As I’ve mentioned a few days ago the last weekend I finally managed to get three 24-inch Acer GD245HQ (the same as Acer GD235HZ) in one place in order to do some personal testing of the 3D Vision Surround technology. The idea of that technology is to allow you to span the desktop and games on three monitors, giving you much wider field of view (did I hear somebody unfair advantage) and as a result providing you with a more immersive stereoscopic 3D experience. 3D Vision Surround is still pretty much something mostly enthusiasts will go for, not only because of the higher price associated with the need of two video cards in SLI and three 3D-capable monitors (you can also use projectors), but also due to the fact that often you will have to resort to some modifications of games in order to make them work properly. But such is the case with pretty much all consumer solutions for multi-monitor gaming due to the fact that while being developed just a few games are actually planned with a multi-monitor functionality in mind and that is a bit of a problem. Still, when you manage to get everything working properly (more than half of the games actually work pretty well right out of the box), the experience is quite rewarding, you get kind of spoiled after even a day of use, so I wasn’t too glad that I had to return the monitors at the end of the weekend… ;)

Originally I had planned to test the new GeForce GTX 590 dual-GPU video card with the 3D Vision Surround setup, but due to some issues with the test system I ended up with testing using my water cooled 3D test system that has two GTX 580 in SLI. The video cards were running at their stock frequency, and the processor – Intel Core i5 2500K was overclocked to 5GHz on Asus Sabertooth P67 motherboard and 4GB of DDR3 memory. These specs are important as below I’ll be posting some results of the framerate achieved in different games when running them in the full 5760×1080 resolution in stereo 3D mode using the 3D Vision Surround Setup. The games were run with maximum details and no AA, unless some of the extras had to be disabled in order for the game to look best in stereoscopic 3D mode, but that is also noted below.

The goal of the testing was to first see if the game will be able to start with the 3D Vision Surround enabled, and if so will it work fine and is it comfortably playable on three 3D monitors as it would be on a single monitor. The games used for the test were pretty much recent and popular titles with just a few older ones and pretty much the games I had installed and am using for testing and to play, there was no specific selection made prior testing. Have in mind that I’ve used the latest beta drivers 270.51 as one of their noted features was significant improvement for 3D Vision Surround, but as this is a beta driver it is quite possible that the final WHQL version will handle better and may resolve some of the issues that are present with games that I’ve tested. So do not judge 3D Vision Surround in overall only based on my first experience with it shared here, I do plan to do more extensive testing later on as this was more like of а “getting acquainted” with it. I did not have much time to dedicate to each of the tested games to find a workaround or a solution to improve the experience or compatibility, so in the future I may work a bit more on that too.

Nvidia has a compatibility list available with multiple games tested in 3D Vision Surround and rated in terms of how well they work or not, including some tips that may help resolve some possible issues. This list however is a bit outdated as it includes the Supported Games with driver 262.99, however it can still be a good reference. With that said, I did not check any of the games I tested with in it prior to testing it with the newer beta driver…

Apache Air Assault
Works almost perfectly with 3D Vision Surround, the menu and gameplay is rendered on all three displays, the HUD is on the center screen, what more can you want from a helicopter simulator. Now the only thing left for you is to learn how to pilot that damn thing, as it is most certainly not an easy task.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
The sequel to the successful Assassins Creed series works surprisingly good in stereo 3D mode on one or three monitors, so it is something that you should definitely check out if you still haven’t. The game renders the menu and the cutscenes on the center display only and the HUD is rendered only on the central display, making it more comfortable to follow the information contained in it. So the only a bit annoying thing is the fact that the cutscenes that are not pre-rendered video are squeezed to the center screen, while everything else is pretty much great. Performance wise, the game manages to provide you with a steady framerate of about 50 fps per eye which is more than enough for comfortable gameplay.

Battelfield: Bad Company 2
This game works very good on three monitors with 3D Vision Surround, the menu is on the center monitor, the rest is nicely visible on all three displays with the HUD being positioned on the center screen for optimum usability. The only thing you may not like here is that the performance is just on the edge of about 25 fps per eye with all details set to maximum, so you may need to do some compromise with the level of details in order to get better performance for more comfortable gameplay.

Bioschock 2
This one does not work that well to start with in stereo 3D mode on a single display and on three in 3D Vision Setup it also has some issues, like for example the HUD on all three monitors and wrong FOV, not to mention there are issues with activating the stereo 3D mode and the performance is actually quite low to an uncomfortable framerate for playing.

Bulletstorm
A 3D Vision ready game that works great on a single monitor and it works on 3D Vision Surround quite well, the menu and gameplay is rendered on all three displays and the HUD is on the center display. However the issue that you will most certainly face is with the FOV, the default in-game value of 85 gives you a kind of zoomed in view when you play the game on 3 displays. The simple workaround is to edit the config file and change the value for the FOV from 85 to 140 and you should be Ok in the game, although the menu still looks a bit cut out. With all details set to maximum the game remains perfectly playable with about 38 fps per eye average framerate, so it is worth definitely trying out with 3DVS, just don’t forget to fix the FOV.

