One Sierra Hotel Accessory Every Flight Simmer Will Want For the Holidays: eDimensional's Wireless E-D Glasses

By Cap Mason (21 November 2002)
Flight Simulation Newsletter Editor, FlightSim.Com

he minute I put them on, my wife said, "You look like Buddy Holly meets the Jetsons!" She was referring, of course to these cool-looking 3D glasses from eDimensional. They may not be the latest in high fashion, but they did take me on an exciting visual ride through the simulated skies of Flight Simulator 2002 and Combat Flight Simulator 3.

I had seen the ads for 3D glasses on our site exclaiming,  "A must have! ... True 3D for your PC ... If flightsims give you goosebumps, this will give you cardiac arrest!" Frankly, after that last one, I wasn't sure I wanted to risk life and limb. But, my curiosity got the best of me, so I gave them a whirl. And, dear readers, was I ever glad I did! Without a doubt, 3D glasses are one Sierra Hotel accessory for flight simulation. Now that I've tried them, I use them all the time. I just hope the folks at eDimensional don't ever want their demo unit back because they'll have to pry it from my desperate grip with a crowbar.

The toughest part of this review is trying to describe something that I cannot show you in a 2D photo or screen shot. So, if you want to see for yourself, you'll just have to order a pair of glasses and count on eDimensional's money-back guarantee of your complete satisfaction. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The test set-up

I tested eDimensional's Wireless E-D Glasses using a Dell XPS 700-T, Pentium 3, 700 MHz, with 768 MB of RAM and a Viewsonic E90, 19-inch CRT color monitor running Windows 98se. I also ran them with an eVGA GeForce4 128MB Ti4200 video card and an even more powerful, Visiontek Xtasy GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 card. You certainly don't need that much video horsepower just to see 3D. In fact, the 3D drivers don't put any real strain on even a lowly GeForce 256 32MB video card. I needed the beefed-up video dynamo just to run CFS3 and to get decent frame rates from FS2002. I tested at 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024 screen resolutions. If you plan on trying 3D on your computer, make sure you use a CRT monitor. The glasses do not work with LCD flat panel displays.

Installation and software set-up was a breeze.

Hardware set-up is completely external. I love it when I don't have to open the PC case. The glasses come with a driver CD, a video dongle with an adapter to accommodate older video cards and a wireless transmitter. Start with your PC and monitor both powered down and unplugged from the power outlet. Always a wise precaution when plugging and unplugging cables from your PC. You simply unplug your monitor from your video card. Plug the dongle into your video card and plug the monitor cable into the dongle. Plug the wireless transmitter into the dongle and place the tiny infrared wireless transmitter on your monitor with the handy Velcro tab included in the package. Power back on and you're done.

Installing the drivers is also a snap. Just make certain that you turn off your antivirus software before installing and re-start it when you're done. The glasses support nVidia GeForce and a very long list of other video cards. The CD contains the latest stereo drivers for the video cards. After running the auto-installation from the CD, I went to the nVidia website and upgraded to the latest version of their Detonator 40 and Stereo 3D drivers. I skipped the nVidia Stereo test and just re-booted and started up. The glasses contain their own micro-battery power source and have a tiny "ON" switch inside the frame. I turned them on and everything worked perfectly. The image flickers a bit as the glasses and transmitter synch up. I also had to crank up the screen brightness quite a bit. The glasses cut about one F-stop off the light reaching your eyes. But if you encounter any problems, just call eDimensional for expert help. They're great and will quickly help you resolve any glitches you may run into.

Flying FS2002 with a 3-dimensional view

Once the drivers are installed, there is a setup program where you set the resolution and refresh rates you want as well as tweak some of the stereo effects settings. This is where you get your first peek at 3D. It's very cool to look at. The visual impact at first is startling. Objects definitely appear to be 3-dimensional. I think this is about the closest I've ever come to experiencing what Star Trek's holodeck must be like.

OK, I was totally amped and wanted to go flying! First test was with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. I fired up an Eastern Airlines Lockheed 1049 Super-G Constellation, launched from San Francisco International Airport and took a quick tour of the Bay Area. The Connie's long, sexy sleek lines were perfect for a 3D view. The panels looked like I could reach into the monitor and start flipping switches and moving the throttle levers by hand. The best was yet to come.

I lifted off the runway and turned toward Mount San Bruno. This was not a realistic flight, mind you, so buzzing The City was definitely on my flight plan. As I approached the mountain I got a dizzying sense of real flight. Better than anything I've ever experienced in either FS2002 or CFS3. Skimming over the mountain, I nosed over and headed downtown. Candlestick Park and the other ground scenery objects looked more realistic than they ever did on their best day in 2D. The real treat was threading the Connie between the Bank of America and Transamerica Pyramid skyscrapers. 3D effects make tall buildings look fabulous when you fly by at low altitude.

The effects looked best at low altitudes where you can see the terrain details up close. I quickly became accustomed to the new visual world I was seeing. Aircraft handling, using the radios and other instruments, plus the usual take-off and landing routines all went by smoothly. Only now they looked a whole lot better!

3D also looked marvelous in both virtual and normal cockpit views. The instruments were all readable. Tiny type did suffer some degradation, however. But, that hardly mattered to me. After all, these are visual special effects goggles and not reading glasses.

Speaking of glasses, I wear reading glasses when using a computer. The eDimensional 3D glasses fit right over them without any problems at all.

Blowing up stuff in 3D

Now this is where 3D glasses were sierra hotel. The 3D effects were good in CFS2 and absolutely mind-boggling in CFS3. That's because CFS3 already has awesome 3D graphics and sensational terrain and ground objects detail. Now I know why my pal Mad Max Merlin loves the combat flying so much.

The CFS3 cut screens started me off with a real treat. Seeing the planes and pilots displayed in all their 3-dimensional glory gave me just a tantalizing glimpse of the ride I was in for. I fired up the Spitfire, lifted off to look for bandits with a hankering to blow stuff up.

The glasses made the cockpit view look great. Panning around the outside views looked best when I could see my plane in relation to the rest of the aircraft in the formation. The feeling of depth enhanced the visuals by a factor of ten. When I rolled in on my ground targets, I found that my aiming of rockets and bombs was actually a lot better in 3D than in 2D. The clouds, explosions and smoke effects were voluminous and much more exciting in 3D even with the graphics sliders turned way down to setting 1 or 2.

According to Mad Max, the real test was how 3D influences air-to-air combat. "No time for eye-candy when you're getting jumped by four ME-109s and your wingman can't help you out," Max explained.

He suggested that I try deflection shooting during combat to see if the glasses might throw off my aim. The exact opposite was true. I had much better depth perception in 3D. I could lead the bandit more accurately and found I was doing less jinking to line him up for a deflection shot. I rolled in on the first bandit, lined him up and took him out with a deflection burst more smoothly with 3D than without it. The flight got even better when the furball closed in to short range. Rolling out of the attack and flying through smoke and debris in 3D was so  much fun that I just had to splash another bandit and do it again. Unfortunately, I became so enamored with the new view, that I got greased by bandit number four while gazing out the canopy marveling over this new 3-dimensional world I was in.

Where to buy them

You can get ED glasses in either wired or wireless versions directly from eDimensional. With sales operations in both the United States and the United Kingdom, they provide fast, economical delivery to buyers around the world.