I can not thank you enough for this. I run a couple of "sometimes headless" machines where sometimes there is a need to be in front of them, sometimes remote is what is needed, and leaving a monitor powered on 24/7 just incase is just crazy. I would personally love to have an option that was somehow able to automatically disable the virtual display when a physical display is actually powered on, but thats just me swinging for the fence, lol. Seriously tho, amazing work. This is going to make so many people very very happy.
Thank you so much for developing this! This is really useful for making high-res screenshots and screenrecordings, where you can zoom-in in post while retaining a high quality!
I needed to run an old application in fullscreen that wouldn't scale properly, so I used your driver to place the application in the virtual monitor and upscale it on my main screen via obs. Worked like a charm, thanks for making this!
The ones who have issue like I had, you have to install folder in C drive, drivers have issue because they dont see where are drivers located. Had same issue, because I wanted to locate driver folder on desktop. And thanks a lot for the video!
I was able to do this and add the driver to device manager but I'm not seeing it show up on my system/display items like in your video. Any recommendations?
Works perfectly. I have a mini pc that runs a security camera monitor that is plugged into my TV, but I wanted to run other programs when I RDP. So now I can do that on the virtual display. Really appreciate this Mike!
How does this work with windows 3d acceleration? Since it's another display driver than the RTX card, can this cause any issues like micro stutters when gaming? And how efficient is it in terms of performance? I got 3 monitors running at 120hz and need a virtual display for a complicated scene, so I'm hoping I can use this as a solution
Can't seem to get this to work, followed everything to the letter. Matched the correct settings in Moonlight with the settings for the monitor in Display, I've got the correct Output Name set in Sunshine but I'm still stuck with the black screen. I've also tried setting the virtual display as my main display but that didn't work either. The virtual display is active and working so I don't know why Sunshine can't seem to recognize it.
Have you had this resolved? What OS version do you have and what VDD version did you install? I ran into the same problem with my Windows 10 64-bit and trying to install the most recent VDD version 23.12.2. Then I tried reinstalling using VDD version 23.10.14 which was used in the video and that resolved my issue.
Thanks for the software!! If you can add 10bit color that would be amazing!!!If you want a custom resolution you can add it in the option.txt file before adding it as legacy hardware in device manager.
This works great, thanks a lot! My steam deck and moonlight setup was working fine until one day it started outputting a black screen unless my monitor was on and nothing I did could fix it. I swear I'm gettting a smoother image using this well. This first game I tested I used to get tiny microstutters in, now its buttery smooth!
This is exactly what I was looking for, you are a godsend. I have a PC I use almost exclusively through VNC and wanted multi-monitor support. One thing I think would be nice is if it could mimic more than just 1 additional monitor. My ideal setup would be no physical monitor connected at all and VNC is just how I use it (unless something catastrophic happens forcing me to use it directly).
lightingstorm, bud can you share how you are doing that? i can see the virtual monitors in settings (thanks to Mike!) but cannot reach them via vnc. tried tiger, ultra and some others but unfortunately, none.
@@yettibeh I use RealVNC which just sees all the monitors. Those others might need multi monitor mode enabled. Do they work of you actually had a real 2nd monitor?
Thank you so much for this video, I was looking for a solution since my computer did not detect my iPad as a second monitor and now I can! Greetings from Chile and keep it up!!
Beautiful. For various reasons I need to use TightVNC to use my work laptop effectively from my desk, which unlike normal Windows RDP, cannot ask the system you're connecting to for a display configuration matching your client system. This finally allows me a way to bring my third monitor into play (a dummy HDMI plug got me the second display.)
Great video! Amazing way to add tons and TONS more windows to your OBS stream by extracting the screen or just small screen captures without having an insane amount of monitors, thanks for this video man this works for so many different people doing so many different things!
I did exactly the steps mentioned and even gor the virtual monitor to work for my headless moonlight setup from an android tablet ...but the frame rate is very less like 15 fps on resolution set to 2800 x 2000 at 144hz for OnePlus tablet , tried to change refresh rate from everywhere, still no luck 😢 ( Using 1080ti with ryzen 3600)
What were you trying to run? That’s a very high resolution. Just because 144hz is supported, doesn’t mean your PC and network can handle it. There’s a lot to game streaming.
@@MikeTheTech First of all , thank you for your reply, But, when I used to stream through moonlight 6 months back, at 2800x 2000 resolution at 75hz ...it was smooth as hell no framedrops no choppiness nothing (a monitor was plugged in at that time with refresh rate of 75hz) But since I broke my monitor, and found your guide,I tried to give ur guide a shot and it worked headlessly, but even when I want to stream at 2800 x 2000 at 75 hz through ur headless method ....I'm barely getting 15-20fps, Tried changing to lower resolution at 480p and fps went to 50-60fps, but as 480p on 2800x2000 displayed looks very pixalated (No harware were changed at anytime ,... except the monitor which I broke )
holy this feature is huge. thank you very much! sadly the latest version (HDR support) didn't work for me but the previous version works. I guess my Windows 11 haven't got the most latest Windows update.
Same here. previous version wokred great for me. HDR mode was available in the latest version but when i started games in moonlight via apple TV it just didnt work. it says try disable HDR or try a different resolution. even when i disabled HDR in windows it failed.
Thanks for this! I'm facing a issue where all the refresh rates feel the same. I'm using this with Moonlight (240 Hz client display) and the refresh rate feels like 60 Hz even though I've selected 240 Hz. Anyone facing similar issues?
