Got my stuff earlier this week and thought I would write my impressions.
So excited!
Black with green elements throughout..
Portioned packings.
One holds manual/CD/pouch/cables and other holds glasses/nose pieces/monolith IR emitter
The rubber foam box holding the glasses is elegant with a magnet shutting it close.
Setup is straight forward as you just go through a one minute Nvidia Wizard tool.
The 3D stereoscopic effect is identical to what I have seen in cinema (Alien vs Monsters 3D, Dolby 3D glasses). At the end of the setup you get to see a handful of game screens showing you what's in store and that's when it hits you how good it's going to be.
Regarding the hardware: The glasses look good and sturdy. My glass-wearing friends didn't have a problem with them at all and said they shelled their glasses like a glove. You will notice that your vision darkens a bit (much like sunglasses I guess) when wearing this as it's a side effect of the technology (just brighten/contrast up your game in response).
World of Warcraft:
Decided that my first game would be a Blizzard title. They're listed by Nvidia as one of the main collaborators (as recently as their 3D vision presentation at Siggraph) and the game is usually listed as one of the top if not the very best stereoscopic 3D game. When you launch it (with stereo 3D enabled) you will notice in game that a new graphics section for Stereoscopic 3D have appeared ('Stereo').
There you can adjust depth amount (how long a fps rifle looks for example) to screen depth (how far the 3D should count. For example, a mountain is 2D in human eyes but the neighbor house is viewed stereoscopically. Screen depth determines how far the 3D stereoscopic area should go, how spread our eyes, before the background turns 2D).
The last option is hardware cursor which is pretty nice (and the only game I've seen it in so far) as it gives the mouse pointer a 3D depth. With it ticked on it's in the front like the rest of the interface. This makes it harder to point and click at enemies that may be far back (aim at distant objects with your finger, same thing). Tick hardware cursor off and the mouse gets 3D depth presence which means that the cursor looks as far away as whatever it's pointing at. This makes it as easy to point at something as in normal 2D gameplay (note: the size of the cursor never changes, it's the separation of the left/right image version of it that changes making it feel like it goes further away or closer).
Another Blizzard exclusive (until Resident Evil 5 launches) is out of screen effects. Unlike inwards depth (which no one has to program for as the Nvidia drivers handles automatically for you) out of screen effects have to be designed that way (I think this has to do with the image/object meant for the right eye having to be on the left of the left eye image while inwards depth just has right image/object for right eye). When something comes really close to the camera it seems to come out between you and the screen. I had a night-elf look around my room. At one point I held out my hand and from the camp-fire I covered I had glowing embers flying out from between my fingers. Looked downright amazing.
I give World of Warcraft 4 out of 4 Dimensions.
Crysis (original):
I don't recommend playing this in stereo 3D. It's listed as Good by Nvidia (which makes me wonder) but it has a pretty significant problem which lies in sprites. Muzzle fire from your gun looks like it's closer to you than the actual weapon which is all wrong. When you fight the aliens the heat (cold?) waves looks like they're right in front of you while the creature is 30meters away. It looks like Crysis renders sprite effects on a really close layer which doesn't work in 3D. One effect that look great is the frost effect which covers your visor (having the sprites rendered close obviously doesn't affect this one effect) which highlighted the distance between you and your weapon. The aliens up close can be pretty cool with their tentacles wrapping around the screen frame. The plenty sprite effects totally hamper the game in the end though.
1 out of 4 Dimensions.
Resident Evil 5 (dx10 benchmark):
This game has really great inwards depth separation. Every person and every object has a really nice pop to them. Things like in the intro screen when Chris and sidekick look out the window at an execution you notice stuff like the glass texture in front of them and how good it looks. A minor negative for me is how the game doesn't have any proper physics which gives combat often a slight arcade look (enemies dying in the same repeating ways..etc) but that's irrelevant to the 3D. The game looks crisp and runs really smooth. An interesting thing to note is that the full game will have out-of-screen 3D effects (the first game to do so since WoW) but sadly the benchmark area don't contain these (it has been said that bosses and some other situations/weapons have them). Resident Evil 5 looks really great in 3D and with future promises of out-of-screen stuff I wouldn't be surprised if this became the Nvidia 3D Vision demo of choice for many.
4 out of 4 Dimensions.
Batman Arkham Asylum (demo):
This game is all Nvidia with PhysX and Geforce 3D Vision Ready supposedly going to be stamped on it. The 3D effect is good but never more than good. The environments themselves don't take much use of the effect as they are mostly boxy but all in all it's a 3D game (demo) that's clean, without any problems and with good inwards depth.
