Quote from Hangar45 Admin on December 18, 2017, 12:25 pm

(Original thread started on 02-03-11 by Eric Tomlin)

For years now Ive suggested that there's actually a good reason why the sim companies intentionally paint their simulator fuselage's a flat black. Here's 1 good reason why:

 

"A front projection system positions the viewpoint on the same side of the screen as the projector. The screen scatters projected light back toward the projector and viewer’s eyes. If no light other than that directly from the projector hits the screen, the image contrast matches the projector contrast ratio. Of course, there is always more light hitting the screen. Light leaks in around doors and windows. Simulator equipment has lighted gauges and indicators. Light from the screen will be reflected by the room furnishings back onto the screen. The results can be devastating."

 

In my opinion, it's very easy to over look this very important aspect of a great visual system. Anyone who feels it's not a problem may be testing too hastily or only looking at the fact that they can see an image, and not considering the gain/contrast and how much better it would be if not washed out.

 

For the entire article, complete with all the numbers and math, go to:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/content.php/286-Rear-Projection-and-Image-Contrast

 

For additional great info on Contrast and how important it is for the visual system, check out:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/content.php/280-Contrast-Enhancing-(front)-Projection-Screens

 

(Posted by Tom Goldberg on 02-04-11)

Hey Eric, you bring up some valid points. This is one reason we painted the new 737 shell flat black. We will be interesting to see when Ron gets his projector setup rolling what his findings are. I hope they work out good as my Lear shell is also white.

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 02-04-11)

Well, one thing is for sure. Ron and Shane have beautiful white nose sections (fuselages). However, as pointed out about reflection along with the photo here, it just shows that it's almost a guaranteed improvement for it to be black:

 

For me at least, I think that it'd be such an aggravation to spend $4,000 on projectors and screens and not have the absolute best image quality. That's my concern. When I saw the 2 articles listed above talking about it, I felt it needed to be addressed better. The cool thing is that it's not too hard to buy a black bed sheet and place on the nose section and beneath the window frames. This allows folks to show off a beautiful shell replica while maintaining the proper specs required for the desired visual system.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 02-05-11)

Great information and in the end, I will not let a beautiful paint job get in the way of enhanced or at least better visuals.

 

I have several ideas to correct this if it is indeed an issue. A couple things to keep in mind that we have in our favor as Lear builders. Ivar has built a 737 shell painted white and has used every square inch of his available screen to project an image on, which included an eight foot ceiling to floor projection. That's a lot of light! The videos that I recall were day time flights with lots of projector light bouncing around. I did not see any adverse effects. Could it have been better if painted flat black? I would say at the very least, it could not hurt.

 

The other thing that we Lear builders have going for us is that our shell is smaller, reflecting much less light than Ivar's 737. This could only be better for us.

 

I mentioned this before in another thread but I found if just the slightest amount of projector light hits the white shell directly, it creates big time glare issues. But when I adjust it just right so that it does not hit the top of the shell, no issues. And that was with a standard projector.

 

When I do get my projectors, I will cover the white painted shell with a black sheet to do some testing to see if there is a noticeable difference one way or the other.  We will see!

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 06-05-17)

Sorry for the long delay on getting back to this subject! The question is does a white simulator shell have an adverse effect on the projector visual system?

 

The short answer is no. I did not observe any adverse effects that made me want to grab a can of flat back spray paint. If you take into consideration the level of simulator that we are building, we can get away with any color, although I will say using a flat paint that is less reflective would be a good idea.

 

With that said, if this were a Class D sim, then everything including the paint of the outside shell is important. As the photo of the Lear45 class D sim indicates above, painting the shell flat black guarantees that there will be no reflection issues.

 

Here are a couple photos of my sim inside and out.  Notice there is no glare:

 

 

 

 

Trust me guys, if having a white semigloss shell was problematic, I would have corrected this a long time ago. With that said, just because I am not seeing any issues does not mean someone else is going to have the same results. The final results can depend on the radius of the screen system, the type of projectors and the type of screen material reflecting back the light.