Manual version 1.6.

7
Author: Robert Malmstrom and Ivar Hestnes

Introduction
This is a manual on how to setup a multi projector system on a flat, single- or double curved screen with the software Warpalizer. The easiest way to get started is to read the QuickSetup description in this manual and test it on your system. The QuickSetup function in Warpalizer will produce a quick and good estimation of the warping, edge blend and overlap setup for your system. To get a perfect setup you need to read about the Setup window and how you control the warping and edge blend reference points. Remember that QuickSetup is always a good start of a setup so that you just have to fine tune to get a perfect seamless image.

Installation
1. Warpalizer is built with Visual Studio 2010 so you have to download the Redistributable Runtime Package from Microsoft. It can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a7b7a05e-6de64d3aa42337bf0912db84 And make sure you have the latest DirectX drivers. It can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com 2. be Unpack Warpalizer.rar (This can be done with the software WinRAR that can downloaded from: http://www.win-rar.com/download.html) 3. Copy the unpacked files to C: so that you get the following file structure:

4:

To use your application with the warpalizer, just copy the d3d9.dll file found in the warpalizer folder into the applications folder, where the applications .exe file is.

Channel configuration
Follow these steps to set the number of channels on your system. 1: 2: 3: Run the DirectXtest.exe from c:/warpalizer Click F2 to open the menu Set the number of channels by using the up/down arrows.

4:

Click F2 again, and select SAVE.

Warpalizer control panel

There is two ways to configure the warpalizer software. 1: 2: Run DirectXtest.exe from the warpalizer folder and press F2 Click F2 when you are running the application that has the d3d9.dll pasted.

(Some application use the F1 F4 keys for commands within that application. So for most users it will be easier to configure the warpalizer features from the DirectXtest to avoid any interference).

Uniform colors
The three colors (red, green and blue) can only be reduced in brightness so to set up a color uniformed image with several projectors you have to use the strategy to let the projector with the least brightness be the reference projector and then reduce the colors of the other brighter projectors.

Setup window
The Setup window is always opened in the middle of the left most projection screen and the layout can be seen below. If you are using the DirectX version of Warpalizer then the Setup window is opened by pressing F2 on your keyboard. Otherwise you open the SetupWindow by calling the function ShowSetupWindow. The Setup window is designed to control a one, two or three channel/projector setup with zero, one or two overlap regions for edge blending between the channels.

Under the labels Channel 1, Channel 2 and Channel 3 there are three vertical slide bars that control the red, green and blue color of each channel. The three colors can only be reduced in brightness. You can read more about this under the subtitle Uniform colors. Set a mark in the connect sliders box to adjust all sliders for one channel at the same time. Under the labels Overlap 1 and Overlap 2 there is a horizontal slide bar that controls the size of the overlap. The slide bar under label Overlap 1 controls the overlap between channel 1 and channel 2 and the slide bar under label Overlap 2 controls the overlap between channel 2 and channel 3. For fine tune of the overlap there are two arrow buttons on the left of the slide bar for overlap 1 and two buttons on the right of the slide bar for overlap 2. Under the label Test image there are two triangle buttons for opening six different test images. Mark the checkbox to activate, and select the appropriate image by using the triangle buttons. Number one to four opens test images used for setting up uniformed colors. The color test images are white, red, blue, and green. You can read more about this under the subtitle Uniform colors. Test-image number five and six can be selected by the user. For example, you can use a screenshot in-game of the application that you will run with Warpalizer. (Make sure you take the screenshot with no warping in use). To replace the default Testing pattern and the globe-view, just rename your screenshots to Testimage1 and Testimage2. Paste them into the Texture-folder of the warpalizer, and replace the default ones. Make sure your screenshots is in JPEG format. The Adv is for advanced setup, and this is the 3D configuration of warpalizer. This will project horizontal and vertical degrees based on your physical screen dimensions. Please read our 3D setup tutorial to learn how to use this advanced feature. Three channel example below.
Check the 3D setup to apply the 3D setup grid.