For anyone struggling on installing the *bat file. Right click, properties, there may be a check box at the bottom saying it's come from another computer, click to allow it to be used, then re-run in administrator. This worked for me and don't forget to change the 1280x800 option to 90hz for those with an OLED SD haha.
Thank you for instructions! I followed, but unfortunately give me an error on Win10 OS. Error is: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31) The ALPC message requested is no longer available. How to resolve it?
I have exactly the same problem: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31) The ALPC message requested is no longer available.
Not yet, that's not possible with the IDD driver. However, I have a version on the github where I'm testing a different driver type that would enable HDR. It's not quite ready yet, but hopefully I can get it working soon.
don't know if somebody already said that, but...installing certificates to your system from unknown sources is very dangerous and someone (soft or drivers you install) can use those certs to intercept or change your traffic :P
I've installed this (Virtual.Display.Driver-v24.12.24-setup-x64.exe) on my windows computer and I can see the virtual monitors in my windows settings.. BUT I don't know how to use them? They only appear in the System > Display overview, but nowhere on my actual screen. please advise, thx!
You have been very helpful, thank youuuuuu! I just needed to have a virtual display, it works perfectly if there is at least one monitor phisically connected to pc. It seems not working when there is no monitor, but actually it's perfect for my case. Screens are visible even when connected with remote desktop. Thank you!
Have you thought about making a virtual mouse also? Then you would have the perfect set. I use Stardock Multiplicity for remote headless PCs and it has a virtual mouse option built in, but their mouse pointer is not very nice and only offers one bland pointer. I bet yours would allow choosing any installed Windows mouse pointer, which would be a major improvement over theirs.
Hi, I need custom resolution being setup for the new fake screen. Like 200x1080 or 1920x200, something like this. Is it possible? (so to say, not standard resolutions)
What about custom resolutions, can this be done via Nvidia CP or is it just a matter of editing config file or something? I like to stream to my S24U and I'd like the in-game resolution to match my phone's. You rock for creating this, thanks a ton.
You just edit the config file to add new resolutions or refresh rates, then reload the driver. They’ll be available right inside windows display manager. 👍 Thanks for the comment!
Nice this is great. Do you know of any way to replace actual monitor with a virtual one? Basically I'd like to split my virtual monitor (and not using fancyzones or VDM or DisplayFusion - they don't work for this purpose) I mean I want to either: Split my ultrawide into two displays, OR add padding so my display is only on the right side of my ultrawide. You seem to know your stuff, is there any way to do this from your knowledge?
For some reason the latest version didn't work for me. Went back to "Virtual Display Driver 23.10.20.1" following the same instructions and seems to work fine. Thank you!
Thanks for your hard work! Wanted to ask about how to use this and make sure sunshine/moonlight uses that display to open games on via playnite/steam big picture?
You can set the display to default in Display Settings, which works for most games, but some may need to be set manually. Turning off all other displays should make it go to it by default as well. You can set the default streaming display in Sunshine as well, and can find the display ID using tools\dxgi-info.exe
Hi Mike fantastic this has solved a lot of my issues can’t thank you enough. Nothing worse than playing sunshine and it boots up in 720p all the time. I seem to not be able to get 120hz though. Can only seem to get 60hz using the HDR version.
works nicely with sunshine host on windows and moonlight client on android tv. also does 4k 120hz with HDR which is awesome. BUT...for some reason the virtual display driver becomes the main display even after deselecting that option in display settings and once you quit your moonlight desktop/steam big picture session the main monitor plugged into host pc goes blank or becomes secondary display. you then have to use controller (in my case) in mouse emulation mode, revert the display setting on the client tv (android) and then go back to using the host pc as normal. also display settings window remains bound to the virtual display screen and only disabling it in device manager brings back the window to the host pc monitor. is this a quirk in sunshine/moonlight or windows or the display driver is the million dollar question.
Can I choose the option "Duplicate" instead of "Extend"? I only have one real display. My goal is to leave the physical display off while simulating a second display on, allowing me to use NVIDIA Moonlight whenever I want, because after a few hours of the real display being turned off, the app only shows a black screen.
@@MikeTheTech, thanks! But using the "Extended" mode, is there any way to prevent the mouse from "escaping" from the real to the fake display through the corners?
@@ApenasUmGatoQualquer depends on the arrangement of the screens. I guess you won't be able to fully prevent it, but setting the screens on top of one another so that the mouse can only escape from the top rather than from the side can do the trick, at least it won't happen often
@@mikuri_13 Mine is Acer Nitro 5 UHD 630 + 1050 TI and that didn't work. Main display is set for the UHD 630 by default. I can't even change it via Nvidia Control Panel. Disabling the UHD 630 from device manager will only mean that it is replaced by Microsoft Basic Driver.
@@RebelliousX yes, that is right. Your main display (laptop's screen) will always be on the integrated graphics and there isn't any workaround for that. You will not even have a screen menu in the NVidia Control Panel, only the PhysX configuration. But the virtual display will work with the dedicated GPU if your laptop does not have any other option (if you purposefully disable the integrated graphics in the device manager). You can check the GPU usage when you're using only the virtual display - it will only be the discrete GPU. It could be that it only worked for me because I physically disconnected the laptop's screen from the eDP port and use a few external screens via the DisplayLink dock, whose I can disconnect by simply turning off the dock, leaving only the virtual one... But now I also tried Zephyrus GX501 with 7700HQ/GTX 1080MQ and it works absolutely the same with the laptop screen physically connected. Virtual Display that I stream is being rendered by the discrete GPU if I disable integrated GPU in the device manager. (both devices I tried use Windows 11 23H2)
Thanks for this content. Trying to setup a virtual desktop for sunshine. When I run dxgi-info.exe in the cmd prompt I can see the new display I made as an output associated with my GPU (RTX 3060 Ti), however when I put in the output name (\\.\DISPLAY13) into the audio/visual config menu I get the following error in sunshine: Fatal: Unable to find display or encoder during startup. Fatal: Please ensure your manually chosen GPU and monitor are connected and powered on. Any idea why this is?
