24 replies to this topic

[GAMMAWORX]

John ...Brilliant Innovation

Do the shapes of the templates workout for the nose clip other cars ?
When turning the wheels does the projection go off the cut out projection plains?

...a flat grey can be used to reduce reflection of your panel parts

Edited by GAMMAWORX, Dec 20 2013 - 09:54 AM.

[John Woods]

Thanks Gamma, appreciate your comments.
Will try some light grey cloth on the nose. Reflection  only occurs directly in front of projector and at tip of nose...so not much of an issue to deal with but very annoying if not.

So far all is with the Lotus as it is pretty much only one I drive and so the only one with the projector and driver view camera tweaked to fit the rig. There has been lots of adjusting projector variables and CarCamEdit to get things in "believe-able alignment."
Guessing with adjustment any open wheel car would work the same with this rig.
May try that later today with the Ferrari, by renaming the Lotus.cam file and see what happens.

When turning the projected wheels rotate on their axis and remain in view and on plain. As the display is sync'd to car with wheels straight, when turning the tire tread rotates across the panels and parts of tread go out of view.
But at speed this is not distracting. In use, focus is on center of display, (as with any other display), and the wheels are slightly below to left and right of user, as with real cars...away from point of interest when driving.
Also, already tried projecting wheels on a large white plastic ball, which did not work...at all.

What is most amazing is the look and feel of being very much more in the car and much more in the action. Flips me out that it works and how much it changes everything.

Edited by John Woods, Dec 21 2013 - 10:52 AM.

[Robert Fleurke]

John Woods, on Dec 16 2013 - 12:18 PM, said:

In theory there is a way to present driver's mirrors in real space relative to the user. If possible, it would require editing the car 3do to display the mirrors in alignment with the panels positioned where an actual mirror would be...this would also require re-sizing them and re-shaping. It is less likely, but maybe possible, to create a "closed-cockpit" version, but guess this would require a substantially distorted very tricky to edit display.

I can't imagine how much work, trying and testing goes into this 3D project. It seems all that is missing are the mirrors. I suppose you tried all sorts of FOV's and POV's in order to work around 3do editing the mirrors (and this would mean you have to adjust all panels again as well I suppose). Not sure if you do such stuff yourself, but maybe you could calculate the positions of the mirrors in order for them to be projected and ask someone to do it for you...

It's not hard to see where the mirrors should be judging on the picture with side/top view a few posts above, but visualizing where they should be editing the car 3do is another thing I guess. Might be alot of trying, not sure, maybe you can calculate/estimate it pretty accurate...

Anyhow, it's a very interesting project and I can only commend and praise you for your passion trying such a thing and making it work. This might become a trend in the future for other sims as well as 3D seems to be the future...maybe in combination with an oval/round/bend monitor, or 3 or more monitors...

Great stuff

Edited by Robert Fleurke, Dec 21 2013 - 12:16 PM.

[MECH]

Mirrors can be fitted with some positioners that alow shifting in x, y or z-coord.
Changing the values for the coords is then an easy job with the editor

[John Woods]

Thanks for the comments everyone.
Will edit this post later with current side view of rig, which might help visualizing where mirrors might work on display...and also the complexity of getting it right, which would depend very much on position of projector, user head, display FOV,/POV, etc. For sure where mirrors would have to be on display will bear no relation to where they would be modeled to replicate real car.

Edit: Okay here it is.

Attached Files

•  GPL_Multi-panel real 3D display_sideview.JPG   37.9K   50 downloads

Edited by John Woods, Dec 21 2013 - 03:00 PM.

[John Woods]

Not much has changed over the last year.
Made a video.
Posted it today on YT.

https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be


Its not listed so this link is only way in.


da-tuh!

Edited by John Woods, Feb 27 2015 - 06:25 PM.

[dbell84]

Cool video, John. I like your HD projector setup.  I'm a little jealous.

[John Woods]

Link to current version of projector...mine is 7210...still same price I paid a few years ago.

7235

Back at time of purchase was thinking about needing new computer but decided for same or less to get the projector first...and so far have lost interest in new computer. One thing tho is lamps go out after a few thousand hours...on my third but price for a lamp has come down a lot.

The best thing about it was figuring out how to project onto the 1:1 scale model of the Lotus front end and dialing in the display to match...everything is way, way, way better with 1:1 display scale with the illuminated illusion of sitting on track in a full size car. (Its not exactly 1:1, but its very close, maybe like 1 to 0.9787463267894 or so).

Edited by John Woods, Mar 29 2015 - 07:07 PM.

[John Woods]

Robert Fleurke, on Dec 21 2013 - 12:10 PM, said:

I can't imagine how much work, trying and testing goes into this 3D project.

My first response to this comment, several months ago, was "oh it was easy because it just happened as I went along with it." Since then the rig has been torn apart and rebuilt twice and almost every day is tweaked somehow...trying and testing never seems to end.

Gamma's idea about greying car model worked very well after many/several/lots of attempts, by using white felt material sprayed lightly with matte finish auto body gray primer. This made a big difference stopping 90%-plus of the car reflections onto the wall/display, and this is apparent on video.

Oh yeah btw...made another video.

Just raw footage tho because I uploaded the wrong file, so no titles, etc.
This one is intended to show best as possible so far my driver view.

Its a three lap Novice race at Solitude. At the start realized could not see the steering wheel because the camera was in way of my view. Duh....

https://www.youtube....h?v=UnsWaX6X4HY

Edited by John Woods, Dec 04 2015 - 12:21 PM.

[TurboMan]

Sorry for off-topic but...

hello John, would you mind sharing your settings of the DFGT on the Logitech Profiler and in GEM?
I feel mine very unrealistc, i'd like to try others' settings. Not sure how many people use DFGT/DFP in GPL, wondering if i start a new thread to discuss this

About your rig.. it's great. I've never seen someone doing this to simulate an actual 3D car and the game projected into that 3D model.