3 out of 4 Dimensions.
Left4Dead:
Like Batman this one is very clean. Left4Dead doesn't take much to run so when you render in Stereo (which usually divides your real framerate performance by 2) you're still able to keep this one running very smoothly (TTP: I guess Standardized 60fps in 2D could be getting closer if stereoscopic catches on..). The gun models and such aren't the most detailed but what I really liked was the gun smoke as it truly curls around the air. Looked superb, same with the smoke rising from the army veterans cigar. Another thing I liked is how the bullets seem to trail with great velocity inwards in the screen. Transparent hud also looks good. Game gave my buddy quite a few scares with a 3D Hunter leaping towards the screen. Good all rounder and good inwards depth.
3.5 out of 4 Dimensions.
Far Cry 2:
This game absolutely rocks in 3D. It looked great initially but I got a bit of eyestrain but I noticed I had forgotten to turn on 120hertz mode inside the game (*always* remember to do this in all games) and things became totally smooth and pleasant again.
Sidenote: When booting up any game you will automatically get a Nvidia message post on top of the game with detailed info of how the game is rated for 3D vision and which effects you need to adjust for best Stereo effect. The info is usually a paragraph long and should come up for over 300 games (and increasing). Really great and helpful effort by Nvidia here, thumbs up. You hide/show the message by pressing ctrl+alt+insert.
What you will notice first and foremost in Far Cry 2 is the weapons. ohmygawd! Probably the best looking weapons in gaming just thanks to Stereo. Normally in 2D the guns in this game would rate good to great but when you see the backend shaft of a Uzi close to your 'shoulder' while the real gun rattles as mad further ahead.. so great. The AG3 has a bolt that goes back and forth with each shot, small things like that really popping out. The sniper rifle bolt animation, the depth of the scope, smoke trails from the bazooka...etc. Awesome weapons and makes you wonder if the guns in KZ2 would look photorealistic if rendered in Stereo.
FarCry 2 also comes abundant with grass and jungles. Fat pregnant leaves, wines everywhere and sunlight creeping through. Looks really great in 3D. While World of Warcraft seems more tailored to Stereo 3D with out of screen effects (the only released game with that effect so far) and whatnot I'm deeming Far Cry 2 my number one demo game. It looks really good and imo it's the best looking game on the PC right now if you play with Stereo.
4 out of 4 Dimensions
Stereoscopic Videos:
Got a couple of videos from Nvidia's own site.
Knights Quest is a cg short which takes excellent use of 3D. In the beginning you see a scroll unfold with some text and it's placed outside the screen, I was grabbing the air but there was nothing to touch. The main part has a couple of knights and you get a sword tip waved in your face (jett would hate this), lines of rope shot from your viewpoint into the screen and a monster drooling out of the monitor.
The second video was called Oldtimers and it's real footage in 1440 x 1080p. It starts off showing an old steam train and later on an old steam based bike driving in a market center. A relative of mine was awing and said it was like standing in the crowd. I felt that the characters really popped out, maybe so noticeably that it almost felt like the background was a green screen effect, looked really sharp. Really looking forward to the day the Blu-ray sterescopic 3D standard is unveiled. In the mean time I'm praying for an Avatar trailer in 3D.
Final words: Nvidia 3D Vision is hitting all the right marks in bringing 3D to the home in a quality way and they've done so earlier than I expected (personally I didn't even know about this before I read Templar Wizards thread just last month, I can't even remember the last time hardware snuck up on me). The glasses are all comfort (even for people who have to wear glasses underneath I was told) and don't look like your traditional 3D glasses (though I guess some folks will still think it's too cool to be wearing sunglasses inside) and the packaging classy. With TRUE 120hertz screens (the ones that accept 120hz input and not just output) starting to release (I'm guessing the numbers will explode next year) the potential for 3D gaming should start to open up. No need to wait though, 300+ modern pc games already support this thanks to Nvidia's drivers automatically taking care of the job, their per-game info tidbit at game bootup is really helpful and a great effort. While ten years in the future we might get proper auto-stereoscopic screens the way to do it now is via glasses and I think Nvidia hit the nail on the head in terms of design and practicality. I would be surprised if this didn't end up collecting a bunch of gaming hardware awards at the end of the year, I believe it's a pretty significant step and up there with motion controls and whatnot. Hopefully the console platform holders jumps on this when they get a chance and maybe combine it with some form of head tracking. Anyways, sorry for the excitement.
