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Flight Simulator 2002 With 13 Monitors And 9 PCs 392

Posted by timothy from the that's-a-lot-of-lead-and-glass dept.
Ant points to Steve Ferris' site demonstrating what Ferris has done "using Wideview software, Multi Monitors and Fs2002 Panel Interior view Bitmaps. 9 PC's & 13 monitors. Server PC is a 2.0ghz AMD and has 1 Asus 4800se G4 AGP and when Motor flying 4 PCI graphic cards for the instrument panels.. All 8 Clients have AGP cards and are AMD 800 to 1.5ghz... My Ask21 Glider with 3 Asus 4800se G4 cards on the front 6 monitors, giving great downward landing view. When you sit in front, all screens line up reasonably well ... Windows XP on the 3 front PC's and 98se on the rest."
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Flight Simulator 2002 With 13 Monitors And 9 PCs

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) * on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:09PM (#6264160)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Uh (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:11PM (#6264174)
    Why don't you take some real flying lessons, and maybe buy a plane?

    • Re:Uh (Score:5, Funny)

      by The Clockwork Troll ( 655321 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @09:26PM (#6264544) Journal
      Why don't you take some real flying lessons, and maybe buy a plane?
      Totally agree with your careful conclusion.

      For the same reason, although we think Halo would be fun as fuck running on 16+ monitor screens, my friends and I have opted instead to take real sniping lessons, and buy a warthog.

  • When you sit in front... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dynoman7 ( 188589 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:12PM (#6264179) Homepage
    When you sit in front, all screens line up reasonably well ...

    WHERE ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO SIT?!?!

  • That'll do wonders for pr0n (Score:5, Funny)

    by kaltkalt ( 620110 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:12PM (#6264183)
    seriously...wow.

  • Flight simulator har har (Score:5, Funny)

    by rkz ( 667993 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:12PM (#6264185) Homepage Journal
    Flight simulator my arse, hes only saying that because of his wife!!! the real reason is his DVD porn collection!

  • Realism (Score:4, Funny)

    by sk3tch ( 165010 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:12PM (#6264186) Homepage
    ...incredible crash realism thanks to our friend Windows 98. :)

  • Go for realism? (Score:5, Funny)

    by secolactico ( 519805 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:13PM (#6264188) Journal
    Nice, nice. But, isn't that seatbelt on the chair taking things a bit too far?

    • Re:Go for realism? (Score:5, Funny)

      by msgmonkey ( 599753 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:19PM (#6264222)
      Thats for his own safety, just incase all those monitors come crashing down on him :)
    • After increasing the GAMMA Correction, I saw his speakers under the lower/center monitor. They look rather small, and their seperation is not good for locating other aircraft by listening to where the sound is coming from.

      If he wants extra realism, he should have a 4 speaker system FL + FR + BL + BR with a sub-woofer to annoy the neighbours at 3AM.

      For the price of all those monitors, I would rather purchase a 23" CRT, if I had the money.

      • Re:Go for realism? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Unoriginal Nick ( 620805 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:27PM (#6264277)
        After increasing the GAMMA Correction, I saw his speakers under the lower/center monitor. They look rather small, and their seperation is not good for locating other aircraft by listening to where the sound is coming from.

        Uh, those are rudder pedals, not speakers. ;-)

      • Re:Go for realism? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Ralgha ( 666887 )
        A real general aviation airplane is loud. Very loud. My headset has roughly 50dB of noise attunation, and it's still not quiet.
        Obviously you're not going to be able to locate another airplane by the sound of it, you won't even hear it at all.
        You don't need a good sound system to simulate flying, just a speaker that can survive producing really loud sound.
    • That's a joystick, actually.
    • Well, you don't want him to get pulled over do you? :)
    • You think that a seatbelt is too much? I've used a flight sim where the entire physical interface is the cockpit of an F-16 that was decommissioned. It has the original stick along with all of the gauges, meters, and displays that go inside the cockpit. They all work and interface flawlessly with the sim software. I really wish that I could find a computer joystick that simulated the one inside an F-16 well, but all of the computer joysticks that I can find move WAY too much. A real F-16's stick moves

  • IMAX (Score:2, Interesting)

    by sahonen ( 680948 )
    Now all we need is flight simulator in an IMAX dome. Now THAT would rock. Though the hardware to do that many pixels would prolly be more expensive than lessons, and an IMAX theater prolly goes for more than the $50/hr a plane usually costs.

