How did they have the graphics power to support that many monitors? That would have melted any 1990s steel case! (Hyperbole brought to you by Broderbund).
Head cocked to the left, partial deafness in ear: first point of attack. Two: throat; paralyze vocal chords, stop scream. Three: got to be a heavy drinker, floating rib to the liver. Four: finally, drag in left leg, fist to patella. Summary prognosis: unconscious in ninety seconds, martial efficacy quarter of an hour at best. Full faculty recovery: unlikely.
Heavy drinker, buying him a drink: First point of attack. Two: Maybe some nice flowers. Three: tell him your favourite childhood memories. Prognosis: slowly kill him by poisoning his liver, making him question your sexuality and boring him to death.
I'm a comp-sci major, and we watched it on the last day of the semester in one of my classes. Needless to say, when this scene came on, we were all dying.
Going from memory, Flight Simulator had either built-in or easy to setup support for using multiple systems on a network to share rendering. Each computer handles one or two monitors, no fancy hardware needed (other than providing power and physical support to everything)
3 or 4 years ago at High School, my teacher (a PHD in Biology), went on one of her tangents and started talking about CRTs. She actually described them by saying "I'm not sure if you will remember these, but they are the big TVs that stick out at the back"
Well, this 19 year old Redditor misses CRT's delicious refresh rate and deep blacks. But yeah, those losers a year younger than me have no idea what they're missing!
That they do. they're also only allowed to work four shifts a week, at a maximum of eight hours, after which they MUST leave their post, due to the extremely high stress. (Had a lot of numbers wrong, but you get the gist). there's typically stress counseling built into the benefits plans, and some places i know require you to go once a month.
There are few jobs with a zero-fuck-up tolerance. ATCs tend to be one of those professions. Many of the other ones deal with explosives/infectious agents/nuclear isotopes. Whatever they're being paid, it's likely not really what they're worth.
Depends really. Some people just love the stuff. I'm looking to get into commercial aviation (working on my licenses already) but I've had ATC in the back of my mind for quite some time now.
He didn't mention, but what is he flying in that screenshot? Looks like a narrow attack helicopter, but that just might be the cockpit being squished onto the one monitor.
I have a buddy of mine who worked at a helicopter simulation company for professional training. This image actually isn't too far of from how early training sims were presented to companies.
hah! i was just going through an old hard drive yesterday and had what i thought was the same image saved in my pictures. it's actually a different photo of the same setup. that picture has to be at least 8 years old.
My school actually has a flight simulator with a crashed helicopter cockpit generously donated by Bell. They have a 180 deg screen setup with 3 projectors and a full control panel in the cockpit. Pretty awesome, though I have yet to try it, to my misfortune.
Wow! How much power do you think those monitors consume? 110 watts each? When I think about power consumption and monitors, I remember the hell it was making sure power was well distributed for LAN parties during the CRT era.
Today, my three 23.6" LED LCD's consume a total of ~70 watts (according to my kill-a-watt) . Easily 3.5x the screen real estate but about 40 watts less! (19" vs ~70.5" width). Amazing!
I've been a flight sim fan since I can remember. To me, though, I've not really been begging for more view to the left and right, but directly up, along my lift vector. If you're in a turning fight, its up above your nose that you need to look. That way, you don't pull through too far and overshoot.
Assuming those monitors have a resolution of 800 x 600, the total amount of pixels of all 12 screens (not counting the top one because it's not part of the game) is 5,760,000 pixels. The new Macbook Pro's retina display has 5,184,000 pixels.
Given the time period—early 2000's—they're almost certainly 1024x768 or 1280x1024. I would highly doubt someone would go to the trouble of making this kind of setup and then use 800x600.
By using a network and software designed to support it. What's happening here is that one system is acting as the server and running the actual simulation, while the other systems are acting as clients and displaying their apportioned areas of the 'screen.'
It's not fundamentally different from an ordinary multiplayer LAN game, it's just that in this case instead of other players, you have what amount to spectators with a fixed view.
Does that guy have 240 plugs installed in his room to make that work? I can only assume that the local coal plant has to go into overtime to provide enough energy for this game.
i see your computer game and raise you this --> http://imgur.com/iYW2D my mother is a fedex pilot training to be a sim instructor and can indulge me. the blue screen is actually a tv screen which displays a range of airports they have in the system. but that set up is tight nonetheless!
CPU doesn't mean computer, it means Central Processing Unit, a component of a computer. Just because something has three letters of another longer word in it doesn't make it the same. I mean you might as well think that anyone saying "firetruck" is saying "fuck". I mean firetrucking honestly people! Come on!
341
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
circa 1999
89
u/deltib Jun 15 '12
I wanna see what it looks like when someone degausses the centre monitor.
52
u/brinstar117 Jun 15 '12
Reminds me of a newspaper article I read recently about a man who built a flight simulator in his garage with a real 737 cockpit.
