(Original thread started on 11-12-08 by Per Alm) I uploaded some recent photos of the Learsim simulator at mycockpit.org http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18010 You can visit our learsim.com website HERE As you know we aimed at a Learjet 45 but the project has evolved into a more custom pit resembling several bizjets and small airliners. Even though I put some hard work on the default Learjet aerodynamics, a friend of mine who is a retired Learjet captain found the small jets from Project Opensky more realistic in handling. So we use CRJs and Embraers from POSKY and the Embraer 170 from Dreamwings alongside the Learjet 45. We ended up with a small fleet I guess. We can do that since there are no aircraft specific systems simulated. And after all, modern aircraft are pretty similar concerning gauges and systems. We have a fully functional autopilot, a full set of radio equipment, functional EFIS panels, panels for internal and external lights. Electric panels and panels for engine and fuel, trim, spoilers, TOGA and so on. Altogether around 200 functional buttons and switches in the cockpit. We also have instruments for handling ATC. We use the electronic flight bag from FSWidgets. I can recommend this little program. Nothing revolutionary new but a very good way to organize charts, manuals and checklists. Hopefully the simulator will be finished next month. I work on the roof and shell. I've been working on this pit for three years now. When I started I guess Eric Tomlin was the only one building a Learjet. Today we are quite a bunch and even though I haven't been too active in the forums I have followed your work with great interest. I'm very impressed with your update pics. Ron's shell is fantastic, and the Learjet software emerging is very interesting. I have recently seen update pics of some home made Learjet gauges and they look fantastic. They look like exact replicas - fantastic. The bar is raised!! I just uploaded a new video to YouTube showing the beautiful Learjet 45. I hope it can inspire you guys. The Learjet 45 is fantastic!! The update shots of your projects is truly inspiring to me anyway. I might start all over wink and build a second simulator - a Learjet 45 of course with Ron's shell and so on. however, my wife is pregnant with our 3rd child so I guess it wouldn't be too popular to start such a project at the moment! Here are some of my videos: The Learsim simulator is working again. A brand new server/graphics computer! Next step is to build a curved screen and use multiple projectors. A friend of mine flies Challenger 850. He visited the simulator yesterday and he was impressed by the overall functionality of the simulator. You can do a lot of useful training in a comparably simple simulator. He exercised different approach patterns to Ljubljana airport in Slovenia. We circled around Ljubljana for 2.5 hours. Very useful training he said since he will do a simulator check within two weeks. By the way - a Challenger Level-D simulator costs around 100 million euro! Three times the cost of the actual aircraft. The crews pay 1000 euro per hour! UPDATE: A friend of mine flies Challenger 850. He visited the simulator yesterday and he was impressed by the overall functionality of the simulator. You can do a lot of useful training in a comparably simple simulator. He exercised different approach patterns to Ljubljana airport in Slovenia. We circled around Ljubljana for 2.5 hours. Very useful training he said since he will do a simulator check within two weeks. By the way - a Challenger Level-D simulator costs around 100 million euro! Three times the cost of the actual aircraft. The crews pay 1000 euro per hour! UPDATE: "Installed" my new projector, a Benq MP782ST. Seems to work quite okay. It's not a 225 degrees visual but a large front view and a fairly good alternative for those using a one projector setup. Zoom factor is set to 0.40 and I am using FS2004. UPDATE: I'm back to the flat screen again. I think the curved screen got "too steep". The picture was less sharp on the curved screen and I saw anomalies when I rotated. It felt like the aircraft was lifted, like in an elevator, rather than pitching upwards or downwards. Possibly a setup thing!? I think you'll need more than one projector , for a good result with curved screen. However Short Throw projector is the way to go. We now have an huge screen in front of our cockpit. This increases the outside view but also you get proper size of the objects in the screen. Now the 747s look majestic! (Posted by Terry Collins on 01-19-12) Great looking Sim Per! Have you had another play with the curved screen again? Maybe some trial and error with respect to curvature and setup mods will make it look more realistic? (Posted by Per Alm on 01-19-12) I am using a flat screen again. I don't have enough room for multiple projectors. A large flat screen is not too bad anyway. You need 2 or more projectors ta achieve a good result with a curved screen. I hope you reach your goal this year! It's very rewarding when you fly your home made simulator. "Desktop flying" using keyboard, mouse and a joystick will no longer be an option, that's for sure! UPDATE: After months of frustration with flickering textures I finally got it right when I bought a new graphic card. I switched from NVIDIA to ATI. It seems like ATI is