Horizontal FOV: Your screens total FOV calculated from your eyepoint/radius.
Vertical FOV : Insert the correct vertical field of view Left/right view rot: Insert the rotation for each channel based on a calculation based on vertical FOV and blend area in degrees. Please refer to the 3D setup tutorial.

Test image used when controlling overlap and warping for a 2D setup.. The button Edit in the lower right corner starts the edit mode for manually setting up the warping and edge blend and edge blend graph. Read more about edit mode under the subtitle Manual setup The button Calib starts the QuickSetup functionality that helps you to do a quick and good estimation of the warping, edge blend and overlap setup. You can read more about this under the subtitle QuickSetup. The button Load is for loading the latest saved warping setup. A description of the files that are loaded can be seen in Table 1. The button Save is for saving the current warping setup. A description of the files that are saved can be seen in Table 1. File Data/Setup.dta Data/Warp.dta Description This file stores the setting of the Setup window with overlap size, color settings a.s.o. This files stores the warping, edge blend and edge blend color graph. Table 1. The files that stores the setup information in Warpalizer.

Backup
To backup a configuration, just copy the setup.dta and warp.dta files from the datafolder. We suggest that you make a backupfolder to keep these files safe. It is highly recommended to backup these files between each step of your configuration work, and before you update the software to a newer version.

QuickSetup
The QuickSetup function in Warpalizer is an easy and fast way to perform the setup of warping (geometric distortion), edge blend and overlap to create a unified image with two or three projectors on a curved screen. You start the QuickSetup by opening the Setup window

and press the Calib button. On the start menu you must select if the physical projection screen is single- or double curved.

QuickSetup start menu. After selecting singe- or double curved screen you simply follow the instructions in the QuickSetup window as you can see in the image below.

QuickSetup instructions. If you want to move the latest reference point that you have clicked just press the Back button and click the reference point again. If you want to exit the QuickSetup without saving the setup then press the Exit button. When you are finished with the QuickSetup it will automatically save the setup. If you press the button Exit before you are finished with the QuickSetup it will skip the auto save.

QuickSetup with three or more channels

If you are setting up a system with three or more channels then there will be one more so called center channel that have two edge blends. One edge blend to the left and one to the right as you can see on the images below. If you run the QuickSetup then the center channels will have 10 control points instead of 8 because of the extra edge blend.

The center channel in a three channel system. Just follow the instructions in the QuickSetup window and click on the reference points in the way that you can see in the above images.

Manual setup
The manual setup of warping, edge blend and edge blend color graph is started with the Edit button in the Setup window. During edit mode there is the text Edit shown in the upper left corner of the mouse pointer.

Mouse pointer in edit mode. In edit mode you move the mouse pointer to the channel/projector screen where you want to edit and press the right mouse button to open a drop down menu.

The two versions of edit mode drop down window. The drop down window come in two versions and the left version opens if you right click on a channel/projector that only has one neighboring channel. The right version opens if you right click on a channel that has two neighboring channels and needs to have one edge blend for each neighbor. The button Warp opens the warping control points that you can move to change the warping setup of the channel. Read more about controlling the warping under the subtitle Warping. The button Edge blend opens the edge blend control points that you can move to change the edge blend setup of the channel. Read more about controlling the edge blend under the subtitle Edge blend. The button Blend graph opens the blend graph window where you can edit the edge blend color setup of a edge blend. Read more about editing the blend graph under the subtitle Blend graph. You can set a mark in the box for All, Row or Col to move all marked control points on the channel you are working on.. All to move all horizontal and vertical control points. Row to move all the horizontal control points. Col to move all the vertical control points.

Special functions
If you press the button Func in the edit mode drop down window you will see the following functions in image 8. The vertical slide bar under the label Scale is used to scale the chosen warp matrix. This function is very useful if you have changed the lens zoom of a projector and want the warp matrix to be re-sized back to the original size without changing your previous settings. The buttons Double and Half under the label Control points is used to double or half the number of control points in all warp matrices. Be aware that if you half the number of control points then you will lose the positions of every other control points. So if you change back to the double amount of control points you will have lost some position accuracy. If you have changed the number of control points and want to undo the change just press the Exit button

and open the Setup Window and press the Load button. You can also use the keyboard to reduce or increase the number of control points. F3 F4 Double the number of control points Half the number of control points.

