I have a triple screen setup with trackir v5.. I've found at least in the case of some craft, that unless i fix the zoom from a ratio of say 0.80 or whatever it might currently be set to, to something like 1.0 that i get distortion on the left and right, where things appear closer than they really are...

 

From digging around online, i'm seeing only one of two options, unless there is something new in P3D v2.3 that can be set to compensate.. i'm seeing (as i've tested), that setting the zoom to 1.0 seems to fix the "objects on the sides appear closer than they really are" issue.. but of course puts you closer to the dash .. this is especially true, as i really sit, maybe 2 feet back of the screens, so not a 1:1 mapping to reality with the yoke in front etc.

 

The 1.0 does fix the issue with zooming on left and right.. (I have wideaspect angle view set to true as well)

 

I guess the other option is I could try control + enter to move the view point back some, if it sticks and visibly is ok..

 

Has anyone found any new methods to deal with this and what settings are you using.. to make it look as close to the real thing as possible?

 

Thanks in advance

I've made a shader for the distortion fix.  It needs an installer, cause installing it is painful.  It's almost done; based on recent demand I will have to make it a priority.  But have a go at the instructions here; make sure you use the files from dropbox instead of using the code pasted into the thread.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/442972-multi-monitor-dual-triple-etc-stretchfisheye-distortion-fix/

Does this work with nVidia Surround? I gave up on it for the reasons stated here, that is, some pretty hefty distortion on the side monitors which I never got used to.

 

Thanks,

Mark

I've made a shader for the distortion fix.  It needs an installer, cause installing it is painful.  It's almost done; based on recent demand I will have to make it a priority.  But have a go at the instructions here; make sure you use the files from dropbox instead of using the code pasted into the thread.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/442972-multi-monitor-dual-triple-etc-stretchfisheye-distortion-fix/

If this actually works Denali, you need to charge for it, yes?

Does this work with nVidia Surround? I gave up on it for the reasons stated here, that is, some pretty hefty distortion on the side monitors which I never got used to.

 

Thanks,

Mark

If this actually works Denali, you need to charge for it, yes

 

I've made a shader for the distortion fix.  It needs an installer, cause installing it is painful.  It's almost done; based on recent demand I will have to make it a priority.  But have a go at the instructions here; make sure you use the files from dropbox instead of using the code pasted into the thread.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/442972-multi-monitor-dual-triple-etc-stretchfisheye-distortion-fix/

 

 

This is very interesting.. i thought i saw you mentioning this in another post, but i wasnt sure it applied to my situation and if it works with nvidia then its gold too.. hopefully i'll get around to testing it soon.. i'm assuming you've compared your shader to just setting the zoom to 1.0 and adjusting seat position?  Is it better in that it allows for zooms like 0.80 etc (under 1.0) without fisheye distortion?

I won't charge for the shader, I may ask for donations for the installer.  I'll only charge if I can polish it enough and have other features.  But I honestly think this should be part of P3D in the first place.  Also, this community has given me a lot over the decades, It's nice when I can give back.  I would even be OK if LM added it to their shipped shaders after I clean up/ optimize it (code cosmetics, not performance, no real performance hit).  So the shader is out there in the wild already.  Just use it.

 

It's a P3D shader, so it works where P3D works.  It needs the resize app/hack along with it.

I also got rid of my TH3G ,3 monitor setup,the distortion was bothering me and my performance increased big time,when back on 1 monitor. If there is ever a fix I think it will kill performance even more.

Well, let me say this about that...

 

If this actually works, that is, removes the stretch distortion (in nVidia Surround) on those very expensive UltraSharps that I bought to enjoy surround that I can't enjoy because of the distortion, I'll be the first in the donate line... :>)

 

Mark

There does not seem to be a performance hit for the shader, I think because all that is happening is a move, no processing on the texel that is moved.  So there is no difference in FPS than what you'd see on say an ordinary 5760 layout.   On a 3770k @ 4.6, 2400Ghz RAM, and EVGA GTX 780 SC ACX, I see an average of just under 30FPS, unless I'm in some place like SFO or other stinky densely uncivilized area.  Then around 12-15.  I use ASN too.  I think when SLI is available I'm going to be very happy.  But actually I think I'm still CPU locked more than GPU, so maybe not.  My CPU is pegged leaving my GPU under 80% usually.  But as I mentioned in another thread, I'm not sure, but I think that jam goes away when I get higher CPU OC.  Gotta clean case and reset the OC I lost the configuration file for to find out.

