Question about curved projection screens.

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » 12 Nov 2007, 21:36

Do I need a projector with a special lens to project onto a curved screen? Also I would want to have three projectors with all three having a resolution of most likely 800*600 but with the option to turn off the left and right ones and set the center to 1920*1080 (which would be the projectors native resolution) Is it possible to change between these two resolutions without having to reposition the center projector? And is it possible to have the center projector on in 800*600 without he black bars showing on the sides? Or should I just have two separate center projectors?

P-Storm · Post by **P-Storm** » 12 Nov 2007, 21:40

I could confirm that you can use a normal lens for three projectors, dunno if it is the same for curved screens. The other questions i can't tell.

T4NK|DRIV3R-US · Post by **T4NK|DRIV3R-US** » 12 Nov 2007, 21:52

You can use a nomral lense, u just need to change the the pincushion with beamer-OSD.

Post by **BHawthorne** » 14 Nov 2007, 09:25

...and set the center to 1920*1080 (which would be the projectors native resolution)...

You do realize the cost of 1080p projectors right? They're ungodly expensive. I'd give a serious look at 720p ones instead. they won't break the bank for you.

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 16 Nov 2007, 06:29

Yeah sounds like a major line. Anyone with 15 thousand dollars to spend on kit can afford to pay a real consultant.

Ok.

Since you're using projectors, you don't really need triplehead, imo. One of the major draws the th2g offers is multiscreen gaming with a huge bezel right in the center of your vision.

I always thought that once the distortion required to get curved projection "plug and play" became comoditized, 2 projected screens would suffice.

What you do is, since there is no bezel, get 2 12x8 projectors. Stich them together as best as you can. This gives you a hdtv with native resoltuion for most widescreen movies (transformers was 19x8 for instance). And you also get a killer widescreen for games (24/8=3.5) just a hair under triplehead.

Check the triplehead modes to make sure this is aceptable. You want to use the dualhead mode, but I think you still need the triplehead to do it.

You'll probably be able to get away with just posistioning the projies perpindicular to the side of the screen it's facing. Depending on how deep your screen curves.

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » 16 Nov 2007, 09:04

Although I can't contribute to this conversation, I would like to say that I am expremely envious that you are dabling in Projector screens. Great stuff. That's why I like this place, full of trail blazers with little ego. Its all about immersion.

Great stuff.

WSGF FTW!

:D

JKeefe · Post by **JKeefe** » 16 Nov 2007, 17:39

If you're going to game on two projectors, widescreen or otherwise, there should be no need for any sort of intervening hardware between the GPU and the projectors. Simply stretch your desktop across both projectors using your video drivers, and Windows will see (for 2 720p projectors) a 2560x720 "monitor". This resolution should be available in games.

The only reason you would need a TripleHead2Go to output to two widescreens was if you had a laptop with a single video out.

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 17 Nov 2007, 04:58

JKeefe, you might be right, but I thought there was a performance penalty with desktop spanning.

Also, I remember not being able to play or drag a movie across desktops. This may have been without the desktop stretching thingy though.

Can anyone confirm this?

In addition, SLI is not feasible with desktop spanning, afaik. You only get output on one port.

Keep us up to date. Eventually I'd like to build a total surround projection dome so work on this problem is greatly appreciated.

JKeefe · Post by **JKeefe** » 19 Nov 2007, 16:27

Good point on the SLI rendering. Conversely, 2560x720 is only 1.8 million pixels, so SLI is certainly not a "requirement".

I don't know about movie stretching/spanning.

Post by **MobsterOO7** » 19 Nov 2007, 16:36

I have used spanning in the past, and I'm using dual-view mode right now. I have not experienced (from what I remember about spanning) problems moving video files across screens in either case.

Post by **BHawthorne** » 20 Nov 2007, 14:21

JKeefe, you might be right, but I thought there was a performance penalty with desktop spanning.

Also, I remember not being able to play or drag a movie across desktops. This may have been without the desktop stretching thingy though.

Can anyone confirm this?

In addition, SLI is not feasible with desktop spanning, afaik. You only get output on one port.

Keep us up to date. Eventually I'd like to build a total surround projection dome so work on this problem is greatly appreciated.

There is no real performance hit to spanning if it's the same card imho. It's not just spanning desktop, it's true spanning for all functions of the card. The only hit is the pixel count. Just plug in both ports on the same card and enable horizontal or vertical spanning in the nVidia control panel (depending on what you're trying to do) and then it should be all set for 3d gaming on games that work with wide/surround-screen resolutions. The only downside is that once set, windows snap to the size of both screens now, which can be annoying and makes maximize rather useless.

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