Don't Buy an Ultrawide Monitor for you Flight or Car racing Simulator

Ultrawide monitors are all latest rage when it comes to PC gaming. But that doesn't mean they are the right monitor for all applications. In some cases like Flight and Racing Simulators, an ultrawide will actually hurt your overall experience.

Bare with me, as this one is a little longer than normal as it takes time to dig in to the math behind choosing the correct monitor for your application. But 20mins now, might save you big money down the road.

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[jwattie]

I think it depends on the kind of flying you’re doing. If you’re doing technical in cockpit then a large tv is the way to go so you can actually see the gauges. If you fly outside the plane mostly then ultrawide is for you.

[davidgiles]

I think there are a lot more variables here than one might think, in that I don't think that there's the perfect monitor size, ratio, or zoom level that will work for all aircraft and for everyone. As for ultrawide vs 16:9, that's an interesting discussion, but once again a large 21:9 ultrawide (greater than 40") is going to give you a more immersive experience than a 34" one - even at the same resolution. Also, a 21:9 ultrawide that has the same height as a 16:9 monitor will most certainly give you a more immersive experience at the same zoom level and resolution. For example, a ~40" 21:9 monitor has the same physical height in cm or inches as a 32" 16:9 monitor does, but gives you more view in your peripheral vision. I plan on getting a 21:9 4K OLED sometime in 2024, when the right monitor hits the market. For me, I'd like around a 42" ultrawide with maybe a 1200r curvature. The 1440p 45" LG Ultragear with an 800r curve is a bit too large and a bit too curved for my liking, and at 1440p it really sacrifices dpi over a smaller monitor. Don't get me wrong, it's an impressive looking monitor, but it really should have had at least a 3840x1600 resolution vs. 3440x1440. Having said all that, I REALLY wish that manufacturers would make a 2:1 ratio monitor that splits the difference between 16:9 and 21:9. I think that the 2:1 ratio more closely aligns with how the human eye works, in that we have more of a horizontal oval view of the world around us than a perfect circle. I'm not holding my breath on that one though...

[thatguy]

I use the ultra wide… because I also do first person shooter. Yes, my sim is used for loads of things… even case work sometimes.

[turkintheus]

100% agree, i got the lg ultra 45” ultrawide and returned it the same day, the fish eye effect was crazy. FO’s instrument felt much closer than the instruments in front of me

[RocktCityTim]

I use an ultrawide for my day to day work, but my gaming is on a 42" UHD 4K TV! Switched that up 4 months back and I'm hooked.

[dabneyoffermein]

Appreciate your viewpoint... I do use an Ultrawide for MS2020 at 2K. I don't need higher resolution than that at the expense of frame-rate, but I do love the ultrawide. I also have two 26" or 27" ASUS 2K monitors on each side of the 34" UW and they are in Portrait orientation (just the ASUS's). So for example, when I fly the Wilga, I can adjust the 3 monitors view in MS2020 to allow me to see out the sides of the Wilga and it's just amazing. The amount of FOV is tremendous. There is not much frame-rate degradation either.... Takes a minute to get the FOV ratios good and the alignment just right, but a view. Thanks for the TV suggestion, I'm going to try that with a spare tv.

[British_Dragon-K-Simulations]

I went from a 65 inch 4K 60Hz TV to the Samsung G9 32:9 240 Hz monitor and then went back to a 16:9 55 inch LG C1 120Hz OLED two year’s later, but placed it on my desk right behind my keyboard and it’s just like having two Samsung G9’s on top of each other.
As long as the 16:9 is big and close enough it looks much better than 32:9. At least to me. I have almost double the screen space and a higher resolution.
It took a week or so to get used to the flat screen though.

[ljpinna]

This was a very helpful and well explained video!

