HIPerSpace monitor wall makes a great Grand Theft Auto IV canvas

Rolling around jacking up innocents and tossing Molotov cocktails is pretty enthralling on your vanilla 46-inch HDTV, but can you even imagine the rush of swiping a hot dog, burning out in someone else's whip and then snagging a new pair of kicks on this? Researchers (and gamers, obviously) down at UC San Diego have re-engineered their middleware to enable such masterpieces as this to be played on the big monolithic HIPerSpace screen, and needless to say, we can't imagine much real work getting done with this new functionality coming to light. Head on down to the gallery to see what you're missing -- science, research and 4.0 GPAs are such beautiful things.

Gallery: HIPerSpace monitor wall makes a great Grand Theft Auto IV canvas

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[Hero @ May 8th 2008 9:41AM]

That’s cool and all but what happens when you aim with your gun and you can't see the reticule because of the grid lines?

[OneLove @ May 8th 2008 10:24AM]

I agree, It's the stupidest game ever. crude.

[fraz @ May 8th 2008 10:59AM]

I can see the issue. it would work better for games like doom where the centre of screen is your pointer, because unlike most setups this uses and odd number of screens rather than an even number. but yeah, aiming outside of the centre of the screen would be an issue.

[nikola @ May 8th 2008 6:19PM]

Wouldn't a projector be cheaper and clearer (no grid)? Whats the point of this?

[webon @ May 8th 2008 11:30AM]

or pr0n

[Flashpoint @ May 8th 2008 9:42AM]

GTA4 is so overrated.

The driving physics are TERRIBLE. The only car which drives well is the Corvette and the sports cars.

The moving physics are terrible. Its so inaccurate you can't even walk along a roof without falling off if near the ledge.

The flying physics of the Helicopters SUCKS - which is a shame cause Vice City got it right.

Why is there no Hydra jet anymore? We could damn near have an AIR WAR OVER LIBERTY CITY 10 times better than WARHAWK if only we had Hydra Jets.


This big assed TV doesn't make the game any better.

[Hooterman @ May 8th 2008 9:46AM]

I'm pretty sure you're going to be in the minority with your "GTA4 is so overrated." comment.

And have you ever tried to take an old low rider for an aggressive drive around town in real life? I bet you couldn't nail a 90 degree corner going 80mph in that either. Unless of course you tried using the brake, which wait a minute, that's just like in the game!

[Marc @ May 8th 2008 9:48AM]

the word overrated is overrated

[stianh @ May 8th 2008 9:54AM]

@Flashpoint: Cry me a river.

[Ghen @ May 8th 2008 10:05AM]

flashpoint, you've been very angry the past week or so.. Something getting you down?

[Sean @ May 8th 2008 12:11PM]

Ghen
the best way to be famous is being infamous

[Albert @ May 8th 2008 2:03PM]

As if you knew anything about physics.

[Peter @ May 8th 2008 9:44AM]

I hate to be a killjoy, but that wouldn't impress me very much, the gaps between the screens would really bother me.

[Ghen @ May 8th 2008 10:06AM]

Don't knock it til you try it, with multi monitor setups you basically train your eyes not to see the black areas since they aren't part of the video feed. It would be one thing if they actually blocked portions of the output, but they don't.

[Pochi @ May 8th 2008 11:02AM]

I have seen something similar to this and even played games on it (Quake and Pilotwings 64, old times).

It completely sucks.

You're better off with a solid piece of screen real estate, even if it is at a MUCH smaller size. Those black bars are completely awful.

[erikcantu @ May 8th 2008 9:47AM]

I don't understand why they use monitors for that stuff. I imagine that some projectors set up en mass, aligned in a rear projection mode could offer the same resolution-and be seamless.

[WhyNot @ May 8th 2008 9:48AM]

Not to brag, but I'll take my 110" front projection....I can see everything, no obstruction of monitor bezels, and far easier to set up than going through all that trouble!!!

[rcappo @ May 8th 2008 10:20AM]

I agree, my 1920x1080, 120" (10') projector looks better than this. I would be inpressed if they got 16 1080p projectors displayed in a grid. The smallest size image should be around 70 inches per projector (it will be really bright with small pixels).

[Bill Brasky @ May 8th 2008 10:56AM]

Agreed, you can accomplish the same thing with a projector for much less and not have the annoying gridlines.

[Oinquer @ May 8th 2008 9:56AM]

PAWN!ed

[teej @ May 8th 2008 12:03PM]

1. saying 'pwned' correctly (pronounced "powned")
2. ???????
3. profit!

[adriangrab @ May 8th 2008 9:55AM]

I've got a huge front projection as well, and overall love it for my PS3 games.

As much as I love GTA IV, I've been pretty frustrated with the aliasing. It's much worse than other PS3 games, and becomes very noticeable when it's blown up to that size. Remember, bigger is better, but it also shows graphic imperfections, and there are plenty in GTA IV (As opposed to Uncharted, which looks gorgeous.)

[tiremfej @ May 8th 2008 8:55PM]

@ Adriangrab

I have a 360 and use a 120" screen. I honestly still think my picture is pretty clear, actually very clear. GTA IV although does seem to be a tad too dark I have a DLP projector, running at 1080p. What resolution are you running in? I'm actually floored by my picture.

[Colin @ May 8th 2008 9:56AM]

I never was impressed by these types of displays. I always found the size advantage more than offset by the large black lines of the edges.

