Mon, 12/12/2011 - 21:17
Hello,
I want to create a 2 projectors racing cockpit with about 150/160° of FOV with Short throw 720p projectors (Optoma GT720).
What do you think of this setup, do you see something wrong ?
I don't know how to make the curved screen for now, it is 950mm radius. How do you think I could do ? I have the tools to work with wood or weld a frame, but the big problem for me is the material for the screen.
Thanks for your help 
Tue, 12/13/2011 - 03:51
#3
Yes,u can make it with optoma GT720 -- because we did it.
Just a small problem is that u will have like a "black line " in the middle of the screen like on picture #2. How to solve this, we dont know. U need like softblanding of collors in central part.
Tue, 12/13/2011 - 22:16
#5
Not sure what they mean either. Maybe they're talking about the windshield post in the interior car cockpit view? Two projector center edge blend works just fine as long as the projectors are mounted in a rigid manner. Lately 2x1L Eyefinity is what I prefer on all my builds. Be mindful that NVIDIA Surround does not support dual-projector. Instead you would need a Matrox GXM box for dual-projector use with NVIDIA. 2x1 Eyefinity is simply more cost effective to implement. 2560x800 on the GT720's really only requires a single card to push that resolution so you don't need extra GPUs either.
Wed, 12/14/2011 - 18:38
#7
On my particular setups my NVIDIA Tri-SLI GTX470 setup uses either triple projector NVIDIA Surround or dual projector with a Matrox DH2G/TH2G or a MView MV103_HDVE_Pro. Microsoft Vista and Microsoft Windows 7 neither allow NVIDIA cards to span two displays in NVIDIA Surround or NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround. This is because NVIDIA only does 3x1 for multi-display gaming while AMD will do 2x1, 3x1, 4x1, 5x1, and 3x2 for gaming. NVIDIA does not have the 2x1 display configuration capability for surround display gaming natively without assistance from hardware boxes like the DH2G/TH2G/MV103.
When I typically do dual projector, it's with my AMD Eyefinity rig which uses AMD 5870 Eyefinity6 cards. At the moment I'd personally suggest if you do use AMD to buy the ASUS 6950 or 6970 DCII triple slot card because they are the most functional of the port configurations for current AMD 6900-series cards and have good vram capacity.
6950 DCII 2GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121431
6970 DCII 2GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121430
If you happen to use the NVIDIA side, you'll need either a Matrox TH2G or a MViewer MV103_HDVE_Pro to split the signal to the two displays. As for video cards I'd either pick the GTX570 2.5GB or the GTX580 3GB because of their good vram capacity.
TH2G: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815106011
MV103: http://www.dhgate.com/mviewer-mv103-hdve-pro-multi-monitor-adapter/p-ff8080812c2fb771012c300f5b23759f.html
570 2.5GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130687
580 3GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130655
My reasoning for picking those particular cards is they are the most current high vram capacity entheusiast cards on the market. With multi-display, vram capacity is very important as to not have stuttering or tairing from cache hits with current generation high requirement vram games (BF3 is a good example of a high vram requirement game). Those cards are merely the optimum suggested video cards, not a requirement. For dual-display any DH2G/TH2G/MV103 NVIDIA system or any AMD Eyefinity capabile system will work.
It's merely editorial opinion on my part, but AMD has it's act together a lot more when it comes specificly to dual-display gaming. NVIDIA is much more limited and rigid for options. NVIDIA will work, but it requires significantly more hardware expense for a simular experience/capability setup. However, I use both NVIDIA and AMD hardware equally and both do the job great when properly configured.
In your particular case with the 8800 card, it'll work just fine, but you'll need a hardware box like the DH2G/TH2G/MV103 to accomplish what you need though. With that being the case, it simply makes sense to go with the current generation AMD card instead of a 8800 + DH2G as far as performanace/price. If you wish to remain NVIDIA, you will need the DH2G/TH2G or MV103. I'm aware that many people prefer to be brand specific when picking video cards, but in your particular case, I'd suggest a flip to AMD on video simply for the fact you're using dual-display, not triple. NVIDIA simply doesn't allow you to do what you require natively for current Windows Vista or 7 machines.
I realize this message is a lot of information to process, so if you need clarification on any of the specifics let me know. The devil is in the details with exotic multi-projector gaming setups. There is probably more information detail in this post than you need, but explaining all the details of dual-projector gaming in the post will be useful for anyone who searches for the answers on the forum in the future.
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 01:08
#9
The problem with two screens and NVidia is not with Win7, it's witn NVidia. NVidia will produce output to a single channel, or to three channels configured as one logical display, and as far as I know, will do it only in landscape mode. NVidia has no option to treat two channels as a single logical display.
AMD, on the other hand, offers much more flexibility in choosing the channel configuration to treat as a single logical display. You can choose just about any combination that results in a rectangular display, and do it in portrait or landscape mode. The only drawback is that you need to use active displayport-to-DVI converters if you want more than two channels, but that's still going to be less expensive than adding a second card just to get the third output.
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 11:44
#10
Ah, XP does have horizontal-span mode. That was dropped when they developed DirectX 10 though. Be mindful that if you ever want to upgrade OS in the future my options in my previous post are the only real solutions.
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 18:09
#11
Thank you, this avoid me to make a mistake, I will keep your advices for my next configuration.
What about the curved screen, anyone can give me some advices to make it ? Or some ideas on the material I can use with a quite small radius like mine (950mm).
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 19:09
#12
I've seen people use thin masonite sheeting that is painted with Goo front projection screen paint before. I'm not sure what standard sizes material come in with metric countries. In the US we have sheeting that come in 4x8, 4x10 and 4x12 foot options. 4x12 would be great. 12/4= 3.0 Aspect Ratio and 2560/800=3.2 Aspect Ratio. That would work good for coverage and a bit extra for edge blend. Not sure what the metric equivalent to 12x4 foot size sheeting would be though.
The screen below in my sig in the center I think is a 10x4 sheet of material. You would do something simular but with a tighter radius using a 12x4 sheet.
Also, I just noticed it but is the front shelf on your simulator within the lens projection? Be mindful of anything blocking the projection area. You might have to modify the wheel mount shelf to not be in the projection area. That angles make it hard for me to be sure if it is or isn't.
Hi!
Looks interesting! My comment would be that it looks like the screen is drawn too large for the projectors to fill - if you have a look at the top image, where the yellow throw intersects with the purple screen is where you can get image - which is significantly smaller than the purple screen size... Maybe shrink the screen or move the projectors further back?
Alex