Big triple TV as racing screen, do you have experience?

[hatih]

I'm planning somewhat extreme triple screen setup and would like to know if it's too much. First of all, I don't want to keep the screen near my face so I'm going to buy decent size TVs.

Where things get complicated is that I would like to be able to see on side by looking there and that could be achieved by using TVs relatively close to me, I found a formula on internet that gives angle which will have monitors in 90 degree angle towards you when you look at it and with it I calculated that if I would get three 55" monitors and put them to 80cm viewing distance the angle would be 75 degrees and if I would use 65" TVs with 85cm distance the angle would be 81 degrees.

65" would be preferable because it wouldn't take much more floor space and there would be more space between rig and TV on left for getting there. 'But there are several things that worry me with this setup.
1) heat, although LED-screens are relatively low power I'm afraid that very big surface area generates so much heat that place will be too hot.
2) I can't get game to support the extreme angle I have with monitors. I couldn't have tested it but Assetto Corsa that I currently play seem to have adjustment for that but a) I don't know if it really works as needed and b) I don't know if next game will have the support.
3) I get motion sickness easily, will this cover so much visible area that I can't use it. Because I get nauseous quite easily I tried this little beforehand, I gathered three 60" plasmas and I could drive with them but they had very wide bezel and much smaller angle that I try to achieve here.

I probably forgot something obvious and something less obvious, I know there is the video for 100k rig that has 65" monitors but he has distance of about 1,2m and angle of about 45 degrees. If I try the extreme version and can't use it I could revert to that less extreme setup but it takes considerably more width from room and I wouldn't want use that for rig. That's why I'm at the moment leaning toward 55" TVs, they would also take lot of space if turned to 45 degree angle but not as much as 65".

So, what are your thoughts. Do you have experience in this? Is this crazy or batshit crazy plan?

 

[Emery]

1) heat, although LED-screens are relatively low power I'm afraid that very big surface area generates so much heat that place will be too hot.
2) I can't get game to support the extreme angle I have with monitors. I couldn't have tested it but Assetto Corsa that I currently play seem to have adjustment for that but a) I don't know if it really works as needed and b) I don't know if next game will have the support.
3) I get motion sickness easily, will this cover so much visible area that I can't use it. Because I get nauseous quite easily I tried this little beforehand, I gathered three 60" plasmas and I could drive with them but they had very wide bezel and much smaller angle that I try to achieve here.

My current rig has triple 43" 4k monitors (not TVs).

1) I have no trouble with the heat, but I live in a very moderate and cool climate where air conditioning is desireable on about 3 days per year.

2) The in-game monitor angle adjustments all work well. In general, going with a relaxed angle is better than aiming for the ideal angle because extra space is nice for getting in/out of the rig and you don't want too much of the side monitors behind you. My angles are slightly relaxed and if I turn my head 90 deg, my vision is mostly filled. So far, only an arcade title like Wreckfest doesn't support angled monitors (aka "multiview").

3) No idea about motion sickness other than it's rare for someone using triples to have motion sickness compared to people trying out VR.

One caution is to make sure you're looking ever so slightly down at the monitors or else you can get a sore neck from the vertebra scraping on the softer tissues inbetween which happens if you're looking upward.

 

[BillyBobSenna]

I'm planning somewhat extreme triple screen setup and would like to know if it's too much. First of all, I don't want to keep the screen near my face so I'm going to buy decent size TVs.

Where things get complicated is that I would like to be able to see on side by looking there and that could be achieved by using TVs relatively close to me, I found a formula on internet that gives angle which will have monitors in 90 degree angle towards you when you look at it and with it I calculated that if I would get three 55" monitors and put them to 80cm viewing distance the angle would be 75 degrees and if I would use 65" TVs with 85cm distance the angle would be 81 degrees.

65" would be preferable because it wouldn't take much more floor space and there would be more space between rig and TV on left for getting there. 'But there are several things that worry me with this setup.
1) heat, although LED-screens are relatively low power I'm afraid that very big surface area generates so much heat that place will be too hot.
2) I can't get game to support the extreme angle I have with monitors. I couldn't have tested it but Assetto Corsa that I currently play seem to have adjustment for that but a) I don't know if it really works as needed and b) I don't know if next game will have the support.
3) I get motion sickness easily, will this cover so much visible area that I can't use it. Because I get nauseous quite easily I tried this little beforehand, I gathered three 60" plasmas and I could drive with them but they had very wide bezel and much smaller angle that I try to achieve here.

