3D Vision Blog

New Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL Drivers Are Now Available

Bloody — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:14 +0000

Nvidia has made available for download the first WHQL-certified unified driver from the R300 family of drivers, namely the version 301.42. The new WHQL driver builds on top of the already introduced new features in the previous 301.24 Beta release, bringing fixed bugs, improved functionality, 4-way GTX 670 SLI support etc as well as new 3DTV Play display support.

New 3DTV Play support for the following displays:

- Mitsubishi HC7800D Projector
- Samsung UE40ES6530 3DTV
- Samsung UE40ES6710 3DTV
- Samsung UE46ES8000 3DTV
- Samsung UN40ES6500F 3DTV
- Sharp LC-70C7450U 3DTV

New and Updated 3D Vision Profiles:

- Adam’s Venture Episode 1 – Rated Poor
- All Zombies Must Die! – Rated Fair
- Blacklight: Retribution – Rated Poor
- Depth Hunter – Updated profile
- Dirt: Showdown – Rated Good
- Ghosts ‘n Goblins Online – Rated Good
- Krater – Rated Poor
- Oil Rush – Rated 3D Vision Ready
- Passion Leads Army Benchmark – Rated 3D Vision Ready
- Postal III – Rated Good
- Rayman Origins – Rated Good
- Resident Evil: Operating Raccoon City – Rated Fair
- rFactor 2 – Changed rating to 3D Vision Ready
- SevenCore – Rated Fair
- Stacking – Rated Good
- The Darkness II – Updated in-game recommended settings
- Trackmania 2: Canyon – Rated Fair
- Unigine 3.0 Heaven Benchmark – Updated profile
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark v3.0 – Rated 3D Vision Ready
- Wargame: European Escalation – Rated Good
- Warp – Rated Good
- Wings of Prey – Rated Fair
- World of Tanks – Changed rating to Excellent

Have in mind that some of these profiles have already been introduced in the previous beta version of the drivers. If you are an avid World of Tanks games now you might want to check out the game with 3D Vision as it should be quite good. The game rFactor 2 (still in development) should be 3D Vision ready when it is released.

- More on what is new and improved in the Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL Drivers…

DDD TriDef 3D Ignition 3.5.18 Beta 4 Software Now Available

Bloody — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:38:11 +0000

DDD has just released a new beta version of their TriDef 3D Ignition software for playing games in stereoscopic 3D mode (it is just the Ignition software, not the whole TriDef 3D package) and it is something that you might want to try out, especially if you play Battlefield 3 in stereo 3D. TriDef 3D Ignition 3.5.18 Beta 4 provides a better stereoscopic 3D profile for Battlefield 3, it also adds profile for the recently released Diablo 3 and fixes some other things.

TriDef 3D Ignition 3.5.18 Beta 4 changelog:

- Added new game profiles for Diablo 3 and other games.
- Improved performance of Power 3D in DX10/11.
- Fixed a few visual bugs in Battlefield 3 and Batman Arkham CIty.
- Fixed a game launch issue in Windows 8.
- Added a search box in the Add Game dialog.

According to a just published stereoscopic 3D review of Battlefield 3 over at MTBS3D, the profile for Battlefield 3 in the latest beta of Ignition makes the stereoscopic 3D experience while playing the game with DDD TeiDef 3D Ignition better looking than using the game’s native stereo 3D rendering on AMD HD3D and Nvidia 3D Vision. With the best part being the lack of “flatness” when you are in a vehicle or in the cutscenes, something that is happening when using the native stereo 3D rendering from the game. And although this might’ve been something made intentionally by the game developers, most stereoscopic 3D gamers usually prefer to have more depth than to have things appearing “flat”. Another thing that apparently works quite well with the game is the Shift One Eye, Dominant Eye feature also recently introduced by DDD. If you try the new beta software with Battlefield 3 feel free to share your feedback below and the same goes if you are already playing Diablo 3 and want to test it with the new profile added in TriDef 3D Ignition 3.5.18 Beta 4. And just a reminder, this is a beta software, so there could be some issues.

