Helicopter simulator project

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Postby Guest » Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:30 pm

Hi there,
I´m new to this forum but I´ve already read about everything there is to try to answer my questions. Unfortunately there is still some information I couldn´t find anywhere.
So I´m in the process of building a bell 206 helicopter simulator. The setup will consist of one 22" screen in the cockpit for the instruments and a 180deg curved screen (6 feet radius) with projectors for the outside view. I understand it is possible to use 2 or 3 projectors for a 180 degree setup with the according pros and cons. The simulator software will be FSX.
Since I haven´t purchased the computer yet, my main question concernes the performance requirements for the described setup. Preferably I would like to use 1920x1080 resolutions for the cockpit display as well as the projectors (e.g. BenQW1080ST). I know it would be a lot to process to have a decent FPS.
Is it possible to run this setup with 3 or 4 1080p displays in one computer, preferably with one powerful graphics card? Also, when using an AMD Eyefinity card, I understand I wouldn´t need a triplehead or any extra hardware to span the view? Seems like a good option to me, considering that if I would go 2 projectors, I couldn´t use a nvidia card? Is this correct? (to be able to try different setups 2 vs 3 projectors)
What would you suggest is a suitable hardware setup for the described system.
The resolutions are not a MUST, as I said I would prefer full hd but compromises are possible.

Thanks for your help
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Postby BHawthorne » Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:19 am

I think your best visual experience would be a mix of computers and running 2560x1080 for the screen visuals with 2 W1080ST. Then run the other displays with a slave computer that way breaking up the processor requirements for the visuals between the outside visuals and the internal interface visuals.

Either way you'd be using FSX which is problematic regardless of setup configuration. FSX has never worked in an optimized way without significant fsx.cfg tweaks and even then it's got bad bottlenecks that are notorious with the simulation. Lockheed Martin are still actively developing Prepar3d -- which is the "commercial" version of FSX and most all FSX content works on it. I suggest using Prepar3d for the setup using the $199 license. Personally, I'd subscribe to the $9.99 a month developer's subscription of Prepar3d until they release the version 2.0, then get that as the $199 price. LM should release 2.0 in the next year or so, so it makes the most sense to wait on it before doing the outright $199 purchase because they only license with free upgrades for under their major version #'s (ie: 1.X versions get support until 2.X versions arrive and 2.0 is going to be out within your build time). My main reasoning for Prepar3d over FSX is that FSX is no longer actively supported or developed.
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Postby Guest » Fri Apr 19, 2013 1:10 am

So what hardware components regarding CPU, RAM, graphics card etc. would you go for if you were to set up a computer for the outside visuals running prepar3d with a resolution of 2560x1080?

Also, would I need to purchase a second license of prepar3d and nthusim for the slave computer running the instrument displays?

Thank you for your help the quick reply
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Postby BHawthorne » Fri Apr 19, 2013 1:07 pm

I would suggest an Intel i7 CPU and an AMD 7970 or 7950 card for Eyefinity 2x1.

Nthusim Plus is only needed on the computer that you are pre-warping on for external visuals. You'd only need one license. The way seat licenses work on Prepar3d is you'd need a license for each computer. Maybe start out with everything running on one computer and if the experience is insufficient add the slave computer for the cockpit interfacing. Personally, I'm a bit weary of running everything on a single computer even though I do that myself.

In an ideal world you'd have one computer handling all the external visuals and a second handling the cockpit interfaces using simconnect or a similar I/O design. Build budget constraints might not make that initially plausible though so I will say running everything on the same computer will work, but you'll have times where 10-15 fps in autogen and AI dense areas like airports will happen.
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