Perspective

[Westozy]

I re-aimed my projector to give the left seat a more realistic looking perspective. When I set it up initially, I had it beaming straight down the middle as a compromise giving both pilots a slight crabbed view. Now the F.O. has an increased crab view but it is still very flyable. 90% of the time I'm flying on my own so it works great, I usually let the visitors use the captain's seat. Basically, aim the projector at the captain's head for the best result. Nic is right, make the picture as big as possible first. It is so much easier to fly like this I reckon.

Gwyn

[ivar hestnes]

Thank you very much for explaining this. Now I understand it better. I will very soon put my MIP into my shell and I will them try with positioning the projectors.

[Tomlin]

I am going to be trying out the projector this weekend to get it setup for the event. Just to recap, change the center value to '0' and position the projector to get the biggest image possible, correct?

I appreciate any updated info from those of you who've 'been there/done that'!

[Tomlin]

Okay, I was the last person to post on this thread and I wanted to resurrect it.

I just got thru putting my new PC thru the 'fire' and it's working a treat for FS9. I havent tired FSX for the full size LJ45 sim, for fear of liking it better and fussing with the machine again!

So, what I wanted to post was a bit of info about my sim and what I find so far regarding perspective and crabbing.

Im using an Epson S3 Powerlight LCD projector with a native 800x600, running in 1024x768.

I have a room size of 17.5 x 17.5, and my screen is 8x8 (large I know, but it's there just in case).

I project about 6'x5' or so of an image, and that's approximately 9.5-10 feet away from the projector to the screen.

The image is about 9 feet away from my head/eyes and is mounted at about 7' off the floor.

The projector is mounted in the center of the sim, and straight on to the screen.

When I taxi, occassionally I look at the aircraft to see how on the center line I am, and I usually right on the center line.

Here's the kicker- I notice No crab effect, I land manually EVERY TIME, AND Ive not put in an altered eyepoint since I have a fresh install of FS9. However, the Copilot may experience it, as my friend said to him is appears the center line is going between his legs.

How does this make sense? Maybe it's that I have a good combination of size, distance, etc? Im thinking I will play around with the settings to equal it all out for the copilot a bit, but Im amazed that it looks 'right' for the left seat with no changes. Maybe Ive just gotten accustomed to the slight crab and have been unconciously adjusting for it?

[mauriceb]

I am going to echo the opinion of Angus Wighton who is corporate pilot with a very nice sim that has separate monitors for all the views. He set it up so that the view looks right for the captain only and he is quite happy with that setup.

His justification is that the captain's view is the one that matters. If there is a first officer in the right seat, he should be too busy to look around too much and if it is just a visitor, then a little crabbing is not a big price to pay for the experience, especially since it is only mildly annoying during the taxi, takeoff & landing.

I flew in his sim as the captain & then as the first officer and I can heartily agree with him. The only view that matters is the captain's view.

Maurice

[Tomlin]

Nice point of view Maur, get it...p.o.v. !

No really, I think it's very valid but there's the problem that it would nag me a bit though when folks came over! However, it's something to ponder if someone were to be incapable of getting a good compromise like NicD outlines.

[ivar hestnes]

I dont have any big issues with the crabbing effect either. Today I landed my sim from tha F/O seat for the first time and it felt very natural. ( except for that I caught myself looking at capt displays all the time, even I have FO displays) No obvious crabbing issues. I watched the replay from both seats and all good from both those positions.

Even watched the replay from outside the aircraft. And positioned so I looked at the aircraft from the back. Then I could see how I positioned the aircraft against the centerline on my approach. Then I could see my actual movements towards the centerline, and I did the right corrections all the way.

Forum member ENKB was here on a visit today. Very cool to fly with two captains

[NicD]

Interesting Eric, sounds great !

We fly the sim from left or right seat and the experience from the left seat is slightly better (due to eyepoint values), but not hugely so.

I suspect its got alot to do with the combination of screen width and focal distance. The wider the screen is the more pronounced the crab effect is (especially if using wrap-around). And I think there is a sweet spot for relative focal distance - which you may have nailed.

We can't wait to move our sim into bigger premises and experiment further with all this, without having to use curved mirrors.