I used to be a 3d gaming skeptic

[nixpayn]

Until last night.

On a whim, i was just playing with my nvidia drivers to see if i needed a version update and i noticed the stereoscopic support thing, so i went and decided to look into it a bit. Apparently the generic shitty 3d glasses work - red / cyan, magenta / green.. whatever, so i went out and bought a 3d blu ray movie - which came with green / magenta - i think the red / cyan would work better - and decided to have a go at it. (mine came from My Bloody Valentine 3d, but are the same ones as Coraline i think)

My test game was WoW cuz it was the first thing i could think of to pimp 3d support. And.. didnt work with the green / magenta glasses. Foiled! You need the red / cyan for it to work by default.

So more research was needed. So i found iZ3d - a driver that works with i think any video card (i'm using an nvidia 8800gts) and pretty much any head gear. I found a post with a setting for the exact glasses i had, and decided to hit WoW back up and gave it a try.

And it worked!

Also, im kinda impressed with iZ3d - very nice little wizard pops up when you start a game that lets you adjust all kinds of settings to get the game looking right, which was pretty handy. After some tweaking (WoW was actually a bad test game to use a work-around 3d because there are a few things that are buggy - the names above people were a little tough to read, but that might have been the 3d glasses being the wrong color and WoW having native stereoscopic support).

So now the game is 3d. Few things to note - the colors were desaturated and complete shit. Which sucked. But.. the 3d REALLY looked impressive. Like.. really.. really impressive. Like.. i immediately wanted to go and throw down the money for a 120hz monitor and nVidia's proper 3d glasses. but i didnt. yet lol.

So next i tried Aion. off the bat, worked WAY better than WoW. which is odd cuz it doesnt boast any native 3d support. The text was crisp and clear and the depth in the game was perfect - much better than WoW actually.

So, i dunno - really hope for the future of 3d. I know a lot of people arent into it, think its a gimmick and all that stuff.. but really, i think its the next logical step in the progression of gaming immersion. Graphics can always get better, sound can always improve, but 3d actually changes the way you see a game.

Feel free to disagree.. but please dont until you've sat down at your pc with a either a $700 3d setup of monitor + nvidia glasses, or a shit pair of $1 ones and some tweaking like i have.

I'm gonna try and find some red/cyan glasses today hopefully and try it, it looks like iz3d has optimized settings for those glasses, whereas the green / magenta you have to put custom values in the config.

Anyone else given this a shot?

[Gorvi]

When we can all use it I think it'll be pretty cool. Sure, it won't be good for all games, but still.

[Widgetcraft]

I've done this a few times, mostly with stuff like Left 4 Dead. Also, many years ago (probably ten or so) I bought some shutter glasses, which allow a 3D effect without distorting the colors. It didn't work as well, though there was some effect. I'm gonna wait on using 3D regularly until the more contemporary stuff becomes common, like what Nvidia is pushing. I'm looking forward to it though.

[nixpayn]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

When we can all use it I think it'll be pretty cool. Sure, it won't be good for all games, but still.

Well.. thats the point, at least on pc, you can all use it now, with that driver i linked to - and pretty much any pair of glasses - with pretty much any game too.

[Gorvi]

Originally Posted by nixpayn

Well.. thats the point, at least on pc, you can all use it now, with that driver i linked to - and pretty much any pair of glasses - with pretty much any game too.

Well, yeah, but not having a PC that it'd be worth a damn to try it on, it doesn't apply to me quite yet.

[nixpayn]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

Well, yeah, but not having a PC that it'd be worth a damn to try it on, it doesn't apply to me quite yet.

oh.. well.. yes :P

I wonder what the PS3's "3d backwards compatibility to all games" this year is gonna require.

[Panthera]

Well, I misinterpreted the thread title. I'm still a 3d gaming skeptic. I miss sprites.

[nixpayn]

Originally Posted by Panthera

Well, I misinterpreted the thread title. I'm still a 3d gaming skeptic. I miss sprites.

paper mario with 3d depth would be amazing.

[J Arcane]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

When we can all use it I think it'll be pretty cool. Sure, it won't be good for all games, but still.

3d will never take off until it doesn't require extra expensive hardware and add on peripherals. When someone figures out how to do that screen from Paycheck, or justm akes a proper color holo display, we'll get 3d.

