Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi and welcome to the second part of the blog of my personal DIY curved screen. In the previous blog post I showed you drawings and told you how to do it, in this post I'm going to show you how my screen looks when it's finished and correct the first post a bit.

If you haven't read part 1

My Personal DIY Curved Screen - Part 1

Correction

First I have to correct something from the previous post, in this picture:

“Length of overlap” is not correct since the projector will have a bit of keystoning.

You do not want to use any keystone correction. Keystone adds latency since the picture has to be processed by the projector. The projectors have to have the same setup, 0 keystone correction and color management.
The finished result will be much better if you only use your warp and blend software for warping, edge blend and overlap.

My finished screen setup

Here is my finished screen, I will show you where i fixed it in place with the drywall screws. The room needs a renovation, so I haven't been very strict with taping of the walls.
The tape with markings on, I will get back to this. The screen may look "warped", it's the tape that makes it look warped, the tape is not straight at all.

With drywall screw marking

With drywall screw marking

With drywall screw marking

As you can see, the screen itself only hangs by its ends. Still it is in level.



The projector I'm using at the moment is ASUS B1M, LED, 700 ANSI Lumens, 3500:1 Contrast, WXGA and 0.9 Throw ratio/Short Throw.



To keep the light out of the room I used grey blackout curtains. I WANTED black, but my girlfriend refused. They work just as good as black I think.


This is my desktop with Desktop Warpalizer running.




This is a common "problem" for many short throw projectors, "TI DLP® “Diamond” Pixel". Not a issue that's visible when gaming or watching movies, but on Windows Desktop and text editing it's visible. I'd recommend this article for reading more about this issue. Every pixel is turned 45 degrees.


If you press "Shift + F2" this window will pop up, this is the Warpalizer setup window. Sorry for the really bad picture.


This is one of the test images for setting up Warpalizer. This is why I had tape and markings; I measure the length of the arch and divide it into 32.





When you press "Edit" in the main Warpalizer setup window, this window will come up.


Press "Warp" and the warping mesh will open up on the chosen projector. You can double and half/reduce control points.


You can also warp without test images.

Gaming teaser's

This one is from RaceRoom Experience


AeroFLY


Call Of Juarez Gunslinger, I tried to get the whole screen in the picture here, but my room is too small. Or I need another lens for the camera.



The screen ended up being 3m wide with 1.5m depth. When you sit in the middle the horizontal FOV is 180 degrees and vertical FOV is 44 degrees.
Some may think 180 degrees FOV is much, but I love racing games and this FOV makes the game really immersive.

Next post I will try to get some gaming video footage and pictures, what games would you like to see?

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

F****ING AWESOME

Just curious is this the same product?
http://www.gamewarping.com/sider/start.asp?NodeID=920

From the info here it drops in the games folder like softTH?
Also is it limited to directX9 too? (Or OpenGL depending on version?)

Amyways dont know if i said it before but F*****ING AWESOME....

Thanks alot Yes it is, the webpage is very outdated tho.
I would use http://www.warpalizer.com for now if I were you. We are working on a new page for the consumer market.

Warpalizer is "limited" to DX9, DX10, DX11 and OpenGL, other games you can run in Windowed borderless mode.

Best Regards,
Marius

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

Cool.

Looking forward to the Video! Can you make a example video with close up footage of the diamond pixels ? Ingame and on Desktop ? I really would like to see from how far away you don't notice it anymore.

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

Thanks

Will do! I also got a hold of a Contour HD camera, so I will try to post some videos from first person perspective

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

The example video is really hard to get focused enough. Both the ContourHD camera and the video camera will not show the diamond pixels. But I'm using the screen right now, and when writing here on WSGF I can see the diamond pixels from 1.5m. The text looks like the text in the article about the diamond pixels.

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

Only racing games this time.
Some more pictures of games, man it's really hard taking photos of this! The room is also way to small (another lens on the camera would do)

Shift 2 Unleashed:
I have to say I love both these cameras. The helmet cam feels so real, and the bumper cam is so immersive!
Helmet Cam -


Bumper Cam -



Live for Speed:
Good old Live for Speed, wow this game really deserves a graphics update.




ISI's rFactor:
With Supra mod, really love the handling and sound of this mod!





iRacing:
Amazing sim!


Last, a movie from iRacing. Please set quality to 720p. The camera is not very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25KB1OJoYeA

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

Looks great!

I am getting the itch to build a curved screen.

I am thinking of using a 2x2 setup of 4 W1080ST. I'd like to keep the 16:9 ratio as this setup will most likely be used a lot for movies/tv by the family (in addition to gaming).

If I am planning to make a 13 feet wide screen, how would I determine the appropriate screen arc?

I am currently figuring that 2 of the projectors would be ceiling mounted, and the other two would be around 6-8 inches off of the floor (about 4 90" images to combine to make about a 13 feet wide screen).

Any help would be appreciated before undertaking this project!

Thanks! Sorry for the late reply, I've been on vacation in Croatia. Only replied mails, haven't checked forums.

Good to hear this inspires others. Also, don't forget that we can provide design help and also custom (professional) curved screens. Our sister company Polar Simulation provides affordable curved screen systems.

I don't see why you want 4 projectors for this, you can use one projector and Warpalizer or other Warp and blend software for correcting the image.
But if you want 4k resolution 4 projectors is good.

You will have to test the focus depth on your projectors, test on different curved surfaces (for example mdf sheets) to see how much you can curve the material before you can't get the projector in focus. It's alot of trial and error.

Good luck

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

Thanks Marius!

I am going for the high resolution to avoid seeing pixels on a 180" diagnal from 4-6 feet back. If you think I can get away with one projector for that (without spending 25k for the projector), my wallet will thank you!

I am designing the room and rest o the basement now with Sketch Up.

I saw the Polar Simulation site. I did not see any 16:9 products. Perhaps I missed them.

All very nice stuff!