Having a small problem I'm currently using it with Chrome Remote Desktop and it works great, but sometimes my mouse keeps making a "trail" and it ends up jumping around when I have my main monitor turned off Not sure if these problems are related but great tool anyways 😁
Help, i need the resolution as 2k "2560x1440" at 90, 120, 144, whatever, but it only shows 60fps, so i uninstalled everything, (even deleted the certificates and rebooted), modified the option.txt file to add these, and i indeed can select and use these resolutions, but the mouse does not show up while streaming on moonlight (on teamviewer it does), and enabling the stats of moonlight the stream is at 30something fps (90 is selected on moonlight settings, no vsync) and the decoding and rendering are too at 30something so it seems it is streaming at like a third of the resolution i selected (which was 90fps in this case) , but even after undoing this and installing the original files, mouse still does not show up and selecting the 1080p resolution that does have 90, 120, 144 etc framerate options, the behaviour is the same while streaming with moonlight and 60fps or more selected on the moonlight settings.
Thank you so much for this! For some reason I can't get HDR working though. Not a huge deal but for anyone having the issue where you get a "fatal video encoding error" when connecting from moonlight (im using an nvidia shield btw), I had to disable HDR from within moonlight even if none of the displays had HDR enabled on windows. I'm able to connect in 4k now but it seems like my 3070 isn't able to keep up with the encoding or something as the moonlight stats show the incoming video is ~11fps. I saw on reddit people suggesting to turn of shadowplay/nvidia overlay as well as the xbox game bar so I'm trying that now. Either way, great work and thanks for the succinct video! EDIT: some additional troubleshooting steps was to disable HEVC and use AVC (h264) instead as well as lowering the stream bitrate but it doesn't seem to be a client issue. On my host PC in my nvidia control panel i'm noticing its not actually showing the display here, leading me to believe its using my CPUs integrated graphics or something. Though on the moonlight stream statistics it does say "NVIDIA 3070" so I'm really not sure. I'll fall back to 1080p for now but if anyone finds a solution I'd love to know!
Thank you very much for this! Is there any possibility of further customization for available resolutions? I recently started using Sunshine to stream my workhorse system to a Moonlight client running on my Surface Book 2- but it has a relatively weird aspect ratio of 3:2 (3000 x 2000 for my model; 3240 x 2160 for the bigger one). I searched for a virtual monitor solution like this in hopes of avoiding having to go into Nvidia control panel & change my resolution settings every time I stream to the Surface Book.
Yup! You can add custom resolution and refresh rate combos in the options.txt file. Just reinstall the driver after editing it in C:\IddSampleDriver\options.txt
I’ve installed your incredible program thanks for it it appear on devices no pb, but I have a curious issue. I don’t have access to the display settings on my Windows parameters ...system. system/display
Might be an easier way but I did this - 1. Uninstall the display adapter from Device manger and make sure "Attempt to remove the driver for this device" is selected. 2. Add 2560, 1440, 120 to the options.txt file 3. I don't believe you have to reinstall the cert again with installcert.bat but I did it anyway. 3. Then do the rest of the steps in the video. 4. After reinstalled with the modified option.txt file I was able to choose 120 in Advanced Display.
@@evinprice Yeah, i missed that part within the options.txt files, the resolution was there but was set to 60 in the options file, so i changed that and got it working. Thanks for the reply!
@@evinprice Nice!! I was trying a lot to rebuild a wrong number for 4K res, but didn't selected that 'attempt to rem..' option. Now it works flaweslly!!
What soft of streaming desktop can show 8k and 120 resolution? VD only can 2k that can be visible, and Immersed has only 16 mb bitrate, the text will be blurring. What soft to stream desktop do you use?
I keep trying to edit the settings and add new resolutions but they never appear on the display settings, why? I already tried new versions etc and nothing
Just installed this. I've got a Samsung S34C65xT ultrawide (3440x1440 100hz), I'd like to stream to over sunshine/moonlight. When I check advanced display settings though at 3440x1440, only 60hz is an option. Same with 4k and other resolutions.
You should not be using Display number or even full Display paths to reference displays. This will change between enabling, disabling, turning on/off, etc. Use Hardware ID instead that you can grab from Device Manager for each monitor.
Hi thanks for your work. i desperately searched to extend desktop (like real extension for icons like in android or apple phone) on my laptop with no results and then you came in. So i installed your driver following your video and i use win + P to extend. So cool . Then use the feature : make screen your main display after choosing the screen you want. just for people to know An important feature is the win+shift+ arrow key to quickly change windows from one screen to another and it works well. be carefull You can drag and drop icon like with a real screen but you dont see where they fall. i have a question do you need to select display or graphics card to instal the legacy driver? (i have and old pc with uhd 520 i choose graphic card it was the only display choice that i had and it worked) did i create a new virtual graphic card? thanks a lot. Subscribed
Or you can use free software Obs Studio to broadcast it. I use it to preview my second screen on the screen of my laptop. So cool if you want a cleaner desktop
Im stuck with black screens now and rebooting isnt doing anything. My PC is bricked as of now this sucks I got this working and then shut down my PC while only the 3rd virtual monitor was displayed on my steam deck with Moonlight. Booted up my PC today and the screen is black on all my actual monitors and I cant connect with moonlight.