more suitable for FS9. I had no problem in FSX with NVIDIA. I use a flat screen since I only have room for 1 projector. You need at least to projectors, I think , if you plan on using a curved screen. (Posted by Ron Rollo on 02-14-12) Great video Per! I love that approach. I have actually done that in a USN P3C Orion simulator several years ago. One of a kind. Your graphics card looks like it is doing a great job. The buildings and lighting looks convincing. (Posted by Per Alm on 08-02-12) I have uploaded a new Learsim video on YouTube. Nothing new in the simulator but it runs fine. Plan on making a new curved screen and to use three projectors......some day....I got my third child, a son, a little more than a year ago so there's limited time to work on the simulator at the moment: I'm impressed by your sims and see that some of you are close to touch down! (Posted by Eric Tomlin on 08-03-12) Congrats Per! It's a little known fact that I too just had our second child- another little girl that is almost 3 months old now. NOW you guys know why I've been so busy! Just remembered to watch the video. Such a nice sim Per! Thanks for always sharing videos. (Posted by Per Alm on 08-03-12) Thank you Eric and all of you guys! From what I can see your sims will also be fantastic. I compared my latest video with another video covering a real flight into LDDU. I'm still amazed by the graphics. The terrain and textures are very close to the real thing. And I still use the good old FS2004!! (Posted by Ronald Pater on 08-06-12) Great video Per, loved watching it. Your visuals seems to display color in a very natural way. Most of the sim video's I've seen have kind of a blueish or purple appearance. What exactly do you use for your visuals? (Posted by Per Alm on 08-07-12) Thank you, I use just about every software that makes FS2004 shine. REX for example but many more. I have Benq 782ST, I probably missed one or two letters of the projector spec. To obtain best match between outside view and the cockpit I film at FS dusk or dawn. This is the easiest way to match light sensitivity. I've seen many videos shot in FS daylight showing dark cockpits - not very realistic. I've made some daylight videos and I used external bright lights in cockpit for a daylight set up. I actually installed many spotlights (diodes) in the cockpit to simulate different times of the day like dusk/dawn setting, bright day light and for night flights. I even have lights to simulate light coming in from the sides. If you fly at dusk and have the FS sun to the left and combine this with light flowing into cockpit from the left it creates quite a "realistic feeling". the spots are placed discretely. I control the spotlights manually. I guess you could use a Lua script for automatic control (FSX). I have two switch panels for internal lighting. One at the back of the pedestal and one as a small Overhead panel. I've spent a lot of time and effort on the internal lights. I only use diodes, plenty of them. Diodes are durable and safe ( low current and voltage) and creates no heat! Again, Thanks for your kind words. (Posted by Randy Buchanan on 08-07-12) Hey Per, do have some current pictures with your BenQ projector set up. Meaning your physical cockpit and screen? I am wondering what feels more real. Large monitors or a screen with projectors. Would you want to speak to that since I am understanding you had both. This last video is just great nice touch with some cool music on final and your sound is well adjusted meaning one can hear the communications and the music clearly. Are you happy with the image definition looking out the window with your ST (short throw projector)? It looks great to me. Looking at the plane on final is cool too. I don't think you can do that with a "real sim" And how do you like the G4? I take it is more like aCRJ700. (Posted by Per Alm on 08-07-12) Hello Randy, I think a curved screen with 2-3 projectors and blended edges is by far the best solution. I never tried monitors. I tried curved screen and one projector with no obvious success. You need at least 2 projectors to be successful with a curved screen. Earlier you needed 3 projectors but since the edge blend function was introduced 2 projectors will suffice. Haven't tested a 2 projector system myself but I cant see no reason why it shouldn't work. One problem with monitors are the frames which become obvious if you use multiple monitors. One possible solution is to use the monitor frames as parts of the cockpit. With a 3 monitor setup you would get a "MD-80 setup" with 2 front bars. Another thing to consider is object size versus visible pixels. I think you should try to bring the screen as near the cockpit as you can to provide sharper picture but of course you must take object size into consideration. Large screen -> large objects....A 747 should look majestic in front of you - Will look like a small bird on a monitor. I think short throw projector is the way to go - however I wish screen resolution was higher. There are high resolution projectors on the market but they are way too expensive !! My goal is to use 2-3 ST projectors and a curved screen put as close as possible to the cockpit. A good way to build curved screen is to make a curved wooden (MDF) bar attached to the roof. Nail a 3-4 mm thick plastic carpet to your wooden profile and you