Looks like the trade-off might be a very curved horizon?

 

Indeed, that shot looks very distorted - the buildings at right and the yachts at left show diverging verticals. Following this up it seems someone has made a post-processing image warper that goes some way to tweaking the edges of the scene. The picture I found looked like it kind of just squashes the image to the shape of a lemon, with some tweakable parameters. I don't know if there is a performance penalty. Presumably this also require that you render a bigger scene that you are going to display, and then clip it at all four sides to give a rectangular image. Still, I will be interested to try it, although it appears to be P3D only.

So what am I doing wrong?

 

The only way this will look completely right is if everything on-screen appears approximately life-sized and you have your zoom set to approximate the natural human field of view. You are on the right track with the portrait monitors but you need to be realistic about how much you are going to see - if the screens fill, say, 90 degrees of your horizontal FOV you need to make sure that is what FSX is displaying on them. This may not show you the entire width of the instrument panel. If you sit closer you can make FSX display more (zoom out). You should not get noticeable distortion at the edges unless you zoom out too much.

 

If you are going to use three of those wide-screen monitors in landscape mode you have to decide which particular compromise you are prepared to live with. You are looking at the world through a 5:1 aspect slot, which is simply unnatural. If you set it up for a natural perspective you are going to see a small strip of the forward view and will likely need to use a head-tracker to make it usable. Your only other option is to zoom out and accept more of a 'GoPro' view. You will see more of the forward view but everything will look too small, you will not be able to judge distances and speeds properly and you will get more distortion at the edges.

Looks like the trade-off might be a very curved horizon?

 

On second thoughts, this isn't a trade-off - I presume the curve and the diverging verticals would be there in the original. The image is zoomed too far out, which is why it is so distorted. In other words, this fix is only going to be useful if you want to fly with unrealistically zoomed-out views.

 

Thanks all, I will keep trying different tweaks and settings and see. As I'm travelling to the US in about a week, I also got a hold of one of those nice Dell 34" ultrawide monitors... Will give it a test run with my laptop (don't need horsepower just for it to load up to see the view ) and decide if I keep it and bring it home with me or if I return it.

On second thoughts, this isn't a trade-off - I presume the curve and the diverging verticals would be there in the original. The image is zoomed too far out, which is why it is so distorted. In other words, this fix is only going to be useful if you want to fly with unrealistically zoomed-out views.

 

I agree. It's all very well having a wide, almost panoramic view but if it's very curved/distorted towards the edges, surely this removes most of the realism that you're going for. The zoomed-out, fisheye effect also makes the cockpit structure distort as you pan around and gives an urealistic impression of distance on finals.

In other words, this fix is only going to be useful if you want to fly with unrealistically zoomed-out views.

 

Not really, it will just depend on how sensitive you are to distorted objects.

On my single 65" TV it's pretty eazy to see the change in size and shape of a object/instrument placed at center of screen compared to it being showen near the edge of sceen even at .6 or.7 zoom.

I would really like to get a fix for that.

 

gb.

65" TV ... at .6 or.7 zoom.

 

That's meaningless without all the facts.

That's meaningless without all the facts.

 

Well also Wide Screen Aspect = True.

What else...?

 

gb.

Well also Wide Screen Aspect = True.

 

Yeah, well 0,6 or even 0.7 is pretty wide although the distortion isn't all that much even at those settings. I assume you have a 4K TV, otherwise I can't imagine you are sitting close enough.

 

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Well, That looks good to me... 

stupid question because I think you answered this already but what screen setup are you using?

Yeah, well 0,6 or even 0.7 is pretty wide although the distortion isn't all that much even at those settings. I assume you have a 4K TV, otherwise I can't imagine you are sitting close enough.

 

Sorry, I should have said the distortion isn't all that much 'on a 16:9 screen'. 0.6/0.7 might be starting to get annoying on a 5:1. It's certainly noticeable on my 4:1 display, although I use a head tracker so it's not so intrusive. What we need to remember is that distorted edges are not the only problem with setting a too-wide FOV. The distortion of perspective is everywhere and affects depth perception and judgment of distances and speeds. On a 16:9 monitor the distortion is almost as noticeable at the upper and lower edges as it is at the left and right, although whether this is intrusive depends on what you are flying (and so what is displayed in those regions).

Not really, it will just depend on how sensitive you are to distorted objects.

On my single 65" TV it's pretty eazy to see the change in size and shape of a object/instrument placed at center of screen compared to it being showen near the edge of sceen even at .6 or.7 zoom.

I would really like to get a fix for that.

 

gb.

 

Adjust your zoom closer to 1.0 and the distortion will go away. The link that ronski posted earlier, whilst long-winded, is a good explanation of what is happening. You have to accept that having a wider, zoomed out view, whilst allowing you to see more of the panel, will always give you distortion towards the edge of the image and make things outside look further away than they should be. Try a zoom of around 0.8 or 0.9 and move the eyepoint back a little as a good compromise.

Adjust your zoom closer to 1.0 and the distortion will go away. The link that ronski posted earlier, whilst long-winded, is a good explanation of what is happening. You have to accept that having a wider, zoomed out view, whilst allowing you to see more of the panel, will always give you distortion towards the edge of the image and make things outside look further away than they should be. Try a zoom of around 0.8 or 0.9 and move the eyepoint back a little as a good compromise.

Thanks but please read my post #10 in this thread.

 

gb.

Sorry, I should have said the distortion isn't all that much 'on a 16:9 screen'. 0.6/0.7 might be starting to get annoying on a 5:1. It's certainly noticeable on my 4:1 display, although I use a head tracker so it's not so intrusive. What we need to remember is that distorted edges are not the only problem with setting a too-wide FOV. The distortion of perspective is everywhere and affects depth perception and judgment of distances and speeds. On a 16:9 monitor the distortion is almost as noticeable at the upper and lower edges as it is at the left and right, although whether this is intrusive depends on what you are flying (and so what is displayed in those regions).

So we agree?

Every monitor/zoom ratio has some level of distortion?

What's acceptable is up to the individual?

So a distortion fix is going to please a lot more people than just triple monitor/0.3 zoomers?

 

gb.

Thanks but please read my post #10 in this thread.

 

gb.

 

So we agree?

Every monitor/zoom ratio has some level of distortion?

What's acceptable is up to the individual?

So a distortion fix is going to please a lot more people than just triple monitor/0.3 zoomers?

 

gb.

 

I read your post #10. In post #21 you say that you want a fix for objects changing size and shape towards the edge of the screen at 0.6 or 0.7 zoom. As I said before, the only fix for this on a 16:9 screen is to move the zoom close to 1.0. The further below 1 you go, the more of a fisheye lens effect you get. Each screen aspect ratio has a zoom level which does not produce distortion. Unfortunately, it's usually where most people consider the view to be too "zoomed in". As far as I know, there is no magical distortion fix other than finding the zoom sweet-spot for your screen's aspect ratio and then accepting that you may appear closer to the panel than you would like.