  • speakers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Frostalicious ( 657235 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:15PM (#6264199) Journal

    Cool, but where are his speakers? [members.shaw.ca]
    • I know the parent is trying to be funny, but this is the first thing I wondered about. I mean, we place so much value on the visual aspect, but was any thought put into the audio aspect of flying? That is something that I've recently been paying attention to in games and I've been impressed with the attention to detail.

      This guy would just have to get a nice sound card and some great headphones, since pilots use headphones...but then he'd be able to hear the props or the jets.

    • Aren't you supposed to line up the tweeters more of less with the ears of the listener?

  • There's a flaw in the simulation (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:16PM (#6264202)
    With all them PCs running under his desk, the guy must be wondering why he still hears the wind roars when his plane is parked.

  • So... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Spoticus ( 610022 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:17PM (#6264208)
    when the win98 machines BSOD in succession, do the wings fall off?

  • Mirror (Score:2, Informative)

    by spydir31 ( 312329 ) *
    expecting this to get slashdotted,
    here's [hasturkun.com] my mirror.
    contains large images, please don't kill me needlessly

  • Hot Dog (Score:5, Funny)

    by Scot Seese ( 137975 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:18PM (#6264215)
    ..I've always wondered what it feels like to be a hotdog inside a microwave oven.. There's a guy that knows!

    • Addition (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Scot Seese ( 137975 )
      Addition: He could have purchased a low-hour used ultralight for what he paid for this setup.
    • "I've always wondered what it feels like to be a hotdog inside a microwave oven"

      Ouch. I sure would not.

      Go stick a hot dog in your microwave without poking holes in it to get a basic idea.

  • That room must be great for loosing a few pounds, you know, like in a sauna? My room only has 4 machines in it with 2 displays and it's a hot house....
  • Looks awesome. I've tried flying touch-n-gos in those Flight Simulators, and having only straight ahead views makes it impossible to judge when to start your turns. Switching between views sucks.

  • Gah! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drudd ( 43032 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:19PM (#6264227)
    *wipes drool off of floor*

    Does anyone remember battletech? It was kind of like an arcade, but just with the one game, a Mech type battle simulator, complete with cockpit, joystick, and multiple screens for views just like this. I remember playing at the Navy Pier in Chicago many years ago....

    It's amazing how much multiple screens increases the realism. You look left, right, and there's still more game!

    Doug
    • The Bave and Busters in Ontario, CA has a battletech rig still. I played last night and they told me that a new version is arriving next week.
    • Unfortunately, I never got a chance to try this, but Wolfenstien 3D had a mode that would allow you to hook up 2 other computers to your main one using a serial cable, and have the slave computers display "left" and "right". The idea was to position the computers so you could look left and right into them. I don't know anyone who ever tried this, but im very suprised that this never was an option in games after Wolfenstien.
  • Separate all the screen tubes from their plastic casings, line them up together, then weld the tube edges together with a blowtorch. You might need to degauss all the screens when you're done.
  • Nine PCs and 13 monitors???? He must have one hell of an electric bill, not to mention that that room probably heat up to 103 with the a/c going full tilt.
  • So he'll get an even tan from all those displays...

  • As a sailplane pilot... (Score:5, Informative)

    by InsaneCreator ( 209742 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:30PM (#6264287)
    ...I can tell you, that all flight simulators are missing two most important instruments - a piece of string and your butt. No, seriously. You don't look at instruments at all, you just check the piece of string stuck to the outside of the canopy to see if you are not flying slightly sideways. And when you find lifting air currents, you feel you're being pushed into the seat, even before instruments register anything. Other that that, you just enjoy the view (and fly in circles a lot :) ).
    • Yup, it's called a yaw string, and people have made FS sailplane models that have them (here [bookergliding.co.uk]).

      Now if you want to simulate G forces, that's when it gets expensive, with hydraulic rigs and all. You think the power and noise of 9 AMD PC's is bad, try running some hydraulic pumps.
      • There was a story on /. a while ago about how to simulate the G forces. Some scientists were experimenting with external vestibular stimulation, they used electromagnetic transducers mounted like headphones behind your ears. It was intended for physical therapy for people with balance disorders. Eventually they should able to induce any vestibular sensation like rising/falling, being at an angle or upside down, spinning, etc. and it could be developed into an bionic replacement for damaged sense of balance.

  • fov 360

    Tada!

  • who here thinks this guy actually owns 9 Windows licensces?

