Alright, to those in the know, I guess this is a pretty difficult thing to do, but considering what incredible things had been done with the Morrowind and Oblivion engines in the past, I thought this might be worth a try?

To those not in the know, before you exclaim that it's perfectly possible to play Skyrim on multiple monitors, please read on! But also let me say that I am in no way a specialist, I'm just barely grasping the subject as it stands.


So according to my calculations, my good old 16:10 monitor should allow for a 43deg FOV with minimal distortions:
http://artgoblin.pl/upload/multimonitor/multimonitor1.jpg
As you can see, where the flatness of the monitor diverges from the sphericality of the lens, distortions appear. However, at this FOV they are really minimal. Of course I always play with a FOV of at least 75deg, which causes considerable distortions, but more about that later.

Here is the set up I was hoping to build if Skyrim proved cooperative:
http://artgoblin.pl/upload/multimonitor/multimonitor2.jpg
With the side monitors aligned at a 45deg angle in relation to the main monitor, a comfortable 135-145deg FOV should be possible.

Now if the game actually SUPPORTED multiple monitors (rather than simply allowing you to use them, as it is now) these would be the distortions:
http://artgoblin.pl/upload/multimonitor/multimonitor3.jpg
Once again, the divergence of the flat screens from the spherical lens should only be visible at the monitor edges.

UNFORTUNATELY, the game doesn't know I've aligned my monitors this way. In fact, it doesn't even know I'm using multiple monitors! It assumes I'm displaying my 5760x1200 image on a single, superlarge flat screen. What this means is:
http://artgoblin.pl/upload/multimonitor/multimonitor4.jpg

The image on the side monitors is horribly distorted. Objects (and landscapes) are stretched horizontally and appear much larger and/or closer than they really are. Take a look at what happens to my companion when all I do is rotate my view horizontally:
http://artgoblin.pl/upload/distortion.jpg

I understand this might be impossible to fix and should have been taken into account by the game coders themselves. It's a real shame, because the landscapes and hiking are my favourite part of Skyrim (which is not saying much seeing as how I consider the gameplay and story itself to be unbearably boring, BUT bear in mind that I WAS willing to buy an SLI supporting mobo, another GPU and an additional monitor, just to walk around Skyrim in a proper widescreen surrond display).

The distortions ARE acceptable in general. I can definitely appreciate the incredible feeling of space and being there that the side monitors provide, even if I don't look directly at them. However, in that case, the additional 3840x1200 pixels are wasted, I don't need the side monitors to provide an image as good as the main one if I'm not gonna be looking directly at them. And thus, there's no way I'll be spending money on an additional GPU powerful enough to display that image at full resolution. (My current GPU allows me to play on a single monitor smoothly, but is already too weak to support two monitors with a good fps).

So maybe this failsafe would be possible? Make the main monitor display the game at a full and the side monitors at a halved resolution, as such:
http://artgoblin.pl/upload/multimonitor/multimonitorVARIABLE_RES.jpg

Even though I'm not much of a gaming enthusiast, walking around a place like Skyrim in a surrounding wide display has always been my dream. I guess I'm grasping at straws here! But if there's a shade of hope, please let me know:)