- To Download and try the new TriDef 3D Ignition 3.5.18 Beta 4 software…

Blu-ray 3D Movie Playback With PC on a 3D HDTV Using HDMI 1.4

Bloody — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:21:01 +0000

Following up on the story about the Roxio Cineplayer BD With 3D not being available anymore and the fact that there remain only three software Blu-ray 3D-capable players I’ve decided to check the current situation with them as well. I often get questions if somebody would be able to watch 3D movies on his old PC or laptop on a new 3D HDTV, something that seems easy at first, but things may get problematic depending on what is the video card in the system. The problem is that not all software Blu-ray 3D players support every popular 3D output mode and not output modes are available for all output formats.

Below you can find the requirements for playback of 3D videos on HDMI 1.4 3D HDTVs with the different solutions for playing back Blu-ray 3D movies, these are as per the website of the software developers requirements and specifications published on their websites… and they are not that clear.

Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 5
- NVIDIA GeForce 200/100 Series (Mobile/Desktop) or newer
- AMD (ATI) HD 5000 series or newer
- Intel G45(?) or newer

Corel WinDVD 11 Pro
- NVIDIA GeForce 500/400/300/200/100/9 series/8 series or newer
- AMD Radeon HD 6000 series or newer
- Intel H5x series or newer

Cyberlink PowerDVD 12 Pro/Ultra
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or newer
- AMD Radeon HD 6800 series or newer
- 2nd generation Intel Core processors with Integrated Graphics

So if you have a system with these specifications as a minimum (the specific GPU depending on the manufacturer), in theory you should not have trouble playing Blu-ray 3D movies on a 3D-capable HDTV using HDMI 1.4 frame packaging. These software solutions of course also support Nvidia 3D Vision, 3D DLP Checkerboard and Row Interleaved (passive 3D), Anaglyph and maybe a few extra ones and with them things are generally easier to setup and they simply work. The real problem is making things work using HDMI 1.4 frame packaging and it might turn to be more problematic, in my experience, to make an integrated Intel GPU work, so as a good advice I’d recommend to download the trial version of the three software Blu-ray 3D players mentioned above and try them all on your PC before deciding which one you should buy. This can save you a lot of trouble in actually making thing work as you want them to and not having to rely only on some requirements listed by the software developer as practice tends to show that these not always turn out to be true or things simply don’t work as you expect them to. Also, another good advice is to always use the latest official video drivers and to have all the updates for the player software as these do help in resolving some issues, although in some rare occasions they also might break compatibility.

Don’t Miss Meant to be Seen’s Birthday Bonanza Contest

Bloody — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:18:17 +0000

If you still haven’t entered in Meant to be Seen’s Birthday Bonanza Contest for the website’s 5th birthday, don’t miss your chance as to do so and maybe ween some cool 3D prizes. The contests was supposed to end today, but it has been extended by a week and the end date is Monday, May 21st, so do take a look at the website for more information if you still haven’t done so.

- Here you can find more information about the contest being organized by MTBS…

GoPro 3D HERO System: Mounting Tips Official GoPro Video

Bloody — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:08:02 +0000

GoPro has released an official video showing some mounting tips for their GoPro HERO 3D accessory for using two GoPro HD HERO or HD HERO 2 action cameras for capturing footage in 3D. They recommend using dual mounts for attaching the 3D HERO in high vibration activity in order to reduce the negative impact on the recorded video. You can watch the short clip embedded above to see the mounting tips and it would’ve been nice if they also included some real world mounting examples showing the different mounts.

- For more information about the GoPro 3D HERO System for shooting in stereo 3D…

What Has Happened with Roxio’s Cineplayer BD With 3D Software

Bloody — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:40:16 +0000

There have been only four software Blu-ray 3D players for PC available allowing you to play Blu-ray 3D movies on your computer running Windows operating system – Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre, Corel WinDVD, Cyberlink PowerDVD and Roxio CinePlayer BD. But now it seems that Roxio CinePlayer BD with 3D is gone for good and it has been “replaced” with Roxio CinePlayer with 3D as if the Blu-ray 3D-capable software never existed. If you are wondering what is the reason for that, well it is most likely due to the fact that Corel bought the Roxio product line earlier this year and they have probably decided to kill the Roxio CinePlayer with 3D software in favor of their Corel WinDVD Pro 11 solution that plays back Blu-ray 3D movies…

