Widescreen Gaming Forum

thanks for detailed response. I am wondering if 180 degrees is really ideal, I was thinking maybe 150 degree beinig that i think would lose some image as it gets behind you. what do you think?

any motion sickness? read some posts that side images can cause some, looks like allot of fun, you really worked it out nice.

150 degrees would be better in your situation with the corner anyways. 180 degree arc would eat up more space. I've never had motion sickness before and not many people have actually seen my setup IRL. IRL only 4 or 5 people I know have seen it and noone long enough to get motion sickness. I guess I'm just a bit antisocial IRL. *chuckle*

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

Cant remember if I asked this before, but as a screen material have you considered plexi / plastic mirror? I have a Home Cinema setup (ie one screen, one projector) for years using one. Originally I read up on "Lightfusion" a DIY attempt at getting ultra contrast by using a painted mirror, usually plexi mirror (ie not glass). Not totally sure if LF really works but the recommenced material, plexi, would surely be ideal for your usage.

- Not that expensive
- Order from an industrial plastics supplier (ie surely local for you US types)
- They will cut it to shape for you
- Get it thin enough to bend - very easy and natural curve
- Light enough to hang to the wall with basic plugs and screws (ie drill through it on the frame/edge area)
- Can be repainted (use projector pain, like Light Fusion or Digital Grey etc) if damaged, want more contrast, more brightness, tune to rooms ambient light etc.
- No crinkles :p - its plastic so perfectly flat


I reading all these things about metal piping and frames... seems way too elaborate and time consuming and possibly actually worse looking than a plexi screen. The home cinema guys would be doing it more like the above minus the curve of course.

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[GTX1080 - 4.48GHz 4690k - planning projector mayhem]

Optical grade Mylar can be purchased by the roll and is used as first surface mirrors in rear projection tvs. If you want a mirror material that is capable of any shape, that would be what I'd use. IMHO, just any old 1.0 gain material is fine though.

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

Have you considered attempting 3D gaming on your setup, just to experiment anyway? NVidia offers this, but I don't know if NTHUSIM can do it or work with NVidia. How high are your projectors' refresh rates?

4. TV and Blu-ray looks great. I can set the aspect ratio to 16:9 for tv and 2.35:1 or wider for wide format movies. 2 1024x768 projectors = 2048x768, which is very close to standard 2.35:1 Blu-ray content at 1920x800. TV and Blu-ray content is better suited for a 2 projector flat wall setup. While I can watch it on the curved screen, I have a second screen behind the curved one I can use for more tranitional flat wall projection.

Do you use the same projectors with both screens? And if so, how difficult is it to transition between the two? I imagine it takes a bit of work.

Do you use the same projectors with both screens? And if so, how difficult is it to transition between the two? I imagine it takes a bit of work.

Multi-projector always takes a bit of work to get set up. Nthusim takes a lot of the headache out of it though. Luckily, once things are setup you only have to do minor corrections from then on. There are a few tricks to getting around needing edge blending and still making it look 100% seamless. It mostly has to do with making sure your projector mounts are rigid and then you align the projectors exactly butting on edge with using no projector built-in keystoning and do it all through Nthusim.

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

Okay this is a massive build, Thanks to BHawthorne
I begin thinking to do something like that @ my room but please I've a bunch of questions:

The Hardware Part:

1- What processor did you use ? (Is it overclocked or not ? If it's @ ..Ghz ?)
2- What Motherboard did you use ?
3- What GPUs did you use ? (Is it overclocked or not ? If it's @ ..Ghz ?)
and for this part did you have any cpu bottleneck problems ? And if you can post some screenshots while running Crysis, Metro, Dirt2, Black Ops with FRAPS or something to see the FPS Benchmarks
4- What about the RAM ?
5- What about the temperatures of: CPU - NB - GPU ?

The Software Part:

Is there a free version of NTHUSIM+ or SOL7 ? or I must buy one of them ?

The Screen Part:

What is the length and width of this massive screen ? What about the Inches ? diagonals ?
Which material did you use for this white screen and how did you get the perfect curved screen ?

The Projectors Part:

What is the minimum commercial HD 1080p Projector on the market that can do this build ?
And What is the exact angle to see the perfect hole screen ? - and its distance from the screen ?

The room part:

What is the length and width of this room ? and should I paint it in black to see a perfect screen ?

I would be very thankful if you answered these question
and thank you for your effort

1- What processor did you use ? (Is it overclocked or not ? If it's @ ..Ghz ?)

Original build CPU: AMD Phenom II 940BE overclocked to 3.8ghz
Current build CPU: Intel i7 930 overclocked to 4ghz

2- What Motherboard did you use ?

