Configuring Multiscreen Displays With Existing Computer Equipment

An immersive multiscreen display (a UT-Cave) may be assembled from common home/office equipment which can be borrowed in most research settings. The simplest design requires two LCD projectors, three personal computers, the corner of a room, a network hub and cables. The required software is an inexpensive but graphically powerful computer game, Unreal Tournament (UT), and a freeware patch called “CaveUT.” Unreal Tournament is partially open source and supports rapid authoring of visually rich virtual worlds, complex animations, and software modifications such as alternative physics or artificial intelligence. PC-based game hardware and game engines such as the one for UT deliver superior real-time graphics at a tiny fraction of the cost for traditional immersive multiscreen displays, such as the CAVETM. While currently having fewer features, the UT-Cave, like the traditional CAVE-like displays, is useful for research in vehicle simulation, human balance, architectural simulation, novel human-computer interfaces and much more. Except for UT’s game engine, which is very inexpensive, everything about the UT-Cave is free and open-source at “www.planetjeff.net/ut”. UT-Caves with more screens have been assembled using the same basic design principles illustrated here. A sample experiment is presented which uses a four-screen UT-Cave controlled from the control program, “LabView.”