Three monitor setup and centerline?

[HondaCop]

On a three monitor setup using nVidia surround for the FSX visuals, do I align the center monitor with the captain's yoke or down the middle of the cockpit with the throttle console?

[bussgarfield]

Hi Efrain,

It will depend really on your monitor size and type of aircraft you are flying.

I have a 3 X 22" monitor set up with nVidia (and TH2Go). With the 737 I have found that to have the join between the centre and right monitors lined up with the centre windscreen pillar of the aircraft allows me to angle the left monitor in slightly to give me an angled view to my left. The join between the centre and left monitors roughly line up with the left pillar of the windscreen.

Hope that may be of some help.

Gary

[HondaCop]

Hi Gary,

So basically, your center monitor is lined up with the captain's chair, correct? BTW, I have a 50" LED HDTV and will soon be getting 2 more of the same for a 3 monitor setup.

[Sam Llorca]

Make sure you center it were is suppose to go, I have a 3 tv set up and I center it with the center console and is crabbing to the right all the time.

[HondaCop]

So in other words, align it with the captain and not the center console?

[Sam Llorca]

I would, like I said, 3-60" LCD tv's line up with the center console will not work, it will always crab to the left in my case, the runway is always pointing right at the far end, I have change the lateral position and the zoom you name it, it will always be crabbing, I was thinking of adding a 4th tv to spread the center view between the two. Can't give you a straight answer because I haven't done it yet. Waiting for a chance to change it.

[Maurice]

I have change the lateral position and the zoom you name it, it will always be crabbing,

Not true Sam. There is a way to eliminate all crabbing on the captain side but it is at the expense of the F.O. side. I mostly fly alone and if I have guests, I let them fly on the captain side, so I don't care that the crabbing on the F.O. side is much more pronounced as long as it is perfect on the captain's side.

It is not a matter of changing the lateral position but rather the camera rotation. In my case, by rotating the camera 10 degrees left in all 3 views, the captain's view is perfect. A very minor side effect is that the side views are also rotated.

So, if you position yourself at the intersection of 2 perpendicular runways and you look left, the runway on the left will be more than 90 degrees left. In other words, it will look like the runway is angled 100 degrees instead of 90 degrees.

This is a very minor nuisance compared to the crabbing effect so I highly recommend you play with the rotation values until the crabbing totally disappears. I found the best for me was 10 degrees but you will need to experiment to find which value is best for you.

Of course, I am using projectors so I'm not sure it applies equally well with monitors but I'm pretty sure it will work as well. At any rate, it is an easily reversible experiment 

Maurice

[HondaCop]

Maurice,

In order to set it via camera rotations, then it must be aligned with the center console, correct?

So in a nutshell:

1. If the center monitor is aligned with the center console, then by messing around with the camera rotation, one can make the view align with only the captain side, correct? If so, then it's ok because I'm building half a cockpit anyway (captain side only).

2. If the center monitor is aligned with the captain seat, then no modifications need to be made to the camera rotation.

Did I get this right? If so, then I think I will go with option 2.

[Maurice]

Efrain,

Not sure what to tell you since I have not played with monitors. Also, I don't know if you are using one view spread over 3 monitors or 3 undocked views like I am.

At any rate, you may want to read an earlier topic I posted a while back:
http://www.cockpitbuilders.com/community/index.php?topic=2395.msg18223#msg18223

Maurice