wacky idea to game with 2 monitors....

[Krusty]

It occured to me.... I may have a way to game with 2 monitors. Until now it's been too much pain and trouble to cope with the picture being split JUST where you are supposed to focus your attention (crosshairs get split by end of one monitor and beginning of another monitor).


Well, much like the 109 armored glass, I wonder if you could get a refractive piece of plexiglass or something, put it on one monitor so that it "skews" the picture towards the border/gap between monitors. Get another for the other monitor, and skew/refract that image as well, and if you position the monitors properly, the edge of the two pieces of glass should make it look like the pixels are seamlessly touching each other.

I threw together a picture, to say a thousand words:



The light would be bent to eliminate the apparent gap of pixels where the monitor frames are.


Of course, I have no idea what material you'd have to use, how heavy it is, how expensive, etc...

I was kind of annoyed that you can't play games with 2 monitors. You have to use 1 or 3, because your crosshairs, aiming point, of point of general focus must be uninterrupted (meaning a center monitor, +2 wings, or just a center monitor). This might be one way around it.

Thoughts?

[AirFlyer]

Sounds like it might be easier just to get three monitors, but at the same time I would love to see how this would turn out.

[Delirium]

Better yet, use the 3 monitors but use the idea Krusty put forward to remove the braces around the edge of each monitor.

Imagine, a seamless view!

[BaldEagl]

It seems as though it should work but I wouldn't know how to accomplish it.

[Krusty]

1) agreed, easier to use 3, but monitors (gaming quality) get expensive! Plus if you only have 1 vid card and 2 video ports?

2) I thought of that! But it might be harder to accomplish... you'd have to spread the center monitor out left and right to meet the other prisms... might be tricker to get the light bending the way you need it to.

3) Agreed!!! I doubt I'll be the one to test it, but it is intriguing!

[Masherbrum]

It definitely seems plausible.

[Wraith_TMS]

This might be possible with fresnel lenses for your monitors, Krusty. 

I've never used them, but I believe that they come in typical screen sizes, though they aren't easily found for larger screens.  The drawbacks I've heard about are that the fresnel lenses may hamper your resolution a bit, though, as they are usually made of plastic, and stand away from your actual screen a few inches.  Also, I've heard that they tend to add some cylindrical distortion at the outer edges of the monitors.

That said, I've seen Youtube videos of guys who have used them on 3-monitor setups to create a seamless display for racing games.

Doable, but as the OP recommended, I'd suggest that you go for three screens.  Even if the fresnel lenses don't work out, it's easier to get used to the bevels of the extra monitors being outside your focal point, rather than occluding it with the bevel area of two monitors.  In addition, the cost of two fresnel lenses is similar to that of one decent-sized monitor, so a third monitor may be a better investment. Your call, of course.

FWIW,

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Get a semi-transparent mirror and you can turn your two displays to one 3D that works without shutter glasses..

[715]

Your idea would sort of work, but not like your drawing implies.  Snell's law of refraction will show you that if the incoming light beam is perpendicular to the glass it will enter the glass perpendicular and exit perpendicular with no change of angle and no offset, i.e. your green lines would be straight not kinked.  Light only gets refracted if it enters a surface off axis from perpendicular and Snell's law will tell you how much the angle is reduced in the higher refractive index medium (i.e. the glass). 

However, that's moot as the light beams you drew, i.e. the ones coming perpendicular off the LCD, are not the ones your eye would see.  Since the LCDs have to be at a slight angle, the light you'd see is the offaxis beam.  This beam from the LCD, which would be vertical in your drawing, would enter the glass plate and be refracted slightly to the right from the left display and to the left for the right display.  When they exited the glass plates they would straighten out back to vertical in your drawing, but be closer together.  With the proper thickness of glass and the proper angle between the two LCD displays (both being dependent on the glass index of refraction) you could get a continuous image without the center frame.

If the glass is not AR coated (antireflection) you're going to get annoying ghost images.

[Krusty]

Fresnels definitely have round distortions. I believe that's how they were intended to display.

715: I realize it's not about the light from the monitor, but the light to the eye, and all that. That was just 3 minutes' worth of time in Photoshop to get the idea across 

Ripley, can you elaborate? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean with the transparent mirror.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Fresnels definitely have round distortions. I believe that's how they were intended to display.

715: I realize it's not about the light from the monitor, but the light to the eye, and all that. That was just 3 minutes' worth of time in Photoshop to get the idea across 

Ripley, can you elaborate? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean with the transparent mirror.

It means a mirror that lets 50% of visible light through. If you place two tft's at 90 degree angle and then a semi-transparent mirror at 45 angle between them, you will see 50% of the other monitors image and 50% of the other monitor. Then all you need is glasses with mixed polarization and your left eye will only see the other monitor and the right the other - bingo you just made a 3D monitor.

[Strip]

It means a mirror that lets 50% of visible light through. If you place two tft's at 90 degree angle and then a semi-transparent mirror at 45 angle between them, you will see 50% of the other monitors image and 50% of the other monitor. Then all you need is glasses with mixed polarization and your left eye will only see the other monitor and the right the other - bingo you just made a 3D monitor.

The image would be distorted heavily being angled like that and wouldnt really be a true 3d monitor either.

Strip

[MrRiplEy[H]]

The image would be distorted heavily being angled like that and wouldnt really be a true 3d monitor either.

Strip

Lol please don't comment about things you obviously know nothing about.

Do some reading instead http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=32547&st=40

[BoilerDown]

In order to have a 3D effect it can't be the same image on both monitors though, they'd need to have seperate viewpoints.  Do the drivers and AH2 support that?

[OOZ662]

Why not just take the casings off the monitors and stick them together? I've only taken apart two LCDs in my day, and there wasn't anything in the sides of the casing. I'm sure there's some a way to do it, and then you don't have any optical issues.