DCS - Two Projectors @ 4K

Hi,

I want to set up a curved screen as Romeokilo has done in the image below... He is using two 1080P projectors...

However, I want to run two 4K projectors and use warping software to display the images on the curved screen using two viewports.

My questions are:

1. Would it be possible to smoothly run two 4K projectors from one graphics card with my current system ? - system specs are in my signature below.

2. If not, can DCS use two graphics cards (Not in SLI) so that one GPU drives each projector/viewport ?

3. If so, how do you set up DCS to use two graphics cards ?

Two projectors at 4K each, from one graphics card? I think that’s pushing the realms of what’s possible. Unless you set the quality so low that it will look horrible. Then I guess maybe? Remember 2 x 4K projectors is 4 x the amount of pixels to push compared to 2 x 1080p projectors.

Umm maybe with a Titan X w/two 4K Projectors.. that is a lot of pixels to push with a 1080Ti.

You might get away with a 2080Ti but I am sure not many have tried running DCS at 8K..

No you can not use the graphics card like that it would need to be in SLI/Crossfire mode..

You would setup 2 graphcis card in SLI/Crossfire mode but I think DCS does not use SLI Properly so best to use a single card.. I would say minimum 2080Ti..

TheNelphim,

Ok so you are saying DCS can not be used with two separate GPUs, one for each projector ?

Romeokilo is successfully running two 1080 p projectors off one 1080 ti.

What do you think would be the max resolution for two projectors you could run off a 1080ti and if I upgrade, a 2080 ti ?

A 1080ti or 2080ti should be able to get close to about 60 fps with two feeds, then it's the same warping as with any other dual projection setup.

But you probably won't be rocking maximum settings, some tweaking would be needed.

Two 4k monitors is not 8k, it's half of what 8k would be.

Sli could be an avenue to investigate, the frame rate limit of DCS is mostly CPU base but the biggest load here should be the amount of pixels to be pushed, not the physics or sim calculations that are hampering us from exceeding 130fps.

Thanks Bob. 60 FPS is perfect for me. I am very doubtful about SLI as the implementation doesn't seem to be right. I will start with one card at this stage

So you have a couple things going here 4K projectors have remained pretty pricey so even the deepest pockets have likely had trouble convincing our spouses on this level of spending. This setup really can’t do double duty as a home theater. So if you have the cash you get to be the pioneer on this. LOL. Lots of folks want to see you succeed.

DCS doesn’t play well with SLI. There is a thread from Aurelius here on creating custom drivers for SLI and VR. A lot of tests were done on performance for DCS with SLI and 1080, 1080ti, 2080 and 2080ti cards. 1080ti gave the best bang for the buck at the time. 2080ti was 35% faster @2x price, but seems to be more designed to to add ray tracing than provide a speed boost. DCS doesn’t have ray tracing support or SLI support.

Barnacles on YouTube provided this tutorial on using 3-4K TVs as monitors. It’s a little dated. He was using 2-980ti in SLI. One 1080ti should equal or exceed the capability of the 2-980ti in SLI as that’s what my stepson and saw between our two computers like this. The projectors have to support native 60hz @ 4K, have a game mode and should support UHD color palette. The video has tips on cable HDMI 2.0 min and a suggestion on which DisplayPort to HDMI adapter to use. In this case you will need to ensure you don’t exceed the length limitations on DisplayPort or things will go sideways. Folks that wanted to use the HP Reverb with DisplayPort extension cables found this to be problematic. Just don’t exceed 2 meters and use a single cable.

Hope this helps we are all watching and looking forward to your success.

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Thanks for the great info Fused. At this stage I am just trying to investigate the feasibility. I will report back if I end up going ahead.

Well, the only true 4k projectors I know of for the home market are the Sony's that starts at around $5000, each.

And these will need about 3m or almost 10 feet of throw distance from the lenses to the screen to optimally fill about 100" diagonally.

Now you might go smaller per, but basically you will need a fairly large room.

Also, every two-three thousand, hours you will want new lamps, and these will set you back another $500, each, that's an optimistic life expectancy.

There are cheaper E-shift panels around, those projectors are a few grand cheaper, an entry level would probably run you about $3000 or so.