Civilization V
Another good game for stereoscopic 3D gaming on a single monitor that also works quite well on three displays in a 3D Vision Setup. The menus are mostly on the center display with a few elements “escaping” to one of the side, the game itself displays well on all three displays, but the HUD is stretched to all three displays, meaning a lot of the menus on the leftmost and the rightmost parts of the side displays which is a bit uncomfortable, but it is something you can learn to work with.

Crysis 2
This game has generated a lot of interest lately, so it was natural to test it with 3D Vision Surround, but unfortunately it did not work that well as I had expected. The in-game videos get stretched and cut at the top and bottom due to the wrong aspect ration, but actually the more serious issue was that when in the menu or inside the game (shown on all three displays) you could only see image through one of the eyes and the other one is black. I’m sure this issue will be resolved when the first R270 WHQL drivers come out, and I’m suspecting that the issue might be caused due to the way that the game has the 3D image creating implemented. I know that Crytek focused more on consoles with the game, where you don’t have more than a single monitor, but I hope that they did not completely forget about the PC users, so they can also help improove 3DVS compatibility with future patches as well.

Dead Rising 2
This is another game that works great in stereo 3D mode on a single monitor, but has a strange issue when you try to make it work on 3 monitors using 3D Vision Surround. The game sees the additional higher resolutions, you can choose and set them, but this does not change anything as the game remains displayed only on the center display and the stereo 3D mode does not kick in. Not sure if this is related to the game itself or might be fixed with new video drivers, but when the R270 WHQL release comes out we’ll probably know what is causing it.

Dead Space 2
This one is almost perfect in stereo 3D mode with 3D Vision, the only thing that was acting a bit strange is the main game menu that before starting a game becomes very faint after activating 3D Vision Surround mode, but calling the menu after starting to play the actual game it is Ok. Another thing that you should be aware of is the 30 fps frame limiter the game has by default which in stereo 3D mode translates
to 30 fps per eye.

Dragon Age 2
This one looks quite decent with 3D Vision Surround, but isn’t the most comfortable to play with more than one monitor due to the fact that the cutscenes are being rendered on a single monitor only and the HUD is stretched on all three displays with the biggest part actually being the panel at the bottom of the screen. The performance you can expect isn’t that high as well, but should be enough for comfortable gameplay – a bout 35 fps per eye.

F1 2010
Another pleasant surprise, but you can say that it is expected from such a simulator friendly game to offer good multi-monitor support, so yes, F1 2010 works great with 3D Vision Surround. The in-game menus and the gameplay is great on all three displays, the HUD is shown on the center display and with maximum details the game manages to provide you with a steady framerate of about 60 fps per eye. So this game is a must for a good stereo 3D experience on multiple monitors, although the game itself is considered by many as not that well made.

Just Cause 2
This is a 3D Vision ready game, so expecting it to perform good in stereo 3D mode on three displays with 3D Vision Surround is normal and the game does exactly that, but with all details at maximum the performance may be a bit on the edge for comfortable gaming. The game menus render on all three displays, as well as the HUD which may be a bit distracting, but you can learn to deal up with that, as it is not that big of an issue.

Half Life 2: Lost Coast
It works great in stereo 3D mode with 3D Vision Surround on three displays, the menu is rendered on all three displays and the HUD as well, but since it is quite minimal that’s not a big problem anyway. The performance with maximum details is a solid 60 fps per eye. So in general you should not have any serious trouble with other games using the same game engine in 3D Vision Surround mode.

Kane and Lynch 2
Forget about this one on 3D Vision Surround mode for now, everything gets stretched to the 3 monitors and the FOV is wrong making the game unplayable by default, unless maybe you find some tweaks to fix the FOV. The framerate is about 40 fps per eye, so fixing the issues can make it playable, if possible of course.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
The game refuses to launch with a resolution of 5760×1080 with an error message that the system may not have enough resources to start at the selected setting. It starts at a bit lower resolution and shows on all three displays, but the image is stretched on all three displays from a resolution intended only for the center screen, so everything is with the wrong aspect ratio making it unplayable.

Mafia 2
This is a 3D Vision-ready game, supporting PhysX and apparently made with 3D Vision Surround support as well. To tell you the truth I was pleasantly surprised when in the options I saw 3x 1080 resolution instead of the typical 5760×1080, but that is when I immediately got it that Mafia II should work great with 3DVS. The menu is shown on the center screen only, but the rest is on all three, and as expected the HUD was available on the center screen. With maximum details, 2xAA and PhysX set to High the game still managed to provide an average of 50 frames per second, making it comfortably playable with 3D Vision Surround.

Medal of Honor
This was another very nice surprise for playing in 3D Vision Surround setup as the game menus and the game itself display great on the three monitors. The game needs to have the Shadows set to low for the best stereoscopic 3D experience, but other than that with all other details set to max it manages to provide an average of about 60 fps per eye. The in-game HUD is rendered on all three displays, but it isn’t that big of an issue as it is quite minimalistic and you can easily get without having to pay attention to the few icons you get on the two peripheral displays.