So a the moment you only get to choose between three different software solutions if you want to be able to play back Blu-ray 3D movies on your computer and these are: Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 5, Corel WinDVD 11 Pro or Cyberlink PowerDVD 12 Pro/Ultra. If I have to rate those three personally I’d go first with Cyberlink PowerDVD 12, then Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 and the third one would be Corel WinDVD 11 Pro. Which one of these are you using and is there someone still with Roxio CinePlayer BD with 3D that is not very happy with Corel practically getting rid of that product after acquiring the Roxio product line?

New GPU from Nvidia Announced Today, the GeForce GTX 670

Bloody — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:23:50 +0000

After the announcement of the top models from the new Kepler architecture – GeForce GTX 680 and GTX 690, Nvidia has just announced another a bit more affordable, but still high-end GPU in terms of features and performance. Today comes the announcement of the new GeForce GTX 670, definitely an interesting product coming with a $100 USD lower recommended end user price and a just slightly slower than GTX 680. The new GeForce GTX 670 should still be a bit faster, in terms of performance, as compared to a GeForce GTX 580 – the previous generation’s top model single GPU graphics card, as well as being with lower power consumption and thus producing less heat and noise. At $399 USD the GeForce GTX 670 should be very attractive alternative to the $499 USD price of the GeForce GTX 680, and with a performance difference of up to just about 20% between the two. Not to mention that overclocking the GeForce GTX 670 you should be able to achieve similar performance to that of a stock GTX 680 and even surpass it with a bit, so definitely a good deal. Now, what we only need is Nvidia to actually provide enough GPUs on the market, so that there won’t be shortages like with the GTX 680 that will also push the price of the GTX 670 higher than the recommended one…

Specifications of GeForce GTX 670:

Graphics Card – GeForce GTX 670 2GB
CUDA Cores – 1344 ⁺⁸⁶⁴
Texture Units (TMU) – 112 ⁺⁵²
Raster Operator Units (ROP) – 32 ^-8
Graphics Clock (Base) – 915 MHz ⁺¹⁸³
Graphics Clock (Boost) – 950 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (Bilinear) – 102.5 billion/sec ^+58.6
Standard Memory Configuration – 2048 MB GDDR5 ⁺⁷⁶⁸
Memory Interface Width – 256-bit ^-64
Memory Clock – 3004 MHz (6008 effective) ^{+1104 (2208)}
Memory Bandwidth – 192.2 GB/sec ^+40.2
Fabrication Process – 28 nm ^-12
Transistor Count – 3.54 Billion ^+0.54
Connectors – Dual-Link DVI-I, Dual-Link DVI-D, HDMI 1.4 High Speed, DisplayPort 1.2
Form Factor – Dual Slot
Power Connectors – 2x 6-pin PEG
Power Consumption – 170W TDP ^-49
GPU Thermal Threshold – 97 degrees Celsius
Bus Interface – PCI Express 3.0

* The numbers in red and green represent the upgrade or downgrade of the specific parameter in the GTX 670 as compared to the GTX 570!

The GeForce GTX 670 based on the same GK104 GPU that is being used in the GTX 680 with the difference being that the GTX 670 has one SMX block disabled. This means a bit less CUDA cores, fewer texture units, and a GPU clock frequency a bit lower in the GTX 670, although the memory clock frequency and amount available remain identical. This results in 25W of power consumption less in the GTX 670 (under maximum load), while at the same time the performance does not suffer a lot and can be compensated with a bit of overclocking as the new GPU should also be very capable in terms of overclock like the GTX 680. And just like its bigger brother, the new GeForce GTX 670 cards do come will all the new features introduced with the GTX 680 such as GPU Boost, Adaptive Vertical Sync, FXAA and TXAA, Single card driving up to four monitors and capable of running 3D Vision Surround setup and so on. And although a single GeForce GTX 670 supports 3D Vision Surround I’d still recommend to go at least for two such cards if you plan on building a three 3D-capable display gaming setup in order to be able to play comfortable even in more demanding games with high details.

