Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have had a nice triple monitor setup for a long time now and though it's nice, I really want a seamless setup.

I really want to see if it's possible to do a dual projector curved screen that could sit on my desktop (it's a large L shaped desk) or at least hang on the wall. I'm thinking height & width comparable to to a 50-70" big screen.

Has anyone tried to tackle a project like this?

I'm all ears for tips, tricks, things to consider, software and projector to use, etc...
Thanks!!

I would suggest curved plexi piece with a 3M rear projection film applied to it.

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

50"-70" high ? sure sounds nice... but did you think about the FoV ? when you use normal 1920x1080p in Landscape and sit around
1-1.5m away from the Screen, wouldn't that end up with a way to slow FoV ? especially because most games (except MMO's) dont support such high FoVs.

Maybe a 4x1P or even 5x1P with FullHD projectors might help. Or just sitting further away.

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Thanks Brad...
Silly question, by applying 3m rear projection film, are you assuming the projectors will be rear mounted?

I don't have the space to rear mount the projectors. I am thinking the 2 projectors will be on arms on top of and in front of the curved screen.

I like the plexiscreen idea but I assume I would need to use a different film, perhaps with some gain depending on availability of short throw projectors. The only relatively inexpensive 1080p short throw I know of at the moment is the Benq W1080st. Are there others?


Haldi, I used the WSGF online calculator to determine the FOV (2x 1920x1080), which would be ~131 degrees.
Using another online calculator to determine arc lengths (and then some), it looks like the arc length would be ~37" which matches up with my rough math determination.

All in all, I can get a FOV just slightly less than my current triple monitor setup (3 x 1920x1200) and get better immersion (taller and wider) and seamless and less monitors (projectors in this case) to drive thus better framerate and/or more eye candy options.

I use my screen for almost everything. Dual projector and curved, front projection.
Not heavy text editing, but internet browsing, WSGF, YouTube, etc. For heavy text editing my 720p projectors (QUMI Q5) ain't good enough. My screen is hanging on the wall!

For rear projection you have to have a good 3M film or else you would get some really annoying hot spots.

For software, I would recommend to try every option out there to see which one you like best and that suits your needs.
Send me a mail on [email protected] and I will send you our demo software.

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Marius Skinnes - Support Engineer Univisual Technologies AB - http://www.warpalizer.com
Contact me at [email protected] for questions about Warpalizer.

Yes, the reason why I suggest rear projection is you get to a certain size and any smaller you have to be mindful of your body location in relation to the screen obscuring the projection. There are a few different options available. I've seen some even use a first surface mirror to get around the lens throw issue on smaller screen designs.

On short-throw 1080p, BenQ is the first. Noone else has made a consumer price point 1080p. It's one of the things that has surprised me over the years. It's not like there isn't a market for them. The W1080ST is a very recent release. For years we've had ourselves limited to 800p in the 0.49:1 to 0.72:1 lens throw range that most of these multi-projector setups use.

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

Just curious, why does someone need to email for a demo or register to access Warpalizer forums? Shouldn't that all be public and freely available without contact? Helping people with screen designs and setup isn't something proprietary that needs to be hidden from the general public. It's also why I had Skip add this projector forum on WSGF back in 2010. I suggest people use public forums like WSGF if they have questions because they're not hidden from the general public and not tainted by bias. Anything answered here is available for everyone to view and to reference. It's important that screen information remain public so everyone has the ability to properly reference the information and make fully informed decisions. That doesn't happen when email or restricted forums are involved.

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

This is very off-topic, but the reason why we still send out demo via e-mail is that we like to have a close relationship to the customer, we use a CRM system for this. Works really well.
But the access to the Warpalizer forum is a good question, I will make it public. The site is very new, so i haven't really thought about it. Thanks for the advice.
EDIT: The forum should be open for public now!

_________________
Marius Skinnes - Support Engineer Univisual Technologies AB - http://www.warpalizer.com
Contact me at [email protected] for questions about Warpalizer.

Thanks Marius and Brad for some info.

Brad, with respect to rear projection, unless I am missing something I would need at least 3ft behind the screens in order to mount the projectors...given that 3ft is roughly the minimum focus distance for the BenQ.

Right??

You can get around some of that with first surface mirrors. You still have to account for lens throw in some manner even if it's spreading the path over bouncing in different directions via mirrors. At issue is that when you try a new configuration there are no true "right" or "wrong" answers, but some are more right than others. It's going to require a bit of tinkering and experimentation. For example how old rear projection DLP tvs are configured might be an idea for one example of how to shorten the lens throw for rear projection.

You can do front projection but you have to be mindful of your location in relation to the projection. That'll get annoying after awhile if your relative position is seated close to the projection. You get below a certain size and rear projection starts to make more sense than front. I do understand about room though. It's the largest stumbling block in these sort of builds. Many people have the willingness to do them but not the room. That's also why I want to see some "desktop" variations of screens built. It would be the next logical step up from bezeled LCD span setups. You're trading off sharpness and resolution for uniform circular visuals without bezels. Some people cope with bezels because they want crisp LCD displays. Others cope with the less crisp projection because they don't like bezels. Really depends upon which camp you fall into.

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