Metro 2033
Another 3D Vision-ready game, but also one of the most demanding ones at the moment that is still stressing quite a lot even the top hardware at max details, so the result here was not a big surprise. I mean, the game looks great on stereo 3D mode on all three monitors with the HUD on the center screen and the game menu on all three monitors where possible. However the performance with the DX 11 mode set to maximum details and with AAA Anti-Aliasing the game framerate drops to below 20 fps per eye, making it hardly playable, so you will have to make some compromises with the level of details to get a decent framerate. So if you were considering to get a third GTX 580, this can help you make your mind ;)

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
This games works quite well in stereo 3D mode on a single monitor provided that you disable the Shadows, and trying it on three monitors with the 3D Vision Surround it also worked really well with an average framerate of about 60 fps per eye, so the performance was not an issue. The game menu is only on the center screen, but that isn’t a big issue, unlike the fact that the cutscenes are also displayed only on the center screen which kind of annoys. It gets you annoyed, because it is not pre-rendered video that is Ok to be displayed on a single screen, but is actually 3D renders from the game, so it could’ve easily been on the three displays and that switching between one and three monitors while you play isn’t that comfortable for the player. Another thing is the HUD, it is being rendered on all three displays, so it is hard to track all the data easily while you are being focused on the center screen. But even with the small things that could be improved, the overall experience playing NFS: Hot Pursuit with 3D Vision Surround was great.

Need for Speed: SHIFT 2
You probably know that the latest NFS game has some issues in stereo 3D mode, but that did not prevent me from trying it out with 3D Vision Surround. However the game was crashing after the intro has finished and I get into the main menu, this can probably be resolved within the WHQL video driver or with a game patch.

Portal
This is a game using the same engine as Half Life and thus has no issues working with 3D Vision Surround, everything looks quite Ok on all three monitors and the performance is again solid 60 fps per eye.

Prototype
The game does not work with 3D Vision Surround as there is no setting for resolution over 1920×1080 in the game menu. It might be possible to make it work via some tweaking of the settings in non-traditional way, but I did not have enough time to try to find such.

Singlularity
The game does not work with 3D Vision Surround as there is no setting for resolution over 1920×1080 in the game menu. It might be possible to make it work via some tweaking of the settings in non-traditional way, but I did not have enough time to try to find such.

Split Second
The game crashes when trying to set it in the max resolution of 5760×1080 to run with the 3D Vision Surround mode, however trying to set a lower resolution to use with the three monitors works. Unfortunately even though it runs, the game is displayed with wrong aspect ratio of the image, so it is pretty much unplayable.

Starcraft 2
Ok, are you ready do blame Blizzard about one more thing that is not properly working in Starcraft 2, well, even if you are not you should. The problem is that apparently Blizzard has limited the game to support only a specific set of resolutions and these are limited to single display only. So when you go into the game options in order to select the higher resolution that you need to set for the 3D Vision Surround you will surprisingly see that the game shows 1920×1080 as a maximum resolution. You cannot stretch the game to the three displays no matter if you are in Fullscreen or Windowed mode, meaning that Blizzard probably intentionally set a limit with the idea not to allow someone to take unfair advantage if using more monitors. And while this may be reasonable thinking for multiplayer gaming, I was still a bit disappointed by the fact that Blizzard forces this limitation on you…

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
A typical console port without too much attention on the PC version that unfortunately does not work with 3D Vision Surround. When switching the resolution to 5760×1080 to display the game on the three monitors it gives an error (“Too many Vertices”) and crashes. When the game is ran again it starts, but with wrong aspect ratio and the actual image to be displayed gets cut at the top and bottom of the screen. Trying to actually start the game leads to black screen and nothing happening, so the game basically hangs while loading the first mission.

Test Drive Unlimited 2
The game does not start with 3D Vision Surround, you get black screen and hand there with nothing happening, not sure where exactly the problem may be with this one, but it probably needs one or two more patches to finally bring everything up and working.

Tomb Raider: Underworld
The game refuses to launch with a resolution of 5760×1080 with an error message that the system may not have enough resources to start at the selected setting. It starts at a bit lower resolution and shows on all three displays, but the image is stretched on all three displays from a resolution intended only for the center screen, so everything is with the wrong aspect ratio making it unplayable.

Torchlight
This is one pleasant surprise with 3D Vision Surround as it works on three monitors as well as with one monitor in stereo 3D mode, the menus and gameplay works fine on three displays. The performance is not an issue as the game is quite light on the requirements. The only not so good thing is that the HUD is shown on the three displays, but the main and most important part is at the center screen, so that isn’t actually a big problem.

X-Blades
This is a bit old game already, but it is looking great in stereo 3D and not very heavy, so I’m often using it as a test, so I could not resist to also try it out in 3D Vision Surround mode. The game menus are rendered on the three monitors, the videos are shown only on the center screen and the HUD is on the left and center monitor, but since it is quite minimal that is not such a problem. Since the game is not so heavy on the hardware it easily manages to hit the 60 fps per eye average framerate and pretty much the only thing that prevents a great rating is the fact that when you call in the game menu after starting playing it is somewhat strangely messed up.