So excited!
Black with green elements throughout..
Portioned packings.
One holds manual/CD/pouch/cables and other holds glasses/nose pieces/monolith IR emitter
The rubber foam box holding the glasses is elegant with a magnet shutting it close.
Setup is straight forward as you just go through a one minute Nvidia Wizard tool.
The 3D stereoscopic effect is identical to what I have seen in cinema (Alien vs Monsters 3D, Dolby 3D glasses). At the end of the setup you get to see a handful of game screens showing you what's in store and that's when it hits you how good it's going to be.
Regarding the hardware: The glasses look good and sturdy. My glass-wearing friends didn't have a problem with them at all and said they shelled their glasses like a glove. You will notice that your vision darkens a bit (much like sunglasses I guess) when wearing this as it's a side effect of the technology (just brighten/contrast up your game in response).
World of Warcraft:
Decided that my first game would be a Blizzard title. They're listed by Nvidia as one of the main collaborators (as recently as their 3D vision presentation at Siggraph) and the game is usually listed as one of the top if not the very best stereoscopic 3D game. When you launch it (with stereo 3D enabled) you will notice in game that a new graphics section for Stereoscopic 3D have appeared ('Stereo').
There you can adjust depth amount (how long a fps rifle looks for example) to screen depth (how far the 3D should count. For example, a mountain is 2D in human eyes but the neighbor house is viewed stereoscopically. Screen depth determines how far the 3D stereoscopic area should go, how spread our eyes, before the background turns 2D).
The last option is hardware cursor which is pretty nice (and the only game I've seen it in so far) as it gives the mouse pointer a 3D depth. With it ticked on it's in the front like the rest of the interface. This makes it harder to point and click at enemies that may be far back (aim at distant objects with your finger, same thing). Tick hardware cursor off and the mouse gets 3D depth presence which means that the cursor looks as far away as whatever it's pointing at. This makes it as easy to point at something as in normal 2D gameplay (note: the size of the cursor never changes, it's the separation of the left/right image version of it that changes making it feel like it goes further away or closer).
Another Blizzard exclusive (until Resident Evil 5 launches) is out of screen effects. Unlike inwards depth (which no one has to program for as the Nvidia drivers handles automatically for you) out of screen effects have to be designed that way (I think this has to do with the image/object meant for the right eye having to be on the left of the left eye image while inwards depth just has right image/object for right eye). When something comes really close to the camera it seems to come out between you and the screen. I had a night-elf look around my room. At one point I held out my hand and from the camp-fire I covered I had glowing embers flying out from between my fingers. Looked downright amazing.
I give World of Warcraft 4 out of 4 Dimensions.
Crysis (original):
I don't recommend playing this in stereo 3D. It's listed as Good by Nvidia (which makes me wonder) but it has a pretty significant problem which lies in sprites. Muzzle fire from your gun looks like it's closer to you than the actual weapon which is all wrong. When you fight the aliens the heat (cold?) waves looks like they're right in front of you while the creature is 30meters away. It looks like Crysis renders sprite effects on a really close layer which doesn't work in 3D. One effect that look great is the frost effect which covers your visor (having the sprites rendered close obviously doesn't affect this one effect) which highlighted the distance between you and your weapon. The aliens up close can be pretty cool with their tentacles wrapping around the screen frame. The plenty sprite effects totally hamper the game in the end though.
1 out of 4 Dimensions.
Resident Evil 5 (dx10 benchmark):
This game has really great inwards depth separation. Every person and every object has a really nice pop to them. Things like in the intro screen when Chris and sidekick look out the window at an execution you notice stuff like the glass texture in front of them and how good it looks. A minor negative for me is how the game doesn't have any proper physics which gives combat often a slight arcade look (enemies dying in the same repeating ways..etc) but that's irrelevant to the 3D. The game looks crisp and runs really smooth. An interesting thing to note is that the full game will have out-of-screen 3D effects (the first game to do so since WoW) but sadly the benchmark area don't contain these (it has been said that bosses and some other situations/weapons have them). Resident Evil 5 looks really great in 3D and with future promises of out-of-screen stuff I wouldn't be surprised if this became the Nvidia 3D Vision demo of choice for many.
4 out of 4 Dimensions.
Batman Arkham Asylum (demo):
This game is all Nvidia with PhysX and Geforce 3D Vision Ready supposedly going to be stamped on it. The 3D effect is good but never more than good. The environments themselves don't take much use of the effect as they are mostly boxy but all in all it's a 3D game (demo) that's clean, without any problems and with good inwards depth.