will a perfectly smooth rounded screen with no visible joints. I tested this myself and was very pleased with the result. Since the carpet is form stable you don't need anything more than the upper curved profile. Another thing, I believe zoom level in FS should be set between 0.5-0.75 to give the true aspect of runways and other objects. Earlier I suggested a possible zoom level of 0.31. I'm sorry for that horrible suggestion. It creates object distortion , wrong perception of speed and runways look like never ending. I use zoom level 0.5 UPDATE: I've been using a flat screen the last year but we are now making a second attempt towards a curved screen. We had a test screen (plastic carpet) and it seems like a two projector setup (aspect 16/10) + Nthusim with edge blend could be suitable in a Limited space. Our screen will be a circle segment 240 cm in diameter. Height 140 cm. This makes a screen about 4.5 m. Short throw projectors is a must have. We use 1280x800 + 1280x800. AMD graphic card with Eyefinity , no Matrox needed. NVIDIA is another possibility but a bit more tricky to setup, I think Graphics setup in spanning mode. Our aim is to completely cover the two front Windows and the result is sensational. IT would be even better with 2 HD projectors but put more strain on the processor. I think this is a good setup in a Limited space. It's a reasonable cost compared to more expensive setups. (Posted by Ron Rollo on 11-01-13) Hey Per, Going to a projection system is a trade off from a crisp visual system to a more immersive visual system. I prefer the full wrap around visual system! If you have not yet purchased Nthusim, take a look at FlyElise NG: http://www.fly.elise-ng.net/ I find it cheaper, works perfectly fine and may even be easier to use. (I tried a demo of Nthusium and it was pretty tough, but I think the issue was the features I really needed were locked out.) In any case, looking forward to seeing your new visual system. (Posted by Per Alm on 11-01-13) I tried that one 2 years ago but wasn't Happy with it. They have probably upgraded by now. I find Nthusim okay, easy to use and doing the warping perfectly. Warpalizer is another alternative - a bit more expensive. If I had enough space I would probably go for a 3 projector setup. But in this case 2 is a lot more than 1. From what I have seen on their website forum, it's possible to reach 180 degrees with a 2 projector setup. Of course edge blend is the key function for a two projector setup. A two projector setup with Nthusim, however they fly rather low! (Posted by Ron Rollo on 11-01-13) The cool thing about only having two projectors is that You will only have one seam to blend. What I don't like about edge blending is that you have to give up some projection image in order to overlap the projectors to do the edge blending. As an example, if you have 220 degrees and want to edge blend, you will end up with about 180 degrees of view. (I know you know this Per, I am just putting the info out there for general knowledge for the other guys.) (Posted by Per Alm on 11-23-13) Well, if there´s not space enough for a three projector setup I think two projectors and a curved screen (near immersive display) is far more spectacular than a flat screen. I'll keep you all updated!! We are working on the curved screen and hopefully we cleared for take off during the Christmas holidays. I'll keep you updated! UPDATE: Unfortunately I was unsuccessful with the curved screen. It was too "steep". It was difficult to align the projector images. I think one needs more space to be successful with a curved screen. I'll go back to a flat screen again. Anyways we made a good effort!! (Posted by Randy Buchanan on 02-16-14) Hey Per, sorry to hear your screen exercise did not work. As Ron and Eric say it is all about immersion and I agree. It is also about accepting the presentation. There are technical pros and cons about each way of looking out of the window and in your case I think you need more like three large monitors. I am going to have four monitors if I can get back to work in my hanger. The Lear lends itself to two monitors because of the center column and with ultra thin bezels you really do not notice a line at about 180 degrees on either side on the cockpit. (Posted by Per Alm on 01-11-15) Hello friends! Silence from the Learsim team the last few months. Simulator is up and running after some service during fall. We have some technical issues with our website so we have been working on a new site. You can find us at the new website, http://www.learsim.com HERE (Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-11-15) Hi Per, good to hear from you guys! I took a good look at your project on the temp web page. Looks like a well put together project. I noticed that one of your drawings you indicate that you are using five computers. Is that still the case? I just went to three computers and still trying to iron out the details. (Posted by Per Alm on 01-12-15) Hello Ron! Actually we use 8 computers in the network. We are using only one projector at the moment. Screen is 1.45 x 3.2 m so its all right anyway. I would like a 3-screen setup but limited room for that. UPDATE: Learsim update. New warning/caution system made and installed in cockpit:Look Inside the Learsim Cockpit by PerAlm
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