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Reducing The Ghosting On Acer GD245HQ / GD235HZ 120Hz Monitors (59)
• GeForce 270.51 Beta Drivers with New Features and Performance Boost (28)
• Finally Doing Some 3D Vision Surround Testing on 3 Monitors in 3D (7)
• DIY Virtual Reality Rig with Stereo 3D Support and Motion Tracking (4)
• Acer HS244HQ is the First 3D Monitor with HDMI 1.4a Stereo 3D Support (33)

3D Vision Surround is a nice additional feature that you can take advantage of for more immersive stereoscopic 3D gaming if you have an SLI setup or a Dual-GPU video card and three 3D-capable displays – 3D monitors or 3D projectors. In the case of three Full HD 3D monitors you get a wider horizontal working area with a total resolution of 5760×1080, covering your peripheral vision better in games and giving you more working area. It sounds really promising and my impressions from the few demonstrations of the technology, where I’ve seen and tried it with a few games were quite positive, but of course sooner or later I had to make a 3D Vision Surround setup to dou some more extensive testing…

It has turned out quite hard to get three 3D monitors of the same model just for testing, so I invited a friend to bring his own 24-inch Acer GD245HQ and together with the other two monitors I’ve managed to get we started testing multiple games yesterday and it was a long day. Originally I planned to do the testing in 3D Vision Surround mode with the GeForce GTX 590 video card, but do to some hardware trouble with the test system used for the 590, I had to change the idea on the go and move to my test PC with dual GeForce GTX 580s in SLI. I’ve had a big table planned for the three monitor setup, and we barely managed to fit the monitors on it… 3D Vision Surround setups even with 24-inch monitors do need a lot of space for comfortable use, and if you plan to do it with the new 27-inch monitors, you should really have a lot of free space. Other than that the setup and installation was quick, easy and problem free in general, so we moved to the testing phase and sometime early in the morning today we’ve finished with going through about 30 games in 3D Vision Surround. During the testing there were some interesting, unexpected and surprising results, so you should be prepared that not every single game will work problem free, some require a bit of tweaking and a few just don’t work. In general however the experience when everything works out is great and you quickly start to not pay too much attention to the bezels of the screens and get fully immersed in the gaming.

You can expect more photos and the results later on, as now I need some more coffee, to disassemble the test setup and pack the monitors up for returning them. I can say I’m quite happy with the results, although the whole thing was not entirely problem free. But I’m still having a hard time judging which one I like better, a single 50-inch 3D HDTV or a 3D Vision Surround setup with three 24-inch 3D monitors, because both have their advantages and their disadvantages. In the end, I’m going back to my single 3D Full HD monitor for my gaming needs in stereo 3D mode with 3D Vision as a preferred choice for now…

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• Testing 3D Vision Surround On 3x 24-inch Acer GD245HQ Monitors (16)
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Acer just announced a new 23.6″ 3D monitor, namely the Acer HS244HQ which is also the first on the market to deliver Full HD 3D support via the new HDMI 1.4a standard, meaning that you can use this monitor with just about any 3D-capable device that outputs stereoscopic 3D content in frame packaged format according to the HDMI 1.4(a) specs. This means that you will be able to use this monitor for example together with your PlayStation 3 console to play games in stereo 3D, instead of having to buy a more expensive 3D HDTV, but that pretty much goes for any other device that uses the same standard for outputting S3D video in some form.

According to Acer, with currently available 3D shutter technology (probably meaning 3D Vision), the monitor brightness dramatically drops to 16% of normal when in 3D mode, however the new active shutter glasses that Acer is bundling with the HS244HQ 3D monitor you should be able to get tree times that brightness level or around 50% of the light displayed by the monitor. Of course the monitor comes with a built-in IR transmitter to synchronize the glasses with the stereo 3D image being shown on it. From what I’m seeing on the currently available photos, the glasses seems much like those bundled with the HP Envy 17 3D laptops and much like the ones made by Xpand, so it is quite possible the glasses are the same. So indeed they are more brighter than the 3D Vision from what I’ve personally seen, although there might be some differences with the glasses coming with the Acer monitor.

According to Acer this new monitor should be capable of achieving 12,000,000:1 contrast ratio (dynamic of course) thanks to its LED backlight, something that is quite impressive as a number at least, but in real world use it might not be comparable to the level of contrast and black/white levels you get with a plasma TV for example. And of course you are getting Full HD native resolution with support for 3D, however what is important to note here is the fact that this monitor will feature only two HDMI 1.4a connectors that support stereo 3D, so there is no Dual-Link DVI anymore available. This also means that you will also be constrained to the limits introduced by the HDMI 1.4a specifications regarding stereo 3D support – 720p 50/60Hz 3D mode and 1080p 24Hz 3D mode, and no 2D mode with full 120Hz refresh rate, although the LCD panel should be perfectly capable of that. These limits are implied by the HDMI 1.4(a) standard and the specifications defined in it, so there is not much you can do, however Acer has more interesting new 3D-capable models that will be announced in the next few months that will offer an alternative to that.

