CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[noos@xp37+]

Hello,


I am talking about customizing game config. files to run them in your desired resolutions, aspect ratios and increased fields of view. Here a short taste of it:



http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/videos/cod4-surround-comp.php




and here are more videos under surround gaming comparison:




http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/videos/




from the site were your journey should begin:



http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page



What is it about:

You can change for example lots of 4:3 games to run in 16:9/10 or any other resolution. The same time you can often increase your field of view. But as you can see there is also surround gaming for lots of games. These people use 2 or 3 monitors/projectors simultaneously for sometimes 180 degrees of view. Now the CRTs come into play! There is a way to use a side by side stack and run games in aspect ratios like 2:1 1200x600/2048x1024 (two times 800x800/1024x1024, full tube surface) or more like 3:1 2400x600 (three times 800x600, less tube surface) or much higher res. and other aspect ratios. Normally these people use for two or three screen solutions the matrox dual head to go (dh2g) or the triple head to go(th2g). But as we won´t need three CRTs, we can stick with our normal dual head graphic cards if you would liketwo use two CRTs). Or with a single projector running 2:1 or a little more like 2.35:1 (yes you can render games in your scope desktop resolution, like your active area scanned resolution like 1920x800 resulting in an movielike gaming experience and no additional setups for a new resolution for your CRT). What resolutions you can run depends on the geometry range of your CRT as you have to reduce the vertical size to the correct aspect ratio. Than you will use very little tube surface. But you can use so little tube face, that you can burn your tube twice by rotating them or just moving the raster. So for a single CRT you can use anything like 1280x480p or 2000X600p 2500x997....it only depends on the geometry of your CRT and how many lines he can resolve in the aspect ratio. For low end CRTs like the BD701 I have used 1280x480i, to AVOID heavy SCANLINE OVERLAP. But it looked ok in p. For sure you have to use powerstrip or refreshlock to force interlaced modes in games, but the will be rendered in i!

How it is done:

Check out that gamelist or better the hole site with it´s tutorials:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Essential_Games_List


Choose the game you like and read how to change the resolution and the field of view(fov). So you take for example Farcry 1 (all the Farcry games and enginebased games will support any resolution with fields of view up to 180 degrees!!!)
But farcry 1 is a little different because you change everything ingame (developer mode), not in the gamfile itself before gaming. So enter your resolution and fov. Then the game will be rendered in the resolution and you only have to setup up your crt with the resolution. Or you produce that res. in powerstrip before or in your graphic card driver plus refreshlock....

Beginner can use the free Matrox SGU tool. This tool will do the hack in the gamefile for you in a lot of games, but it only support two or three time the normal horizontal res. like 800x600, 1600x600, 2400x600 or three times 3840x1024(for you stackers/blenders out there). But it is very easy in the beginning. Or even some games will detect the costomized desktop res. and will offer them to you for gaming. But always check and increase the field of view (fov) to take the best benefit of it.

So, I am doing this quite a time. And it is hard to imagine how the beginning was. So feel free to ask if I forgot anything - this post will be posted at Curt Palme, AVS, Beisammen.de

Best regards

Noos

Ps: When there is time I will do an tutorial for the 3D steroescopic gaming projection for CRTs and what is possible in the moment. If you can´t wait:

http://www.mtbs3d.com/

Here you find everythig about 3d Projection. And yes, you can do 3D surround resolution stereoscopic projection.....!

[David_Web]

I have been thinking about a RP spherical or torus screen for a while. 4:3 res will give you 90* view in almost all direction which is just about what you can see. It does not need to be big if you sit close to it. And the cornet focus knob will take care of most of the sharpness I think.
Running less horizontal res would only serve to decrease scan rate or bandwidth. I don't see how cutting horizontal res helps immersion unless it's a technical thing where the resolution and space constraints go first. Which I guess plays a big part.
The spherical screen will benefit by giving less eye strain as you don't need to refocus all the time. Or at least lessen it.
Sounds like a fun project to me.
Screen material might be a problem though as it has to be RP compatible and rigid as you can't use a fan as in a normal FP torus.
Cylindrical will work but you won't get good corner focus anywhere.

Reading glasses could give the illusion of the screen being further away if you need to sit too close.

Using AC lenses on a LC pj or vice versa might work great for spherical projection in the lens don't have enough cornet focus controls.

The stereoscopic part could be solved by polarizing filters from LCD screens. If you can get a clear one. Ill have to test it some time.

The post might be a little messy as I thought most of it up as I went. Also Ill look into the links you posted later so it might already have been covered.