Sebj's 80/20 Motion Chassis - Work in Progress 17 17

[simul8r 114]

Last night I put together the triple monitor stand but only had time to mount one. I mounted it such that it sits between the GT2 wheel and the base. There isnt much room for ones hands there but still enough to turn the wheel and shift. I'll see how it goes once I get this up and running.

 

This should be interesting, you may definitely be on target of where your virtual wheel would be in relation to your dashboard.

[sebj 616]

This should be interesting, you may definitely be on target of where your virtual wheel would be in relation to your dashboard.

 

Thank you simul8r for the positive comment. My intention was that exactly, to have the dashboard there in a realistic manner.  Following Todd Bettenhausen's advice. 

[UNKLE 1,429]

Yep that's great positioning of the monitor mate, you'll get a fantastic FOV on iRacing with that mate.  That's one of the benefits of the wheel you own, with the T500 it's difficult to achieve that with the size of the wheel base.

[sebj 616]

I'm putting all my research to work

[simul8r 114]

Thank you simul8r for the positive comment. My intention was that exactly, to have the dashboard there in a realistic manner.  Following Todd Bettenhausen's advice. 

 

Granted, I'm following Remco Hitman's SuperFOV setup with projector but has Tod mentioned it's also important to have the horizontal center of the image/monitors leveled with your eyes as well.  At about 04:25 within his video he mentioned he was 2 inches off with plans to lower his seat.  Not knocking down monitors but that's the beauty of screen and projector, the image can be zero'ed in without worrying about wheel base, shafts or bezels and the like.  With monitors, the shaft of the wheel or base is limited to the bottom bezel of the monitor and now it's all about raising and lowering the seat in order to target the eyes to center screen which then subsequently affects how the height of the wheel feels all over again.  Not to mention by having monitors this close, they have to be the right size as well, to large and eye level is now stuck far below center screen emitting  the feeling of a child in a car seat.

 

BTW, sorry if I jacked your thread a little here.

[UNKLE 1,429]

Well you can always alter the horizon in iRacing and the driver height settings in the app.ini file to match your eye level.  So there is no loss in FOV with triple monitors if setup correctly, except you see less of the virtual dials and dashboard which is the benefit of the SuperFOV.  That's why those of us with a good FOV on triple monitors use tach and digital displays.

[sebj 616]

Granted, I'm following Remco Hitman's SuperFOV setup with projector but has Tod mentioned it's also important to have the horizontal center of the image/monitors leveled with your eyes as well.  At about 04:25 within his video he mentioned he was 2 inches off with plans to lower his seat.  Not knocking down monitors but that's the beauty of screen and projector, the image can be zero'ed in without worrying about wheel base, shafts or bezels and the like.  With monitors, the shaft of the wheel or base is limited to the bottom bezel of the monitor and now it's all about raising and lowering the seat in order to target the eyes to center screen which then subsequently affects how the height of the wheel feels all over again.  Not to mention by having monitors this close, they have to be the right size as well, to large and eye level is now stuck far below center screen emitting  the feeling of a child in a car seat.

 

BTW, sorry if I jacked your thread a little here.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. Its very helpful and I will check once I sit down tonight. I'm sitting fairly low so I don't foresee an issue. 

[sebj 616]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Just could not find time to finish, then when I did, I couldn't stop driving 

 

I still have to decide on my monitor angles, build a monitor hood, tweak simvibe, build a PC shelf and deal with the cables.

 

I'm finding with 60 degrees at 179 FOV the in game wheel at my distance is too large but at 45 degrees @ 179 FOV it fits perfectly, so i may stay with the latter setting.  I was having such a blast driving the McLaren around Spa last night, with SimVibe and the lights off, the immersion was truly something.

 

 

[UNKLE 1,429]

Fantastic, I like the castors on the monitor stand - nice touch

[Paul GT73 1,398]

looking great seb, I was thinking of getting my screens right up behind my rim but it would take a bit of an overhaul to do it, but if you say it looks to big then i'll take your word for it, my set up is 60 deg and 179 fov with 27" screens but I sometimes feel it looks a little small, the McLaren is a blast just too tool around in, good work and enjoy

[UNKLE 1,429]

Paul if I were you I'd ditch the 179 fov and try to get as accurate as you possibly can to the iRacing calculator.  You'll likely sacrifice some FOV and some of the virtual dashboard but what you'll see on screen will be accurate in terms of sizing. If you sit low in your rig then adjust the driver height settings in the app.ini file and use the shift [ ] to match the horizon to your eye level.

[Paul GT73 1,398]

the fov calculator gives me 179, im 600mm from each screen, its the open wheelers where I feel it could just be a little bigger but if I close it down to say 150 or 160 then everything seems to slow up a little, its all gravy, just me being ultra picky

[sebj 616]

Fantastic, I like the castors on the monitor stand - nice touch

Thanks Mark, I installed those so i can move the rig around and I have wheel on the front as well. I took that idea from KJ's.

