BHawthorne

No real reason other than you have to be mindful of the material you use for the cube. Maybe some sort of fabric and you have to be doubly mindful of how the fabric is tensioned on the edges and make sure the frame does not get in the way of the projection.

It's only a cheat if not everyone has access to it and that it's not working as intended -- otherwise it's a feature. One that you can choose to use or not.

Definitely liking the Frankenpedals there. Does TARGET still see them plugged in through a Cougar?

Actually, those projectors are 1280x800, not 1280x720. There shouldn't be any real hit vs running 1280x1280 vs 1280x800 other than pixel count difference. Less pixels = faster FPS. The GT720's I have are capable of being fed non-standard resolutions like 800x800 if you create a custom resolution with NVIDIA cards. AMD cards are a bit more difficult to do custom resolutions though. I'm sure you can do 800x800 on AMD with a display inf hack though. It's something I need to experiment with. I have more experience with custom resolutions on NVIDIA than on AMD, although I have more spanning experience with AMD.

It typically isn't the case with multi-projector because most people using them in a 3 panel curve or a uniform curve design which in those cases to get more FOV you'd want the wider aspect ratio projectors. It's opposite the case with a cube configuration. You want a 1:1 if possible. Yes, in a 1:1 aspect ratio setup the top would be 100% covered. I'll be able to cheat though with pre-warping and force the full ceiling projection. The questions aren't trivial at all. I find them important to screen design. No worries. :thumbup:

I'm glad you decided to get the controls first. This'll ensure you have more fun with seat time actually flying while you build. A lot of people get bogged down in tub and panel fabrication and never get to fly because they've not gotten their controllers yet. I think it makes the most sense to work from the main controls first and then add in the details over time. After watching simpit builders do their thing for almost a decade now I think many people lose sight of why they're building -- which is high fidelity seat time. You don't get that if you get the controls last. :thumbup:

I agree. Price vs Resolution and Performance vs Resolution are both very valid issues at the heart of this kind of build. Most of you simply have not used a wall sized projection before therefore do not understand that regardless of the resolution if you have full visual coverage at what you're looking at you get quite the immersive experience. That is the ultimate goal. Splitting hairs over pixel density also shows a fundamental lack of understanding on just what it takes to push 5x1 Eyefinity at a reasonable FPS. Most of you need to realize that while 1080p projectors sounds appealing in theory there are a lot of issues that they bring that are not there with 800p. For one, aspect ratio of projectors is one thing not mentioned at all so far in this thread. In an ideal world we'd have 1600x1200 5:4 projectors. The wider the aspect ratio the less suitable the projector is for doing a symmetrical cube. 5:4 <- 16:10 <- 16:9 in order of preference. As is, 16:9 is a squat rectangular cube. The wider the aspect ratio gets the shorter your vertical fov is for the room. If anything 16:9 projectors are the least ideal of the available aspect ratios for something like this. The 800p 16:10 is a compromise that works primarily because of lens throw and price point. All of that aspect ratio issue can be resolved quite easily with pre-warp correction of the projection width to a more 1:1 aspect ratio, but many people do not want the added cost of pre-warp software. For me I prefer using pre-warp software because I want control over the projection not the projection have control over my design. I can force projectors to do more atypical configurations with pre-warping on my terms. Instead of spending frustrating hours on alignment location for mounting I just ensure full panel coverage with slight projection bleed and dial it in over the course of 10-15 minutes using pre-warping software. For me the price is worth the lack of frustration involved. It's trading convenience for money and man hours though. Depends on your build motivations and budget.

My suggestion would be to nail down what controls you'll used (Thrustmaster Warthog, Saitek Combat Pedals, etc) and the visuals. From there you have the core controls and can start building something to put them into. To me I find it more important to account for the stick and rudder and the visual system before you get too far into things. Or you can do like some of us and just buy half an aircraft. I bought mine in 2008. :lol:

I'm a bit torn on the 1080p vs 800p. I want 1080p because of the pixel density but I want 800p because you could be pushing up to Eyefinity 5x1 on things. It depends on what you prioritize most, FPS or pixel size. Ultimately you can do 800p for half the cost and it'll be faster. If you have budget for it and a machine that can push 1080p Eyefintiy 5x1 at good frame rate in DCS I'd be all for it though. Personally, I go 800p projectors because build cost is exponential with them. 5 x $500 sounds a lot better than 5 x $1200 to me personally. Price just gets outrageous when you go exponentially with 1080p. You could build a great simpit for the screen with the difference in cost.