  • I wonder if using WidevieW for other games.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:36PM (#6264314) Homepage Journal
    like Battlefield 1942, RTCW, etc. would be possible. :)

  • Removing the Gaps Between the Monitors (Score:3, Interesting)

    by barureddy ( 314276 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:40PM (#6264331)
    How would one go about removing the gaps between the monitors?

    The display is great, but The gaps between the monitors is not very attractive and could be destracting.

  • dB Hell. (Score:4, Funny)

    by achilstone ( 671328 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:41PM (#6264333)
    How can he stand the noise?

    What with all those psu, cpu, video and case fans blowing it must sound like a jet taking ...oh wait.

  • Licensing ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by BillsPetMonkey ( 654200 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:42PM (#6264340)
    Windows XP on the 3 front pc's and 98se on the rest

    That's a total of 13 licenses needed. Are you inviting the BSA into your home or is 13 your lucky number?

  • MS product activation (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dtfinch ( 661405 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:45PM (#6264349) Journal
    Notice that only 3 of the computers are running XP. I suspect that he installed it 3 times and couldn't get it activated the 4th time. This reminds me of an article interviewing some Microsoft executive regarding their product activation, which was new and contraversial at the time, where they said that they did not intend for it to prevent casual copying, because that would hurt regular customers, but rather they would only disable a product key after several hundred installs.

    One of my bosses is a pilot on the side. Our current and previous offices have both been adjacent to an airport.

  • Not that bad (Score:5, Informative)

    by Stonent1 ( 594886 ) <stonentNO@SPAMstonent.pointclark.net> on Saturday June 21, 2003 @08:48PM (#6264359) Journal
    Compared to the multi-screen Air Traffic Control systems that are commercially available. Screens [attbi.com]
    Assembled [attbi.com]

    Some of the smaller models such as what are used at the FAA Academy use 3 27" displays. Of course the resolution is different. The big screens use $15,000 projectors and custom mounting hardware. And commercially available 3D image generation systems. But you can scale it down to a p4 and a Geforce card per screen.
  • ... is that in a couple of years, all the processing hardware would have to be replaced in order to power the next flight sim.

    The CRTs can stay, but everyone else gotta go!

  • What about the other ones
    Flightgear comes to mind, and being open source there should be the capacity to do this too.
    • There are probably more third party commercial vendors supplying addons for Microsoft Flight Simulator than there are thrid party commercial software vendors for all of Linux.

  • So? X-Plane does this natively (Score:5, Informative)

    by dustoffx ( 221852 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @09:06PM (#6264438) Homepage
    X-plane [x-plane.com] does this sort of thing natively using TCP/IP,
    costs less, and has a more accurate flight model.

    Other info at theX-plane UDP networking information site [x-plane.info].
    -----

  • He's got a frikkin' chair with a frikkin' joystick.

  • "9 PC's & 13 monitors. Server PC is a 2.0ghz AMD and has 1 Asus 4800se G4 AGP and when Motor flying 4 PCI graphic cards for the instrument panels.. All 8 Clients have AGP cards and are AMD 800 to 1.5ghz... My Ask21 Glider with 3 Asus 4800se G4 cards on the front 6 monitors, giving great downward landing view."

    Why is that special? Isn't that just the system requirements for Fs2002? Seems to be to me at any rate...

  • I'd be REALLY impressed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DasBub ( 139460 ) <dasbub@@@dasbub...com> on Saturday June 21, 2003 @09:16PM (#6264491) Homepage
    if he put some imagination into it and spent some of the Huge Wads of Cash on a few lcd projectors and fashioned some curved projection screens...

    I mean, come on... It's hard to get excited about a field of vision one foot tall and 8 or 9 feet wide, plastic monitor edges chopping it up every so often.
  • Or, at least, a distant relative of the Waller Gunnery Trainer [widescreenmuseum.com], which used five movie projectors. (Waller, who invented this system, went on to create Cinerama. Cinerama used three synchronized projectors to produce a wraparound widescreen experience).
  • Initial reaction was literally "Oh, Geez" (/sound of awe, hold the shock).

    Of course the pr0n reference was already taken, but wouldn't that joy stick get in the way of...errr...forget I asked.

    Heh, "Is that a fligh stick between your legs or... oh, wait, nevermind.

    /droooooolll
  • "I've got too much... time on my hands, and it's ticking away with my SANITY!"

    (Okay, I admit! I'm jealous!)

    dochood
  • I've been away for a while - are people still cracking those 'beowulf cluster of these' jokes? If so, I want in on this one.

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