Acer already has available for quite a while 23.6-inch Acer GD245HQ/GD235HZ 3D Capable LCD monitor, that only supports frame sequential Dual-Link DVI input for stereo 3D content, and the company just announced 23.6-inch Acer HS244HQ, that will only work with frame packaged stereo 3D content as defined in the HDMI 1.4a standard. But in the beginning of 2011 the company will gradually introduce additional 3D-capable LCD monitors with different sizes, capabilities and for different segments, thus becoming the brand with the widest gamma of 3D-capable LCD monitors on the market.

In the value segment there will be the new 23-inch Acer that will be using passive polarization and will also support only HDMI 1.4a input for stereo 3D content. In the more mainstream multimedia segment, there will be the new 27-inch Acer with LED backlight that will again feature only HDMI 1.4a support for stereo 3D content (will have 4x HDMI 1.4a ports) and will also come with Acer’s active shutter glasses bundled and an IR emitter built in the display. And for the 3D gamers there are also some good news, apart from the fact that the Acer GD245HQ/GD235Hz models will still remain available on the market, there will be also two new models that will be designed to be used together with Nvidia’s 3D Vision glasses, both of which will be bundled with the glasses. The new 23.6-inch model Acer GN245HQ will be available with LED backlight, integrated IR emitter and will support both Dual-Link DVI and HDMI 1.4a for stereo 3D input to offer the best flexibility for the user. The new 27-inch Acer HN274H 3D LCD Monitor will probably be the most interesting of the upcoming products, as it will be with LED backlight, integrated IR emitter and bundled with 3D Vision glasses, as well as offering Dual-Link DVI and HDMI 1.4a support for stereo 3D content…

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The crosstalk or ghosting of images (leaking of part of the image for the left eye into the right eye and vice versa) is a common problem with the current generation of 3D-capable 120Hz LCD monitors with different factors influencing it. One of the common issues is that the LCD panels are still not fast enough in terms of response time and because of that the monitor manufacturers resort to the so called Overdrive function (using more voltage to drive the pixel change state faster) in order to increase the pixel response rate. This works to some extent, but may as well lead to other issues like burnt colors resulting in colored ghosting visible in stereo 3D mode for example. Another common cause for ghosting is having brighter colors on darker backgrounds or vice versa, especially if the separation between the left and the right eye is higher. And then again there is the so called top and bottom ghosting that represents more ghosting on the top and at the bottom of the screen that is usually caused by not so good timing with the image on the screen and the shutter glasses. And since I’ve been trying different methods of reducing ghosting lately, here comes another effective solution that can help you reduce the ghosting when playing in stereo 3D mode with an Acer GD245HQ or Acer GD235HZ 120Hz LCD monitors. The solution is based on custom modifying the color temperature levels of the monitor from the Service Menu that is usually not available to the normal user, but you can call it if you know how to do it. The good news is that the same method might also work with the ViewSonic VX2268WM (I’m already working on that, so stay tuned), but will unfortunately not help the owners of the Samsung 2233RZ as the Service Menu of that model is not so good in terms of additional controls available.

Lets get back on the Acer. For the following examples I’ll be using a short demo video shot by the user 3D Frank shared over at Nvidia’s 3D Vision forums that is a great example for ghosting, you can find a download link at the bottom of the post if you wish to try it on your monitor. Have in mind that the following ghost reduction method works not only when watching stereo 3D videos, but also with 3D photos and when playing games in stereo 3D.

And here is how you can call the Service Menu on the Acer GD245HQ / GD235HZ:

- Turn off the monitor
- Press and hold the first menu key (the leftmost one)
- Press the power button while still holding the 1st menu key
- When you see the image on the screen you can release the menu key
- Press the third menu key (the middle one) to call up the Service Menu
- Navigate in the service menu just like in the normal one, but now all options are changeable
- To return back to the normal mode just turn off the monitor and turn it back on the normal way

Lets me start with how the display looks by default when showing a stereo 3D image and you are not looking through the shutter glasses. The blue menu in the top left corner is the service menu that is showing the default options for the display, as you can see the Overdrive (OD) function is active and on the screen you can practically see doubled images of the boats and burnt out colors of the most bright white on the sailboats.

When you put on the glasses instead of doubled sailboats you’ll start seeing ghosting which looks like shadows as you can see on the picture above taken through the right lens of the shutter glasses. Again here we still have the Overdrive function of the display active.

Now lets see how the things look when the Overdrive function is disabled. Without the shutter glasses on the image still looks doubled, but there are no burnt colors. Other than that no significant difference can be noticed with the named eye…

Overdrive is still disabled, but now looking through the glasses you can see significant difference in the image as compared to looking through the shutter glasses with the Overdrive function enabled. Instead of just some shadows the ghosting here is so severe that you still see doubled objects, although a bit more faint than when looking without the glasses. This is just to give you an idea of what can happen when the response time of the pixels is not good enough and why monitor manufacturers are using Overdrive on the LCD panels.