You likely just need to log in and it’s displaying the page on the virtual one. Probably set as main in display settings. Press enter and then type your password and press enter again.
This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31) The ALPC message requested is no longer available.
this is great! if I want to add custom resolutions to the options file, do I need to do that before installing the driver through device manager or can that be changed later?
Could you help me to delete the driver again I have it installed 2 times now and one is with the right options and resolutions the other one not. When I do the Tutorial for deleting in the powershell it says that the inf is used and can not be deleted because of that
I tried on Windows 10 Pro 22H2 but there is no new monitor displayed in the display settings. I already have two monitors connected via display port. I also restarted the pc an the driver was installed correctly. My screen showed the same as your (device manager). I used version 23.12.2 from 2nd december 2023. But there is no virtual monitor..
I tried the release version with no luck but the beta worked for me. So if youre having issues try the beta, everything is the same except the file/folder names
Thanks! Your drivers allowed me to setup virtual dual screen 4k PC desktops inside a Vision Pro from my PC laptop.
Glad I could help! Thank you so much for the support! I’m stoked that it works with the Apple Vision Pro!
@MikeTheTech please help if you find time
I can not thank you enough for this. I run a couple of "sometimes headless" machines where sometimes there is a need to be in front of them, sometimes remote is what is needed, and leaving a monitor powered on 24/7 just incase is just crazy. I would personally love to have an option that was somehow able to automatically disable the virtual display when a physical display is actually powered on, but thats just me swinging for the fence, lol. Seriously tho, amazing work. This is going to make so many people very very happy.
Thank you very much!
Yes, as mentioned before, a version with 10-bit and HDR support would be incredible! ✨
It’s out now!
does it support 120hz? because it only shows 60hz on my end.
Highly appreciate your work@@MikeTheTech
Yup! Just edit the options.txt file and reinstall.
@@MikeTheTech thank you so much 🙏🏼
Thank you so much for developing this! This is really useful for making high-res screenshots and screenrecordings, where you can zoom-in in post while retaining a high quality!
That's a great use-case!
I was your 1000th star on the repository just now - congrats and thank you!
Awesome! Thank you! So cool to see the interest in the project. :)
Great solution! Exactly what i needed.
Thank you so much for the support! I appreciate you!
I needed to run an old application in fullscreen that wouldn't scale properly, so I used your driver to place the application in the virtual monitor and upscale it on my main screen via obs. Worked like a charm, thanks for making this!
OMG ive spent 7 hours trying to find ways to seset this up for remote access. thank you so much.
Glad I could help!
You saved me buying a new headless dongle, so please share in the savings! :)
Thank you so much for the support! Very much appreciated. I’m glad the software helped you out! 🤙
The ones who have issue like I had, you have to install folder in C drive, drivers have issue because they dont see where are drivers located.
Had same issue, because I wanted to locate driver folder on desktop.
And thanks a lot for the video!
Thank you! grazie!
Nice! Thank you so much for the support! 🫡
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your support! Very much appreciated!
This is the largest Super Thanks I've gotten so far, too! So extra thanks for that!
@@MikeTheTechYour driver is a gem, worth every penny! Thank you so much
Damn nice work mike, hope you still had fun developing this! :)
I was able to do this and add the driver to device manager but I'm not seeing it show up on my system/display items like in your video. Any recommendations?
having same problem
@@theunsortedfolder6082 I gave up on trying this method.
Same
It has to be in the C drive, don't paste in anywhere else.
Works perfectly. I have a mini pc that runs a security camera monitor that is plugged into my TV, but I wanted to run other programs when I RDP. So now I can do that on the virtual display. Really appreciate this Mike!
How does this work with windows 3d acceleration? Since it's another display driver than the RTX card, can this cause any issues like micro stutters when gaming? And how efficient is it in terms of performance?
I got 3 monitors running at 120hz and need a virtual display for a complicated scene, so I'm hoping I can use this as a solution
Can't seem to get this to work, followed everything to the letter. Matched the correct settings in Moonlight with the settings for the monitor in Display, I've got the correct Output Name set in Sunshine but I'm still stuck with the black screen. I've also tried setting the virtual display as my main display but that didn't work either. The virtual display is active and working so I don't know why Sunshine can't seem to recognize it.
Have you had this resolved? What OS version do you have and what VDD version did you install? I ran into the same problem with my Windows 10 64-bit and trying to install the most recent VDD version 23.12.2. Then I tried reinstalling using VDD version 23.10.14 which was used in the video and that resolved my issue.
You're the best! I couldn't resize a remote compuer screen since the HDMI port and its dummy didn't work anymore. Thank you!
Glad I could help!
Thanks for the software!! If you can add 10bit color that would be amazing!!!If you want a custom resolution you can add it in the option.txt file before adding it as legacy hardware in device manager.
Will look into this! Thanks for the comments and earlier feedback!
Mike any updates on HDR? Keep up the great work
in device manager it shows added driver, but in reality there is no second monitor showing
Me too
same, can u fix it?
