A Cold, Dark Morning in Portland (Pic)

[ChrisKLAS]

High-res image link: http://www.airdisaster.com/chris/sim-dark.jpg

Amidst the cold rain (Temperature +1) and dark skies of another Pacific Northwest winter, we're preparing to get settled in for the 7am Alaska Airlines flight to LAX. The dreary darkness of Portland won't be evident for long, though, as not long after reaching FL370, well above any weather, the sun begins to creep up to our left. By the time we reach LA, it's another beautifully sunny Socal day, making this scene of my 737NG sim (now with FDS map lights, glare wing, and AFDS lighting) almost a distant memory.

[Trevor Hale]

Beautiful.  I think that's awesome.

[when acting as a wave]

Very, very nice!

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Wow just like being there. That looks really good.

[ETomlin]

Okay Chris

Many folks are wondering about your visual system set up man! Spill the beans, what kind of projectors and hardware are you using for your visuals?!?!?

By the way, your sim looks awesome.

[ChrisKLAS]

Many folks are wondering about your visual system set up man! Spill the beans, what kind of projectors and hardware are you using for your visuals?!?!?

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Regarding the visuals, the system in my sim is really pretty rudimentary, in my opinion. I think the videos and photos I post hide a lot of its "flaws."

Here's an older photo from when I was first setting it up:



As you can see, the screen is a 24'x4' wraparound built out of gloss white MDF forming a natural curve between homemade posts. Cost to build was less than $50 with materials purchased at Lowes. The screen isn't tall enough, specifically around the sides where if you look left/right, the bottom edge is clearly visible. Eventually I'll re-do the entire screen and projection system to eliminate this, and try to bring the FOV back a bit further as well (though it goes back quite a bit further than shown in this older image already).

Projectors are 3x Optoma EX525ST short throws, with the graphics provided by FS9 and a TH2GO. These are great little beamers, but I hope to upgrade at some point in the future to a higher resolution WXGA system. The image is warped to the curved screen using Immersaview's outstanding SOL7 software. Projector edge blending is to come.

That's really about it. It's fairly simple, but it does the job. Watching someone teeter on the edge of motion sickness the first time they sit in for a takeoff tells me that at least on some level, the immersion factor is there.

I will say this though.. I've flown some older Level D sims in the past couple of years, such as America West's old 757-200 sim in PHX (circa 1992), and my visual system blows theirs out of the water, both in terms of image detail and continuity around the windscreen. Obviously newer Level D sims have visuals that would be impossible to reproduce in a home setting, but some of the older ones were BRUTAL!

[Trevor Hale]

Chris, I am sorry but I still don't see the flaws..  Looks amazing..  Boy that screen looks familiar though LMFAO.  Same thing I used, except mine is only 2 sheets at 16 feet.  If I had Sol7 I am sure my visuals would be much better then they are.  Fantastic information and you really have shown us how you did it.

Cheers for that, and once again another amazing useful post.

Trev

[Maurice]

Chris, I am sorry but I still don't see the flaws..

Trev

Are you blind or what??? There's a screw missing underneath tne MIP  . And Chris, you shouldn't be 'stealing' pictures from Airliners.net and passing them as your own just to make us drool with envy 

Maurice

[ETomlin]

Many folks are wondering about your visual system set up man! Spill the beans, what kind of projectors and hardware are you using for your visuals?!?!?

Thanks for the comments everyone!

As you can see, the screen is a 24'x4' wraparound built out of gloss white MDF forming a natural curve between homemade posts. Cost to build was less than $50 with materials purchased at Lowes. The screen isn't tall enough, specifically around the sides where if you look left/right, the bottom edge is clearly visible. Eventually I'll re-do the entire screen and projection system to eliminate this, and try to bring the FOV back a bit further as well (though it goes back quite a bit further than shown in this older image already).

Hi Chris

The immediate thought that comes to mind is to do two things as an over-all improvement.

1) How about making the screen out of a full sheet of the same material used here, but standing up height wise to make it run all the way to the floor (nearly) for a total of 8' if your room can handle that height, or maybe 7'?

2) Build a faux wall that joins up to the back of your sim that extends to the edges of the screen so that essentially other than the top, your sim is completely enclosed. This back part could be built on castors so that it would be easy to roll outta the way when needing to get to the front for maintenance, etc. This would complete the experience plus tidy things up a bit, preventing you from seeing objects behind the sim when looking to the hard right or left. My sim is completely enclosed except the top (and Im working on a way to do that too) and it's incredible running it like that.

