Massive (120 sq ft) 15MP Rear Projection Video Wall Build

[Keroppi]

Hi All:

I read a lot, but rarely post. I just wanted to share my ultimate creation. I feel like this is how eyefinity should be done. Hope it's in the right forum, as it is projection, albeit rear projection.
I had to promise my wife I would never bring home a bigger screen and mean it this time.
The build took us (my brother and I) all week after work, and it was finished at 2:30ish AM this morning.

It still needs color balancing, calibration and such, but it is presentable. Some specs:

Comprised of: 8 Clarity Visual Lion UXGA screens
Pixels: Total of 15.36 million
Viewable Image Total: Almost exactly 120 square feet
Image Height/Total Height: ~6'9"/~8'3"
Image Width: ~17'9"
Typical Power consumption @ 1 of 2 lamps lit (as shown): 3.488 KW
Price of Power consumption @ current rates: ~$0.40/hr
Amount of cablic used: ~300'
Powered by: i950@4Ghz, 6GB, 3x HD5870 e6 2GB cards
Desperately needs: (x4) Matrox DH2G DP Edition so I can make one big eyefinity group and re-enable tri-fire.

Unfortunately, I didn't do a proper build log, too excited to document it all. Here are a couple of pics of it mostly done, click to see 1024x768 versions:

My brother wrenching down the last of the top row:


A side view, before it's all bolted and screens go on:


It didn't need them, but multiple chains tying to studs for added security:


And for my favorite comic book:


Here is an angled shot, door on the far right for reference:


Playing milkdrop:


Notice the Nexus dock icons at the bottom middle of the screen:


Then my hand a foot from the screen for comparison's sake



I really need the 4 DH2G units to complete this project, but don't have the cash. I would happily offer up the wall I was going to build for them.
If you can believe it, it is even bigger, albeit at a bit lower res. 13 projectors, and a 25'x9' rear projection screen. Could do some really cool stuff with it. It is also for sale, or trade feel free to make offers. It is listed
HERE.

Thanks for looking, and feel free to ask any questions.

[Tamlin]

That...looks...amazing! :O

[Anprionsa]

Wow, that is incredible, lets see some high res shots! More pictures soon I hope!

[Keroppi]

Those pics are 1024x768, so you can click/ctrl-click on them to get that size, but for some reason the forum software wouldn't display more than 240-300 pixels in height, but happily stretched them to whatever width value I entered...
go HERE to see those pics (and a few more) in all 7MP glory.

EDIT: I just tried ctrl-click, didn't work in Firefox, thought it did. You can click-and drag the pic to the tab par and it will open in a new tab, though. I am positive that much works.

[TheDestroyer]

I just shed a few tears. That is beautiful.

[BHawthorne]

I love surplus sales. You can get some very crazy gems if you know what to persistently look for, I almost picked up a surplus projection dome awhile back. This stuff tends to be so specialty that people don't really know what it is or bid on it (which helps significantly for price point).

I'm in the process of securing several simulator columnated displays from a professional installation at the moment. They're getting rid of them for free. The shipping crates they're in are ungodly huge though.
:rockout

How is tri-Crossfire in 3x2? I don't hear many users expeiences with triple card. Any insight would be useful for WSGF. :)

[suiken_2mieu]

God i want to know what resolution you're running.

[TJdehya]

God i want to know what resolution you're running.

This is the wrong forum to ask God about his computer specs. sry I couldnt resist. :D

I would like to do something like this one day. But it looks like a huge task.

[Keroppi]

Obscure surplus sales for the win! If you read the lengthy blog post it will go over how much it cost and the whole ordeal. A lot of work, yes, but well worth it.

Unfortunately, due to lack of adapters and DH2Go's, I still can't tell you how tri-fire runs on a 3x2....I am forced to currently run on all 3 cards separately...Today I will order 2 more active adapters, which will put 3x2 onto a single card, but then I will still be only running crossfire, since the 3rd card will still be running separately to push the last 2 cubes.

How it is running currently:

card1...............card2......................................card3
------------- ~~~-------------------------------~~~----------------
|OOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
------------- ~~~-------------------------------~~~----------------
|OOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
------------- ~~~-------------------------------~~~----------------

1600x2400............3200x2400.................1600x2400
Total: 6400x2400 (15.36MP) -- no bezel compensation, it is done physically.

