ED - 3D Glasses? Any opinion on these??

[Qballbandit]

Read the review, or add I should say, in flightsim on the wireless 3D glasses. Was curious if anyone uses them, how they like them and all that good stuff. Also, what kind of connection is the module exactly??
3D would be a cool new toy for me if it really does look as good as I am dreaming it should....

Thanks!


Neil :7

[aigean]

i enjoy them a lot. they really do work pretty well. at first the effect is pretty stunning. very good for racing games like GTR.

assuming you have a CRT monitor and an nvidia card?

the connection dongle is just VGA, you plug it in between your monitor and computer, pretty easy.

[Qballbandit]

Hi Aaron,
Actually, I have an ATI 9600 pro, and a flat panel monitor (Viewsonic 19 inch) but the ad says "all pc's, all monitors, all cards" I thought :-hmmm
I am glad you think it's pretty cool! I'd like to hear some other opinions, as I am real close to breaking down and buying a pair :p

Take Care,

Neil :7


edit ** when it is plugged in, and you are not wearing the glasses,
does everything look normal on the CRT??? **

[jpy8]

[font color="130D67" size="2" face="comic sans MS"]Why did you have to post this!!:-roll I really want to save up for a camera and here you are sending me ff wanting to buy this:P!!

Oh well, I may buy them depending on how much money I get tipwise this christmas!!:-lol[/font]


[center][font color="blue" size="2" face="comic sans MS"][/font]
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...a60af54285.jpg
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Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.
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[Qballbandit]

Jonny :-lol

Well, it's all just because I accidentally opened up the add after signing on to flightsim today! I figured for a hundred bucks, if it is really cool, I won't regret it! :P
Good luck with those tips! If they're drinks - make 'em all doubles, then the money will flow easier!!! :-lol


Neil :7

[aigean]

i haven't heard reviews on the capabilities with LCD's, so i dont know what to tell you. the newest model is supposedly with LCD's, although previous verions were not.

understand that the 3d glasses, while i think highly effective, are not perfect. you get a little ghoasting and not every game is 100% compatible, although many work very well. i won't explain the details on these caveats becasue a simple google search should allow you to find plenty of information on them.

nvidia's graphics drivers have stereoscopic support, ati's do not. with an ati you need to use edimensional's 3d drivers. i have no idea how well they work.

search the forums and ask questions here: www.stereovision.net (note gigantic forum button in upper left corner).

if you are interested in immersion, another thing to consider is track IR. im seriously thinking about it. videos here: http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/video.html

[kilou]

First if you have an ATI card, beware! There seem to be a lot of people having trouble to get these 3D glasses work with ATI cards. Nvidia drivers contain the 3D drivers and ae optimized for this but ATI cards must use a third party driver to work and it seem that there are some problems.

Second, if you have a TFT screen I wouldn't be too enthusiastic about these 3D glasses. Although dimensional says that those will work with TFT screens too, I'm a bit skeptical for two reasons:

1) The refresh rate of a TFT screen is not high and always think that using these glasses will in any case divide by two the refresh rate seen by each eye. I have a CRT capable of 160Hz at 800x600 and this makes each eye having a refresh rate of 80Hz (absolutely no flicker at all but just to illustrate the situation).

2) The response time of a TFT may be another problem too. The problem is that to create the 3D effect, each lense of the glass must get black when the image of the opposite eye is shown and then get blank again to allow the eye to see its associated image. This has to be rendered pretty fast to avoid flickers. BUT even if your monitor is able of high refresh rate to perform this effect efficiently, I believe that TFT pixels will still have problem with their response time what will make that the left eye will still see some parts of the right eye image because pixels aren't sufficiently fast at getting dark. This is named "ghosting effect". It is not proper to TFT screens because even almost any monitor (CRT too) will have this ghosting effect (I have it too and it's a bit weird: sometimes it's not important but sometimes it's rather disturbing and tear your eyes).

3) Brightness of a TFT is usually lower than the one of a CRT and these glasses need quite some light because the alternating lenses make eveything look darker. You can correct this with a gamma key but this is rather limited in my opinion.

All in all I find that these 3D glasses are rather good and provide a sense of deepness but I wouldn't recommend them for ATI cards and/or TFT monitors (my own opinion). On the other hand, you may simply get a pair, try them and see if they suit you. In case of trouble or if you dislike them, I think you have 30 days money back by Edimensional.

Be also prepared to have a FPS drop as the card has to render two slightly offset images. Although I could see a FPS drop in some games, honestly I couldn't feel it with FS. For me the real problem with FS and other games too is the loss of brightness that gamma is not able to recover and that Nvidia drivers tweaking is also hard to get right.

In racing games such as GTR, they work well (especially to see the cockpit) but again the lack of brightness make things difficult to see sometimes and there you have that ghosting effects marked on the white lines delimitating the track. Everything seem a little blurry sometime (I run it in 800x600 to get the max refresh rate so as to minimize eye strain).

The best you have to do is to try yourself and ask Edimensional about their 30 days money back garantee. If you dislike them, return them or switch them for a TrackIR system ;)

PS: I have the wireless ones. Although this give more freedom, I would maybe recommend to get the wired one because the battery are wearing fast and my transmitter doesn't allow me to stand at more than 1 meter of it. Probably the wired one are better and they are also cheaper:)

[aigean]

kilou, the capability problems with LCD screens used to be a problem, but edimensional came out with glasses that work specifically with LCD screens about a months ago. i'm not sure how they get the technology to work of how well they work because i have not seen a review, but i just wanted to let you know.

[kilou]

Yes I know they work since recently because I bought mine when they were advertising they are compatible with LCDs. But they work "theoretically". Edimensional also state that their glasses work with ATI cards which is true in theory but not really in practice as far as I've heard.

For sure with the new glasses you should be able to get a 3D effect on a LCD but will it be worth the $$$? I suppose not yet. As an example, it is not sraighforward to have a satisfying 3D effect with these glasses even with a CRT because of the 2 main problems: flickering and ghosting effect. Flickering is mostly no more a problem since pretty any recent CRT monitor is able to manage a sufficiently high frame rate to avoid this. But ghosting is still present and the higher the refresh rate, the more ghosting!!! So there is a trade-off. This is for CRT but for LCD it's another problem. Up to now, shutter glasses couldn't work with LCD screens because the LCD lenses of the glasses (as the LCD screen) were polarized too. Edimensional found a "trick" to get this working together (I don't know how but probably with specifically designed lenses). But the problems of refresh rate and ghosting remain full in my opinion. Edimensional also say that a 100Hz CRT can be used for stereovision.....although this is true, you'll enjoy flickering as each eye will see 50Hz only! Well edimensional say their glasses work but they do not say how well they will work!

If owning a combo ATI card+LCD, I would really not enjoy this glasses too much at first. The best is to buy them and try them carefully during the 30 days money back warranty.

[Qballbandit]

Thanks, all of you!
Especially for pointing out the ATI issue..that alone just steered me clear, as it's taken me along time to find the "right" drivers, and really good frames with my system. Maybe in the future....a new video card is now the priority...and I'm looking at the 9800pro, so it may be awhile!!!


See ya,

Neil :7