[Bad Beaver @ May 8th 2008 10:00AM]

I second the notion that the grid is unpleasant. Front projection is way superior.

[Frankenstein Black @ May 8th 2008 10:04AM]

MEH! My friends setup is better (1 72" inch'er surrounded by 4 20" inch'ers) and no waffle lines. http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/den_football_madness.jpg
It also rock an HTPC with single center and 4 head DVI cards driving those bad boyz. I helped him put it together, so I get a lifetime visitors pass. Oh and "Hannibal the beast dog" likes me too ;^)...

[Jagster @ May 8th 2008 1:17PM]

That's a good idea... I may have to duplicate it in my HT. 110" front projection with 4 surrounding LCD monitors... great for football season (or any other sport but football is the only one I really watch much).

[konshuss @ May 8th 2008 10:09AM]

i've seen single monitors with less bezels than these ones... what gives? nice concept, needs screen-to-edge goodness.

[KEVIN @ May 8th 2008 10:14AM]

COOL

[chadow @ May 8th 2008 10:13AM]

Is he playing a video game or is he looking out the living room window of his house thats in the middle of a highway....I cant tell.

I would rather play a game using the worst SVGA projector available than that setup.

[Ak @ May 8th 2008 10:20AM]

Haha, as some one who actually works in the building where this located, Calit2 division at UCSD, the impressive thing is that the image is actually being scaled to a insane amount of pixels. Each of those monitors is a dell 30 inch with the usual ~ 2,500 by 1,600 resolution. All of this powered by a large amount of Dell XPS's, i think one XPS to every 4 monitors, and a crazy little OS called ROCKS.

[ak @ May 8th 2008 10:26AM]

I forgot to mention that this would be more impressive on the 30ft screen and 4k projector that is also in the building.

[Dan Davis @ May 8th 2008 10:19AM]

Yeah, I just messed myself.

Would still be cooler on a 100"+ HD projection...

[luc @ May 8th 2008 10:33AM]

Gears of War on 100 Megapixel Display, January 2007
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DyD2vGTnEFk

[webon @ May 8th 2008 11:35AM]

man now I cant click on that link I've been rikerolled once to many times...well just 2 times but still

[nebulus @ May 8th 2008 10:33AM]

Though its quite cool looking, there isn't much new here unless I'm missing something. Chromium has been doing this for quite a while (I remember seeing it on the Nvidia stand back in Siggraph2001), and it still doesn't solve culling issues that occur when you're using an intermediary API like OSG Ogre or OpenSG.
Don't get me wrong, it looks fancy, but all that money could be better spent.

If you want to do clustered graphics look at something like the Equalizer API, which does this sort of thing and so much more without the issues of GL library proxying...

http://www.equalizergraphics.com/

[Loonie @ May 8th 2008 10:41AM]

Nothing enhances my game playing experience more than having a sodding great black grid slapped on the screen.

[Brian @ May 8th 2008 10:59AM]

The only downside is the grid lines

[Jagster @ May 8th 2008 1:11PM]

That and the >$10k cost, the insane amount of cables, the huge amount of electricity it uses and heat it generates, and just the overall complexity of the whole setup.

Just get a short-throw 1080p front projector and set it up in rear-projection mode. Simple, looks better, much cheaper, and better than this junk in just about every way.

[Tony Bowman @ May 8th 2008 11:06AM]

i'm surprised multi-monitor setups like this keep getting used for displayign one large image source. it makes zero sense whatsoever, with the price of quality hi-res projector plummeting.

i can see the usefulness when there are multiple sources, but not for something like the above-pictured gaming.

[Mike @ May 8th 2008 5:14PM]

There is no projector that can equal the amount of resolution provided by tiled-display walls (and there never will be because monitors and projectors more or less evolve equally).
In the case of GTA, yes, the resolution doesn't get better, but if you had photos from a 12+ megapixel camera, only a tiled-display wall could show it at full res.

[webon @ May 8th 2008 11:37AM]

why is he playing so damn close?


ah... I see so he can concentrate on one display only without having to see the damn grid

[Mobus @ May 8th 2008 1:21PM]

Ok, the only thing I have against GTA IV is that its not on PC. I have no intention of ever buying a PS3 or an XBOX. The only one that I ever really would've ever wanted to try would be the Wii. Now, is Rockstar going to eventually come out with the PC version like they did with the other games? Or are they going to shoot themselves in the foot and leave it on the consoles?

[jpneiswi @ May 8th 2008 1:46PM]

Rockstar has come out with at least GTAIII for the PC (and it's freakin' sweet, especially cause you can put your own music in - which they didn't put on GTAIV for some reason, even though both the PS3 and XBOX360 could definitely do it). The PC versions usually come out a year or two later

[jpneiswi @ May 8th 2008 1:49PM]

oops, missed the part where you said they already came out with them before...patience is the only answer i guess

[highjumpman @ May 8th 2008 2:11PM]

Heh, it lookes like the guy is watching from a large prison window. Totally relates to GTA...

[Mike @ May 8th 2008 4:01PM]

This makes me proud to work at the same place (CALIT2).

[Dave @ May 8th 2008 4:32PM]

I have the same Dell setup ... except it consists of 1 monitor :)

[Hotrod @ May 8th 2008 7:15PM]

Props to the dudes that set that up. How do they make all the displays work together as one?

[macserv @ May 9th 2008 12:54AM]

Ahhh, so THAT's how big the screen has to be before you can read the text :D I love this game, but DAMN.