Quote from Hangar45 Admin on December 17, 2017, 12:25 pm

(Original thread started on 11-06-11 by Mark L.)

Just curious what others builders are doing with their screen setups that are using multiple monitors. I am thinking of getting a TH2Go. Are you just using the standard front view with it stretched across all 3 monitors or do you have a 'window' defined for each monitor?

 

Running at roughly .6 zoom and the left and right screens seem to distort the field of vision more than it really would. Just curious what others are doing, if we were driving projectors or if you already are, are you using three defined windows or views?

 

(Posted by Alaxus by 11-07-11)

Is this FSX or FS9? I suppose it does not matter. From my research on the net it seems that a five window setup is the best followed by the three window setup followed by the single view zoomed all the way out (this sucked BTW, I just tried it).

 

I am now trying to set up the three window setup as my PC wont drive a five window setup. It doesn't matter which way you will go as there will be compromises on each.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 11-07-11)

Check out this site.

http://www.boeing737sim.se/

 

I contacted them regarding their setup and this was the reply:

 

Hello Oz,

Our measurements:

The screen sits on 2.20 meters from the eye point.  Our sim room height is 2.50 meters - 2.40 seems to be minimum with that screen measurement.  The 3 beamers are short throw (0.50) BenQ WXGA projectors at 1200x800 pixels resolution.  Looks like a pretty good setup.

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 11-07-11)

I'm using FSX and currently just have three 20" monitors. Alaxus, how did you go about setting up the three windows? Settings? I'd like to try this.

 

Mark, thanks for the link, cool site, Interesting to see what all they have done.

 

(Posted by Rand Mathews on 11-08-11)

I run TH2GO across all 3 screens, non-windowed, set at between .80 and 1.00

 

I start FSX, PM sounds, EFB, etc... in my 4th monitor attached to the some computer, then I drag the FSX window to the center monitor of the TH2GO, then hit full screen, my default zoom is set at .80

 

Then with the 4th monitor now just a black screen, I will drag my GPS and weather radar into that area. Hope this helps.

 

(Posted by Alaxus on 11-09-11)

Mark have a read of this doc, it should explain everything.

http://www.flightdeck737.be/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Visual-system-tutorial.pdf

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 11-09-11)

Awesome document, which will be handy to have, but I'm not ready for projectors yet. My question applies to monitors only at this time. I found a utility that match everything up nice that's described in this link, but the images are worthless once you leave the ground as they are at different angles, it displays 3 different views or in anything other than level flight. I believe this process is for utilizing it with Warpalizer or other warping software.

 

I thought I had done this before when I was running WideView, but maybe that's why it worked, but the downside of WideView is there is no continuity in the clouds etc. I just thought until I got ready for projectors I could eliminate the 'speed warping' on the single front view stretched across all 3 monitors.

 

(Posted by Alaxus on 11-10-11)

The reason that the images don't line up is that you have the view angles set in the panel.cfg wrong. It takes a fair bit of effort get it right in FS9. I am still working on my panel.cfg so as to try and get the view right. So far I have 180 deg FOV, but my angles are wrong.

 

In your case with just three monitors you may find that a single spanned window zoomed out to .4 or .3 may give you the FOV that you require. I will post my panel .cfg when I am done.

 

(Posted by Rand Mathews on 11-10-11)

What I posted above works for me. But I'm sure everyone's setup will be different, depending on monitor size, distance from monitors, FS9 or FSX, etc. If I have mine set at .4 the sides are stretched out and the illusion of speed is way to fast.

 

https://youtu.be/T7y2_2MB-2I

 

I don't think there is a set formula on zoom levels, it will be a matter of experimentation and personal preference.

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 11-10-11)

That's true too, Rand. I'm curious as to how well this works with HDTV (42"+ x3) because I've seen some incredible sims with that setup, but when you look at the specs for the TH2Go, it seems that it's not very compatible with some displays. But, I still have some learning to do on this front.

 

For example, see:

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/guide.html .

 

5040x1050 is max res for DVI to DVI and for DI to VGA as well as VGA to VGA it's 4080x768.

 

So my question is that if you're using this below, which is a 1080 set, then 1080x3=3240.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7248306&CatId=3650

 

Which is a 1080 set, then 1080x3=3240. I'm assuming this will work fine for both using DVI or VGA?

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 11-10-11)

Eric, it's not 1080 x 3 it's 1920 x 3. The resolution of that TV is 1920 X 1080 (1920 is the horizontal resolution). So 1920 X 3 is 5760 which is the specification from Matrox.

See here: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/[/url

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 11-10-11)

Like I said, yes, similar to Rand's setup without the 4th monitor for now. Running what, 5760 x 1024 , full screen across the 3 . It's when at altitude the left and right monitors give you a 'fish eye' effect. That is what I'd like to eliminate for now, but may not be doable.

