Triple Screen Fresnel Lens Display for $220

7 Foot Wide Triple Screen Fresnel Lens Display for $220.


I just finished a prototype which turned out so well I thought I'd share some details.

It uses 3x19 inch monitors magnified by Fresnel lenses to give a near-seamless 135° FOV. The lenses fool the eye into believing the image is approximately 7 feet wide and farther away than it actually is; more like what eyes are used to focusing on in real life.

It can be built for a little over $200 including the cost of cheap second hand 19 LCD monitors (plentiful in most areas). Here's a link to the lens I used: http://bhlens.com/product_detail.aspx?pid=34

The overall weight is only a few pounds (plus monitors); easily made lighter by detaching the monitor stands and hard-mounting, and the compactness delivers the small moment of inertia important for motion simulators.

Please note: I am in no way promoting the use of the wooden table structure for a motion platform That's just something I whipped together in a couple hours for proof of concept of what's above it.

Now, I never normally get sick playing video games. However, the overall effect of this design is so immersive that I got quite motion sick and nauseous for the first few hours of trying iRacing with it. I think that means it's working My explanation of this is that the eyes and brain get completely convinced you really are in that virtual space, but there are no motion cues to go with it as you zip around the track (i.e. inner ear sensations), which it normally expects to receive. Thankfully, you get get used to it with time (at least I did), and are left with what I think is an amazing experience. The videos below don't do this justice.

Technical Details:

The side lenses/monitors are angled 45° inward and each monitor is about 19cm behind its respective lens. This gives a roughly 1.7x magnification equivalent to a 31 monitor. My viewing position is roughly at the perpendicular intersection of all three lens centers. Overall resolution is 3840x1024. Each monitor is 1280x1024 and is a 5:4 ratio,19 diagonal in size. I would not recommend using anything over 20, nor any of the widescreen 16:9 monitor types as they are not suitable for the lenses which are 40x32cm. The 5:4 x3 ratio is perfect as you also get a nice vertical FOV too. Overall, the 19 size is perfect for this application. I recommend trying to find three with very similar image & color qualities, if possible.

I'm sure this concept is nothing new to motion rig builders, but I sure don't see many people doing it. Not sure why.... highly recommended!

One lap in iRacing:
http://youtu.be/kOMREPZNYwM

Walkthrough videos:
http://youtu.be/KjVFaZc9pw8
http://youtu.be/FpFnY_3QVcU

Pics:




[BTW: I cross-posted this on x-sim.de too. Apologies if that's against protocol, but I'm new and not clear why there's two separate forums. Perhaps somebody could explain? Thanks!

Good idea - did you manage to clear the bezels area ?

If by clear you mean bezel management, yes. The AMD Eyefinity software handles that. However, I've positioned the monitors such that I have bezel size set to zero within the iRacing software because that's how the monitors are positioned on my table.

It's quite tricky aligning it all! The binocular affect your two eyes make for lots of possible combinations ranging from seamless to purposeful gaps. A video camera has only one eye, so it's not easy to demonstrate on youtube.

This looks like a good solution to my attempt to have a wider view on my sim. I had been thinking of a homemade curved plastic screen with a projector, which makes that idea pretty expensive, I find.

Do I understand you to say that the AMD Eyefinity software eliminates the need for Triplehead2go? That would same some money. I use an Nvidia card, and need to see if it has something similar to the Eyefinity.

I checked your link for the fresnel lenses, and looked on ebay for monitors. All of that would cost a lot less than a projector. So, I'm very interested in your approach.

Thanks,

binky9

Very good idea, just what if one operates with the motion. There's just a sweet spot for the eyes, or do I see this wrong

@binky9: Yes, to your TH2G question, but it's really the card's h/w itself which provides the triple monitor support, not the driver s/w exclusively.

@Papifix: it's intended more for sims where the monitors move with the driver. Also, as you might notice in my video, my steering wheel is only a few cms from the center lens in order to place my eyes at the focal length. Lenses of longer focal length than mine are available if required.

I should say, however, that as long as the nominal eye position is at the focal length, then moving around +/-5cm doesn't matter much. Any small visual anomalies that occur are less noticeable than you might imagine because you are constantly more focused on keeping the car on the track and the driving experience itself. That has been my experience, anyway.

I LOVE your setup! I'm currently looking to emulate the display setup with 19" CRT's, but I'm having trouble finding the lenses! The site that you linked seems not to work (let me create an account and order, but never asked for payment info or sent me anything after trying a couple times and emailing them). Does anyone know of another source to get similar lenses? Thanks!

Randy

Really bro, this is like 3 years old.