Had the same issue, you need to download the stable version that is linked to on the front page of the github page
This works great, thanks a lot! My steam deck and moonlight setup was working fine until one day it started outputting a black screen unless my monitor was on and nothing I did could fix it. I swear I'm gettting a smoother image using this well. This first game I tested I used to get tiny microstutters in, now its buttery smooth!
Thx. I have the Same Problem wenn my Monitor turn off all Games stutter ect!
Incredible help to the community, thank you!
Happy to help!
This is exactly what I was looking for, you are a godsend. I have a PC I use almost exclusively through VNC and wanted multi-monitor support. One thing I think would be nice is if it could mimic more than just 1 additional monitor. My ideal setup would be no physical monitor connected at all and VNC is just how I use it (unless something catastrophic happens forcing me to use it directly).
Change the number 1 in the first line of options.txt to the number of monitors you want. Then reinstall. :)
@@MikeTheTech OMG you're the best. THANKS!
lol. Much appreciated! Thanks a ton for the comment. I’m glad I could help out. :)
lightingstorm, bud can you share how you are doing that? i can see the virtual monitors in settings (thanks to Mike!) but cannot reach them via vnc. tried tiger, ultra and some others but unfortunately, none.
@@yettibeh I use RealVNC which just sees all the monitors. Those others might need multi monitor mode enabled. Do they work of you actually had a real 2nd monitor?
Thanks for this! Just ordered an RTX 4070, but I only have a 60Hz monitor. Glad to know I'll be able to enjoy 120Hz on my TV :)
how far away is your TV?
why not get a very very long HDMI 2.1
Thank you so much for this video, I was looking for a solution since my computer did not detect my iPad as a second monitor and now I can! Greetings from Chile and keep it up!!
Thanks This solved the issues running teamviewer on the headless server with Display ports
Nice! Great to hear. 🤙
Beautiful. For various reasons I need to use TightVNC to use my work laptop effectively from my desk, which unlike normal Windows RDP, cannot ask the system you're connecting to for a display configuration matching your client system. This finally allows me a way to bring my third monitor into play (a dummy HDMI plug got me the second display.)
my bro you are a genious! i've been searching high and low for an application like this. Many thanks!
Omg this has been bugging me for years. Thanks so much!
Glad I could help!
been a pain trying to use my headless server computer and this fixed that issue, thank you
Mike. Thank you! I have Windows 10 and you had a link provided that worked for my computer! Fantastic! You are the man! Thank you.
Glad I could help!
thanks man that was so helpful , wish you a nice day
Glad you found it helpful. You too!
Nice one Mike.
I've used your driver with chromecast to get a wireless second monitor using my Android TV.
Great video! Amazing way to add tons and TONS more windows to your OBS stream by extracting the screen or just small screen captures without having an insane amount of monitors, thanks for this video man this works for so many different people doing so many different things!
I did exactly the steps mentioned and even gor the virtual monitor to work for my headless moonlight setup from an android tablet ...but the frame rate is very less like 15 fps on resolution set to 2800 x 2000 at 144hz for OnePlus tablet , tried to change refresh rate from everywhere, still no luck 😢 ( Using 1080ti with ryzen 3600)
What were you trying to run? That’s a very high resolution. Just because 144hz is supported, doesn’t mean your PC and network can handle it. There’s a lot to game streaming.
@@MikeTheTech First of all , thank you for your reply,
But, when I used to stream through moonlight 6 months back, at 2800x 2000 resolution at 75hz ...it was smooth as hell no framedrops no choppiness nothing (a monitor was plugged in at that time with refresh rate of 75hz)
But since I broke my monitor, and found your guide,I tried to give ur guide a shot and it worked headlessly, but even when I want to stream at 2800 x 2000 at 75 hz through ur headless method ....I'm barely getting 15-20fps,
Tried changing to lower resolution at 480p and fps went to 50-60fps, but as 480p on 2800x2000 displayed looks very pixalated
(No harware were changed at anytime ,... except the monitor which I broke )
It might not be using gpu encoding on the display. You may need to check the sunshine settings.
holy this feature is huge. thank you very much!
sadly the latest version (HDR support) didn't work for me but the previous version works. I guess my Windows 11 haven't got the most latest Windows update.
Glad I could help! Hopefully it gets rolled out to more people soon.
Same here. previous version wokred great for me. HDR mode was available in the latest version but when i started games in moonlight via apple TV it just didnt work. it says try disable HDR or try a different resolution. even when i disabled HDR in windows it failed.
This is 100 % subscription worthy thank you!
Thanks for the sub!
Thanks for this! I'm facing a issue where all the refresh rates feel the same. I'm using this with Moonlight (240 Hz client display) and the refresh rate feels like 60 Hz even though I've selected 240 Hz. Anyone facing similar issues?
Yeah, did you get a fix for this?
For anyone struggling on installing the *bat file. Right click, properties, there may be a check box at the bottom saying it's come from another computer, click to allow it to be used, then re-run in administrator. This worked for me and don't forget to change the 1280x800 option to 90hz for those with an OLED SD haha.
did you manage to make 1280x800 set to 90hz? for some reason any 16:10 aspect ration resolution is only set to 60hz
@leonyltupasan add it manually to the options.txt
Thank you for instructions! I followed, but unfortunately give me an error on Win10 OS. Error is: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)
The ALPC message requested is no longer available.
How to resolve it?
I have exactly the same problem: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)
The ALPC message requested is no longer available.
you are the fucking man helped me setup gamestreaming throughout my whole home
Nice! Great to hear. 🤙
Can you enable HDR on the virtual desktop?
