Stretched appearance

[Signalman]

I use TH2G with FSX, using three 20inch LCD monitors. My two side monitors give a somewhat stretched view of objects, making them appear wider or longer, than when the same objects are viewed in the center monitor. Is this phenomenon something inherent to the TH2G system or is there a way to adjust this? Thanks for any information.

Bob

[Dem Pyros]

I use TH2G with FSX, using three 20inch LCD monitors. My two side monitors give a somewhat stretched view of objects, making them appear wider or longer, than when the same objects are viewed in the center monitor. Is this phenomenon something inherent to the TH2G system or is there a way to adjust this? Thanks for any information.

Bob

Hey Bob,

That is a phenomenon inherent to the way almost all games render such wide views. I'm sure someone else on the forum can give you the link to our page describing it (I'm sure it's around here somewhere...).

[GeneralAdmission]

Truth about Edge Distortion
(don't have the WSGF OpenSearch plugin installed, Pyros? ;) :nudgenudge )

To the OP: the cause of distortion has to do with how engines render the gameworld. In just about every engine I've seen, the virtual 'camera' behaves like a transparent sphere, and the images projected by the engine onto the surface of this sphere are what you see on your monitor(s). An image with a minimal FOV (median is around 80 degrees) occupies only a small section of the sphere's surface, so the bend in the image isn't severe. Bump up the FOV to 140+ degrees and the image basically looks like a half-circle, with the circular distortion of the image becoming very obvious at the sides.

I once found some good images on the net illustrating how this works, but my google-fu is failing me atm.

[Signalman]

Thanks. This video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZdrwXEzcs&feature=player_embedded

and you're explanation clearly show that the distortion observed on the side monitors is not a TH2G issue and is a result of the geometry of how extra-wide views are displayed in surround gaming caused by the wider FOV. Hopefully, future technological innovations can improve this.