The evolution of my sim room

[Godfather]

Since I’m now on version 3.0 of my sim room, I figured I would post up the history of the room and then update the current build as it continues.

My sim room is the formal living room. It is 16 ft deep by 13 ft 7 in. wide with 9 ft 1 in ceilings. I can swing driver, but get the lefts indoors if I do too much so I’ve stopped hitting it. The room is south facing and as you can see receives a ton of natural light. Based on room size 4:3 aspect ratio makes sense.

The room (screen to go opposite wall of two windows):


VERSION 1.0...........
- I began with a 1” EMT frame (avoid 3/4”) - 10 ft wide
- taut net behind screen and black silk sheet
- foam pipe insulation
- 9oz SuperTex screen
- thin residential 5x4 mat
- SkyTrak
- Optoma GT760a 720p projector
- modified HP desktop PC with GTX750ti GPU

After first hanging the screen:


Wife ran over my wall protection lol - memory foam glued to wood and thin plywood frame:


Put up the wall protection and computer cabinet (IKEA secretary’s desk) that folds closed.


Couches and canvas golf paintings to complete Version1.0:


————————————

VERSION 2.0..........
- Direct from Mill screen ordered 13x10 so I’d be able to rotate hitting spot
- GC2 that came with Creative Golf 3D to add to TGC
- upgraded to GTX1060 6GB GPU
- thicker mat and eventually cut in a Fiberbuilt strip
- screen attached to EMT on top with pole clamps and used tarp clamps on side. All foam insulation now gone (not needed)
- Upgraded to Optoma GT1080Darbee
- Upgraded cabinet in corner that holds a couple sets of golf clubs (old one in v1.0 not shown)
- Upgraded curtain to keep out excessive light during the day



New cabinet for club storage and also shows the new curtain track installed on the ceiling:


Curtain needed because of all this light... note: you can see the window curtains in this pic as well:


I ran this happily for a couple years, but the EMT screen wasn’t 100% straight, wobbled a bit, and I wanted to go a touch wider.

[Godfather]

My VERSION 3.0 plan...............
- going to 11 ft wide screen
- screen will be secured to back wall
- screen will be secured with pole clamps on 3 sides
- screen going from 12” off wall to 8”
- window coverings changing to shades from curtains so I can move couches 3” further back to the wall
- different club storage cabinet
- Roku installed on projector
- 2.1 speakers run off projector
- different wall protection - width of v1.0 was overkill
- ceiling protection
- changing left side from curtain to ???
- possible v3.1 upgrade: Optoma GT1080HDR or GT1090HDR... brighter the better for my setup. If they had lower offset I’d know for sure.
- possible v3.2 upgrade: wall to wall putting turf... wife just isn’t on board yet

[Godfather]

V3.0 progress..

Screen down:


Frame down:


To make the screen flush with the floor and solid, I cut EMT foot pads into the carpet and secured to the plywood floor.



New frame is up and is 7-8 inches from the wall. It is now 11 ft wide - I used a leftover fitting to extend it. I used shelf brackets to secure to the wall and allow excess screen to be tucked over the top.



Hanging sound insulation behind the screen and I hit a pressurized water pipe!!! That was not fun and caused delays to repair and dry out... ugh...



Hung the net with just one 4x6 sheet of acoustic foam insulation to test the screen rebound (ended up good). Later I will get in there and permanently hang about 3 times that much.



Screen is up using pole clamps (often used for tarps). Excess screen is tucked away up top and to the left. I’ll be able to rotate it to avoid excessive wear. The tarp clamps paired with the thick screen are super easy to hang.



Projector repositioned further back and left to fill out wider screen. Later I steamed out screen wrinkles from v2.0 clamp positioning. Lots of natural light in this pic as room curtain was wide open. This was testing the Roku and speakers. Works so well! Wife and kids are pumped at how easy it is to use. Using the computer and either poor computer speakers or the Optoma sound was lacking. Roku hooked up to the projector with good speakers is clutch!



Narrower golf club storage cabinet fits good and still holds 2 sets of clubs. Previous cabinet placed in my office for club overflow ;-)



Played my first round to test out the rebound. I made my net a little tighter since it is closer to the wall. Rebound on hard. low hybrids came back to me so I loosened it a touch and all hits are rebounding soft and short of the mat.