[sebj 616]

I've been setting up the FOV based on the size of the wheel on the screen, then once I dial it in, I turn it off to practice.  I totally agree with you Mark, I want everything on screen accurate in terms of size and I think the steering wheel is a natural point of reference.  So when I set it up in the McLaren at 45 and 179, it all looked right. The view out the windshield does seem a bit small but I guess that's how it is.

 

I will try 60 and dial down the total FOV lower as you suggested with the file tweaks and then post back on my experience with that.

 

thanks guys for the great comments

[UNKLE 1,429]

I've been setting up the FOV based on the size of the wheel on the screen, then once I dial it in, I turn it off to practice.  I totally agree with you Mark, I want everything on screen accurate in terms of size and I think the steering wheel is a natural point of reference.  So when I set it up in the McLaren at 45 and 179, it all looked right. The view out the windshield does seem a bit small but I guess that's how it is.

 

I will try 60 and dial down the total FOV lower as you suggested with the file tweaks and then post back on my experience with that.

 

thanks guys for the great comments

 

I don't change the FOV settings in iRacing I let the calculator decide what it should be by only entering in the measurements, if some of the lines don't quite match up on the side monitors then I tweak the angle degree setting since it's hard to say with confidence what the exact physical angle is of each side monitor.

 

One thing I do too is that since I use the CCC bezel correction then I don't let iRacing do ANY bezel correction so the monitor size and bezel size are both the same value in the iRacing calculator.

[UNKLE 1,429]

the fov calculator gives me 179

 

Hey Paul I'm not accusing you of lying but I always thought that to achieve an accurate 179 fov it should mean that the edge of the side monitors are inline with your peripheral vision (so that you don't see any of the room you are sitting in), so that basically they are approx inline with the back of the seat and thus makes it pretty tricky to get in and out of the rig with 24/27" monitors.

 

FYI I get 150 FOV with 27" monitors, I could get that to about 160 I reckon if I increased the height of the center monitor to move it closer and over the base of the wheel but I preferred the monitors lower rather than up higher.

 

Sorry SebJ I'm hijacking your excellent thread

[Paul GT73 1,398]

its very tricky, I have to stand on my seat and slide in, this pic is old and with moniters set  at 45

...who the hell is phil ?...

[UNKLE 1,429]

Sorry, corrected my post - you look like a Phil to me

 

Ahh that photo angle helps, yep that's darn close to 180.  If you added a hood you'd have to do a limbo dance to get into it

[Paul GT73 1,398]

yeah....   realy like your hood and was all for putting something together but im not that nimble anymore, sorry to go off topic seb, Mcunkles always doing that

[sebj 616]

the fov calculator gives me 179, im 600mm from each screen, its the open wheelers where I feel it could just be a little bigger but if I close it down to say 150 or 160 then everything seems to slow up a little, its all gravy, just me being ultra picky

 

So I tinkered around with the FOV inlcuding the app.ini driversheight setting. In the end I WAS able to get the wheel the right size at 59degrees with a 179FOV.  My distance from screen measurement was off. I am using a 580mm viewing distance.

[UNKLE 1,429]

good job, sounds like you are going to have one damn fine setup when you are all done

[sebj 616]

I don't change the FOV settings in iRacing I let the calculator decide what it should be by only entering in the measurements, if some of the lines don't quite match up on the side monitors then I tweak the angle degree setting since it's hard to say with confidence what the exact physical angle is of each side monitor.

 

One thing I do too is that since I use the CCC bezel correction then I don't let iRacing do ANY bezel correction so the monitor size and bezel size are both the same value in the iRacing calculator.

 

do you prefer the ccc bezel correction? is there a difference in the performance?

[sebj 616]

good job, sounds like you are going to have one damn fine setup when you are all done

 

I spent a couple of hours fine tuning SimVibe. I did what many recommended, turn one on, test it, tune it, test it etc. Then try another effect, same process. Then I combined similar effects to see how they played off each other and so on.  So far I have it tuned to my liking. My wife tried it out a few minutes ago and really liked it, she kept doing lap after lap on Mosport.  

[sebj 616]

 

its very tricky, I have to stand on my seat and slide in, this pic is old and with moniters set  at 45

...who the hell is phil ?...

 

I'm looking at your picture and I can see why you'd have an issue..you have a bar in the way. I constructed my rig with that in mind, I have plenty of room to slide in without forcing my body into a yoga position.

[UNKLE 1,429]

do you prefer the ccc bezel correction? is there a difference in the performance?

 

 

I prefer ccc bezel correction just because it means that it'll work for any sim/game that doesn't offer it and I didn't see any advantage other than that when I did a comparison.

 

Yeah SimVibe can be a pain in the butt to set up but it's worth taking the time, it's great once it's fine tuned.

 

When I first hooked it up with the default profile I wasn't impressed.  You need to strip it right down to the basics and then layer and tweak each effect one step at a time.

 

Oh yeah make sure to export all your SimVibe profiles as a backup, I made a mistake of not backing them up and lost them through my own stupidity and had to setup from scratch again - there was some swearing that day