Any Beamers Out There ?

[Guest dougwells]

Anyway, here it is again, reduced below 200 kb.

WOW! That looks great! 15 FPS can be pretty smooth. My 2 year old system runs locked at 15fps and I find it very realistic. This is the direction I want to take my simming....large wraparound screen. Looks like it could be done fairly affordably with 3 used projectors. Did you make the cockpit enclosure or buy it from a 3rd party?Beautiful....

[january 19]

Sorry about that. It's been awhile since I posted anything and was distracted by the note on the attachement page that limited upload size to 1.8 Mb.--------

jb747- Beautiful!! Thanks for reposting your pic. I would be interested to see more. I'm especially impressed with the very smooth joints between projector segments. This pic is certainly proof of the curved projection screen thesis. Well done!Question- Am I correct that when your aircraft pitches up or down, that the horizon no longer maintains a straight line across all three segments? But rather it bends somewhat at the joint between the views? Pitch up and the horizons of the outer segments angle up somewhat? And visa versa.(Similarly, I would expect that the horizon(s) remain in a straight line when the airplane is in roll mode.)Alex Reid

[DickB 6]

WOW from me too - that certainly knocks my modest system into a cocked hat ! Busy now figuring out where I can install the other two projectors :( And I agree with Doug, 14 fps is no problem if it's smooth.One thing though - even on a large single screen, curved or otherwise, all you get is a forward panoramic view, albeit on a larger scale than TH2G. If you want to look left or right you still have to switch views or pan (as indeed I do). What you (I) REALLY want is a setup where you don't need to do that - you just look to your left or right. To do that with a single wraparound screen would (I think) require several projectors (probably more than three) to maintain focus across the full view. I'm thinking if I was going to invest in a multi-projector setup I would be looking at three separate screens (left/front/right) correctly oriented, though where to put the projectors would be a bit of a challenge ! It might also turn me into a 'pit builder' (love that term !)

[jb747 10]

Hi guys,Interesting questions. Regarding the angle between the front projector and the left/right during a climb or decent, I haven't noticed any distortion. The following two pictures show either a climb or decent. Look inside the Pit at the PFD and you can see which is which.A bit of help. The above picture is during climbRegarding the other question on straight ahead view versus side views....I originally used Wideview with a front view and a left/right view angled at 60 degrees. The sense of motion from peripheral vision was very real. I have been pleasantly surprised that the same effect is noticed with my current curved screen, as the curvature fills the front windscreen. I have asked the question of the Sol7 developers if, in fact, if you build a full 180 degree wrap around screen if you can look down the intersecting taxiway or not. The question is still outstanding.In any case, the sense of motion that I got with Wideview is replicated with the current configuration.Cheers,Jon

[DickB 6]

Great stuff, Jon. Do you believe you could implement a 180-degree screen with just 3 projectors ? If not, how many ?

[january 19]

--------One thing though - even on a large single screen, curved or otherwise, all you get is a forward panoramic view, albeit on a larger scale than TH2G. If you want to look left or right you still have to switch views or pan (as indeed I do). What you (I) REALLY want is a setup where you don't need to do that - you just look to your left or right. To do that with a single wraparound screen would (I think) require several projectors (probably more than three) to maintain focus across the full view.

Dick B- not so: it is quite feasible to display 3 views on one screen-ie views LFwd,Fwd,RFwd all synched into one. See my earlier post #5 in this thread for a screenshot with triple views- one monitor. This is the method I would use to save on multiple projectors. However it does not give you the very wide screen effect of 3 projectors- merely a 4:3 ratio screen displaying a 135

[DickB 6]

Hi Alex - sorry, as usual I probably wasn't making myself clear ! I know you can put the LFwd/Fwd/RFwd views together on one screen, but my point is that they are all Forward views. I agree that gives you a wider forward view, but you still need to pan or change to a new view if you want to look to the left or right side e.g. out of the side window. For some reason I seem to do that a lot !It may be that Jon's suggested 180 degree screen will provide side as well as front views, but it sounds like there are still some unanswered technical questions to be resolved !

[january 19]

Hi Alex - sorry, as usual I probably wasn't making myself clear ! I know you can put the LFwd/Fwd/RFwd views together on one screen, but my point is that they are all Forward views. I agree that gives you a wider forward view, but you still need to pan or change to a new view if you want to look to the left or right side e.g. out of the side window. For some reason I seem to do that a lot !It may be that Jon's suggested 180 degree screen will provide side as well as front views, but it sounds like there are still some unanswered technical questions to be resolved !

Dick- sorry,I misunderstood. Each FS View spans 45

[DickB 6]

Five projectors - now we're talking. We'll have it up to double figures before we're done !Thanks for the side view/outer monitor tip. I'll give it a try and see if it works for me (a lot of this stuff is very subjective). Most times I just pan.

[january 19]

Hi guys,Interesting questions. Regarding the angle between the front projector and the left/right during a climb or decent, I haven't noticed any distortion. The following two pictures show either a climb or decent. Look inside the Pit at the PFD and you can see which is which.A bit of help. The above picture is during climbCheers,Jon

Jon- your pics and comment to the effect of no horizon twist/distortion during pitch up/down, is encouraging. My guess is that the very large size of your display makes any twist virtually insignificant. In which case, another good reason for large projection displays versus "small" ones via multi monitors!The idea behind my proposed 80"x60" screen with 3 views all on one projector (see above) is that it would fit into an average sized room.Your setup and the result is impressive.Regards Alex Reid