Until then, it'll remain a gimmick no one uses, and fade away into the background just like it's been doing in cycles for the past 60 years.

For one thing, some of us can't even use those glasses comfortably (I already have my own glasses to wear), others have difficulty or are completely incapable of seeing the effect generated by the bi-color glasses. It's just not there yet. When we get something that people like me can use unaided and still see objects in 3d, we'll have the amazing revolution everyone's claiming it is.

Until then it's just the latest iteration of a very old gimmick, arising in a time when film and games are hunting desperately for any new selling point they can get in a depression.

[nixpayn]

Originally Posted by J Arcane

For one thing, some of us can't even use those glasses comfortably (I already have my own glasses to wear), others have difficulty or are completely incapable of seeing the effect generated by the bi-color glasses.

You can get clip on ones, i saw em on a site the other day.

The only issue i have with the cheapo solution i came up with is the color saturation, everything else is fine.

If there was a work around to make the color better, i'd be happy with where it currently is.

[Gorvi]

I don't care if it's a gimmick or not, it's still one that I think would be cool to have. And if they can somehow make it compatible with all or most games (like the method Nix is describing), why not?

[hunterx280]

I think part of the problem with 3D is that so many people have different types of vision problems these days. It's hard to compensate for that in 3D glasses let alone most the tech they are trying to do without glasses. Personally, I have a very dominant left eye due to an astigmatism in my right so my stereoscopic vision is reduced (makes catching things a bit of a pain but I can still do it). 3D tech works all right for me but it's usually not enough for to plunk down $500-$1000 worth of hardware for subtle improvements. Considering how many people wear glasses and both eyes aren't 20/20 I think the tech will probably take quite a while to move away from wearing special glasses unless Hollywood, the game industry and the TV industry all start putting a TON of money into it AND cooperating on a very large and unheard of scale.

[nixpayn]

Originally Posted by hunterx280

Considering how many people wear glasses and both eyes aren't 20/20 I think the tech will probably take quite a while to move away from wearing special glasses unless Hollywood, the game industry and the TV industry all start putting a TON of money into it AND cooperating on a very large and unheard of scale.

Cooperation hits the nail on the head i think. Theres a on of new tech out there, lots of tvs that dont use glasses and do 3d. Personally, i prefer the glasses - and i wear glasses. I'd sooner don headgear than have a forced viewing angle.

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by J Arcane

3d will never take off until it doesn't require extra expensive hardware and add on peripherals. When someone figures out how to do that screen from Paycheck, or justm akes a proper color holo display, we'll get 3d.

Well, 120hz TVs will become more common over time, and that is the only expensive hardware that newer 3D tech requires, form what I understand. Then you'll just need a cheap pair of glasses and a platform that supports the tech, like the PS3 and 360. Also: The newer glasses for this tech aren't bi-colored, they're just transparent.

[biosc1]

Whenever I think of 3D and PC gaming, for some reason my mind keeps going back to Total Annihilation.

Strategy games would get a great depth of field...with planes flying over the battlefield, units working their way around tall structures...everthing just having a great "depth" to them.

I will admit, I'm a gadget whore...almost pulled the trigger on a package that the local store was offering (LCD + card + glasses), but just barely held off

[Laughing Penguin]

Back in the day, I had a Sega Master System and their 3D glasses (they were a shutter style), with about a half dozen supported games. The effect was actually REALLY good, even though it was being produced well over 20 years ago. I'd be really curious to see how modern tech can take what they were doing and clean it up even further. I may need to dig that out again when I get home...

[LongStepMantis]

Sounds awesome, good find!

Too bad 3d anything never works for me. I don't know if it's because of how wonky my fucking eyes are (I have the vision of an 80 year old man and suffer from optic migraines) but every place or time I've attempted to watch something in 3d, be it a game or a movie, in various theatres...nothing. I can't pick up the 3d part for some reason. I've tried every color and make of 3d glasses out there and they all work the same for me....complete shit.

Maybe when I eventually get Lasik I'll try again.

[Panthera]

You heard it here first: Nintendo's next handheld is a successor to the Virtual Boy.

[torrefaction]

I can't stand any 3D tech that is color-based, but the Real3D stuff is pretty cool.

[axion]

Would the glasses that came for Avatar 3D work with the nVidia or iz3d stuff?