3 out of 4 Dimensions.
Left4Dead:
Like Batman this one is very clean. Left4Dead doesn't take much to run so when you render in Stereo (which usually divides your real framerate performance by 2) you're still able to keep this one running very smoothly (TTP: I guess Standardized 60fps in 2D could be getting closer if stereoscopic catches on..). The gun models and such aren't the most detailed but what I really liked was the gun smoke as it truly curls around the air. Looked superb, same with the smoke rising from the army veterans cigar. Another thing I liked is how the bullets seem to trail with great velocity inwards in the screen. Transparent hud also looks good. Game gave my buddy quite a few scares with a 3D Hunter leaping towards the screen. Good all rounder and good inwards depth.
3.5 out of 4 Dimensions.
Far Cry 2:
This game absolutely rocks in 3D. It looked great initially but I got a bit of eyestrain but I noticed I had forgotten to turn on 120hertz mode inside the game (*always* remember to do this in all games) and things became totally smooth and pleasant again.
Sidenote: When booting up any game you will automatically get a Nvidia message post on top of the game with detailed info of how the game is rated for 3D vision and which effects you need to adjust for best Stereo effect. The info is usually a paragraph long and should come up for over 300 games (and increasing). Really great and helpful effort by Nvidia here, thumbs up. You hide/show the message by pressing ctrl+alt+insert.
What you will notice first and foremost in Far Cry 2 is the weapons. ohmygawd! Probably the best looking weapons in gaming just thanks to Stereo. Normally in 2D the guns in this game would rate good to great but when you see the backend shaft of a Uzi close to your 'shoulder' while the real gun rattles as mad further ahead.. so great. The AG3 has a bolt that goes back and forth with each shot, small things like that really popping out. The sniper rifle bolt animation, the depth of the scope, smoke trails from the bazooka...etc. Awesome weapons and makes you wonder if the guns in KZ2 would look photorealistic if rendered in Stereo.
FarCry 2 also comes abundant with grass and jungles. Fat pregnant leaves, wines everywhere and sunlight creeping through. Looks really great in 3D. While World of Warcraft seems more tailored to Stereo 3D with out of screen effects (the only released game with that effect so far) and whatnot I'm deeming Far Cry 2 my number one demo game. It looks really good and imo it's the best looking game on the PC right now if you play with Stereo.
4 out of 4 Dimensions
Stereoscopic Videos:
Got a couple of videos from Nvidia's own site.
Knights Quest is a cg short which takes excellent use of 3D. In the beginning you see a scroll unfold with some text and it's placed outside the screen, I was grabbing the air but there was nothing to touch. The main part has a couple of knights and you get a sword tip waved in your face (jett would hate this), lines of rope shot from your viewpoint into the screen and a monster drooling out of the monitor.
The second video was called Oldtimers and it's real footage in 1440 x 1080p. It starts off showing an old steam train and later on an old steam based bike driving in a market center. A relative of mine was awing and said it was like standing in the crowd. I felt that the characters really popped out, maybe so noticeably that it almost felt like the background was a green screen effect, looked really sharp. Really looking forward to the day the Blu-ray sterescopic 3D standard is unveiled. In the mean time I'm praying for an Avatar trailer in 3D.
Final words: Nvidia 3D Vision is hitting all the right marks in bringing 3D to the home in a quality way and they've done so earlier than I expected (personally I didn't even know about this before I read Templar Wizards thread just last month, I can't even remember the last time hardware snuck up on me). The glasses are all comfort (even for people who have to wear glasses underneath I was told) and don't look like your traditional 3D glasses (though I guess some folks will still think it's too cool to be wearing sunglasses inside) and the packaging classy. With TRUE 120hertz screens (the ones that accept 120hz input and not just output) starting to release (I'm guessing the numbers will explode next year) the potential for 3D gaming should start to open up. No need to wait though, 300+ modern pc games already support this thanks to Nvidia's drivers automatically taking care of the job, their per-game info tidbit at game bootup is really helpful and a great effort. While ten years in the future we might get proper auto-stereoscopic screens the way to do it now is via glasses and I think Nvidia hit the nail on the head in terms of design and practicality. I would be surprised if this didn't end up collecting a bunch of gaming hardware awards at the end of the year, I believe it's a pretty significant step and up there with motion controls and whatnot. Hopefully the console platform holders jumps on this when they get a chance and maybe combine it with some form of head tracking. Anyways, sorry for the excitement.
