Wall-Sized 3D Displays: The Ultimate Gaming Room

[nubie]

Thanks too for the links--that last one, in particular, has proved invaluable already, providing solutions to quite a few other problems. A very useful blog, that one....

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As you point out, this method (as used in projection) does demand a higher "quality" of screen, since it must reflect not just light, but polarized light back to the eye in order to work. This MAY eventually be the one stumbling block that forces me to continue instead down the path of the strobed/shutterglasses projection solution, but I'm certainly not ready to say that for sure until I do some hands on testing of some of these components myself.

In any case, this solution has real potential and some clear advantages over the other method.

Biggest advantage to the DLP shutterglasses route right now (for me) would be simply that I already have a working system in place pretty much "off-the-shelf," and without much fiddling. Certainly nice to have until I can get a better (but also more involved) system up and running to replace it, so I'm glad I tried it...but it probably won't satisfy me long term. An LCD solution will be the way to go instead, I do think.

Very glad you looked into this thread. Thanks again.


C_S

Well "quality" I don't know, I think after the glass beaded screens the Silver Matte surface is just a standard that was used in years past and then switched up with a white lately. Except for specialty uses such as Polarized reflection.

I do know that the link I posted will let you get one for pretty darn cheap, depending on how big you are going to go.

 

[T4LBash]

I just wanted to write and say thanks to all who have posted on this forum, you have convinced an old gamer to try something new.

I purchased the Edim shutter glasses and loved the effect. Sadly I am running an X800 ATI and am not able to upgrade for a few months 🙁 The Edim drivers do work for ATI but there are noticeable anomolies in the game Doom3 and HL2, but not enough to take away from the effect of looking over a 30 foot drop. If you have Nvidia 7000 series cards I would highly suggest the shutter glasses to get an idea of what sterioscopic 3d is about without spending alot of money.

 

[C_S]

Well, when I use the term "quality" (as in "higher" quality) I really don't mean anything much more than what you are already aware of--a carefully applied and smoothly spray painted screen. One which sports metallic (flaked) paint, so that the polarized light reflected from it is comes properly back to the eye.

Not particularly high in quality, no...except that it clearly IS of a higher quality (or at least it's more demanding in setup) than is the rather wrinkled, draped white (non metallic) blackout cloth screen I'm currently using here.

The blackout cloth is cost me all of $10 US, and it works fine with the DLP projector/shutterglasses solution. Moreover, I can easily imagine a plain white bedsheet working nearly as well.

But neither of those would properly reflect polarized light either (except a small percentage of course).

So in that sense we need something of "a higher quality," yes. But not necessarily much more expensive than cloth either. Just a generic metal flake, grey, matte surface paint applied over a reasonably smooth surface.

Unless I've misread his thread/blog....

[I should add too that, for me, a commercial screen will probably not be a realistic option--I will need a DIY solution]


C_S

 

[nubie]

Understood, if you need the DIY, then his setup is good for you.

I weighed my personal situation and found that $140 was realistic in terms of the quality I got, especially since it was 70"x70" which is 80" diagonal in 16x9 terms.

I had trouble with finding paint, you might even be able to use the aluminum roof paint, but I had a very heavily textured wall that I couldn't smooth. I suppose that you could paint your screen after you stretch it on a frame, but I looked at the money and time and possible crappy skills I have and just got a silver screen.

To anyone thinking of getting a projection setup who may want to play with 3D sometime in the future, just get a silver screen to start with, it really isn't that much more expensive, it could even be cheaper from my source quoted above.

I have since made an LCD direct-view based loosely on the Co Van Ekeren box or the Barry Aldous Tardis, mine isn't a box, it is a open frame that simply holds both LCD's and the mirror. I can pull the mirror out (like it is now) if I want to use the monitor for web/email/windows stuff. Since you can now pick up a 22" monitor for under $300, maybe it makes more sense to do that and the mirror and get high resolution compared to the projectors for about half the cost.

Of course I wouldn't mind having twin $3k DLPs and running them at 10' diagonal with a silver screen, but I just can't right now, for obvious reasons.

 

[mdrejhon]

I had a wall size 3D stereoscopic setup almost 8 years ago -- I was using a CRT projector with LCD shutter glasses that came with a Geforce2 GTS card. The good old Asus AGP-V6600 Deluxe - the very first, original Geforce 256, top of the line and bleeding edge.

I played Star Wars Racer with this setup. 600 miles per hour at 4 feet above ground, on a 92 inch wall projection screen. Full color 3D at full 60 frames per second. Also Need For Speed 3 as well. The effect worked amazingly well with several car racing games. That really blew me in that day.

It was a data grade CRT projector - an NEC Multisync XG135 to be exact. Hard to calibrate, but produced a really great picture at 1024x768. The quality of a high end 21" CRT, but blown up to wall size. DLP and LCD can't quite match the stereoscopic quality of that, just yet...

Some photos of the old setup were at http://www.marky.com/hometheater/