With 2 more active adapters:

card+card2 crossfire...........................card3
--------------------------------------------~~~----------------
|OOOOO |OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
--------------------------------------------~~~----------------
|OOOOO |OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
|OOOOO |OOOOOO |OOOOOO |~~~|OOOOOO |
--------------------------------------------~~~----------------

4800x2400............................................1600x2400

Once I get (4) DH2Go I would have 4 3200x1200 screens, and put them in one 2x2 eyefinity array under trif-fire.

I need them desperately, right now nothing wants to full screen across everything, and stuff that I have tried to force (like VLC player) gets really pissed off trying to upscale to 15MP and keep in sync across 3 cards. It just doesn't wanna cooperate.

EDIT: The forum software strips blank spaces. Makes ascii art REALLY difficult.

[Zencyde]

Haha, that's an impressive build. And I'm usually not a fan of even numbered lines, with the ultra thin bezel I think it works well. FPS games oughtta put the crosshair right at the center, right? :P

This is something I think I'd have to see in person.

[fortheloveoftech]

I'm speechless. Wow.

And this is in your home? Have you had a party yet? Can we come? HAH

[Keroppi]

Haha, that's an impressive build. And I'm usually not a fan of even numbered lines, with the ultra thin bezel I think it works well. FPS games oughtta put the crosshair right at the center, right? :P

This is something I think I'd have to see in person.

Yeah, my crosshairs are just a few pixels wider and go all the way across the display lol.
I suppose it would inhibit the ability to shoot objects under 5px, but I am not good enough to hit that small anyway.

[rich0550]

shoot has anyone got pictures of this?

[BHawthorne]

Looks like he's has them up on ebay at the moment.

[ugzz]

too bad, when i saw the small thumbnail sized pics i realized my butt got warm.. from all the poop that came out of it.
that looked freakin sweet

[suiken_2mieu]

You can right click and view image and it gets bigger.

[Keroppi]

How about some videos then?

(Click HERE)

(Selling it is really an empty threat. I have no real interest in doing so. I love it. But if somebody is really willing to fork over 20K, well then, alright...I guess...)

[chieftex]

Firstly, I hate you.

Secondly - seeing as this is 12 megapixel :O how much more viewable space is there compared to playing it on the wii? Or is it fixed as its a console game?

[Keroppi]

Thanks for the love :)

For the games that support it, the 'widescreen hack' coupled with the 'Aspect Ratio=Window Size' renders it in the full width of the screen, 24:9 format. Since Wii games natively only support up 16:9, it is a 50% increase in "viewable space". The AR of this setup is modest. I have seen Dolphin run some Wii games properly in Eyefinity 3x1L 48:9 (200% increase) just fine. Maybe Duniek will try some crazy 288:9 AR just to see what he can break :)

You don't get any expanded Vertical FOV or anything, just a much much sharper rendered image, as clean as the developer's programming engine allows. As shown in the video, any 2D raster sprites in Dolphin just get straight scaled, and quite frankly, (can) look like hell.

As for the 12 megapixel comment, I really have no clue what you're saying/asking...unless you're implying I am incorrect.
Arguing on the internet can be fun, but arguing with math isn't, because you'll always lose.
8 screens, 4W x 2H -- 1600w x 1200h pixels each. So:
4W x 1600 = 6400 pixels W
2H x 1200 = 2400 pixels H
6400 x 2400 = 15,360,000 pixels
1 megapixel = 1,000,000 pixels

15,360,000 / 1,000,000 = 15.36 megapixels

...I really can't break it down any simpler than that. Where in the world are you coming up with 12?

[deti777]

Thanks for your reply! Here's some more details:

I already have 3 projectors from another project that I would like to use for this. So I would only need 2 more. That opens up more of the budget for other hardware/software. The projectors I have right now were about $3k each, so they are decent projectors for what they do. They are 1080p and support a whole slew of signals/connections. So I would like to continue with these and not get all new ones unless I have to.

As far as the space... right now, the stage is 25-30 feet wide and I have 12 feet of headroom before hitting stuff. Lighting could be the biggest issue. But the rig can be adjusted as needed to make this work. During scenes when I have to use my front wash, I just accept that the lower part of the screen will get blown out. That isn't when I really need the wall though. This wall will really be used when I'm lighting the stage with out-focused movers with colors and LEDs.

When you say "playback hardware", what exactly do you mean? I still don't quite understand how this works. Is there some sort of hardware unit that will trick the software into thinking it is some kind of screen with a weird resolution when actually it is just taking that signal and distributing it out to make one large screen? I guess that is where I'm most confused.