Utilizing a second monitor with Spectator_Screen

--- THIS GUIDE IS UNLISTED ---
Due to how half baked and awkward this feature is to use, plus my own inability to answer the questions in comments in a timely manner, I've unlisted the guide so as to not mislead people. To my knowledge, these commands still work, but I'm afraid I can't give any support for them. Apologies.


TTS has had the capability of showing a secondary Spectator view on another monitor since May of this year, yet oddly no instructions were provided on its use. This guide will detail how to activate the feature and some of the options available.

Opening the Console and using Commands

To start using commands, you need to open the console. By default, the console is bound to the Tilde key, underneath escape. You can rebind this key at the bottom of the Controls tab in the Configuration window.














Pressing the key should open a dark variant of the chat window.
All commands provided need to be entered into the console for them to take effect. If you are curious about what other commands are available, you can enter Help to be presented with a full list of commands, or Help followed by the name of a command for further information on what the command does. In most cases, type 1 after a command to enable it, and 0 to disable.

Using the Spectator Window

In the console, enter the command spectator_screen 1 to enable the spectator camera on your secondary monitor.
Currently the spectator view will mimic your main camera at all times, which isn't very useful. To get it to focus on a specific area, move your camera until it matches the view you wish to see on the spectator camera (You can press P twice to enter the top-down camera, which is often helpful for this view), then hold CTRL and press 1 to save the camera position.
Note that you can use different numbers to save multiple positions. Useful for boards with a lot of important areas!

Enter the command spectator_camera_load 1 to move the spectator camera to the specified position.
After loading a camera position, the spectator camera will no longer follow your main view and instead stay locked to that position. To return to normal, use the command spectator_camera_follow_player 1.

Binding

Typing the full commands each time can quickly become tiresome. With the bind command you can set these commands to keyboard keys to make operating the camera easier. The command is typed as bind *KEY* *COMMAND*. So for example, to bind F1 to move the spectator camera to camera position 1 the command would be bind F1 spectator_camera_load 1. The Unbind command will remove the binding assigned to the key.
Alternatively, you can use ui_buttons, which are mentioned in the commands section below, but require more configuration.

Autoexec

With the command edit autoexec you can open the Autoexec file. Any commands entered in this area will automatically be executed whenever the game is started. You can add the spectator screen command and your preferred settings here to have it automatically opened alongside the game each time. Bindings and UI Buttons are reset when the game is closed, so they also need to be included.

Useful commands

spectator_screen - Enables or disables the secondary Spectator screen.
spectator_window - Opens a Spectator view in its own movable window. Not available
when spectator_screen is enabled. Also available by right-clicking the background.
spectator_camera_load - Moves the spectator camera to the specified Camera location.
spectator_show_grid - Shows grid lines on the spectator view.
spectator_camera_follow_attachment - Sets the camera to constantly follow an object or player cursor specified by spectator_camera_attachment. This is overridden by the follow player mode, so you'll also have to use spectator_camera_follow_player 0 for it to take effect.
spectator_camera_attachment - Enter an object's GUID or Player's Colour for the camera to follow.
spectator_camera_follow_player - Sets the spectator camera to mimic your own (Default).
UI_button - Creates a button that will run a set command.
A basic button can be created with ui_button *BUTTON LABEL* *X POSITION* *Y POSITION* *COMMAND*. Check the help menu for additional options.

[poppda24]

@Renegade Ronin
Hey mate three years late here, but OBS can record specific apps or entire screens, so that would be my go to.
Set a new Scene in OBS and have it record eveything on Screen "x".

[SogeMoge]

Hey people, the solution of 3+ Displays ptoblem can be solved with "spectator_activate_with_resolution" command.
Firstly execute command "displays? no get the exact number of desired display (count starts from 0)
spectator_activate_with_resolution 1920 1080 -d 2

https://github.com/Berserk-Games/Tabletop-Simulator-Console-Commands/blob/main/Commands.md#spectator_activate_with_resolution

[PhotoJoe]

Same question as Joda19:


Does someone knows how I can choose on witch screen the spectator view will use ?
I have three screens and the spectator screen appear on screen #2 but I would want to appear on screen #3

Thank you

[Jayven Foxx]

Hi there, I am having the same problem as others on here in that once the spectator screen is open, no combination of commands will close it again until I quit out of TTS completely! Any news on a solution to this one? Great work though!

[JoseDracu]

Nice!

[ioda19]

Hi,

Does someone knows how I can choose on witch screen the spectator view will use ?
I have three screens and the spectator screen appear on screen #2 but I would want to appear on screen #3

Thank you

[Renegade Ronin]

do you know of a way to expose the Spectator screen to OBS?

[ifus]

When I am launching TTS on dual monitor, it only launches on the main screen, is there anything I should do to make it work? Also asked a friend to try it, did not work for him as well.
It would be really nice to play Gloomhaven on dual monitor.

[Wrzlprnft]

Is there a way to have the spectator cam go into a othrographic top down mode like one can cycle the player cam to? because setting my camera to a top down position and top down perspective and saving that doesn't load the perspective into the spectator cam

[BA|Oddbod]

I am also unable to turn off the Spectator Screen once it's turned on. It says "Spectator View displayed on screen cannot be disabled" Any suggestions?