New to forum, need some advice

[cwuga3]

I’m new to the forum and am in the early stages of my first sim build. I am using my garage and have ordered a mevo plus which should be here by end of summer. My room is 11’10” wide and 9’3” high. I have been trying to decide how big to build the frame and what size screen to use. I spoke with some people at Carl’s and they have given me different opinions. I’m leaning towards making it 11’ wide and 9’ high so I could use the raw material screen that is 120”x133” and that would allow 2” on each side plus some draping at bottom for ball return. I would obviously have to fold the edges a little to get width right. Carl’s seemed concerned about not using a standard aspect ratio. What is the general opinion here regarding aspect ratio and fitting the screen to frame size vs making sure the aspect ratio is 4:3 (in my case)? I could make the height lower to make it 4:3 but I’d assume the bigger frame is better? Also, when using the raw material I have seen some recs to fold it so you can get the right tension on the sides. Wouldn’t that affect the aspect ratio? My guess is I’m a little over worried the aspect ratio but I would appreciate any advice. Last question - Would y’all suggest the finished edges over the raw material? Thanks in advance,
Chris

[cwuga3]

Update. The more I have looked at it I am going to go with the raw material and likely do 120x133 and fold for my exact measurements. I was reading about the vertical offset for projectors and my projector will be coming down the road so I don’t know which one I will be getting. Would it be best to make frame 12-16” higher to accommodate for offset in case it is a higher offset? I’m assuming that I’d have to have an “extra 12-16 inches” at base of screen for the offset if doing a floor mount.

[3on3putt]

How are you planning on hanging the screen? Bungees and tarp clips?

What if you go 132 inches wide (which leaves you 5 inches on each side for bungee tension).

If you fill that from left to right with your image in 4:3, your image height will be 99 inches. You have 111 inches total to work with. So that would allow some room on top for bungee tension and some room on bottom for some floor sag.

[cwuga3]

3on3putt , thanks! I was planning on using bungees and tarp clips following gung ho golf design.

do you think I need to plan on allowing vertical height for offset from projector? It looks there is a wide range there depending on projector. I was thinking about keeping the height at 9’ just to allow a little gap (3”) between enclosure and ceiling. Is that necessary with canvas over the top?

[3on3putt]

Its probably not totally necessary.

Are you going to do a ceiling mount or floor mount?

I would make the screen as large as possible and then try to fill as much of it as you can. You're going to have some empty space on the screen (where there is no image), which really isn't a big deal in my opinion. Some people get more hung up on that than I do.

[Stetson]

If you are unhappy with some white space around the edges you can use curtains to hang over and reduce that.

[Alex.Morgan]

I had to go with a 4:3 ratio as width was an issue. I did exactly that and hung black velvet fabric from the top of the screen down to just above the projected image. You don't even notice when the room is dark with just the spot light over the hitting area.

[cwuga3]

I am looking at projector down the road but would prob prefer floor mount. It seems like vertical offset may be a problem for floor mount due to the fact that most projectors I have seen are 12-16” offset from 6-8 feet. There are a few BenQ projectors that have less offset but have to be placed around 10feet where I will be hitting from. Does the vertical keystone or horizontal keystone correction cause a major issue for golf sim? If not a huge deal, then I think I have plenty of options to adjust for that issue

[3on3putt]

A little bit of keystone correction is fine, but I would try to avoid using too much of it.

A ceiling mount from your hitting area is also fine. If you get the projector centered over your ball you'll be fine.

Also remember that you won't be filling up your screen from top to bottom anyway, so you have room for vertical offset. You should have somewhere in the neighborhood of a foot of offset space to work with, which should give you plenty of options.

[cwuga3]

Thanks for all the advice! Pumped to get the build started