Not yet, that's not possible with the IDD driver. However, I have a version on the github where I'm testing a different driver type that would enable HDR. It's not quite ready yet, but hopefully I can get it working soon.
@@MikeTheTech did you have any joy with the HDR version? Or at least do you think it will be a possibility?
Man this is amazing and exactly what I needed for moonlight, no more trying to make dummyplugs from Amazon work, thank you
doesnt work for me. im stuck at 60hz even selecting 120hz
If I understand correctly, this can be working as a dummy hdmi/displayport for streaming while monitor is turned off?
Yup!
don't know if somebody already said that, but...installing certificates to your system from unknown sources is very dangerous and someone (soft or drivers you install) can use those certs to intercept or change your traffic :P
For what it’s worth, I do sign these myself. But to many I’m an unknown source. So it’s still a solid disclaimer.
@@MikeTheTech yeah, own cert is good;) until you keep root one secret😁
I've installed this (Virtual.Display.Driver-v24.12.24-setup-x64.exe) on my windows computer and I can see the virtual monitors in my windows settings.. BUT I don't know how to use them? They only appear in the System > Display overview, but nowhere on my actual screen. please advise, thx!
No option to add display adapter in device manager :/ any idea why?
You have been very helpful, thank youuuuuu! I just needed to have a virtual display, it works perfectly if there is at least one monitor phisically connected to pc. It seems not working when there is no monitor, but actually it's perfect for my case. Screens are visible even when connected with remote desktop. Thank you!
Have you thought about making a virtual mouse also? Then you would have the perfect set. I use Stardock Multiplicity for remote headless PCs and it has a virtual mouse option built in, but their mouse pointer is not very nice and only offers one bland pointer. I bet yours would allow choosing any installed Windows mouse pointer, which would be a major improvement over theirs.
The beta has hardware mouse support now. We can look into custom mouse images in the future.
@@MikeTheTech Thanks Mike, Just support for choosing a installed Windows pointer would majorly suffice.
Hi, I need custom resolution being setup for the new fake screen. Like 200x1080 or 1920x200, something like this. Is it possible? (so to say, not standard resolutions)
Yup! You can add custom resolutions and refresh rates to the config files.
@@MikeTheTech how?
This was a super helpful video! I appreciate what you did!
What about custom resolutions, can this be done via Nvidia CP or is it just a matter of editing config file or something? I like to stream to my S24U and I'd like the in-game resolution to match my phone's. You rock for creating this, thanks a ton.
You just edit the config file to add new resolutions or refresh rates, then reload the driver. They’ll be available right inside windows display manager. 👍 Thanks for the comment!
Nice this is great. Do you know of any way to replace actual monitor with a virtual one? Basically I'd like to split my virtual monitor (and not using fancyzones or VDM or DisplayFusion - they don't work for this purpose) I mean I want to either: Split my ultrawide into two displays, OR add padding so my display is only on the right side of my ultrawide. You seem to know your stuff, is there any way to do this from your knowledge?
This is awesome. Solved a big issue for me! Thank you.
Looks like the output name of the virtual display would change on every restart. Is there anyway to prevent it to change it?
Great, thanks a lot. But for some reason, 120Hz is not in the list, only 60Hz... Any ideas what could be wrong?
same problem here
Thank you so very much for creating this! You're a legend!
Thanks for the video and for the driver , it helped me on a headless system sittuation.
Great to hear!
It works great for my remote desktop setup that uses Fluid Jump Desktop
For some reason the latest version didn't work for me. Went back to "Virtual Display Driver 23.10.20.1" following the same instructions and seems to work fine. Thank you!
still not working for me, device manager shows the driver in yellow
Thanks for your hard work! Wanted to ask about how to use this and make sure sunshine/moonlight uses that display to open games on via playnite/steam big picture?
You can set the display to default in Display Settings, which works for most games, but some may need to be set manually. Turning off all other displays should make it go to it by default as well. You can set the default streaming display in Sunshine as well, and can find the display ID using tools\dxgi-info.exe
Legend, thanks@@MikeTheTech
Hi Mike fantastic this has solved a lot of my issues can’t thank you enough. Nothing worse than playing sunshine and it boots up in 720p all the time.
I seem to not be able to get 120hz though. Can only seem to get 60hz using the HDR version.
Yeah, I'm only able to get 60hz as well
works nicely with sunshine host on windows and moonlight client on android tv. also does 4k 120hz with HDR which is awesome. BUT...for some reason the virtual display driver becomes the main display even after deselecting that option in display settings and once you quit your moonlight desktop/steam big picture session the main monitor plugged into host pc goes blank or becomes secondary display. you then have to use controller (in my case) in mouse emulation mode, revert the display setting on the client tv (android) and then go back to using the host pc as normal. also display settings window remains bound to the virtual display screen and only disabling it in device manager brings back the window to the host pc monitor.
is this a quirk in sunshine/moonlight or windows or the display driver is the million dollar question.
HI Just wondering how you got 120hz and HDR to work, for some reason I am locked at 60hz?
Can I choose the option "Duplicate" instead of "Extend"? I only have one real display. My goal is to leave the physical display off while simulating a second display on, allowing me to use NVIDIA Moonlight whenever I want, because after a few hours of the real display being turned off, the app only shows a black screen.
No, because if you turn your display off, there will be nothing to mirror. You would want Extend to act as its own display while the main is off.