If you plan on playing games in stereoscopic 3D mode with a single card on a single 3D monitor, then the GeForce GTX 670 should be more than enough for most people, performance wise, and although a GTX 680 could be slightly better, you should be Ok even with a GTX 670. But the real question is if you should upgrade your old GPU to a GTX 670 and the answer is it depends. If you have a GTX 570 or GTX 580 already an upgrade to GTX 670 would not bring that much of an improvement, sure you will get some extra performance combined with lower power consumption, but the difference probably won’t be that high and you might get up a bit disappointed in the end. If you have a GTX 470 or GTX 480, going for a GeForce GTX 670 video card would definitely help more, and I’m not talking only about performance improvement, but the more important advantage would be in the fact that you’ll be getting a much cooler and more silent operating video card. Upgrading from a GTX 460 or a GTX 560 / 560 Ti would really bring up a lot of extra performance that would definitely improve the experience when playing games in stereoscopic 3D mode. If you are in the GTX 460 / 560 domain however you might want to wait a bit more and get the GTX 660 that will very likely be the next thing that Nvidia will be announcing sooner than later if they continue to follow the traditional logic in launching new products. And a GTX 660 based on the Kepler architecture might prove to be among the best price/performance options (for stereo 3D gaming as well) on the market if/when launched, because the GTX 670 is still considered a high-end card with a high price. Looking at the simplified design of the reference GTX 670 cards you can expect that the GTX 660 will be with the same PCB and will have another SMX block disabled, couple that with a price of $249 and things might be looking very good. Now, we’ll have to wait and see some benchmarks from the new GTX 670 in stereoscopic 3D mode as well as the new cards should be immediately available on the market starting today…

- The GeForce GTX 670 is available in Newegg, while GTX 680 is still out of stock…

More About the Portable 3D Notebooks Availability on the Market

Bloody — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:07:29 +0000

You may have noticed that I was a bit absent from the blog the last 10 days and the reason for that was a critical hardware failiure of my work laptop, so I’ve had to get a new one install it and recover all the data and backups to it… and it took me some time, but now everything is back to normal. But more importantly, I was again looking for some portable laptops with 3D-capabilities, something that I’ve talked about not too long ago here on the blog. This time my idea was to actually get a portable 12 or 13 inch 3D-capable laptop with a 3D display, not a gaming solution, but something that can be used to preview 3D photos and 3D videos and of course to do some testing of different stereo 3D software on it as well. Unfortunately I still could not find a good solution that fits my requirements, probably they are too specific, or I’m in need of something that is still considered a way too niche product for anyone to make it. So in the end I’ve ended up getting a good 2D laptop, namely the HP EliteBook 2560p – a great portable, yet very powerful and feature rich system that pretty much offers all that I need, minus the stereoscopic 3D support. So again a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses gets packed in my laptop back for use whenever I need to preview something in stereo 3D or test something and I don’t have my stereoscopic 3D-capable desktop test systems available. Maybe I’ll have more luck the next time I’m replacing my laptop… hopefully by then there will be more 3D-capable portable solutions actually available on the market. For now most 3D-capable laptops are intended for gaming or multimedia use and go with a larger display size and powerful discrete graphics, instead of being designed for stereoscopic 3D use on the go… and we actually need a bit more diversity.

SnapilyPro is an Online 3D Digital Lenticular Printing Service

Bloody — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:58:47 +0000

SnapilyPro is an online lenticular 3D digital printing service for professionals that allows you to print all sorts of products showing 3D depth or movement/animation on a print – this includes things like invitations, name cards, big posters, lanyards, business cards, event promotions, displays, entry tickets and much more. I’ve already mentioned Snapily’s 3D application and photo printing service here on the blog, but SnapilyPro is a more advanced service offering much more options.

Lenticular printing is a process where a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of depth, change of image or movement. When viewed from different angles, different areas under the lens are shown to the viewer, and since these views are specially arranged under the lens – each eye gets to see a different view and the brain then processes these views to a single coherent 3D, Flip or animated images. This is pretty much the easiest way to make 3D prints that don’t require the viewer to use any kind of glasses to get a sense of depth or movement and it doesn’t cost that much at least for smaller size prints.