Image 8. Special function state of the edit mode drop down window.

Warping
Warping is when you geometrically distorts an image and in Warpalizer this can be done in edit mode. How you enter edit mode and how you select which channel you wont to edit the warping can be read under the subtitle Manual Setup. Before you enter edit mode there is a good idea to open the right most test image under the label Test background in the SetupWindow. The image below shows an example of how it looks when you enter edit mode and selects Warp. Here you can see the 5 * 5 warping control points where the upper left control point is pointed out by the white arrow.

2D Warp edit mode with the test image turned on. The warping control points for a channel are green when you are in edit mode and have selected Warp in that channel. The warping control points in the other unselected channels are red. If you move the mouse pointer to the upper left control point and then press left mouse button you can move the control point until you release the button. If you select a control point it changes from a green to a blue circle as you can see on the image below. When a control point is selected it can be moved with the mouse and with the arrow keys on the keyboard for high precision moving.

Image 10. A selected control point. Do not forget to open the Setup window after editing and press the button Save to save the changed setup. It is not fun to lose hours of work if your computer fail or something go wrong.

Edge blend
Edge blending is when one or more edges on an image has a gradient towards black. This gradient is used to blend two or more images in to one seamless image. Image 11 shows an example of how it looks when you enter edit mode and selects Edge blend. Here you can see the 2 * 5 edge blend control points where the center left control point is the active point.

Image 11. Edge blend edit mode with the test image turned on. Left channel active. If you move the mouse pointer to the upper left control point and then press left mouse button you can move the control point until you release the button, or use the keyboard arrows in the same way as described earlier for the warping. In the blend area for each channel, it is three columns of control points. At the beginning, it is highly recommended to use the column feature when moving the points to get familiar with this. On Image 11 above, you can see the two rows that define the area of blending. This is the area that will appear bright on your screen. The third row (unvisible on image 11) is the curtain which defines the gamma. This will normally be on top of a blendzone row of controlpoints.

Blend graph
The Blend color graph window is used to edit the edge blend color gradient. When you open the blend color graph window you can change the overall brightness and the selected edge blend by moving the white control points. If you want to change just the red color in some part of the edge blend you must first press the red point in the upper left corner of the window and you can then move the red control points. The red control points in Image 12 are hidden under the blue control points. You select the green or blue control points by pressing the green or blue point in the upper left corner of the window. If you press the point that is half white and half black you can then move the white control points. The red, green and blue boxes on the top-right are for highlighting the entire blending area. It

is a good idea to use red and green as shown on the image below. On your physical screen, it should appear as yellow if your control points are properly set.

Image 12. Edge blend color graph window. Do not forget to open the Setup window with F2 after editing and press the button Save to save the changed setup. It is not fun to lose hours of work if your computer fail or something go wrong.

Keyboard commands
Key Function F1 F2 F3 F4 A C R Set show warping on/off. Open SetupWindow. Double the number of control points. Half the number of control points. Move all control points on the selected warp- or edge blend matrix. Move column of control points on the selected warp- or edge blend matrix. Move row of control points on the selected warp- or edge blend matrix.

config.XML parameters
To change the configuration of Warpalizer you must change the parameters in the file config.xml that you find in the Data folder. Here is a description of each parameter. <PARAMETERS> <WARPALIZER> <CLIENT>false</CLIENT> <OVERLAP_FACTOR>0.85f</OVERLAP_FACTOR> <2OVERLAP_FACTOR>1.0f</2OVERLAP_FACTOR> <MULTI_SCREEN_OVERLAP>0.05</MULTI_SCREEN_OVERLAP> <AUTO_LOAD_WARPING>true</AUTO_LOAD_WARPING>

