A glimmer of hope in the LCD world!
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Some folks working on the
OSVR liked my project and were able to send me some used parts. Enough to get the displays functional so I could see how well they would work. So a huge thanks to Razer.
First off, these these displays are
very high resolution. 1200x1080 each at just 3.8" Diagonal. These are the same displays I found a while back for use in the PicoNeo VR headset. They are 90Hz, AMOLED, low-persistence displays. While all those stats seem cool, it means the display aren't very good for use outside of VR. They are designed to work close to your eyes in near 100% darkness.
This means they are not as bright as they could be. They are about as bright as my iPhone when it is set to 25%. This is due to the low-persistence display, and it is apparently hard coded in. They also do not have a front polarizer or anti-reflective coating. So they wash out in anything besides office lighting. Hopefully adding a front polarizer film will help with that.
I did mess with the nVidia Control panel to see what I could do in there. Playing with some of the settings in there I was able to get the display to look a bit brighter. We will see what I can do in Linux later.
All that said, I plan on moving forward with these displays. Their high resolution makes them look much sharper than either the 640x480 or 320x240 3.5" LCDs. And the 3.8 size makes the display almost perfectly game accurate in size.
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As you can see in the mock-up image above, the 3.8inch display is a perfect size for the Pip-Boy. The near-square aspect ratio feels just right.
I really wish the display were brighter, than I could place it behind some tinted acrylic to hide the edges of the display. That acrylic could even be curved a tiny bit to create a CRT like look. I have some sample sheets of tinted acrylic, so I will at least try it to see how it looks. Perhaps a clear acrylic over a polarized sheet will bring it all together.
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If anything getting my hands on these gives me some hope. These are 4-lane MIPI displays, exactly what the DragonBoard is made to drive. And since the OSVR HDK2 VR headset is open source, I will have a jump start on powering and wiring these displays.