@@MikeTheTech, thanks! But using the "Extended" mode, is there any way to prevent the mouse from "escaping" from the real to the fake display through the corners?
@@ApenasUmGatoQualquer depends on the arrangement of the screens. I guess you won't be able to fully prevent it, but setting the screens on top of one another so that the mouse can only escape from the top rather than from the side can do the trick, at least it won't happen often
@@gabikralj94, it worked using "Duplicate" somehow.
Just installed this on a windows 10 box, Lenovo G34W-30 Monitor, but it is not showing a second display in adapters....any ideas ?
I would love to see a feature where I can specify which GPU the virtual display is attached to. For example,, dGPU instead of always choosing iGPU.
Disabling iGPU in a Device Manager worked for me
@@mikuri_13 it doesn't work for a laptop
@@RebelliousX I have a laptop with UHD 630 + GTX 1050 and disabling integrated graphics in the device manager works flawlessly for me.
@@mikuri_13 Mine is Acer Nitro 5 UHD 630 + 1050 TI and that didn't work. Main display is set for the UHD 630 by default. I can't even change it via Nvidia Control Panel. Disabling the UHD 630 from device manager will only mean that it is replaced by Microsoft Basic Driver.
@@RebelliousX yes, that is right. Your main display (laptop's screen) will always be on the integrated graphics and there isn't any workaround for that. You will not even have a screen menu in the NVidia Control Panel, only the PhysX configuration.
But the virtual display will work with the dedicated GPU if your laptop does not have any other option (if you purposefully disable the integrated graphics in the device manager). You can check the GPU usage when you're using only the virtual display - it will only be the discrete GPU.
It could be that it only worked for me because I physically disconnected the laptop's screen from the eDP port and use a few external screens via the DisplayLink dock, whose I can disconnect by simply turning off the dock, leaving only the virtual one... But now I also tried Zephyrus GX501 with 7700HQ/GTX 1080MQ and it works absolutely the same with the laptop screen physically connected. Virtual Display that I stream is being rendered by the discrete GPU if I disable integrated GPU in the device manager.
(both devices I tried use Windows 11 23H2)
You are "The One"
thankyouthankyouthankyou 🙏🏼
Happy to help! Thanks for the comment. I appreciate you!
Thanks for this content. Trying to setup a virtual desktop for sunshine. When I run dxgi-info.exe in the cmd prompt I can see the new display I made as an output associated with my GPU (RTX 3060 Ti), however when I put in the output name (\\.\DISPLAY13) into the audio/visual config menu I get the following error in sunshine: Fatal: Unable to find display or encoder during startup.
Fatal: Please ensure your manually chosen GPU and monitor are connected and powered on.
Any idea why this is?
Having a small problem
I'm currently using it with Chrome Remote Desktop and it works great, but sometimes my mouse keeps making a "trail" and it ends up jumping around when I have my main monitor turned off
Not sure if these problems are related but great tool anyways 😁
Help, i need the resolution as 2k "2560x1440" at 90, 120, 144, whatever, but it only shows 60fps, so i uninstalled everything, (even deleted the certificates and rebooted), modified the option.txt file to add these, and i indeed can select and use these resolutions, but the mouse does not show up while streaming on moonlight (on teamviewer it does), and enabling the stats of moonlight the stream is at 30something fps (90 is selected on moonlight settings, no vsync) and the decoding and rendering are too at 30something so it seems it is streaming at like a third of the resolution i selected (which was 90fps in this case) , but even after undoing this and installing the original files, mouse still does not show up and selecting the 1080p resolution that does have 90, 120, 144 etc framerate options, the behaviour is the same while streaming with moonlight and 60fps or more selected on the moonlight settings.
Thank you so much for this! For some reason I can't get HDR working though. Not a huge deal but for anyone having the issue where you get a "fatal video encoding error" when connecting from moonlight (im using an nvidia shield btw), I had to disable HDR from within moonlight even if none of the displays had HDR enabled on windows.
I'm able to connect in 4k now but it seems like my 3070 isn't able to keep up with the encoding or something as the moonlight stats show the incoming video is ~11fps. I saw on reddit people suggesting to turn of shadowplay/nvidia overlay as well as the xbox game bar so I'm trying that now. Either way, great work and thanks for the succinct video!
EDIT: some additional troubleshooting steps was to disable HEVC and use AVC (h264) instead as well as lowering the stream bitrate but it doesn't seem to be a client issue. On my host PC in my nvidia control panel i'm noticing its not actually showing the display here, leading me to believe its using my CPUs integrated graphics or something. Though on the moonlight stream statistics it does say "NVIDIA 3070" so I'm really not sure. I'll fall back to 1080p for now but if anyone finds a solution I'd love to know!
Thank you very much for this!
Is there any possibility of further customization for available resolutions? I recently started using Sunshine to stream my workhorse system to a Moonlight client running on my Surface Book 2- but it has a relatively weird aspect ratio of 3:2 (3000 x 2000 for my model; 3240 x 2160 for the bigger one). I searched for a virtual monitor solution like this in hopes of avoiding having to go into Nvidia control panel & change my resolution settings every time I stream to the Surface Book.
Yup! You can add custom resolution and refresh rate combos in the options.txt file. Just reinstall the driver after editing it in C:\IddSampleDriver\options.txt
@@MikeTheTech Awesome, thanks very much!