Now comes the fun part. I’ve decided to use the Cool temperature preset available in the Service Menu to modify in order to reduce the ghosting. So the new settings that I’ve defined for it are 100 for Red, 90 for Green and 85 for Blue. Although I’m using the Cool preset my settings are warmer because the Red color is higher (you can decrease it to about 85-90 to get cooler temperature), but I prefer the Warm color temperature and this makes it easier to compare it with the default Warm preset.

After doing the tweaking of the Cool preset from the Service Menu of the monitor you need to turn off the monitor and then turn it back on normally to get to the normal monitor menu, where you need to select the Cool preset in the Colour Temp settings in order for the things to work and you to have less ghosting. You can cycle between the Cool and Warm color presets to see the difference, the Warm preset should have easily noticeable color ghosting while the custom Cool preset should have hardly any visible ghosting.

And so how does the tweaked settings look like in terms of ghosting, you can see in the picture above taken through the right lens of the shutter glasses. There is hardly any visible ghosting left, although if you look up close and carefully you may still notice some very faint traces, but that should not bother you when using the monitor normally as it is hardly visible anymore.

Before and after this tweak you can try a game like Tomb Raider: Underworld with a separation of lest say 50%-100% (depending on how much you can handle) in order to have high separation and to compare the ghosting. You will however see that there is still some top monitor ghosting, it seems unaffected as it is probably caused by synchronization timing issue whit the shutter glasses and that is why the above tweak does not affect it. Still the end result where you don’t have burnt colors, color ghosting and almost no ghosting at all is completely worth it if you ask me, so if you own an Acer GD245HQ or Acer GD235HZ monitor I recommend you try my tweak and report your results in the comments below.

And just one more thing I’ve noticed about the Acer while playing with the “ghostbusing” settings in the Service Menu of the monitor. When you turn on the monitor and immediately display a stereo 3D image you’ll most likely see more ghosting, but after 2-3 minutes the visible ghosting gets reduced a bit. This means that it probably takes a few minutes for the electronics in the monitor to start working at its best with the Overdrive function performing optimally…

- Download the Sailboats Ghosting Test – mirror 1

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Testing 3D Vision Surround On 3x 24-inch Acer GD245HQ Monitors (16)
• DIY Virtual Reality Rig with Stereo 3D Support and Motion Tracking (4)
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• Playing With the Service Menu of ViewSonic VX2268WM LCD Monitor (9)
• Finally Doing Some 3D Vision Surround Testing on 3 Monitors in 3D (7)

One interesting DIY project from Gavan Woolery who used a 120Hz 3D-ready Acer GD235HZ monitor (the same as Acer GD245HQ) with Nvidia 3D Vision shutter glasses and TrackIR 5 from Naturalpoint to recreate something that looks like an oversized HMD (Head Mounted Display). Ok, HMD in this project really means attaching a big monitor to your head instead pf the small LCD screens that are usually found in the commercial HMDs that are much smaller and actually look more like a pair of sunglasses (slightly bigger). The end results looks kind of strange, but you should remember that this is a prototype that was built just a as a proof of concept. And while it might not be very convenient to wear the whole thing attached to your head it seems to work pretty good in providing not only stereoscopic 3D image, but also adding motion tracking. Are you starting to get some ideas yourself already? Considering that you can hardly find any up to date HMD with high resolution and motion tracking at an affordable price that also supports stereoscopic 3D mode this project is definitely interesting. You can share your thoughts and ideas about it in the comments below.

- You can read more details about the project on Gavan Woolery’s blog…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Testing 3D Vision Surround On 3x 24-inch Acer GD245HQ Monitors (16)
• Reducing The Ghosting On Acer GD245HQ / GD235HZ 120Hz Monitors (59)
• Finally Doing Some 3D Vision Surround Testing on 3 Monitors in 3D (7)
• Acer HS244HQ is the First 3D Monitor with HDMI 1.4a Stereo 3D Support (33)
• Trying the Dragon Age 2 Demo in Stereo 3D Mode with 3D Vision (5)

If you’ve already watched the unboxing video of the Acer Aspire GD245HQ (same in terms of hardware as Acer GD235HZ) display you should know that I’ve been testing the 24-inch (23.6″ to be exact) Full HD display that is 120Hz and 3D Vision compatible. The expectations for this display are quite high, especially after the release of the Alienware OptiX AW2310 that did not provide a completely problem free 3D gaming experience (or so I’m reading, haven’t tested it personally) as we all hoped it would as it being in the next generation of 120Hz displays. This does not mean that the Alienware or that the Acer are not better in terms of what they offer to the user and in general compared to the previous generation of 22″ displays, but also does not mean that the fulfill every expectation consumers had… probably we just expected too much to happen in too little time. Anyway both Alienware and Acer make a good step towards better S3D experience, but lets get back to a more detailed look on the Acer GD245HQ that I’ve tested and compared to the 22″ ViewSonic VX2268WM and Samsung 2233RZ (the first generation 120Hz models).

