37" monitor

[TC1 0]

First off I do not have FSX. I still run FS9 and I have been simming since the mid 80's.I was at a friends the other day and he was showing me his FSX configuration. His setup includes one 37 inch and three 19 inch monitors driven by Vista and a fairly large computer with a very large video board. The 19" monitors were crisp and clear, but not so much with 37" unit. Are there special drivers required to run FSX on such a large monitor?To me, many of the gauges looked slightly strange and while on the ground I often times saw flashes of light in the background. Also, his frame rates in the 2D cockpit mode were good, much lower in the VC mode, but the frame rates never rebounded when returned to the 2D cockpit. That is running in a unlimited frame rate mode the 2D cockpit and all views out side the aircraft were at 55-65 FPS. In the VC mode, the rates would drop into the 20-35 range and stay there until you either refreshed the scenery or until you clicked ok when coming out of settings/display/hardware. Any idea whats going on with the frame rates?ThanksTom

[Guest ThrottleUp]

It all has to do with pixel size. Consider this:The reason is the size of the pixels and the pixel "grid" as a whole. The TV screen is massive so they have to make the pixels bigger to cover that large area. On the TV the pixels will be this big. Here are 10 pixels on the 37" TV:|___||___||___||___||___||___||___||___||___||___|Here are 10 pixels on the computer monitor:|_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_|You can see that if we wanted we can jam in some more small pixels to occupy the same space that the 10 pixels of the monitor occupy - giving us a higher rez. This is known as pixel pitch which is the distance between the coloured "dots" (pixels) on a screen. The smaller the PP the sharper the image. So for example:22" screen @ 1080 X 1920 - pixel pitch 0.26mm24" screen @ 1080 X 1920 - pixel pitch 0.28mmBoth screens have the same rez but the smaller one actually be a little sharper cuz its pixel "grid" is smaller. The same rez is used on the bigger monitor but to cover the bigger space the "grid" has to be enlarged (pixels made bigger) to cover the larger surface area. Now of course in the above example you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between 0.26 & 0.28mm!! But when you bring in TVs the difference gets bigger which is why you noticed that FSX on a TV is not as sharp as it is on your friends dedicated computer monitors.What this tells us is that if you want to play games on a massive TV hooked up to your PC (and you want it to show a sharpness rivalling your computer monitors) then it has to be of substantially higher rez - which in turn would need a powerful graphics card.No special equipment is need to run FSX on a TV...but a resonably powerful card to push all those pixels is important.

[Guest firehawk44]

First off I do not have FSX. I still run FS9 and I have been simming since the mid 80's.I was at a friends the other day and he was showing me his FSX configuration. His setup includes one 37 inch and three 19 inch monitors driven by Vista and a fairly large computer with a very large video board. The 19" monitors were crisp and clear, but not so much with 37" unit. Are there special drivers required to run FSX on such a large monitor?To me, many of the gauges looked slightly strange and while on the ground I often times saw flashes of light in the background. Also, his frame rates in the 2D cockpit mode were good, much lower in the VC mode, but the frame rates never rebounded when returned to the 2D cockpit. That is running in a unlimited frame rate mode the 2D cockpit and all views out side the aircraft were at 55-65 FPS. In the VC mode, the rates would drop into the 20-35 range and stay there until you either refreshed the scenery or until you clicked ok when coming out of settings/display/hardware. Any idea whats going on with the frame rates?ThanksTom

I would also add to ThrottleUp that you should ensure WideViewAspect=True in the FSX.cfg is turned on. It's set to False by default. You will also need a video card which will allow higher resolutions.Best regards,Jim

[Guest ThrottleUp]

I would also add to ThrottleUp that you should ensure WideViewAspect=True in the FSX.cfg is turned on. It's set to False by default. You will also need a video card which will allow higher resolutions.

I didnt know about that one! Learn somethin everyday. Thanks for the info firehawk44 :(

[TC1 0]

Guys,Thanks for the quick answers. I'll send a copy of your replies to to my friend.Thanks again,Tom

[altstiff 71]

It all has to do with pixel size. Consider this:The reason is the size of the pixels and the pixel "grid" as a whole. The TV screen is massive so they have to make the pixels bigger to cover that large area. On the TV the pixels will be this big. Here are 10 pixels on the 37" TV:|___||___||___||___||___||___||___||___||___||___|Here are 10 pixels on the computer monitor:|_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_|You can see that if we wanted we can jam in some more small pixels to occupy the same space that the 10 pixels of the monitor occupy - giving us a higher rez. This is known as pixel pitch which is the distance between the coloured "dots" (pixels) on a screen. The smaller the PP the sharper the image. So for example:22" screen @ 1080 X 1920 - pixel pitch 0.26mm24" screen @ 1080 X 1920 - pixel pitch 0.28mmBoth screens have the same rez but the smaller one actually be a little sharper cuz its pixel "grid" is smaller. The same rez is used on the bigger monitor but to cover the bigger space the "grid" has to be enlarged (pixels made bigger) to cover the larger surface area. Now of course in the above example you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between 0.26 & 0.28mm!! But when you bring in TVs the difference gets bigger which is why you noticed that FSX on a TV is not as sharp as it is on your friends dedicated computer monitors.What this tells us is that if you want to play games on a massive TV hooked up to your PC (and you want it to show a sharpness rivalling your computer monitors) then it has to be of substantially higher rez - which in turn would need a powerful graphics card.No special equipment is need to run FSX on a TV...but a resonably powerful card to push all those pixels is important.

Great explaination TU! I was always thinking of a graphic way to explian this and yours is a good one.

[january 19]

The search for ever larger monitors is a little like a dog chasing his tail!We want a larger FS image, hence a bigger monitor- which then requires a higher resolution to maintain image quality. And to accomplish that we need a more powerful computer- all of which, finally allows us to push the monitor/screen a little further away- And so creates a need for an even larger monitor and higher resolution etc etc.!A better approach I think, is multiple small monitors displaying multiple FS Views reasonably close to the pilot- Thus producing a truly wide view- spanning one's full peripheral vision. Something similar to an IMAX Theatre right on your desk!Low resolutions then look just fine and the unified triple wide image after bezel adjustment, needs only a modest CPU & cheap (giveaway?) monitors. Alex Reid18" CRT & 2 17" LCDs @ 26" eye to screen= 45" width. A "full eyeball" perspective! No panning needed. (Pilot's eyes are actually 12" closer than the camera lens in this pic.)