Cockpit Monitor Size

[turbomp301]

Now that GT5 in on the horizon I want to get started on building a cockpit for myself. I got some questions I hope someone can help me with.

What size screen do I need to get to make everything in GT appear in the correct size/scale it would be in real life?

Does the distance between me and the TV effect what size screen I should get?

 

[Kryz11]

Touch question.. hmm It would have to be bigger then 55 inch?

Hmm take a pic of a cockpit cam view.. calculate how wide the dash is as far as you can see.. then calculate the rest.. find some real life specs or go out and measure for yourself.. and you are done..

I would suggest just get something bigger then 32 inch tv.. with 1080p.. I use to play on 55 inch 1080, the cockpit was still not scale 1to1 .. so you don't wanna go 70 inch for example.

 

[TB]

Does the distance between me and the TV effect what size screen I should get?

I use to play on 55 inch 1080, the cockpit was still not scale 1to1 .. so you don't wanna go 70 inch for example.

These two points go hand in hand. Sit in a car and measure the steering wheel from the drivers seat. Now sit in the back seat and measure the wheel with you're arms extended the same distance from your chest. Obviously it'll be smaller, though the physical dimension of the steering wheel didn't change. Logically then, sitting closer to a 32" would give you the same perspective (based on your field of vision) as sitting further away from a 55".

In short, we need to know how close you're going to be sitting to the screen to even think about suggesting TV sizes.

 

[Kryz11]

Yeah true...

Well Just get something decent in size that you can watch closer and mount it into a cockpit.

Have any designs on paper yet?

 

[Biggles]

Yeah, size matters, but so so does the position.

I have my 19" screen on a table directly behind my G25, touching the back of the base. I suspect that the ideal size for that position would be around 28". It's easy to see how the size needs to get bigger as you move the screen back. Personally, I'm thinking you wouldn't need anything bigger than 37" if the screen is within two feet of the wheel. Placing a cockpit four or five feet from a screen, or more, you are going to need a much bigger screen to get the same effect.

 

[Kryz11]

Also consider if GT5 will have multi screen functionally. In GT4 it was lame because you could use multi display but it was limited to Time Trials..
I hope In GT5 you can race with 16 cars and online with multi screen.

So I would suggest screens size of 22-30 inch .. 3 of them..

OK get one first.. then you can see if you can have 3 screen for GT5 with 3 PS3s.

 

[Small_Fryz]

with my current setup using a 32" i think that its very good

 

[calaby01]

My cockpit has a fairly flat front so I can pull it right up to the tv, the front edge of the steering wheel is about a foot and a half from the screen. It is a 42 inch screen and when I go to the in car view it feels far more real than I ever thought it could.

 

[Delphic Reason]

I'm using a 52" Sharp Aquos with my cockpit (Obutto Ozone) pushed right up to the table my TV is on, and while it does look very good, I can see that either I would need to move a bit closer to the screen (which I don't want to do.... pixels become much more obvious on a screen that size), or buy a couple more flat screens (probably 3 smaller screens) to use a tripple screen set up. This is my ultimate goal anyway, especialy if GT5 supports multiscreens.

In my opinion, you're never going to get a truly "real" feeling, unless you go multiscreen. It changes everything being able to turn your head to look out your side window, or just seeing the trees fly by while your facing forward concentrating on the race. It's really an epic difference.

 

[Mr Latte]

The problem is a single screen does not offer anything close to a realistic viewing angle.

Additionally lets say someone measured a steering wheel from a real car and then used that as a guide to get a screen using a projector for easyness of screen size adjustments in making the onscreen cockpit view steering wheel size match to that of the real car. This does not mean then that all onscreen or in game objects will then have true scale to life size in comparison as the game wont be made with this in mind regards all objects and tracks etc.

If you do want the most realistic way of playing and the game supports it then your going to need:

3x PS3
3x GT5 Games
3x Screens approx 22"-24"
1x Buttkicker or other transducer device to feel the car and track
1x Comfortable driving positon racing sim cockpit, if you feel your sitting in a car then thats got to help

This will give the best immersion possible from the game if multiple screens are supported then this will be even better than a projector which although bigger it brings less immersion.

3 Screen Mode

 

[bevo]

The problem is a single screen does not offer anything close to a realistic viewing angle.

Additionally lets say someone measured a steering wheel from a real car and then used that as a guide to get a screen using a projector for easyness of screen size adjustments in making the onscreen cockpit view steering wheel size match to that of the real car. This does not mean then that all onscreen or in game objects will then have true scale to life size in comparison as the game wont be made with this in mind regards all objects and tracks etc.

If you do want the most realistic way of playing and the game supports it then your going to need:

3x PS3
3x GT5 Games
3x Screens approx 22"-24"
1x Buttkicker or other transducer device to feel the car and track
1x Comfortable driving positon racing sim cockpit, if you feel your sitting in a car then thats got to help

This will give the best immersion possible from the game if multiple screens are supported then this will be even better than a projector which although bigger it brings less immersion.