[DS12]

I like the version history, has come a long way since V1

[wanabe]

Looks great. I am planning my sim build and have questions about the installation of a projector. In your picture the projector looks to be well above the top of your screen. Wondered if you overcame this by pointing the projector down at the screen and if so, whether this has any compromises. Projector Central gives dimensions of the differential needed between the project lens and the top of the screen, although this makes little sense to me. Perhaps your project allows vertical shift of the 8mage. I am looking at a 16:9 screen, with an image width of 160”. Looks like i need to be about 6’ back with a short throw projector but the vertical siting of the projector height is confounding me!

Would appreciate your experience on this to help me with my plans

Thanks

[Godfather]

replied below

[Godfather]

Actually now the projector lens is about even with the top of my image. Unfortunately, this projector needs to be about 18” above (offset) to not need keystone correction. As it is, I had to use the keystone feature to get the image square. This meant it needed to be pulled back even further than I’d calculated. It took some trial and error up a ladder holding the projector and mount until I was happy and marked the ceiling. Now I still want to cut the ceiling hole for the cords further back, but will wait in case I upgrade my projector.

[wanabe]

Thanks. I read Keystone correction can ruin the corners of the image?

[Dax]

Light keystone adjustment should not be too bad. In a home theatre I would avoid trying to use keystone as much as possible. For golf sim, I am really not sure it would matter that much. Jury still out I guess, but many have used it for their sims and seem to be getting a good picture I am assuming as I have not read any complaints on this forum for it.

[Godfather]

Picture looks good to me so I’m not too concerned about it. My biggest concern going in was if it would be between two settings as there isn’t fine adjustment for keystone. If you’re between +2 and +3 for example, there is no +2.5 so you may end up moving the projector a little closer to get it aligned while losing an inch of image width.

Still, if you can avoid using keystone, all the better! With the GT760A, my image was smaller and that projector requires less offset so I didn’t use keystone. Benq doesn’t use as much offset, but the short throw ratio is higher so the projector ends up further back. In most cases, you take the best compromise and roll with it.

[Godfather]

Pic of the powered shades I put in so I could slide the couch back 3” or so.

[Godfather]

I started putting up the right side wall protection with plywood and black peel and stick carpet tiles. However, after hitting a shot into it, I was turned off by how loud and violent it is. Even though it’s only been hit a couple times in 4 years and mostly by kids and plastic balls, I have decided to consider other options.

I ordered foam tiles and will test those out.

[Godfather]

Tried a different approach for the wall protection. Looks good, but doesn’t slow down balls either. Still I think I’ll go with this.

Also put in a spotlight with smart plug. I now have lots of cords up there with Roku as well and need to relocate my ceiling hole.

[pwade3]

Your the master tinkerer of sim rooms. Always valuable information. Interesting about foam tiles. Thanks GF.

[Godfather]

Put in the left side wall. It was tricky since the left screen wall isn’t on an actual wall. It’s a few 1” thick boards cut to length and attached to underlay. I left a little gap in between the boards that are even with the front of the screen. I can put wider carpet runner in there if needed to frame the picture properly. I then hooked it into the wall with keyhole hooks.

The edge of the board is covered with black felt tape (typically used for car wiring harnesses).

Left of the screen is my club cabinet and blackout curtain on a ceiling track.

[docsmilez]

What adhesive did you use for these foam panels? I am buying the same ones but hoping I can glue them to my drywall

[Godfather]

Put the ceiling protection up and pretty much finished the V3.0 build.

I used 1” rigid foam board on the ceiling and glued 2” wedge sound insulation to it. I used Liquid Nails type glue because some on here mentioned spray adhesive not working. I had 6 foot panels so there is only 1 seam and with it being black (spray painted from grey), you can’t see it.

I wanted to be able to remove the ceiling panels so they are not screwed into the ceiling. I used corner bead on the screen side and then combined corner bead and L-bead on the other side to make a ledge for the panels to tuck into. I then secured the screen side with 1” roofing nails just pressed through the corner bead holes and into the foam board. To frame the picture, I cut carpet runner to size and used Velcro on the backside of the corner bead. If it develops any waves I’ll switch to black felt, which I already have.

Hanging mechanism:




Pictures don’t do it justice with all the black it is hard to make out the detail, but here is the finished product (for now):





This pic (adjusted image brightness and contrast) shows the wall and ceiling protection detail:



I will likely step the wall protection so it is even at the top with the ceiling protection and then move one square or two per row until at full width, but I’m done for awhile. :-)

[docsmilez]

What did you use to adhere these to the wall? I bought the same ones