Let me start with the official specifications:

Display size: 60 cm (23.6″) Wide, 16:9 Full HD, 521×293 mm
Panel Technology: TN (Twisted Nematic)
Resolution: 1920×1080 @ 120Hz
Pixel pitch: 0.2715 mm
PPI (pixels per inch): 92
Horizontal Frequency: D-Sub & HDMI 30-83KHz, DVI 30-140KHz
Vertical Frequency: D-Sub & HDMI 56-75Hz, DVI 56-120Hz
Contrast ratio: 80000:1 (Dynamic)
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Response time: 2 ms
Colours: 16.7M (6 bit + HiFRC)
NTSC Colour gamut coverage: 72%
Internal speakers: N/A
Viewing angle CR 5:1: 176°/176°
Viewing angle CR 10:1: 170°/160°
Tilt / Swivel / Pivot: Tilt. -5°/15°
Height Adjustment: No
Wall-mount: 100 mm x 100 mm
Kensington lock support: Supported
Connections: Analog (D-sub), Digital (DVI-D), HDMI (Optional), Internal Power Supply
Power consumption: Energy Star – On 38.2W, Off 0.85W, Stand by 1.85W
Dimensions: 574.8×417.8×194.4 mm
Weight: 5.8 Kg

Note that the above official specifications do not mention anything about built-in speakers as the monitor does not have such (and why would it need), although it seems at some places selling the display you can see speakers mentioned. This is a bit misleading and the seller had mistaken the presence of a stereo audio jack on the display and cable in the kit thinking there are built-in speakers, but it is a completely different thing. Since the monitor has an HDMI and this allows you to pass audio through it, but you probably wouldn’t want to hear it through some crappy built-in speakers you have the option to output the audio from the HDMI to a decent set of external speakers. And the stereo cable is for just that, to output the audio passing through the HDMI (if any) to an external speakers, and it is clearly not for built-in speakers as there are no such in the display!

The display does come with DVI-D, DSUB15 and HDMI connectors, but you can use the 2D/3D mode in 120Hz only on the Dual-Link DVI. There is a Dual-Link DVI cable and an analogue DSUB15 video cables, bundled with the monitor, there is no HDMI cable, but as I already said you cannot send more than 60Hz as an input signal to the display through HDMI or DSUB15. Apart from that there is the audio out cable (for HDMI audio output) and of course the power cable, the expected manuals and a CD with documentation and control software for the display.

The external look of the Acer GD245HQ is quite nice, mostly black with just a little bit or orange on the monitor stand. And not to mention that unlike the 22-inch ViewSonic and Samsung displays here with the Acer, the stand is much more stable preventing the monitor from starting to swing around at the slightest vibration of your desk. A bit of a disappointment for some people might be the lack of height adjustment in the stand and that is kind of reasonable, especially having in mind that Acer’s display is with aspect ratio of 16:9 as compared to 16:10 for the ViewSonic and Samsung. This might not seem too significant, but when you compare a 22″ and the 24″ monitor side by side they do not seem very different in terms of size at first look, the ViewSonic is even a bit higher as you can see on the picture above. For me personally the 16:9 is better for stereoscopic 3D gaming as there is the wider aspect gets better coverage for the peripheral vision, but this might differ from person to person and it seems that people even want 1920×1200 displays with 16:10 aspect.

And now of to the bleeding of the LCD panel of the Acer GD245HQ. The above image is taken in a dark environment with the display showing a completely black image with a camera set a very high ISO and afterwards the image has been processed with an image editor just to enhance the visibility of the bleeding. In reality there is not that much light passing through the LCD panel from the backlight, but you can clearly see that the most light bleeding is coming from the left side of the panel, some from the top and just a bit from the right and bottom parts of the screen.

Now, don’t think that there is no bleeding on the first generation of 120Hz displays, there is as there is on a lot of other monitors. On the picture above you can see that the ViewSonic display has the most bleeding coming from the bottom part of the screen and some from the left top. This picture comparing the Acer and ViewSonic displays next to each other has not been enhanced in an image editor, just shot with high ISO settings on the camera. As you can see the light bleeding here is less apparent and it is still more visible than what you’ll probably see with a naked eye directly looking at the display. In order to get more uniform backlight and less bleeding we’ll have to wait for the first 3D-capable displays to come out that use LEDs for backlight, but this also does not guarantee better results… it still depends on how good the implementation is.