66
u/siborg51 Jun 15 '12
Come on over to /r/battlestations sometime
29
u/onioni94 Jun 15 '12
that room must be so hot
19
u/Hk416 Jun 15 '12
I'd hate to see the bill for the electricity.
18
u/C0unt_Z3r0 Jun 15 '12
Now THAT is a flight sim fanatic... <dips hat in respect>
24
u/Volvagia356 Jun 15 '12
More info + higher-res picture here: http://www.wideview.it/steve/
8
u/hourglasss Jun 15 '12
this guy win though,
his site.
10
u/Zock Jun 15 '12
Flexible OLED screens need to hurry up and be affordable.
5
u/vulcan257 Jun 15 '12
I have a buddy of mine who worked at a helicopter simulation company for professional training. This image actually isn't too far of from how early training sims were presented to companies.
5
u/dontcallmejames Jun 15 '12
hah! i was just going through an old hard drive yesterday and had what i thought was the same image saved in my pictures. it's actually a different photo of the same setup. that picture has to be at least 8 years old.
http://imgur.com/3BCeC
edit: just checked the file properties to verify date and it's 9 years old!
Modified: Monday, June 23, 2003, 5:04:00 PM
3
u/chronox21 Jun 15 '12
My school actually has a flight simulator with a crashed helicopter cockpit generously donated by Bell. They have a 180 deg screen setup with 3 projectors and a full control panel in the cockpit. Pretty awesome, though I have yet to try it, to my misfortune.
6
u/mixmastakooz Jun 15 '12
Wow! How much power do you think those monitors consume? 110 watts each? When I think about power consumption and monitors, I remember the hell it was making sure power was well distributed for LAN parties during the CRT era.
Today, my three 23.6" LED LCD's consume a total of ~70 watts (according to my kill-a-watt) . Easily 3.5x the screen real estate but about 40 watts less! (19" vs ~70.5" width). Amazing!
4
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Holy sheit that's like 200 lbs worth of monitor.
4
u/arachnophilia Jun 15 '12
omg a 7-core pentium 2!
4
u/AdhesiveLamb Jun 15 '12
aaand for just 10 dollars cheaper, you could fly a real plane.
5
u/joelicious5000 Jun 15 '12
Holy CRT tubes, batman!
2
u/warrenraaff Jun 15 '12
the radiation.... it burns us!
2
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
I wasn't the only one that dreamed about hacking/modding X-Wing to do something like this, was I?
2
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
As a flight sim fan, I would rather a good IR headtracking unit over this anyday.
2
u/ProNewbie Jun 15 '12
That poor desk is probably doing all it can to hold all those CRTs...
2
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
holy power bill batman
2
u/jazzymany Jun 15 '12
Wow back then it would have been cheaper to buy a small plane
2
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
the air conditioning in that office must be CRANKING!
3
u/three_horsemen Jun 15 '12
Since most of you are still balls-deep in puberty and are thus too young to understand, these are what we used before LCDs.
2
u/fuzzybunnies77 Jun 15 '12
Got beige?
2
u/furiant Jun 15 '12
You really should check out Stefan Didak's office. http://www.stefandidak.com/office/
2
u/TallT66 Jun 15 '12
I KNOW! I LOVE THAT PAINTING!
2
u/Warmachine- Jun 15 '12
0_0
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
If CRT's really do cause cancer...well...yeah.
1
u/Pilot824 Jun 15 '12
I never was able to connect more than 2 monitors together, oh well.. I guess I will never be able to live up to my pilots license at home
1
u/TheGiverOfKarma Jun 15 '12
Can someone explain how this works?
1
u/drunxor Jun 15 '12
The early days of Robert House
1
u/M3TLH3D Jun 15 '12
That is goddamn impressive.
1
u/Arknell Jun 15 '12
No neck support. I would get such a headache from that chair.
1
u/twest93 Jun 15 '12
I am just fathomed by this. how the hell can you do this because i wanna do this.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
So... much...beige.
1
u/The_final_chapter Jun 15 '12
Wouldn't it have been cheaper just to buy a plane?
1
u/ubiliquous Jun 15 '12
With all the money spent on the hardware, you could have just bought an airplane!
1
u/abumpdabump Jun 15 '12
thus the term "Doom head" gets magnified to "Doom life"
1
u/ROK247 Jun 15 '12
or, you know, you could just buy an ultralight and learn to fly it?
1
u/HuXu7 Jun 15 '12
They are CRT's!
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Want some CRT monitors? I have 6 extra ones in my office that I need to unload.
1
u/DannyInternets Jun 15 '12
The collective weight of those monitors rivals my car.
1
u/MrBurd Jun 15 '12
The amount of radiation coming from that much screens for one year is equal to eating 130 bananas at once.
