Enclosure aspect ratio - 4:3, 16:9, or 16:10 - thoughts?

[Rearviewmirror]

Hi folks,

I'm currently working with a pretty basic GoSports range cage and in the process of raising my garage door opener rails to allow for a larger enclosure.



In terms of space, I have about 12.5' of width to work with, and hopefully should have ~ 100 inches of height for the enclosure (swing is unimpeded as it's an A-frame building with me swinging in the apex.

I'm thinking of going for a Carl's Place enclosure, and in terms of total enclosure size it looks like it'll come down to whether I optimize for height, width, or total square footage of projection area.

My options would be:

• 4:3 - W130" x H98"
• 16:9 - W150" x H90"
• 16:10 - W150" x H94"

Unfortunately I can't really go any wider than 12.5ft (150") as I still need to park my car in the garage. I'm leaning towards 16:10 to get the most useable screen real estate, but also have a more all encompassing view. I feel like with 4:3 I would sacrifice a lot of screen viewing area and hitting real estate. 16:9 feels like it might be a little short.

I'm planning to do a series of upgrades (nicer BenQ projector, enclosure, gaming PC) and right now I'm using a cheap Wimius P62 projector and Rapsodo MLM2Pro from an iPad so can't really control aspect ratio.

Any thoughts on the above? How did you settle on screen aspect ratio?

[COgolfengineer]

I own a sim business and help people with their spaces. I would maximize the enclosure size and let the aspect ratio be whatever it is. You can set a custom resolution on your PC to fit any aspect ratio you need. If it's convenient to do a standard aspect ratio, then great, I would do that, but don't tie your hands to it. Also, keep in mind the enclosure size doesn't necessarily mean the viewable screen aspect ratio is the same.

For example, a Carl's enclosure of 97.7"x148.4" gives a viewable screen of 86"x137" which is a 1.593 aspect ratio, so pretty much 1.6. This enclosure maximizes the space and gives you a 1.6 aspect ratio, seems perfect to me.

If you want further help, I sell Carl's stuff and projectors and everything else you would need for upgrading your setup. And most likely, I can save you sales tax. I've helped many people here. You can send me an email.

matt@365golfdesign.com

[p3eps]

I’ve had 2x 4:3 setups in the past, then moved to a 16:9 one about 7 years ago - and never looked back.
If you have the space, then widescreen is the way to go.
Not a lot of difference between 16:9 and 16:10 in terms of looks, but a 16:10 projector was a lot more expensive when I was setting up 7 years ago… and a lot harder to find in the throw ratio I needed. I ended up using my ceiling protection to cover the small black gap at the top of my screen.

If you’ve got space for a widescreen setup, then don’t even consider a square. The more usable space, the better - especially when it comes to putting things like mini-maps and extra stats on the screen.