3D Vision Blog

The usage of Anaglyph method for viewing stereoscopic 3D is still by far the easiest way to get a glimpse of what is possible in the world of S3D and what you can expect from a better solution. Of course there are some issues associated with the anaglyph method like problems with color reproduction or you getting tired even after a little use of the red-cyan or other color filters. But still having in mind that you can try it without the need for special display, glasses or even software that you have to pay is just enough for a lot of people to want to try that first and then go with solutions like 3D Vision, iZ3D Monitors, Zalman Trimon and others that require a serious investment in hardware and not only for the 3D setup itself, but also for the PC that will be able to handle the 3D content good enough. So lets get to the point how you can test anaglyph stereo 3D gaming on your mobile computer in particular, but the same solutions will also work on a desktop PC…

If your laptop has an Nvidia-based GPU inside (GeForce 8xxx or later mobile graphics) you can go for the 3D Vision drivers and use their free anaglyph mode called 3D Vision Discover with any pair of plain red-cyan anaglyph glasses paper or plastic. Or it was working without problems for the 3D Vision Drivers up to version 190.38, as with the later 191.xx (if I remember correctly) up to the latest ones you will get the error above when trying to enable the Stereoscopic 3D mode from the control panel. It seems that when you run any newer 3D Vision drivers they try to find a compatible 120Hz LCD panel in your laptop and if they don’t you are out of luck and cannot even enable the 3D Vision Discover mode to try out the anaglyph mode. It is still weird why Nvidia did not do anything about his issue since it has been around for some time already, or maybe they are simply ignoring all the owners of gaming laptops since there is still no official 3D Vision support for mobile systems with external monitor (with shutter glasses and 120Hz LCD). If you are a lucky owner of Asus G51J 3D laptop – the only one so far with a 120Hz panel you are Ok and you probably should not have any problems running the 3D Vision Discover anaglyph mode too, but why would you do it on this laptop anyway? Still with a modified drivers and and external 120Hz LCD monitor you can run both anaglyph and shutter glasses mode with the 3D vision driver. At least running the anaglyph mode on your desktop PC does not bring any issues, but still if you don’t yet have the shutter glasses you cannot even try the anaglyph mode on your laptop, why?

Anyway, the good news is that there are alternatives for laptop owners that still want to try the free anaglyph mode and that is to use the iZ3D Driver that does support Anaglyph and a few other stereo 3d viewing methods apart for the specific mode used for their own stereoscopic 3D displays. Another good thing about the use of this driver is that it will work not only on Nvidia-based hardware (including pre-stream processors architecture GPUs), but also on ATI-based video cards. The only drawback here is that the iZ3D Driver still does not support DirectX 10 games, unlike the Nvidia solution, although the company seems to be working on adding it for some time now. So if you have a laptop and you want to try out stereoscopic 3D gaming on it with anaglyph mode you should definitely download and try the iZ3D Driver.

- To download the iZ3D Driver with free Stereoscopic 3D anaglyph mode…

I’ve finally managed to get a hold of a pair of 3D Vision Discover anaglyph glasses to do a quick test and of course to compare them with a normal pair of paper anaglyph glasses to see if there is any difference. According to Nvidia the 3D Vision Discover glasses are with optimized color filters which should generally improve what you see and minimize color ghosting, although even with normal glasses the result is very good.

Normally you can get the 3D Vision Discover glasses bundled with some games as a promotion, for instance World of Warcraft or Batman: Arkham Asylum, bundled with some new video cards and of course from different trade shows where Nvidia is participating. Unfortunately these are still not available everywhere, so you may have some hard time finding the glasses just to try them out… actually it might be even easier to try the 3D Vision shutter glasses easier that the anaglyph ones as was the case in my country, but anyway. If you can’t get a hold of 3D Vision Discover glasses, just try to get a pair of normal paper anaglyph ones… the results are pretty close.