Original build mobo: Foxconn Destroyer AM2+
Current build mobo: EVGA Classified 4-Way E762

3- What GPUs did you use ? (Is it overclocked or not ? If it's @ ..Ghz ?)

Original build video: Tri-SLI EVGA GTX260 and a fouth EVGA GTX460 for PhysX/CUDA. Used Matrox TH2G on this setup.
Current Build video: Tri-SLI EVGA GTX470 and a fourth card EVGA GTX465 for PhysX/CUDA. Used both Matrox TH2G and NVIDIA Surround on this setup.

and for this part did you have any cpu bottleneck problems ? And if you can post some screenshots while running Crysis, Metro, Dirt2, Black Ops with FRAPS or something to see the FPS Benchmarks

No notable CPU bottlenecking. On the GPU side of things more video ram the better. Screenshots are available at http://nthusim.com/setup/bhawthorne-triple-circular-projection
Videos are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/BHawthorne72

4- What about the RAM ?

Original build memory: 8GB of Kingston generic DDR2
Current build memory: 6GB of G.Skill Trident DDR3-2000

5- What about the temperatures of: CPU - NB - GPU ?

I don't have those figures readily available.

The Software Part:

Is there a free version of NTHUSIM+ or SOL7 ? or I must buy one of them ?

NTHUSIM Standard and NTHUSIM Plus will work in time limited 10 minute evaluation mode untill you purchase it. That'll allow you unlimited access and use of it to evaluate it and refine your build before purchase. It just requires that you restart the utility once every 10 minutes to restart the demo timer again.

The Screen Part:

What is the length and width of this massive screen ? What about the Inches ? diagonals ?

Diagnal measurements are largely irrelevant in circular screens. The measurements of importance are the projection height, projection linear width and the radius of the screen. Also the throw distance of the projectors are of importance.

I am currently using the "AMD Tech Day" screen on my personal setup. It is detailed in the comments within the following link: http://nthusim.com/setup/amd-tech-day

Which material did you use for this white screen and how did you get the perfect curved screen ?

I have purchased bulk screen material by the linear foot from ebay sources for previous builds. My first screen required 24 linear foot of raw canvas and the AMD screen required 22 linear foot of PVC/fiberglass screen material from ebay. It used a 60" projection height. I wouldn't use the term perfect in the context of these builds. Think of them more as proof of concept and works in progress. This is more of a prototype than something perfectly refined. I constantly find little things to change and improve through regular use.

The Projectors Part:

What is the minimum commercial HD 1080p Projector on the market that can do this build ?

1080p does not have very many cost effective options for short throw. My expertise is limited to mostly commenting on what is out there for 720p or 1024x768 projectors. Either way you go the lens throw needs to be .8:1 or less or things become problematic. The problem is hardly anyone makes 1080p short throw that I know about. 1080p use is really outside my scope of knowledge at the moment.

And What is the exact angle to see the perfect hole screen ? - and its distance from the screen ?

Depends upon your intent. Movie watching, racing/flight simulation, generic gaming? With movies I like to have the seating a lot further back from the screen than I have when I game. In simulation games I sit at the center point of the circular radius of the screen so I get full immersion FOV. In generic games I sit one or two feet futher back so I can watch the whole screen at once.

The room part:

What is the length and width of this room ? and should I paint it in black to see a perfect screen ?

That particular room is 13x20 foot. That room is larger than what is needed to do a build though. You could do a build in a 12x8 room just as easily. The flat black paint was a personal preference to cut out stray light and make the screen the focus of the room with no destractions. It's purely personal preference and not any sort of requirement.

I would be very thankful if you answered these question
and thank you for your effort

No problem. Hopefully these answers help more people be interested in this sort of build.

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

BHawthorne your work has convinced me to start building a screen for my play room. I've made some cad drawings using google sketch up ( for the lack of a better program) and i have some questions. The room is 3.5 by 3.25 meters so no much room here , do you think it will work , I've read in the thread that 12x8 foot room should be fine.

Back to the screen , i have a 1.24 meters in radius ,the circumference of a circle is 3.9 m. The height in the build is 1.4 m with 0.28 m from the floor up to the projector screen but can be increased if necessary. Please take a look at the drawings to have a clear picture.

I'm still searching for a projector to use for this build , hope to find a 720p one within my budget, if you have any recommendation please let me know.

Many thanks and look forward to your reply.

2D render
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=image&file=proiector_screen5.png
3D Render
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=proiector_screen5.skp
2D Render
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=image&file=proiector_screen6.png

You'd need a wide angled lens for a screen like that at that distance (at least that what it looks like from those drawings).

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System Core: | Intel Core i5-2500K + ASUS P8Z68-V + 16GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz | Win7 x64 | MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB [1105/1400] |
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