monitor (U3425WE)
Mac Mini M4 (Display Port input)
Macbook Pro M1 (Thunderbolt Input)

I'd like to point the Dell monitor to show the Macbook Pro (On the Thunderbolt input) and have a virtual monitor somewhere on my screen that shows the Mac Mini (DV input)

I went through the steps above, but didn't see where to allocate which input the display should show to the Virtual display.

I have Betterdisplay running on both machines.

[waydabber]

Hmm. I don't think this solution is about showing the screen of an other Mac. For that I recommend using the high performance virtual screen option - this way you can connect to your mini from the MBP (or the other way around) and have a dynamically sized window wherever you want. You do not even need to use the display's input for that.

[stakis12]

Oh like the screen share option built into MacOS?

Yes, I guess that is the solution I'm looking for. Thanks!

[waydabber]

Yes, that's the best and most straightforward solution, the new high performance virtual screens (developed for Vision Pro but available between Apple Silicon Macs) is super performant and the best available way to reach your other Mac - you don't need BetterDisplay for this. Of course you can still have the app for other reasons. :)

[LucEast]

That was sooo helpful! I use a Samsung Odyssey neo g9 (49", 5120x1440, 32/9).
For some apps I used to go from the far right side of the monitor to the upper left corner to use the menu-bar.

[reynadev-oss]

Cool idea! I’d love to see that guide when you write it — having a “true split” mode built right into BetterDisplay would be really handy. You might also find this tutorial on connecting two monitors to one laptop useful.

[lcdupree]

I tried using this solution but it caused me too much trouble and I gave up. The PiP windows themselves were arbitrarily sized on the target display and there doesn't seem to be any settings to control this. I could resize them but could never get them to 100%. I also kept running into weird errors where both virtual displays would sometimes be using the same frame buffer. Then there's auto-hiding the Menu Bar which will only reappear on the main display. But that's still a problem because you have to arrange your displays somehow and the target display is most conveniently place above all of the others in my setup, so that's borked. Last, I have keyboard shortcuts to move apps between displays and ofc I can't take the target display (now hidden by virtual display PiP windows) out of the rotation.

[vali-m]

I tried it and it's fine, however, sometimes, when going to sleep or similar, one of the virtual screens moves so I need to move it back.

Frequently, when starting up, the PiP is not enabled. How can I make keyboard shortcuts for enabling PiP for my virtual screens?

Update: Nevermind. After the 5th time the virtual screens resized, I've abandoned this approach and am gonna try something else.