I’ve installed your incredible program thanks for it it appear on devices no pb, but I have a curious issue. I don’t have access to the display settings on my Windows parameters ...system. system/display
You did a great work, thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
This is not working for me, it says "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)"
Installing version 24.7.18 fixed it
@@thatpandaz6094 Had the same problem as you, I can confirm that also version 24.10.27 Beta works perfectly on Windows 11 as of November 2024
HOW DO I SEE THIS MONITOR IN A PART OF MY MAIN MONITOR?
Either OBS, of I have a Display Viewer app on my Patreon page.
I got this working..however, it will not do 120 Hz at 1440
Might be an easier way but I did this -
1. Uninstall the display adapter from Device manger and make sure "Attempt to remove the driver for this device" is selected.
2. Add 2560, 1440, 120 to the options.txt file
3. I don't believe you have to reinstall the cert again with installcert.bat but I did it anyway.
3. Then do the rest of the steps in the video.
4. After reinstalled with the modified option.txt file I was able to choose 120 in Advanced Display.
@@evinprice Yeah, i missed that part within the options.txt files, the resolution was there but was set to 60 in the options file, so i changed that and got it working. Thanks for the reply!
@@evinprice Nice!! I was trying a lot to rebuild a wrong number for 4K res, but didn't selected that 'attempt to rem..' option. Now it works flaweslly!!
good stuff. Thanks Mike.
You bet!
Wildly helpful, thank you!
What soft of streaming desktop can show 8k and 120 resolution? VD only can 2k that can be visible, and Immersed has only 16 mb bitrate, the text will be blurring. What soft to stream desktop do you use?
I keep trying to edit the settings and add new resolutions but they never appear on the display settings, why? I already tried new versions etc and nothing
Thank you so much for this, you've really saved my neck, you earn yourself a subscriber!
Oddly enough, with your fork I do get more resolutions, but can still only choose 60hz?
Thanks for the video! I literally needed this today.
Nice! Glad I could help.
Just installed this. I've got a Samsung S34C65xT ultrawide (3440x1440 100hz), I'd like to stream to over sunshine/moonlight. When I check advanced display settings though at 3440x1440, only 60hz is an option. Same with 4k and other resolutions.
Edit options.txt and replace the 60 with your required refresh rate. Then reinstall.
@@MikeTheTech will do! Hooboy how did I miss that. Thanks! By the way your content is amazing. 🤘🏻
Much appreciated! 🤘
You should not be using Display number or even full Display paths to reference displays. This will change between enabling, disabling, turning on/off, etc. Use Hardware ID instead that you can grab from Device Manager for each monitor.
Hi thanks for your work. i desperately searched to extend desktop (like real extension for icons like in android or apple phone) on my laptop with no results and then you came in. So i installed your driver following your video and i use win + P to extend. So cool . Then use the feature : make screen your main display after choosing the screen you want. just for people to know An important feature is the win+shift+ arrow key to quickly change windows from one screen to another and it works well. be carefull You can drag and drop icon like with a real screen but you dont see where they fall.
i have a question do you need to select display or graphics card to instal the legacy driver? (i have and old pc with uhd 520 i choose graphic card it was the only display choice that i had and it worked) did i create a new virtual graphic card? thanks a lot. Subscribed
Or you can use free software Obs Studio to broadcast it. I use it to preview my second screen on the screen of my laptop. So cool if you want a cleaner desktop
Im stuck with black screens now and rebooting isnt doing anything. My PC is bricked as of now this sucks
I got this working and then shut down my PC while only the 3rd virtual monitor was displayed on my steam deck with Moonlight. Booted up my PC today and the screen is black on all my actual monitors and I cant connect with moonlight.
You likely just need to log in and it’s displaying the page on the virtual one. Probably set as main in display settings. Press enter and then type your password and press enter again.
hi, thank you so much. does gsync function with this?
This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)
The ALPC message requested is no longer available.
Did you put the files in your c drive first?
@@MikeTheTech You mean did I decompress the zip archive and put it in a directory/folder? Yes.
@@MikeTheTech I tried it with the file in my c drive but still same error
this is great! if I want to add custom resolutions to the options file, do I need to do that before installing the driver through device manager or can that be changed later?
It can be changed later but requires a restart (or reinstall). I usually change them before installing.
A companion app is in the works that allows live reloading the monitor driver.
@@MikeTheTech thank you for the replies! I ended up just reinstalling afterwards since I forgot to add them first. Everything is working great!
Does it only have the ability to split once? i.e. turn 1 display into 2 only? Either way, super awesome job dude!
Nope! You can make like 8 displays if you want.
i installed it but it doesnt show me a second monitor
Update windows
want to do a PR give me reference how can I learn just like you learned
Jump into my discord. We’ve got a few devs working together and learning it now.
Could you help me to delete the driver again I have it installed 2 times now and one is with the right options and resolutions the other one not. When I do the Tutorial for deleting in the powershell it says that the inf is used and can not be deleted because of that
Just remove from device manager. Easiest way.
I tried on Windows 10 Pro 22H2 but there is no new monitor displayed in the display settings. I already have two monitors connected via display port. I also restarted the pc an the driver was installed correctly. My screen showed the same as your (device manager). I used version 23.12.2 from 2nd december 2023. But there is no virtual monitor..
Version v23.10.20.2 is working, but it has no hdr and only 60 fps
I tried the release version with no luck but the beta worked for me. So if youre having issues try the beta, everything is the same except the file/folder names
I get all the way through, and then Display Settings insists my new virtual display 'isn't active', so I can't actually set a resolution. Any ideas?