[greggseipp]

Yesterday, after reading about folks that had done this, I hooked up a 4K 65" TV to my sim. I was skeptical but decided to try it. I'm still experimenting, trying full-screen and various different sizes in windowed mode. I'm sitting about 4 feet from the screen. I'll say this. Wow. Everything feels more solid and real. You pick up the shape of the runway at a distance like you do in the real world. Knobs in the cockpit are realistic size. In windowed mode, squeezed down 1/4 of the screen, you get a lot of peripheral view, so much so that I switch off my eye tracking since I don't need it as much. Since it's so large, it's obviously not as sharp as a smaller 4K TV...things in the distance can look a bit fuzzy but it's actually not unlike the real world where you look in the distance at something and the heat and haze in the air blurs things out. I might go down to a 55" but that's because I'm thinking of mounting it on a motion platform and I'm concerned about the weight. But, yeah, a big TV is good.

[Kris_T_]

The prob with tv's is power consumption, a smart tv is essentially another computer, and draws a whole lot more power than a monitor, which is just a display with no processing going on inside.
The prob with screens in general is the inability to look up, yes If your a sky trucker, you only need to look out the window, but if your a glider, or a stunt plane, or a jet, or doing anything more interesting than flying straight and level for hours, you need to look up.

Maybe one day someone will invent a 1/4 sphere screen, in the meantime, I believe VR, Eye-tracking, or Projectors to be the best options.

[carriedbydad]

I’m ready to sell my 49” super ultrawide and go with a 55” 4K high refresh/low latency TV. You can just see far more of the instruments and I’d rather pan left and right than up and down

[somethingclever]

3 x 32" 1500R curved Viewsonic monitors work great for me, no distortions on MSFS2020 (Volairsim)

[joelmulder]

Like you show in the video, the problem with ultra wide is that if it isn’t very large, you loose the view of your instruments.
Your ultra wide needs to be at least the same vertical resolution as the 16:9 monitor you would’ve otherwise gotten to get any advantages out of ultra wide.
But those are significantly more expensive, and you could get a 16:9 monitor with much better specs for that money, which I think outweighs the benefits of more horizontal resolution, especially when you can look around with TrackIR.

[ButchNackley]

I've got an Acer 49" UW I've been using for nearly 4 years now. I like it. I have triple head to go and used three 26" Acer X26W which worked okay, but the bezels were annoying at times. Anyway, the UW is pretty good, especially if setting rather close to it. With TrackIR, I've no issues with the monitor view area. I'm sure there are better solutions, but for now, I'm good with the UW.

[MistaSkilla]

My 49" super ultrawide is pretty great for simming, not at all hard to move the in-game camera view to check instruments then return to looking outside

[tallesttreeintheforest]

i think ultrawide for car sims, is a good option, because you can place it on top of your wheel base.
for flight sims, TVs.

[kenbit]

You are absolutely right especially when you are using the TV only as display for the instruments as well as the windshield because of the simultaneous view of both. However the Ultra-wide monitor makes sense when used purely as a windshield; in this situation the instruments are either displayed on a separate monitor (iPad or Windows Tablet of course with the "Air Manager" software) or a solid instrument panel has been constructed separately.

[fredjones]

Hi, thanks for this video. You have clearly put a lot effort and analysis. You have considered many factors from first principle. I'm just starting out simming and excellent reviews like yours help so much. Cheers from Chicago. BTW a tv is also a lot cheaper. I find many solutions can be cheap and excellent

[ENergyJimP]

I have a 49" super ultra wide monitor. It helps some, but not as much as I was hoping. I am thinking of supplementing it with a 24" 16:9 monitor to improve the view out the pilots side window for pattern work. (Also I 've used Track IR more than a decade.)

[deloford]

I replaced my 38" LG Ultrawide with 2 x LG 48"C2 OLED TVs on sale, best of both worlds. Massive upgrade in screen size, image OLED quality & contrast. The bezel is so thin you dont notice it.

I've to turn them on and off, but as one controller operates both it's no biggie, you could also create a voice routine. Also, 4090 only has 1 HDMI port so I'd to get a Display Port adapter meaning the 2nd screen doesn't support GSync but that hasnt bothered me.