Lenticular technology actually dates back to the 1690s when Gois-Clair, a French painter, discovered that he could achieve a dimensional effect on canvas by interposing a grid between a viewer and a painting. Modern lenticular began in the 1930′s with the development of the modern lenticular lens and since then lenticular has been used on and off in various applications. Nowadays the technology allows you to get single prints for a very reasonable price, so that everyone can afford use lenticular prints. And with more 3D cameras also becoming available to consumers, printing lenticular 3D photos is something that interests more and more people, but getting depth printed on a photo is not the only way to use this technology. You can also create Flip images where the image switches between two different photos creating an interesting effect as well as to create prints that represent movement by using a sequence of photos, so you can be creative.

SnapilyPro supports prints with a size from 1.9 x 1.9 inches up to 47.2 x 35.2 inches on prints wth either flexible and inflexible lens with the bigger size available only with inflexible lens great for printing posters in 3D. Using flexible lens and smaller size prints of up to 11×17 (17×11) inches is not that expensive, but going for prints with inflexible lens and similar or even bigger size prints costs quite a lot more, but also brings real attention grabbing effect. There is an easy to use calculator available that you can use to find how much will a print of specific size cost you and there is also a PDF guide with more information about the lenticular printing, what are the requirements and supported formats for prints at SnapilyPro.

Currently SnapilyPro runs a promotion allowing you to get 20% off from any order made between May 1st until 7th by using the promo code PRO20, so you you want to test out the service you can take advantage from that and then don’t forget to also share your feedback in the comments below.

- For more information about SnapilyPro’s lenticular printing services…

Active 3D vs Passive 3D In Terms of Video Game Performance

Bloody — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:14:06 +0000

It seems that there is a strange misconception going on around that since passive 3D monitors use only half of the vertical resolution for displaying the frame for each eye you are supposed to get higher fps in a game. But this is far from the truth, because even though each frame for each eye displayed with a resolution of 1920×540 on a passive 3D display is actually still rendered in 1920×1080 resolution and then the extra lines are being discarded. As a result you have the same performance requirements for rendering the stereoscopic 3D image on either passive 3D or active 3D monitor, even though you are getting a bit lower resolution on the passive 3D solutions when viewing the result.

Rendering at Full HD resolution on passive 3D solution allows you for example to save stereoscopic 3D screenshots or 3D video from a game with full resolution, though this might not work on all stereoscopic 3D solutions. It also allows you to get better quality of the image without having to resort to very performance taxing solutions for anti-aliasing as lowering the vertical resolution can lead to more jagged edges. Using the extra visual information that has already been rendered can help process the stereoscopic 3D image that is going to be displayed, so that it will look better, even though the extra vertical lines from each frame are still being discarded. That does not help much when you have very small details or small text displayed using passive 3D setup, but still can help improve the overall visual quality without much of a performance loss. In the end you can expect to get pretty much the same number of FPS on the same system running either a passive 3D display or an active 3D solution for gaming in stereoscopic 3D mode. Actually with passive you can be getting a bit less fps due to the extra processing of the images before they are being displayed on the screen, but the difference is very small, so you will hardly notice it.

3D Vision Blog

New Nvidia GeForce 301.42 WHQL Drivers Are Now Available

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DDD TriDef 3D Ignition 3.5.18 Beta 4 Software Now Available

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Blu-ray 3D Movie Playback With PC on a 3D HDTV Using HDMI 1.4

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Don’t Miss Meant to be Seen’s Birthday Bonanza Contest

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GoPro 3D HERO System: Mounting Tips Official GoPro Video

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What Has Happened with Roxio’s Cineplayer BD With 3D Software

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New GPU from Nvidia Announced Today, the GeForce GTX 670

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More About the Portable 3D Notebooks Availability on the Market

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SnapilyPro is an Online 3D Digital Lenticular Printing Service

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Active 3D vs Passive 3D In Terms of Video Game Performance

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