Distortion is pretty much inevitable with Surround/Eyfinity without tricks with any game. Distortion is causd by wide "3D" FOV which is spread to the large flat surface of three monitors. There are ways to fix this, for example by projecting three separate camera views or counter distorting and rendering the image differenetly on the side monitors (there is software to do this). Some games, for example Assetto Corsa car/racing simulator has the ability to adjust side monitor views inside the sim and result is really good. It would be interesting to know what technique denali uses to correct the image.

 Assetto Corsa's method is to create three views and them seam them together.   My method is to put a software lense over the view that takes the views projection from the arc back to the line, or the sphere back to square. 

 

An interesting sidenote, there is software available now that can take an out of focus picture and put it into some kind of focus.  The idea is that all of the light information needed is present in the image.   This is much like what was seen in the movie "No Way Out", but the process was taking days for a single photo.  There are cameras you can buy now that record all of the light information and allow you to chose later what the focal length should be.  The future is much clearer now.

 

A little more information.  The reason why projecting on a dome has no distortion, or has distortion that is easy to correct with some software that matches points and stretches and tucks a little here and there, is because the dome shape is, or spherical projection, is what is being displayed to us in ALL GAMES.  You can blame Half Life for this (Maybe DOOM), and every other game since then for copying it and never fixing it.  We've never really noticed because our small low res screens were only showing a small arc of the view, but as the FOV grows, the distortion becomes more apparent.  

P3D sdk documentation has an example of a fish eye distortion post process. I'll have a go at it and refresh my spherical geometry math. Let's see if I converge to something close to denali's solution.

P3D sdk documentation has an example of a fish eye distortion post process

 That fish-eye has nothing to do with the distortion/stretch you see on side monitors.  It's a traditional fish-eye effect from photography/photo editing.  My solution is the exact fix.  There is nothing more to do but make it better by allowing some access to the size of texels available and the view port dimensions to work with, maybe bezel and angle of displays correction.  The problems people are having are the installation of it is a little more than most want to deal with, and I've written an installation routine but I won't put it out until I've got it thoroughly tested.  Anyone wants to test let me know.  People have enough headaches without me ripping apart their views unintentionally.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/442972-multi-monitor-dual-triple-etc-stretchfisheye-distortion-fix/  The code is in this thread, use the one in the link, not the one pasted into a post at the beginning.

 

This will help you with the spherical geometry concepts:  http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Projects/Hoyer/S3.html

 

Take this and put it into a function that runs pixel by pixel for the shader.  My variable names and notes are as clear as my time could allow.   The only thing to do to the current code is put it into a single float4, and there may be some instantiation of variables that I could make conditional so they don't run each pixel.  But as it is there is no performance hit anyways, just code cosmetics.

Please excuse my ignorance but can this fix the distortions on the side monitors for FSX as well or is it only P3D?

Good question.

 

I haven't heard denali say specifically that this will work in nVidia Surround as well.

Please excuse my ignorance but can this fix the distortions on the side monitors for FSX as well or is it only P3D?

It actually may be portable to FSX, but as a shader file somewhere, as FSX has no method to add a postprocess shader.  I might take a look some time.  

 

OR!  There are postprocess shaders in FSX.  Like I said without  an interface.  I've wondered what would happen if one put my shader code into a shader file, took it over.  I haven't done that yet out of I guess some stupid kind of respect for FSX and was going to add the function into the file instead, not in place of the FSX postprocess shader, but add the function to it.  That was going to take time that I don't have.  Also, I don't have FSX installed anywhere to play with it.   I am going to install it sometime because I keep hearing it's a great program, with LOD 16.5 and stuff like that.

 

 

I haven't heard denali say specifically that this will work in nVidia Surround as well.

 Yes, it does.  It works independent of hardware.  It's a P3D shader, and it works wherever P3D does.