These are either 1080p native, but accept and process a full 4k input signal, but with the ability to shift each pixel half a width at a few thousand times per second, causing the illusion of 4k, Dlp chips should also be about, not sure but these use a native res between 1080p and 4k with rapid shifting.

DLP on the other hand will use a spinning colour wheel that for many viewers seem to cause the image to strobe and induces either mild discomfort, or full blown migraines, I personally really don't care for single chip DLP projectors because of this.

Bottom line, 4k projectors are far less mature than for tv's and require high end and expensive optics or any increase in resolution will never be seen.

bob, great considerations. Thanks.

Bob. I was just looking at the Optoma UHD60 and UHD65 specs. They are as clear as mud on native resolution. The site has it listed at 4k@60hz with XPR technology. Can you tell if this one of the fauxK units or would it work for what is being desired here even with limitations?

I use an Optoma HD141x in my HT and game on it occasionally on PS4 and it has no visible input lag

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Speedbird. Here is another article on using the UHD60 for gaming. The setup you started with had short throw projectors and these aren’t so more space mounting would be needed for mounting.

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Ugh. Forgot the link. https://www.pcgamesn.com/optoma-uhd60-4k-projector

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Very explanatory Bob "with are either 1080p native, but accept and process a full 4k input signal, but with the ability to shift each pixel half a width at a few thousand times per second, causing the illusion of 4k, Dlp chips should also be about , not sure but these use a native res between 1080p and 4k with rapid shifting." I would expect prices to go down a bit to buy me a 4K projector because the price is very high right now

I was fairly heavy into Home theater stuff, but after getting hooked on VR and DCS I haven't really bothered paying attention for a few years, so I could be outdated already.

So didn't know per say about units like the Optoma UHD60, but I can't say TI has developed a native 4k chip either in the interim.

All optoma projectors as far as I know uses DLP chips made by Texas Instruments, only game in town for DLP anyway, and I haven't heard if they have made a proper native 4k chip yet, their version came middle of 2017, I googled it, but I'm too hungry to google deeply, so as always take anything I say with a shakers worth of salt.

But I would think I would have heard if they made a proper 4k chip.

These DLP chips has a pixel resolution of 2716x1528, that's what I googled, so quite a bit more than 1080p and their pixel shifting is significantly faster than the E-shift that is performed by JVC and Epson projectors, I believe Epson get their panels from JVC.

DLP mirrors are blisteringly fast when compared to even gaming oriented TFT lcd panels, and any lag in these projectors come from the signal processing in them

I would not consider these shifting panels as a bad thing really, in HT cirlces we are dealing with "those guys" who belive a certain cable will make their rock music sound richer, and they get hung up on things like, native on chip resolution and any technical trick around it is in their eyes and immediate invalidation of the entire tech.

These people tend to overreact as well as being incredibly profusely vocal online.

I'm not sure at what rate these shifts are taking place, but they are quite quick, quick enough that even with 60hz they show every pixel in a 4k image several time, even though they technically don't show all the pixels at the exact same time.

But we are talking milliseconds in the low singel digits.

A thought would be if one of these projectors would allow sending a native signal at 2716 x 1528 it would still look a lot crisper than native 1080p but take a lot less to render than two full 4k signals, but this would again depend on the processing in the projector, and I suspect they are tuned for the standard video resolutions unlike a monitor so they might not accept that input at all, or do something else visually weird with it.

Personally I also don't pay too much attention to Optoma since they, like all single chip DLP projectors rely on the spinning colour wheel, it doesn't drive me into a migraine, but I do find these projectors to have a strobing artefact that I find very tiring.

I have also been lazy when looking at prices, I haven't gone further than my own borders and all prices here include 25% tax, so they can often seem a little 'inflated' if your in the US or something.

As we always recommended on AV forums when someone inquired in regards to a DLP projector I would try a demo, and if you don't notice any issues fairly immediately I would say go for it.

TheNelphim,

 

Ok so you are saying DCS can not be used with two separate GPUs, one for each projector ?

 

Romeokilo is successfully running two 1080 p projectors off one 1080 ti.

 

What do you think would be the max resolution for two projectors you could run off a 1080ti and if I upgrade, a 2080 ti ?

No I did not say that but you can run 2 graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire to 1 or two projectors w/Surround or Eyefinity technology.... I have not ever seen anyone run 2 graphics card 1 for each projector it don't work like that..