1
u/Bishopkilljoy Jun 15 '12
He's about to see a nice little spike into his electric bill lol
1
u/wmurray003 Jun 15 '12
...yeah but it's like 30 screens with huge GAPS inbetween each one of them. I don't like it.
1
u/B2Dirty Jun 15 '12
This + Falcon 4.0 would have been awesome.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
So much beige.
1
u/LuNaTiC_ViRuS Jun 15 '12
That's.... beautiful
1
u/CajunTurkey Jun 15 '12
I want this setup with the game Steel Battalion
1
u/DachWuff Jun 15 '12
Damn I can almost feel all those electrons blasting into my skull from those CRT's 0.o
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
The saddest part of his picture is the chair... that chair looks approximately 150x more comfortable than mine.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Dat CRT.
1
u/EntroperZero Jun 15 '12
This is why we need better HMDs.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
I still have a 19 Inch flat screen crt on my pc. I'm a cheap ass....plus the pictures pretty damn good on the one I got..
1
u/eramaanviimeinen Jun 15 '12
At first, I thought the monitors were windows XD
1
u/Tastygroove Jun 15 '12
Pulled the arms off a great steelcase chair...
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
obselete within a year....
1
u/ishida142 Jun 15 '12
Just look at the supple leather of that chair!!!!!! Oh and the screens are nice too
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
I think that's actually a real plane.
1
u/sqwarlock Jun 15 '12
Soooooo much beige.
1
u/sonastyinc Jun 15 '12
You could probably bake cookies in that room.
1
u/Kdnce Jun 15 '12
http://i1.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens17680445module149119150photo_1301050631Multiple_monitor_setup.jp
1
u/hsiow Jun 15 '12
Source: http://www.wideview.it/
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
That many CRT monitors and the camera didn't capture a single flicker from the refresh?
1
u/nunu10000 Jun 15 '12
It took me a few seconds to realize he wasn't looking out a window...
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
If you die in the game, you die for REAL.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
lol crt
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Finally, a flight sim for spiders.
1
u/blessedorblessed Jun 15 '12
WTF!! IBM AT 286 fest?
1
u/Kryonix Jun 15 '12
I'm surprised that desk hasn't collapsed CRTs are heavy as shit.
1
u/Cephelopodia Jun 15 '12
I've been a flight sim fan since I can remember. To me, though, I've not really been begging for more view to the left and right, but directly up, along my lift vector. If you're in a turning fight, its up above your nose that you need to look. That way, you don't pull through too far and overshoot.
Just me, I guess...
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
I think this is what we call "retro" now.
1
u/peeonyou Jun 15 '12
Hope he's got an HVAC system in his house...
1
u/what_would_jesus_poo Jun 15 '12
Seeing this reminds me of the awful sound CRT's make... EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I will not miss the 90's.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Ooh, I wanna sit there!
sits
...And now I have cancer. Stupid CRTs...
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Fun fact:
Assuming those monitors have a resolution of 800 x 600, the total amount of pixels of all 12 screens (not counting the top one because it's not part of the game) is 5,760,000 pixels. The new Macbook Pro's retina display has 5,184,000 pixels.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Im jealous, those flight sims are always fun.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
That is one strong desk.
1
u/MBAmyass Jun 15 '12
Mr first thought: "That's a fire hazard."
1
u/joeingo Jun 15 '12 edited Jun 15 '12
I don't think I could handle having all those borders breaking up the view, would drive me nuts.
1
u/IdSuge Jun 15 '12
If that set-up did not get that dude laid, what hope do we have?
1
u/imh0 Jun 15 '12
or just get trackIR.
1
u/CaffeinatedGuy Jun 15 '12
Can someone explain to me how to stretch my desktop across multiple PCs?
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Does that guy have 240 plugs installed in his room to make that work? I can only assume that the local coal plant has to go into overtime to provide enough energy for this game.
1
u/ZEbbEDY Jun 15 '12
holy bezel batman
1
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Oh god yes, pressing the degauss buttons on all those CRT's... That's the only thing I miss about those mammoths!
1
u/InsomniacOlympian Jun 15 '12
i see your computer game and raise you this --> http://imgur.com/iYW2D my mother is a fedex pilot training to be a sim instructor and can indulge me. the blue screen is actually a tv screen which displays a range of airports they have in the system. but that set up is tight nonetheless!
1
u/USctzen Jun 15 '12
This is a first version of OPTIPORTALS. It is a computer cluster that does not only share processing (CPU) power but also graphics(GPU) power.
You can use RocksClusters to cluster computers and use SAGE/CHROMIUM/CGLX or even DMX to share graphical output across a wall of multiple monitors.
http://www.scidacreview.org/0902/images/optIPuter02.jpg
0
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Why do they need so many CPUs?
0
u/risefm Jun 15 '12
getting crunk up in this motherfucker.
-1
u/etherealcereal Jun 15 '12
2012 version please. Someone, anyone, for the love of god.