Share a Fellow Builders Visual Dilemma

[Matt Olieman]

Most of you already know David Allen and his project. He and I communicate on occasion related to Flight-sim building topics.

With his permission he is allowing me to post an e-mail sent to me. I think this is a valid topic and not a uncommon dilemma.

David is asking for mine and anyone Else's thoughts... let's go for it :)

Matt O.
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I have been doing more work trying to understand MSFS Visuals.
If I block off all of the windows except for the two forward
windshields then I have the following viewing angles:

Pilot's angle to the left 34 degrees (View through Left forward Windshield)
Pilot's angle to the right 72 degrees (View through Right forward Windshield)

Copilot's angle to the left 34 degrees (View through Right forward Windshield)
Pilot's angle to the right 72 degrees (View through Left forward Windshield)

Both the Pilot and Copilot down angle cutoff is 15 degrees (Both
Forward windshields)

So I have created an image of the 737's flight deck and the viewing
angles of the pilot and copilot.

http://www.737flightsim.com/Misc/ViewHorz1-Model.jpg


Now if I take that information and make a 3d model I get the following:

http://www.737flightsim.com/Misc/ViewPointPart2E.jpg

The Black portion is the Runway
The White portion is the area of the runway that can NOT be seen from
the flight deck forward windows. This is the 15 degree lower window
cutoff angle.

The Purple lines represent the Pilot's left angle of 34 degrees 0
degrees Straight ahead and the right 72 degree angle.

The Green lines represent the C0Pilot's right angle of 34 degrees 0
degrees Straight ahead and the left 72 degree angle.

The two Orange lines would be hidden from view when the pilots &
Copilots eye point are at the proper elevation.

http://www.737flightsim.com/Misc/ViewPointPart2E2.jpg

The above image is looking back at the flight deck from a point in
space, you can see how the White portion is hiding the area of the
runway that can NOT be seen from the flight deck forward windows.

This also shows the lines in 3d

http://www.737flightsim.com/Misc/ViewPointPart2E1.jpg

This image is perpendicular to the to the runway (90 degrees) and at
the pilots eye point elevation. This also shows that the 34 and 72
degree purple and green lines are at the same elevation as the pilots
eye point elevation. The 0 degrees Straight ahead lines (green &
purple) appear as dots. The two orange lines are hidden behind the
straight ahead green & purple dots.

http://www.737flightsim.com/Misc/ViewPointPart2E3.jpg

This image is looking forward from the above and the right side of
the flight deck.

The final phase will be to get some help from someone who knows how
to do airport scenery and place the lines in a known locations and
then experiment with MSFS visuals until all of the lines can be seen as dots.

Your Thoughts

David
www.737FlightSim.com (http://www.737flightsim.com/)

[steve diamond]

ive been looking at the problems of displaying the outside veiws and davids work will really help me to get my head around the solution,has anone tried two mirrors and two projectors to attempt a more rounded image?i was thinking of using a dual head to go and purchasing another projector,or can the image be bent by one mirror and projector,?
ahhh so much to do LOL
steve

[PaRa]

thanks for sharing this, visuals for me are still in the "design" phase unfortunately, this information will be in-valuable.

ta

[Hans Krohn]

Hi,
I'm in the process of setting up an outside display with 3 projectors, projecting on 3 screens that are at an angle of 135 (or so) degrees to each other.

I will report here on how it works. The setup should be finished in a month.

Regards,
Hans

[Matt Olieman]

Hi Hans, Look forward toward your progress report :)