 

As Alaxus stated the view angles are wrong when trying the 3 window setup and that's where I'm not sure what it needs to be or if doable. You would think somewhere out there that somebody tackled this before and I could find some solutions to do this, but I've been striking out so far.

 

(Posted by Alaxus on 11-11-11)

It certainly is doable. Though that being said, no matter which setup you go for there will always be a compromise with something in the picture. Still working on my config though. Its slowly getting better.

 

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

So, how are the guys using three projectors and not having this issue again?

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 11-11-11)

It may be like Alaxus said, that I've got the wrong angles? I just haven't invested hours to figure out if that's it or not. Was hoping someone may have stumbled on the solution themselves or on the internet. I found a Excel spreadsheet that calculates and creates the text for the aircraft.cfg? for 4 windows and it looks as though it worked great except for the fact that I had the anomaly with an attitude of any but straight and level flight.

 

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

I really think a visit over to Cockpitbuilders would be a good investment of time for this issue Mark. It may save you a few hairs and several hours of aggravation. Take a look at the end of this thread:

http://www.flightdecksolutions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4477

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 11-11-11)

Well, seems to be opinions both ways on 3 (should be 4) versus a single window. Notice the distortion on the left and right screens. That's the part I don't care for.

 

Not really so bad on the larger screen, but way more noticeable on the 20" monitors in my opinion. Guess I'll live with it for now.

 

(Posted by Alaxus on 11-11-11)

The other thing you can do is set the pan in 2d cockpit mode in the fs9.cfg

 

Pan View in 2D Cockpit: I often fly in the 2D cockpit mode with either the mini-panel or no panel and I like to look around. Add this line in your FS9.CFG file under CONTROLS and you will be able to pan the view. Just remember to hit the space bar to put it back to the forward view .

 

PAN_IN_COCKPIT_MODE=1

 

This way you can pan around until you get the right angles. Don't forget the gap in between the monitors too. You will need to take out a few degrees of picture to compensate.

 

Like I said before, there will always be a compromise somewhere in the image. I have had to make a number of them. One of the biggest is the fly-screening of the projectors. Until the short throw 1920*1080 projectors come out at a reasonable price, you don't have much choice.

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 11-12-11)

I'm sure we will find you a solution. There's just not a large group of folks here that's worked on these issues yet here in the Hangar.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 12-13-12)

I came across this quite good comparison of the 3 different video options if you are planning more than one screen. The summary which you can read comes up as NVidia as the authors winner. This should help in deciding, as the wrong choice can get expensive. I think in my case I have learned that when buying a video card, buy an identical second one at the same time. That way, in the case of NVidia you instantly have the SLI setup and can add more monitors/projectors plus instructor station. Not sure if it is helpful, but you can also setup the 2nd card to do the processing for the Physx.

 

The shops (at least here in Australia) are very quick to get rid of "old" stock. I had a perfectly good GTX 580 but I could not source another one as all the shops had 'upgraded' to the GTX 6xx series. For the record I purchased 2 GTX670's. And before anyone points out that FSX ( P3D?) does not utilize the dual GPU's of an SLI installation, I did it for the multiple monitor setup and to future proof, if possible. Who knows what P3D 2.0 will bring? Hope this site is helpful.

 

http://www.wsgf.org/article/red-vs-green-vs-blue-v2-conclusion

 

(Posted by Manfred on 12-13-12)

Thanks for posting this link Mark. I always considered ATI to be the Ford of video cards and Nvidia the Holden. Of course I drive a Commodore! One of these days I'll get around to putting my second Nvidia card in the box.

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 12-15-12)

Not to seem ignorant but what is "bezel correction" and "tearing"?

 

(Posted by Manfred on 12-15-12)

As I understand it, bezel correction in an adjustment of the displayed image so that a diagonal line from one monitor continues on the next monitor without stepping. So you could put a ruler across both screens and it lines up. Another way to imagine it is the pixels that are normally shown on the next monitor are deleted to simulate them being behind the bezel.

 

Tearing is like the old effect you got from VHS tapes when fast forwarding. You get horizontal strips across the screen that don't match up.

 

(Posted by Eric Williams on 12-15-12)

That about covers it. As for tearing- it's a bit subjective, but once you fire up FSX and experience it- you will know exactly what it is.

 

I have it pretty bad if I don't limit frames (let the graphics card run away and come back down) and I think I changed something with force V-sync (or something similar) to make it gone. Just do a base install of FSX and pan around with no teaks. It will likely rear its ugly head.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 12-16-12)

Alan, the boys have covered it pretty well. The guts of it is we all have decisions to make if we have 3 or more screens. If you have 3 projectors then there are a few programs that will seamlessly join the pixels.. for a fee... so that you see no gaps. Now if you choose to go the monitor route then things get interesting. The bezels ore obviously visualized so programs that join the pixels are helpful however you will still see the monitor bezel. Hopefully within a year we will be able to buy TV's that go right to the edge so that these programs will be redundant. The TV's are here, as advertised, but not quite to the edge ....yet.