I probably forgot something obvious and something less obvious, I know there is the video for 100k rig that has 65" monitors but he has distance of about 1,2m and angle of about 45 degrees. If I try the extreme version and can't use it I could revert to that less extreme setup but it takes considerably more width from room and I wouldn't want use that for rig. That's why I'm at the moment leaning toward 55" TVs, they would also take lot of space if turned to 45 degree angle but not as much as 65".

So, what are your thoughts. Do you have experience in this? Is this crazy or batshit crazy plan?

65” would be to large for me. I am very happy with triple 32” displays. I also like the high frame rates you can get with 1440p gaming displays.

 

[metalnwood]

I never ran screens that large but I did run 3x42. As your calculator has told you, any screens will give you a fov you desire. It just depends how close you mount them too your head.

The only obvious benefit I see for large tv screens is if I wanted to have them mounted far enough away that I could also mount them low behind the wheel so that I get a good view of car/plane interior as well as the outside view - while being large enough they still wrap around me at that distance.

Just curious if this is the reason you are going that way?

 

[blekenbleu]

Check Karl's videos:

 

[Beef36]

3) I get motion sickness easily, will this cover so much visible area that I can't use it. Because I get nauseous quite easily I tried this little beforehand, I gathered three 60" plasmas and I could drive with them but they had very wide bezel and much smaller angle that I try to achieve here.

I have a couple of friends with large rigs, including wrap around projection and triple 65" and chassis motion platforms. I get motion sickness too and their large screens was an issue.

I need something static behind the screens so my brain registers that I'm not physically moving, particularly when making fast sideways movements (eg fast cornering, drifting, rallying), and that's difficult with really large screens.

I currently run triple 35" with a chassis motion platform and even that is a motion sickness issue under extremely fast sideways movement, whereas I didn't experience the same issue with triple 27".

 

[hatih]

Just curious if this is the reason you are going that way?

My main reason is to get the field of view without needing to keep the screen too close. I intend to keep screens so close that the front one can't be much lower than motor.

Check Karl's videos:

Thanks, pretty much my plan B with bigger budget for screens. Only thing is that he didn't tell how easy it's to get to and away from rig although he let to understand that it's not hard. (And he used same formula to calculate angles that I did.)

 

[hatih]

I have a couple of friends with large rigs, including wrap around projection

My desire for triple-TV setup started with video of Simpit Icarus.

I think that I go with 55", if I get motion sickness they take less space if I move them further away and open up the angle. (Unless there is a great deal of 65" TVs, then I have to take the risk. At the moment there a discount of 65" version of the model I almost settled so that it's cheaper than 55" version.) So now it's just time to wait for a good sale.

 

[Dav_Daddy]

I run 3x 46" in just about the configuration you're talking about for coming up on a year now. Here are my thoughts/advise.

1. It gets HOT between those screens, really hot! I'm in Arizona so even my gaming pc can make my room uncomfortable in the summer. When running a long race it gets it gets 20-30 degrees hotter than the rest of the house. I've had my kids close my door on me because it was heating up the living room with it open during summer.

2. The problem with getting the fov setup the way you describe is that it will leave you sitting in the middle of the car. I spent way too much time worrying/fiddling with this and trust me when I tell you just stick your values into the fov calculator (I forget the site name but it's the one that includes screen resolution as an input). Just take those values and then adjust till it looks right to you. The problem with the way you want to do fov is that in a car the windshield and side windows are not of equal size. So what you envision will never look right. My monitor on my left has the A pillar and very left side of the windshield while my right one shows the whole passenger side of the car. It works really well.

3. I get motion sick too. I've never had a problem racing because my attention is focused ahead 99% of the time. The side monitors could be off and I'd hardly notice. Forget about flight Sims especially DCS. I tried it once and somehow it was so much worse than head tracking. Which was terrible too btw.

4. If I had it to do over I'd go with 32". They are considerably cheaper, put off less heat, they actually make multiple stands for them. I made my current stand by removing the big long mirror from my dresser and basically screwing a pair of outriggers to it making a U shape.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If you have any questions I'll try to reply but I don't always check my email so it may take me a bit...