Yep, my reasoning for going pvc pipe is it's dirt cheap and I can make one screen frame for my room and a separate larger screen frame for my F-84F trailer. I'm thinking about using Rose Brand Tendo again for the screen but going with gray instead of white for better black levels and contrast. Gray material will also better eat stray ambient light.

Ah cool. I know a bit of Solidworks but that was back in 2007. I was mostly trained in CATIA V5. I was thinking on going back and taking a few courses to freshen up my skills a bit. I remember Solidworks being fun to use.

The design looks cool so far. You using Sketchup for the CAD?

Yep, iphone is evil for low light. notice the graininess of my pic and that's even with indirect light in the room. I'm going to cheat a bit on mine as far as box dimensions because I have certain limitations I need to work within. I just need to have full coverage on the panels and pre-warping will do the rest. It can be done without any pre-warping but you have to be exact to match 16:10 + mounting position. I'd rather just get it in the ballpark and correct it via software. I like the idea that while a few of us are doing cubes we're all doing it slightly different. It helps those that might want to do it in the future to have a few different examples. Gene has a 7950 and I have a 7970, so we're pretty good on video cards.

It's not needed, but I'm using it to fine tune keystoning. Yes, their commercial stuff is per projector service contract. As I contract to them for work I get it for free though. I used one of my GT720s to get an idea of frame height given the mounting location would be about 2 inches away from the walls and that my room is 10 foot wide. I also wanted 7 foot projection height because I don't want to be too pixelated or the top screen too low. Given that mounting location and the lens throw I'm going to have to do slight pre-warping on the panels to get it to fit. It's slightly too wide a projection at 16:10 for my room. Gene, what are your thoughts on tensioning optical mylar to a linear convex shape to make a mirror so the ceiling gets full projection coverage?

One of the commercial products. Sol7 turned into Warp. Immersaview has SimVisuals and Warp as their professional products. Once I have this up and working I'm going to try and get Alex and Andy to ok up to 5 projectors on Nthusim+ though.

I cleared out a 10x15 room to experiment with the cube configuration. Got some furniture grade pvc pipe fittings to build a 1-1/4" pvc pipe frame for it so it's portable for me. I'm in the same boat as Gene initially though. I've only got 3 GT720, so the top view will have to wait a month or two on mine. I'll be using Immersaview Warp for pre-warp alignment fine tuning.

Looks like a good start. Just remember, the real secret to most of the other awesome builds around here are paint, bondo and wood filler. Those three things hide a lot of woodshop issues. :thumbup:

A tetrahedron is a 4 sided shape, not a cube. A cube is left, front, right, top, back and bottom. Bottom is the 6th side and is not being projected on.

Looking at the bank account I can't really afford one at the moment. Is this something you might do again in the future? Say around April?

Is this still available for purchase?

He only lives 5 miles away. I joked the other day about popping a fiberglass mold off of it. I have him storing my F-84F cockpit at the moment.

hehe, true enough. If anything the F-16 version is probably more sought after than the F-15 anyways.

hehe, lemme guess. This is yours? :) Wanna trade it for an F-16 aces II that was also ejected? That would better suit Steve Cannaby's F-15 cockpit than the F-16 aces II he has in it.

I saw this on ebay today. Considering it's real, it's probably just an academic exercise to list it here because it'll probably go for crazy pricing. http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Authentic-USAF-F-15-ACES-II-Ejection-Seat-From-Actual-Ejection-Event-/160974667668?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257ad67f94

That's been sitting on ebay for years now. While interesting, it's not $3k interesting. The interior is low fidelity and gutted.