Matrox

[Guest PoRrEkE]

Hi folks.Today I went to get 2 17" monitors I got with the matrox parhelia (had the parhelia already but since i payed just a few weeks ago I still had to pick up the rest of the deal).And guess what .. I am very happy with the result :)Only problems I see:1 of the 3 monitors has bad colors compared to the other 2the borders between the monitors .. when you turn .. the line of the horizon is broken because the displays should be idealy touching eachoter but they are not so ... that's kinda sad.when flying level things look super though :D

[iwik 0]

Hi,Its great to see you like the Parhelia.Ive been using one for about 12mths now.Wouldnt go back to single monitor again.yes it us a wee bit sad about the uneven horizon when banking,but you soon get used to it.You might want to go to matrox site and look at the settings Deximister has posted.They are pretty good.I am going to remount my three tubes so that they are closer.I thinkiit is possible to halve the gap that is present with three standardmonitors in there cases.In my case there is 80mm between pics.Les

[Guest PoRrEkE]

I heard of "seamless monitors" which are 3 TFT's extremely close together but probably unpayable for a student like myself.An other thing I though of is to put monitors further apart so that you don't think of them as 1 big view anyway. Position them more like where they should be. I guess that won't be much better but ..Anyway I have done a flight with the highest resolution but I don't think that will be the setting I will use because when landing at EBBR I got quite some stutter. And the previous setting (minimal res for widescreen) seemed to look just as good.

[Guest Erups]

Using cheap fresnel lenses you should be able to make a perfect continuous view.

[tigert 0]

>I heard of "seamless monitors" which are 3 TFT's extremely>close together but probably unpayable for a student like>myself.>>An other thing I though of is to put monitors further apart so>that you don't think of them as 1 big view anyway. Position>them more like where they should be. I guess that won't be>much better but ..>>Anyway I have done a flight with the highest resolution but I>don't think that will be the setting I will use because when>landing at EBBR I got quite some stutter. And the previous>setting (minimal res for widescreen) seemed to look just as>good.What if you "stretch" the picture wider than your monitor screen area, so the "virtual" images touch? You'd lose part of the visible view, but it might work for the continuity of the horizon.Of course this is annoying to tune it back and forth, but it might help.//Tuomas

[Guest deltaflight]

Phillip,One solution would be to do what we did and remove your monitors from their cases in a effort to get the screens closer. By doing this, I have never noticed the uneven horizons your describing. I would caution you though that if you do choose to remove them from the cases, be ver careful when handling. The tubes store a tremendous amount of voltage up around the discharge disc. Enough to knock you across the room.http://www.avsim.com/project757/pics/week23.htmlMichael

[Guest PoRrEkE]

:)I know 'bout the strong voltages from displays and they keep it even when power is off with capacitors so indeed handle with extreme care.However .. my thought on this is that removing the case could mean more EM .. (let me look up this word i want to use) .. interference (that's it). No such problems in your setup ?Either way I got 2 displays stripped from their case in my panels. Only problem is how to "hang" the displays then properly. The 17" has some kind of metal housing still so that's quite easy but the 15" is just the tube with a print hanging under it .. yup HANGING so if i'm not carefull the wires disconnect when handeling it.Either way I like your setup there. Looks clean. I might do something similar. But either way I'll have to start looking for an other 17" because the one I have on the right is like waaaaaay darker than the other 2 and I find that much more an issue than the "horizon thing".Maybe I'll replace it with the 17" from my panel. My gauges won't be hurt too much from that.Either way thnx for the link :) never saw that page on your site. Interesting.

[Guest PoRrEkE]

ow forgot to ask ..At the moment I have set my displays such that I have 2 monitors on the left of the center pole and 1 on the right. Since I think the left-side (PF) is more important on the visuals than right-side (PNF).I see you ahve set them up in the middle. Isn't it hard to see the runway on approach ?I think you are looking to the runway more to the right (since it is in the center of the 3 displays) on appr. while in real the runway would be right in front of you (no matter which seat you are in).Only way to get that issue right is with projection I think .. the further the screen the better.

[Guest deltaflight]

Phillip,Yes, we do have to account for that issue as well. What we do is this. We adjust the view parameters in the aircraft.cfg slightly to overcome this anomoly for which ever pilot is flying. We keep (2) config files in the aircraft folder. One for the left seat, one for the right. Then whichever seat is chosen to fly, prior to the flight we rename that file to "aircraft.cfg". I would caution you however. You remarked that the only way to get around this is to use projectors. We did. Projectors will not remove the problem as it effects both types of display setups. Problems such as these are overcome with very costly collimated mirror systems.Michael

[Guest PoRrEkE]

I thought of that but the issue here is that it is not 3 displays but just 1. It is 1 window and thus you can not stretch the image on 1 of the displays.However I have not tried it yet with using 3 separate views of the outside.

[tigert 0]

No no. Stretch the *image* on the *monitor* to be wide so part of it is cut off from sides - you lose some, but it might work to make the horizon align.3 separate windows will not work, it'll kill the framerate.//Tuomas

[tigert 0]

>I would caution you however. You remarked that the only way to>get around this is to use projectors. We did. Projectors will>not remove the problem as it effects both types of display>setups. Problems such as these are overcome with very costly>collimated mirror systems.Even some of the "big sims" dont work perfectly in that sense. Even those "big" sims that have the "segment mirrors" (like the one we got for our C172 sim from a retired DC-10 simulator) have this same problem - those need to be "aimed" at the eyepoint above the pilots seat. For this reason, both the pilot and co-pilot have a "straight ahead" mirror in front of them that usually shows the same picture, which can be, like Michael said, adjusted to whatever seat the pilot flying is using. Or just pre-set to favor the left seat.Those things have another issue too. The left side windows are aimed for the left seat and the right windows for the right seat. So the first officer cannot see anything on the left side, and the captain cannot see to the right, because he/she will be way off the calibrated eyepoint. All there is visible are black gaps.But it does not hurt that much in real training, since most what matters is when you break clear of clouds in an approach where the interesting things are straight ahead. Where you need side windows is mostly for practicing circling approaches - and those usually are to the left, whereas the left seat person can fly them nicely.//Tuomas

[Guest PoRrEkE]

hmmmmmz .. ?you mean with the settings of the monitor itself ? like with the knobs on the monitor ? can you go that wide ?

[tigert 0]

Yes, on the screen itself. I dont know, havent tried. :) But it sounds like it might work.Tell me if it does - we are going to face a similar task ourselves with our 3 collimated mirrors - we just need to find three 25 inch (or larger) monitors first, and we need to finish building the support structure for the mirrors and the monitors.. but yea, we also try to avoid wideview and 3 pc's and the admin & startup nightmare - this is the club sim that is supposed to start up by pressing a button.. So far it does, but adding more ingredients adds ten-fold amount of sweat and tears for making the whole system work reliably.. :)//Tuomas

[Guest PoRrEkE]

I will have to go wideview. Tnx for reminding me. I need to check that page and the cost.I'll slave the matrox pc so that I can make the total amount of displays up to 5 (maybe some day 6). Hope to find a Y cable for the 2 outer panel monitors. They show exact same data anyway.And as for startup .. I might try to find of WOL works (wake on lan). I only know the term and what it does but I have never tried to use it.Is it realy such an issue using wideview ?