I know that you know of the flaws, but as Trevor said- it's incredible and thanks for taking the time to show it off and explain what you've done. We'd love to see updates!

[ChrisKLAS]

1) How about making the screen out of a full sheet of the same material used here, but standing up height wise to make it run all the way to the floor (nearly) for a total of 8' if your room can handle that height, or maybe 7'?

I thought about that, but at least with the material I used, the less seams, the better, as I'll never get rid of them 100%. The next screen will be made from custom milled MDF at 8x6ft, effectively covering all visual angles out the windows.

2) Build a faux wall that joins up to the back of your sim that extends to the edges of the screen so that essentially other than the top, your sim is completely enclosed. This back part could be built on castors so that it would be easy to roll outta the way when needing to get to the front for maintenance, etc. This would complete the experience plus tidy things up a bit, preventing you from seeing objects behind the sim when looking to the hard right or left. My sim is completely enclosed except the top (and Im working on a way to do that too) and it's incredible running it like that.

As I said, the last photo above is pretty old (about 6 months). I haven't mustered up the courage to start building walls yet, but the entire sim is enclosed by floor to ceiling completely black opaque cloth. It runs around the curvature of the screen (hanging just behind it, actually resting against the back), then forms a straight edge across the "back" of the sim, with a seam allowing access into the sim, or the cloth to be lifted up and rested on top of the shell so that the entire back of the sim is open. Not the most beautiful or professional solution in the world, but when it's bright and sunny in the house and you step into the sim for a night flight and button up the cloth, you can't tell a bit of difference.

And Chris, you shouldn't be 'stealing' pictures from Airliners.net and passing them as your own just to make us drool with envy 

You, sir, are a gentleman! 

[Bob Reed]

1) How about making the screen out of a full sheet of the same material used here, but standing up height wise to make it run all the way to the floor (nearly) for a total of 8' if your room can handle that height, or maybe 7'?

I thought about that, but at least with the material I used, the less seams, the better, as I'll never get rid of them 100%. The next screen will be made from custom milled MDF at 8x6ft, effectively covering all visual angles out the windows.

2) Build a faux wall that joins up to the back of your sim that extends to the edges of the screen so that essentially other than the top, your sim is completely enclosed. This back part could be built on castors so that it would be easy to roll outta the way when needing to get to the front for maintenance, etc. This would complete the experience plus tidy things up a bit, preventing you from seeing objects behind the sim when looking to the hard right or left. My sim is completely enclosed except the top (and Im working on a way to do that too) and it's incredible running it like that.

As I said, the last photo above is pretty old (about 6 months). I haven't mustered up the courage to start building walls yet, but the entire sim is enclosed by floor to ceiling completely black opaque cloth. It runs around the curvature of the screen (hanging just behind it, actually resting against the back), then forms a straight edge across the "back" of the sim, with a seam allowing access into the sim, or the cloth to be lifted up and rested on top of the shell so that the entire back of the sim is open. Not the most beautiful or professional solution in the world, but when it's bright and sunny in the house and you step into the sim for a night flight and button up the cloth, you can't tell a bit of difference.

And Chris, you shouldn't be 'stealing' pictures from Airliners.net and passing them as your own just to make us drool with envy 

You, sir, are a gentleman! 

This is the way mine was setup just before we moved. This works very well!

[Bob Reed]

Closing this in completely is not going to be easy because of the 3 projectors. They need to stay cool and they produce a fair amount of heat. So there needs to be room around them and a way for fresh air to get at them.

[ETomlin]

Chris, ah...I see now. You have already 'been there done that'! I know it's a great looking sim! Bob you are right, they really heat things up.

[ChrisKLAS]

Closing this in completely is not going to be easy because of the 3 projectors. They need to stay cool and they produce a fair amount of heat. So there needs to be room around them and a way for fresh air to get at them.

You're right about that! Between the three projectors, 7 PCs, and number of other heat generating nuances (lights, DC power supplies, etc.) it already heats up pretty good, despite the non-air tight "seal" of the cloth fabric. And this is in winter... just imagine 5 months from now during the heat of the Vegas summer (108+ routinely).

I'm looking at some options involving flexible ducting and fans from Lowes to pull cool air from the floor outside the sim and dump it into the enclosure at the very top of the ceiling, allowing it to sink through the space and cool things off.

Eventually I'd also like to put a system to force air through the actual swivel vents in the cockpit. Of course, I have to figure out where those vents are actually located in an NG cockpit, since I know they have them, but can't for the life of me see them in any pictures I've researched.