What you can notice even before putting the glasses on is that they are a bit bigger than the normal anaglyph paper ones and this is realized with the idea to be more comfortable and suitable for different size and aspect of displays. The red and cyan color filters are quite bigger on the 3D Vision Discover and if you take a closer look you’ll be able to find a bit of difference in the tint of the cyan filter, which is actually a bit more bluish here. There is also a very slight difference in the red color filter, but it is much harder to distinguish with a naked eye compared to the normal white paper anaglyph glasses. How this affects things when using the 3D Vision Discover glasses compared to the plain normal ones is a different story, but you should know there is some difference…

If you try the two types of anaglyph glasses one after another quickly you’ll barely notice any difference or not notice anything at all. This is because generally both pairs of glasses do provide quite good results, especially considering they are free or very cheap to get and do not require too much from the user like in the case with the better shutter glasses alternative. You need to take a bit more attention adn then you’ll start to notice where the 3D Vision Discover glasses do provide better results as the difference is actually in the small details. Still these small details are the things that can improve significantly the experience you get form the 3D Vision Discover, so it is important to have an idea what to look for if you are really interested. In general what the 3D Vision Discover glasses do is to decrease the color ghosting you see trough the red and cyan filters or at least make it less apparent and annoying to the user. The color ghosting here refers to seeing some sort of red or bluish “shadow” or a “double image” of some objects. So with the 3D Vision Discover you see less color ghosting and if there is a place with some ghosting around a certain object the colors is less brighter and the ghosting is harder to notice… and easier to be ignored.

If you have already tried normal anaglyph glasses you should not expect that much of a difference if you obtain a pair of 3D Vision Discover and the issues caused by the anaglyph technology are still there. I mean that with every pair of anaglyph glasses you will kind of lose most of the color reproduction of the screen and the image you see with have some depth and pop-out effect, but it will seem almost as it is black and white. Still you’ll be able to perceive some colors, but not all of them and although you’ll be able to take advantage of the Stereoscopic 3D technology it is just something to try and then to get your interested in better solutions that of course have their price. You should also be aware of the fact that the anaglyph glasses do tire the eyes more and are not suitable to be work for hours non-stop without taking some break from time to time. And there is some after effect after you take them off, for a few minutes after that one of your eyes will be seeing in a bit colder tones and the other one in a bit warmer tones. So just try closing one of your eyes and then switching to the other to see this effect of the eye actually adapting to the color filter it has in front for some time. Of course after a few minutes without wearing the glasses everything is back to normal and you should not worry about some possible negative effects of that. Just don’t wear the glasses for too long, especially if it is your first time, because this is tiring for the eyes and the brain. After all this is a kind of new sensation that your body has not experienced so far so you need some time to get used to it and then you should be able to get even better results.

Don’t forget that anaglyph technology and the free 3D Vision Discover mode in Nvidia’s driver do not requite special hardware like a 120Hz monitor so you can pretty much try them on your current gaming PC or even laptop. The only requirement would be to have an up to date video card that is Nvidia based and for good enough performance it is best to have a VGA that can provide higher framerates. So still it is good to have a middle or high-end class video card for playing comfortably in more heavy on hardware requirements games…

- Here is how you can use the free 3D Vision Discover mode on Nvidia-based VGA…

Finally Nvidia has raised the curtain and the 3D Vision Discover anaglyph glasses are a “secret” no more as you can see on the picture above of the real thing. They do not seem much different than normal paper anaglyph glasses, although the color filters do seem to be quite bigger, which should be a nice thing. Also maybe there is some improvement in the two color filters for better results or at least Nvidia states so, but still somebody has to confirm this by comparing both type of glasses. Also there is a page with more information on how, when and where you can get a pair of the 3D Vision Discover Glasses that you can use to experience games in Stereo 3D without having to invest too much into hardware. In general there are two way you can get the anaglyph glasses: either bundled with NVIDIA GeForce GPUs from participating etailers and authorized board partners or from upcoming trade shows and events where Nvidia will be present and handing out the glasses (only in the States so far). All that you need to try 3D Vision Discover in anaglyph stereo 3d is an Nvidia-based video card (GeForce 8 or later), 3D Vision drivers and of course the 3D Vision Discover glasses. This will give you a good idea of what you can expect from the much better 3D Vision shutter glasses that do require a big investment in specialized shutter glasses and display or projector that is 3D Ready. Of course anaglyph is still nice, but you don’t get good results in color reproduction and this is something that messes quite a lot with the actual fun you get playing in Stereo 3D mode…

- To learn where and how you can get a pair of 3D Vision Discover glasses…