Helicopter Simulator Displays - the cockpit view!

Updated 24.11.09

The "cockpit view" from your helicopter simulator, is maybe one of the biggest impacts on you flightsim experience! And with todays technology there is a lot to chose from.

So lets start with the most obvious and cheapest solution - a computer monitor. You can get a 19" lcd monitor for a 100 bucks (be that Euros or $). If you double that amount a 22" is within the reach. Of course all depends what quality and the connections the screen comes with. Needles to say, in most cases you get what you pay pay for...

The time of bulky CRT screens is over. Thought I bet you still find a few of those amazing setups in some homemade simulator even today.

Fascinating, here is a passion for flight simming:

Picture from a Wideview setup with multiple screens and computers running them. "Good old days" :)

If you want to go for a LCD display Apple is delivering some great stuff. There is a price to pay thought if you go Apple style....

Apple's 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display delivers an amazing 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution! Expensive, but a great screen.

You can also get the Apple's newer 24" led display. It uses the latest LED technology, and you will get a gorgeous, edge-to-edge glass screen. Or the new iMac 27". You will have a external screen at 27" and a mac computer.

With the prizes of todays TV's - a 32" or even a 37" - is within the range. The biggest question with a TV will be the compatibility with showing a computer image on it. And will it be able to follow you frame rates when playing your favorite sim? Though it is possible, I would not recomend this as your permanet sim setup.

The next step will be divided, should you go for a projector? Or for a multiple screen solution?

Lets start with projectors...

Todays projector are smaller, quieter, cheaper and gives a better picture than ever before. You can even go with a HD resolution for your sim. Running a helicopter flight sim setup, on a 2 meter vide and 1,5 tall wall or screen - wow!!! What an experience that is. Off course you should have your instruments on a separate screen closer to you. Am not gonna recommend one projector over the other, but if there is one mark I think stands above - it will be the Optoma. They have projectors that delivers great performance in regards to good quality and low price. Off course for the ultimate projector experience - 3 projectors simultainisly projecting the image to a massive curved screen would give you some of the best experience possible. But now we are talking serious money and space requirements. With a projector you need something to display it on. It is possible to use a white wall, but for the best performance one should get a dedicated screen. What kind of screen will be completely up to your budget. You can go all the way with a high quality electric pro screen or chose a Tupplur 200x195 from IKEA. The latest one is cheap, but the projecting quality is rather unknown;)

If you go high scale, get a Pro Curve Projector screen from SMX cinema solutions:

What you also can do, is to use a projector with a half dome. If you get the right screen for it, you can have a nice big curved surface. Basically the same system that is used in planetariums.. Have a look at the picture, here a dome from TOOB:

For a multiple lcd screen solution...

There are some absolutely fantastic options comming to the market these days. Let's have a look at some of those solutions.

NEC has now officially announced the CRV43. A huge back projected screen. Big in all senses of the word. Including the size of it! Facts: 2880x900 pixels = format 16:9, contrast 10000:1, response time 0,02 millisecond and it covers 99,3% of Adobe's color profile. Conections with USB, DVI-D or HDMI 1.3

It is big....

Samsung is comming with a 6 display combination setup. Thought this is nothing new, there are plenty of these types of set ups. Most of them are home made. From Samsung you'll get a "ready out of the box" setup.

Here a picture of AMD with their Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology in the action:

So what do you use to drive these projectors and displays??

Both Invidia and ATI delivers top notch screen cards to computers world wide. Any of the nevest cards will do. Off course as always it will depend upon the rest of your computer system. No point having the latest graphic card if your CPU, memory, hd drive etc can't keep up. I'll get back to more about that in a later post. But back to the screen cards. A 3rd competitor, thas was considered top clas many years ago Matrox, came back with their DualHead2Go and TrippleHead2Go external Graphic eXpansion Modules. And for years it has been one of the better ways for flight simulatro entusiats to run several screens at once.


A huge success for the flight sim comunity - could be topped? I belive the time has come. And the replacement is the updated Radeon HD 5870 2GB card packet with 6 Mini DisplayPorts connectors. Supporting DirectX 11.


This card has potentional for some awsome flight simulation setups. Off course the prize is so far unknown and it probaly wont be cheap. One thing is sure: The vararity of displays for helicopter flight simming, has never been better. Why not go all the way, connect four of these Radeon HD 5870 cards together with 4x6 displays! What will you get? A massive 11,5200 x 4,800 - 55,3 megapixel setup. Now THAT would be something to brag about to your neighbor!! See picture below:

Keeping your hardware updated for you flight sim, is a never ending story. So stay tuned, HSH will be back with more!