Widescreen Gaming Forum

You have normal hearing, that's why you don't get that 'noise problem'

I mainly hate fans because they're:

- unnecessary
- proof of a lack of good design
- not cheaper than fanless alternatives

A properly designed device can be fanless, cheaper and still function as needed. Proof is available already but most companies are too dumb to take notice.

Ghimpi,

Great idea but you can do it much cheaper with PVC tubing found at hardware stores.

Cheap, Super light, easy to cut and shape, and lots of angle joints for you to get it right.

Do show us your creation if you make it!

monitor vs projector, price isn't the only difference.

a monitor doesn't have a loud fan, a lamp to be changed after a few months or the need for an expensive screen.

Yes this is true but there are hidden costs in everything.


First of all a projector can be easily anywhere from 30" to over 100"

I use a 37" monitor right now and its great but getting a 60" HDTV instead would start to make the projector a better idea.

Why?

Well the cost of power. A 60" TV can pull like 500w of power while a projector is like 250w, in a years time the energy cost would have paid for your bulb easy.

Also while you may have to replace a bulb about once a year (much longer in my case as I do not use it often) its nice to just replace a bulb for a new "screen"

In a LCD TV/Monitor once you have a pixel die or a set of pixels die... you have to replace the entire unit to fix that problem. The projector itself is going to last near forever and the cost of a bulb replacement is quite cheap compared to the cost of a bigger size HDTV/Monitor replacement.

If your using a 19"/20" monitor then none of this matters, your power draw is small (about 45-60w), your replacment cost is rather low, and it can last a long time. However its an apples to oranges comparison you cant compare a little 20" monitor to a 100" projected screen in any way. The experience of a bigger screen is simply amazing.

I still to this day can easily say the 37" Westinghouse I bought was the best purchase I ever made for my computer. Id rather have my old AMD Opteron system with a 7800GTX on my 37" than my brand new quad core q6600 with Dual ATI 4850's on a 20" Dell monitor.

The experience is that much better!

No matter how good your computer is, the screen is the interface letting you enjoy all that content/power so this is not an area to hold back.

I cant wait to see how cheap and how far projection tech is by the time I can really get serious with this idea. Hopefully ultra short throw projectors have good quality and come down in cost because for 3 screens that will make my life much easier.

It would be really cool to have a throw short enough to attach the projector to the wall itself. Let the center wall be fixed but have the outer two walls on a hinge system so that I can move them in/out as needed for a different effect on the field of view and no calibration would have to be made as the wall & projector would move together.

Oh and noise, that would never matter to me as any time the projector is on sound is going to be covering it up. Esp my setup as I would be blasting surround sound with dual subs.

_________________
ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

Ghimpi,

Great idea but you can do it much cheaper with PVC tubing found at hardware stores.

Cheap, Super light, easy to cut and shape, and lots of angle joints for you to get it right.

Do show us your creation if you make it!

Ah, good idea. And imho using PVC might be a very cost effective way to do it. I actually bought a bunch of PVC for aonther project awhile back that I never followed through with, so I've actually got all the pipe and T and L joints to make it right now. I'll keep you guys updated. :)

I'm wondering how to keep the semi-circle bow in the build. Maybe run line between both ends at the top and bottom of the frame to hold the bow. Small PVC is pretty flexible so it should have no problem with a uniform curve.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Yes for Chrstmas we build a upside down half pipe/dome thing over our drive way with pvc, then load it down with lights and stuff.

The pipe has no problem flexing very far, and with years of use not one of them has broken or given way.

Id show the picture of it if I manage to find it.

_________________
ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

To give you an idea of what I would like to achieve:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showpost.php?p=73186&postcount=92

That screen is so many levels of pure awesome. :shock:

That first pic also shows everyone what the Sol7 calibration utility looks like for tweaking curvature and projection edge blending. See how Sol7 can perfectly pre-warp the projection to match the screen curvature?