<SHOW_WARPING_FROM_START>true</SHOW_WARPING_FROM_START> Set to true to make the warping be shown from start of application without the need to press F1. <NUM_OF_PROJECTORS>2</NUM_OF_PROJECTORS> <EDGE_BLEND_TEXTURE>false</EDGE_BLEND_TEXTURE> <USE_MASK_TEXTURE>false</USE_MASK_TEXTURE> <REMOVE_FRAME>false</REMOVE_FRAME> Set to true for removing window borders in FSX, FS9, ESP and Prepar3D <FRAME_THICKNESS>2</FRAME_THICKNESS> Number of pixels to remove for window border in FSX, FS9, ESP and Prepar3D <GUI_WINDOWS_SIZE>1.0f</GUI_WINDOWS_SIZE> <USE_GET_CURSOR_POS>false</USE_GET_CURSOR_POS> Set to true to connect warping cursor with windows cursor. This is necessary for remote support via teamviewer. <SHOW_LURE_MUS>false</SHOW_LURE_MUS> <SHOW_VIEW_SETUP_CYLINDER>true</SHOW_VIEW_SETUP_CYLINDER> <CYLINDER_HORIZONTAL_FOV>270.0f</CYLINDER_HORIZONTAL_FOV> <CYLINDER_VERTICAL_FOV>60.0f</CYLINDER_VERTICAL_FOV> </WARPALIZER> </PARAMETERS>

Problems
Description If the USB dongle do not stop flashing a green light after 10 seconds then that is an indication that the dongle can not connect to the computer. Solution Try to reconnect the dongle and make sure not to use any USB extender cable. If this does not work then try to connect the USB dongle to a different computer to see that the dongle works.

If you try running Warpalizer on a computer with Warpalizer is built with Visual Studio 2010 so if Windows XP and when you start your application you are running Warpalizer on Windows XP you you get an error message from windows. have to download and install the runtime library to make it work:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/de tails.aspx?FamilyID=a7b7a05e-6de6-4d3aa423-37bf0912db84

The problem could also be that Warpalizer uses the DirectX API from Microsft for rendering so install the latest DirectX version (At least DirectX 9.0c, August 2009). If your application do not start when you try Warpalizer and there has not been created a Log.txt file and a Log_D3D9.txt file. The problem is that Warpalizer has not got permission to write in the application directory to create the log files. Try to start your application by right clicking on the application exe-file and select Run as administrator. Then look in the bottom of the two log files to get information about the problem why Warpalizer do not start.

If you have the problem that DirectXTest.exe only The problem is that you have to setup an runs on one screen/projector. "Extended desktop". You can see that you are running extended desktop if your window bar is shown in all screens/projectors. With your current setup you will probably just see the windows bar in the left screen/projector. If you have an ATI card with Eyefinity you can see in this video how you setup an extended desktop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYorUpN4PQo &playnext=1&list=PL0BD355C364FFAB2A If DirectXTest.exe do not start but there are a Log_D3D9.txt file created. If you open the Log_D3D9.txt file and the first line is: Logger::LoadLoggingSetup, Couldnt find the LoggingSetup.ini file in the working directory = No logging. Then the problem is that you have to have the Warpalizer files in the following location:

If you get the error message: MSVCR100.dll missing

Install the runtime for MS visual studio 2010 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/detail s.aspx?FamilyID=a7b7a05e-6de6-4d3aa42337bf0912db84

If you get the error message: d3dx9_42.dll is missing

Install the latest DirectX drivers that can be found at www.microsoft.com

Word table

Edge blend

Edge blending is when one or more edges on an image has a gradient towards black. This gradient is used to blend two or more images in to one seamless image. See also the description of Overlap. A overlap is the region on the edge of a channels/projectors image where the image has the same content as the neighboring channels image so that the two images can be edge blended in the overlap region to make a single seamless image. Field of view.

Overlap

FOV

Warping

Warping is when you geometrically distorts an image. In Warpalizer warping is used to geometrically distorts the image so that it can be projected on a curved screen without looking distorted to the viewer.