My foray in to triple projectors on a curved screen

[metalnwood]

Hi all, I am thinking of going with a curved screen and three projectors to replace my current setup which is 3x42" 1080p screens and a 23" touchscreen for flight simulator controls/gauges etc.

In some ways this is a bit of a leap of faith as I will be going from three good quality crisp 42" screens to a larger picture with less resolution. I am not sure how I will like it but I guess it's the same leap of faith I needed to go from very crisp 24" screens to the larger 42" ones. This in itself is my only worry about the idea. I can see for guys that have replica cockpits and only need the projector for outside views that it would be fine but for some games I cannot export gauges to my touchscreen and need to be able to read them off the large screen.

This is what I am used to using and a lot of the time I would use the touchscreen for gauges, cockpit controls etc.

http://homepage.mac.com/jason.jane/temp/pitpic.jpg

This is a different view when set up for racing.

http://gallery.me.com/jason.jane/100...13090463620001

My plan is to make another pit on a raised platform like this but have the curved screen in place, all integrated together. I will make changes so that the touchscreen monitor is on an arm and can swing in and out of place when switching from flying/racing

Building the screen, the diy aspect is not a problem for me but I will need to build it before I get the projectors and there are a few things that I am not sure about when doing the design.

I am thinking about a screen that is about 2200mm diameter (86.6") and around 125 degrees (not the fov, 125 degree arc). Right now I sit ~900-1000mm (3 - 3.3ft) from the screens. I was hoping I could get away with the same distance from the projected screen. This would give me a good fov, certainly filling my vision, not 180 though which is not important to me.

Where I am getting a little confused is how to calculate the overall screen size because of the warping. I know I can start with a screens width but then I have to factor how wide the projection will be to cater for blending. This effects the height of the image but the warping also removes height as well.

So, are there any tips to help figure out the overall aspect ratio of a screen when taking the warping in to account? Within reason I can make the screen larger vertically and then mask it to the correct height.

I do like the lower resolution of the short throw projectors from the POV that I will get better framerates compared to the 3x 1920x1080 I currently have but still there is the worry that things wil seem too low res for me, back to that gotta try it and see..

The only other thing I am not sure about is contrast and black levels. I figure for three projectors, each bright and only projecting a fairly small area I will go with some 0.8 gain material, I have used it on another screen a long time ago and worked well. I am just worried in a dark environment that 3 projectors will wash stuff out.

Anyone have any thoughts/views about night flying/black levels in simulators?

Thanks all!

[OmniAtlas]

Any luck figuring the arc of your screen?

[jskibo]

Immersive Display Designer

Software tool for designing what you want to see if it will work, plug in your size and values from the short throw projectors you plan to use and see if its possible.

its not free software, but save yourself the hassle of spending money on building a screen that may never work with the size or projectors you want to use..