quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
Has anybody here ever used them? Are they any good? Or do they just make you dizzy?

I was interested in seeing how good the effect was, so I forked out for a pair sometime after nVidia released the generic work-with-everything stereoscopic drivers.

The good:
+ 3D effect is pretty damn good, it looks like the image is actually ''inside'' your monitor up to about 2'' instead of a flat plane.
+ It can be subtle but its very helpful in judging depth in games. First time I tried them I got chains of monster kills in UT on CTF-face without breaking a sweat.
+ Lots of config options to get it working right with games.
+ Infrared so no wires actually connecting the glasses to the pc.

The bad:
- Needs a good refresh rate and fps since you''re only seeing half. 120hz is recommended but 100hz is smooth. This may mean your pc and/or monitor is only up to the job at low resolutions.
- For some reason it seems to interfer with ability to identify targets if only the colours are similar. I get whipped in Strikeforce if i use them since the only difference is dark-blue camo vs. dark-red camo.
- Bright objects cause ''ghosting'' where the image from one eye leaks though to the other.
- Some games don''t render right (HUDs and other 2d effects usually).
- Some people get motion sickness from them.
- Makes you look like a total dork.

If you can find a pair cheap, its worth looking into - just don''t expect anything revolutionary.

I used an old set called Simuleyes with a special version of Descent II. It was interesting for a while, but it soon felt like I was just looking through one of those clicker toy viewer thingies. And the robots didn''t seem properly sized. It didn''t feel scaled right.

So be sure you experiment with various zoom factors and eye placements to achieve the right sense of scale.

quote:Original post by LShad
Hello,

I have just made an option in my engine which enables "Real 3D", Im just rendering my scene once with RED only (using D3DRS_COLORWRITEENABLE), then I strafe the camera a bit (just test some small values), then I render with CYAN (RED + BLUE only).

I showed the result to many of my friends and they were all impressed... It works great if you have many objects on your scene.

The problem is that there are some "ghosts" (sort of technical term used in "stereographic science"), due to a high contrast between colors. Also it doesnt work well if your objects are ALL RED or ALL CYAN... But the result is still satisfying

The main problem is speed It dropped my FPS down a lot Rendering twice a large scene is REALLY bad

If you want any info, you can email me at ronsses@esiee.fr

Cheers,
Sébastien RONSSE.

Ever used the Build Engine?

I was on the Duke3D v2.0 team, and worked with the code in NWIV. All of the other build games had it in there such as Duke3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood, Redneck Rampage, Seven Samurai (or whatever it was released as) and about a dozen other build games.

Anyway, in Ken Silvermans engine (he wrote Build) it uses Red-Blue. It perfectly contrasts aslong as you have Red-Blue glasses (use selophane if you haven''t got any). Played many hours with it.

He also had support for stereoscopic glasses aswell. I never had any so I couldn''t use them though.

If you can focus your eyes beyond the screen, you can simply render two viewpoints side-by-side, each with the eyes at a slightly different horizontal position. If the windows are small enough, and you focus your eyes right, they appear as one 3D viewport. Not a replacement for glasses, obviously, but it works just for fooling around.

~CGameProgrammer( );

-- Post screenshots of your projects. 100+ posts already in the archives.