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

To give you an idea of what I would like to achieve:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showpost.php?p=73186&postcount=92

That screen is so many levels of pure awesome. :shock:

That first pic also shows everyone what the Sol7 calibration utility looks like for tweaking curvature and projection edge blending. See how Sol7 can perfectly pre-warp the projection to match the screen curvature?

Nice!

Im still doing 3 straight screens though. Forgot where I saw it explained but the extended FOV is meant to be at a slight angle only for perifial purposes, having it further actually is supposed to mess up the radio of depth to what you see. This is why TH2GO setups work so well. You only look at the screen in the middle for everything, and the other 2 or for depth.

A slightly curved screen may work well but its more work/money than what is is worth I think.

Obviously somebody that can build an expensive cockpit like that is not very budget limited :P

_________________
ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

[quote]To give you an idea of what I would like to achieve:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showpost.php?p=73186&postcount=92

That screen is so many levels of pure awesome. :shock:

That first pic also shows everyone what the Sol7 calibration utility looks like for tweaking curvature and projection edge blending. See how Sol7 can perfectly pre-warp the projection to match the screen curvature?

Nice!

Im still doing 3 straight screens though. Forgot where I saw it explained but the extended FOV is meant to be at a slight angle only for perifial purposes, having it further actually is supposed to mess up the radio of depth to what you see. This is why TH2GO setups work so well. You only look at the screen in the middle for everything, and the other 2 or for depth.

A slightly curved screen may work well but its more work/money than what is is worth I think.

Obviously somebody that can build an expensive cockpit like that is not very budget limited :P

They still have budgets, but their build budgets are spread over years at a time. The average cockpit project like that one is around 2-4 years build time. Not like you can go to Walmart and get that setup. :wink:

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

[quote][quote]To give you an idea of what I would like to achieve:

http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showpost.php?p=73186&postcount=92

That screen is so many levels of pure awesome. :shock:

That first pic also shows everyone what the Sol7 calibration utility looks like for tweaking curvature and projection edge blending. See how Sol7 can perfectly pre-warp the projection to match the screen curvature?

Nice!

Im still doing 3 straight screens though. Forgot where I saw it explained but the extended FOV is meant to be at a slight angle only for perifial purposes, having it further actually is supposed to mess up the radio of depth to what you see. This is why TH2GO setups work so well. You only look at the screen in the middle for everything, and the other 2 or for depth.

A slightly curved screen may work well but its more work/money than what is is worth I think.

Obviously somebody that can build an expensive cockpit like that is not very budget limited :P

They still have budgets, but their build budgets are spread over years at a time. The average cockpit project like that one is around 2-4 years build time. Not like you can go to Walmart and get that setup. :wink:

No you would definitely have to go to Super Walmart :P

J/K

Still even over 4 years that would be more than I could afford I think (and definitely more patience than I have) considering I get bored too easy and would not be able to look at something I cant play/use.

The Sol7 thing I read into, its limited in what it supports right now, so it seems to be very much only good if your plan to use it for specific things. It is not a fix all for any game tool.

_________________
ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

The Sol7 thing I read into, its limited in what it supports right now, so it seems to be very much only good if your plan to use it for specific things. It is not a fix all for any game tool.

I actually pushed through the deal with them for the non-commercial version pricing about a year ago. Previously they were geared to commercial only markets for an ungodly price to buy. I convinced them that they could have a new revenue market by tapping into the gaming community for things like sim builders. The simpit version of Sol7 adds in TH2G, DH2G and span mode compatibility to their utility and is 1/10th the price of the commercial licence.

It actually is a universal fix. It does pre-warp and edge blending for anything.

DirectX Game/App -> Sol7 -> Display

I've seen it used from anything from Media Player Classic to FPS shooters.

Send them an email requesting download access to thier demo version for simpit builders. They'll email you a url to download it. It's a 10 minute time limited version, but does everything the real version does. I'm a real advocate for them because they took a chance on the gaming community and actually humored making a version for us.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com