3 Screen Mode

If you're building your setup for GT5 specifically, I would not waste the money on a buttkicker. I would wait and see how they make the wind sound first. In GT5p, the wind overwhelms everything and ruins the buttkicker experience. As soon as you get up to speed, my buttkicker rumbles nonstop. I have messed, and messed with the crossovers on my amp, and cannot remove the wind vibrations, without killing all of the other rumbles.

Hopefully pd either turns down the wind sound, or gives us the option to, so we can use a buttkicker with the full GT5. Other games like forza, Ferrari challenge, and the formula one game work great with it. GT5p is the only game that the wind has been a big factor that I have seen far.

 

[Mr Latte]

I wont just be playing GT5 no, comments on the buttkickers regards GT5 seem very thin on the ground. I would appreciate you testing and giving details on game settings for the audio and your setup within the Buttkicker BKA 300 thread though.

What equipment and transducer have you used?

 

[Biggles]

Of the three games: GT5P, F1CE & FC, I think GT5P probably works best with the Buttkicker. The wind noise is a bit excessive, but not nearly as bad as in GT4. It does give you a more or less constant low-level vibration which gives a sense of the car vibrating.

I find the engine noise in F1CE tends to be a bit high-pitched to trigger the vibrations, & in FC the only thing that reliably triggers the vibrations is the (terrifying) clunk of the gear shifts!

It would be really nice if it the vibration cues were programmed into into the game (like FFB), rather than relying on noise as the cue. Surely this wouldn't be too difficult to do?

 

[turbomp301]

In short, we need to know how close you're going to be sitting to the screen to even think about suggesting TV sizes.

I want to get the obutto cockpit

I would like the width of the G25 wheel to match the width of the steering wheel on the screen.

 

[Mr Latte]

If using the picture above for illustration as a guide to your planned layout then 28"-32" will be optimium.

 

[No46_TheDoctor]

If you're building your setup for GT5 specifically, I would not waste the money on a buttkicker. I would wait and see how they make the wind sound first. In GT5p, the wind overwhelms everything and ruins the buttkicker experience. As soon as you get up to speed, my buttkicker rumbles nonstop. I have messed, and messed with the crossovers on my amp, and cannot remove the wind vibrations, without killing all of the other rumbles.

Hopefully pd either turns down the wind sound, or gives us the option to, so we can use a buttkicker with the full GT5. Other games like forza, Ferrari challenge, and the formula one game work great with it. GT5p is the only game that the wind has been a big factor that I have seen far.

Not sure if it's because it's a different piece of kit I have, its an Earthquake, but I have managed to get the wind noise down to a faint rumble, which you are going to get in a race car anyway at speed, and the kerbs still kick my butt, so to speak, did take some messing about though and not any where near as easy to acomplish as it was in Ferrari Challenge.

 

[PeterMac]

I'm using 46' Sony Bravia Z4500, siting 1,8m from it on armchair

 

[Mr Latte]

The issue with buttkickers on the research i done is some people havnt them setup proberly, using possibly to high/too much freq level instead of setting it purley for low bass from the LFE channel.

Reports from people that have spent the time to ensure the settings are optimal all report good things particulary with the new BKA 300 that seems to be a great piece of kit.

Will have mine soon when a friend gets back from NY but seems very few in the UK have the new model yet as its not officially available in UK or Europe yet that im aware of.

 

[oqvist]

It depends on how well the audio is implemented also. Generally the better audio in general the better the buttkickers will work.

Try GTR 2 and get a Corvette behind you. Truly terrifying experience But if you have the buttkicker amps that have low and high cut off you can most often with tweaking get them to be an improvement in pretty much any game. In games where it just doesn´t work out as well you just let it be more subtle so it´s highly recommended. It´s more realistic getting the cerb effects vibrations such through your body rather then just the wheel.

As for monitor size this is just personal preference really. For PS 3 you do want a 16:9 monitor or one that has 1:1 pixel mapping so it can scale down 16:10 monitors for example. It´s all depending on how close you sit of course.

I have a 32" LCD TV at 1360x768 which when I race is about 1,5-2 metres away and a 24" G2400W which I have on the cockpit. This gives me an image where I can get the whole image in my view which increases speed sensation. The LCD monitor for me looks a bit more real but my 24" lcd monitor is way sharper so if you are competitive a much better option or want 2h endurance racing to be less painful having to focus so hard. Much much easier to find the brake marks even though my LCD TV is better in pure image quality. Now console games are optimized for tv:s rather then monitors. To truly benefit from the high res PC monitors you need to get a decent gaming PC. Doesn´t cost much to get one with much better graphics then what the PS 3 can master