As with the previous generation of 120Hz 3D-ready displays the Acer GD245HQ is also using a fast response TN panel with 2ms response rate for the pixels compared to 3ms (for 3D mode) in the first generation. As a direct result of this we can expect to have less ghosting and this is true, the ghosting is actually less as you can see on the image above. It is taken through one of the lenses of the 3D Vision glasses in order to show you how much from the second image (the one for the other eye) is actually visible and thus creating the ghosting effect. Look at the center part of the pictures as some of the outer parts are not covered by the shutters lens because of it being too small for the camera lens. The important thing is that the ghosting is less, making it more comfortable to enjoy 3D content without annoying “shadows” lurking around some objects on the screen, or so it seems…

I’ve noticed something else you can see on the pictures above – the weird red/green ghosting that rarely appears on some images, it is probably related to some specific colors present. The both Ghosting comparison images were made from the game Tomb Raider Underworld on Lara’s boar before going underwater, but there are some other games and scenes where you can see the same strange ghosting. I’ve also seen it present for a brief moment on some videos, but I believe that this is something related to software issues and thus can lets say be fixed with a driver update for 3D vision for example. The above images are sent to Nvidia and lets see if they can figure out what is the issue and provide us with a fix, but as I said the above issue is rarely seen and you might not even notice it if you are not playing enough attention.

And now off to some measuring of the Acer GD245HQ with the help of an X-rite i1 Display 2 colorimeter. Calibrating the display colors does bring a bit of improvement in color reproduction (we are talking about a TN panel after all), but the most serious area where we have trouble with colors still remains – the very dark areas. There are not that much adjustments being done to the primary colors and the color reproduction before and after calibration changes just a bit – there is not a big difference. The brightness level after calibrating however might be an issue, as you can see the display brightness measured after calibration was just 171.6 cd/m2 and that is not that very good for when you wear the 3D Vision shutter glasses and play in S3D mode as there is an additional brightness drop. The maximum level of brightness I was able to measure was about 240 candelas per square meter which is still a bit less that the 300 cd/m2 stated in the specifications. The black level was measured to be about 0,2 cd/m2 which in turn resulted in quite good contrast ratio of almost 900:1, which in turn with the good sharpness of the display makes it noticeably better performing especially when watching videos in 2D or stereo 3D. Even when setting up the max brightness the display still manages to maintain a contrast ratio of about 900:1, so you don’t need to worry too much even if you play in stereo 3D mode with maximum brightness. After all by wearing the 3D Vision shutter glasses you are loosing some of the light and the black seems darker and closer to true black and the lightest objects are not so light anymore.

The next important thing for every gamer is the input lag, or at least it should be, no matter if the games will be played in 2D or S3D mode. In my last input lag tests I was able to confirm that the 120Hz Viewsonic has little to no input lag compared to a good CRT monitor, so how well does new 120Hz Acer GD245HQ compare to that, you can see on the video. Use the pause button to compare the numbers on both displays, the video is shot with a camera recording at 240 fps which is more than enough for the displays 120Hz (120fps). Slower response (lower number of milliseconds) means input lag (delay) of the image because of the processing before being show on the screen. The Acer shows from zero to about 15-16 ms delay compared to the ViewSonic, but have in mind that both displays are running a clone image (using DVI splitter) with resolution of 1680×1050 which is not the native one for the Full HD Acer display!

The next video shows the top/bottom screen ghosting issue on the Acer. As in the first generation of 3D capable 120Hz displays the second generation Acer GD245HQ still has some ghosting at objects show on the top and bottom parts of the screen as opposed to seeing the same object in the center part of the screen. Notice the shadow in front of the wind turbine in the video when it is being moved to the top or bottom parts of the screen. But generally as the ghosting is less on the Acer the top/bottom ghosting is also less.

This here is another interesting effect that I’ve noticed in the game Borderlands, look at how if you leave the cable onscreen and then move a bit there is an afterimage left for a bit that fades in another moment. This issue is also present on the 120Hz ViewSonic displays, but it takes more time with with the cable static on screen for the afterimage to appear. So far I’ve noticed this only in Borderlands, so it might be something related just to that game, but it is there and it handles differently on both 3D displays. The above is of course visible when you shoot the video through the shutter glasses in S3D mode, not when you look directly at the screen without them. Also watch the HD version of the clip to see it more clearly!

Another thing to note is that the “grainy texture” or more like a scanlines look (brighter lines) that could be seen on some scenes when in 3D mode on the first generation of 120Hz screens is now gone, or to be more exact much, much, much… harder to notice, so it should not bother you anymore, if it was bothering you on the ViewSonic or the Samsung displays.

So to sum up all things said so far, the Acer GD245HQ is better designed, better built and performing better than the first generation 120Hz displays from ViewSonic and Samsung. It has an updated list of parameters, offers less ghosting, and although it brings some other new possible issues, in general it is more of a good improvement. If you wanted this to be the perfect and absolutely problem free monitor for stereoscopic 3D gaming, like a lot of people did, you might be a bit disappointed, but that is because we all probably had set too high expectations for it. After testing it personally I’m ready to make the switch to the Acer, when it officially becomes available on the market next month, as what I tested was a testing sample produced in November 2009. I might’ve missed something in the review above so please feel free to ask if you want to know something else or to try on the Acer as I’ll continue testing it for a few more days before having to return it…

- Acer GD235HZ/GD245HQ is already available for $399.99 USD at Amazon

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Kit (0)
• New NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver CD 1.20 with Tripple/Quad SLI Support (2)
• Acer GD245HQ 120Hz 3D-capable Gaming Display Unboxing Video (34)
• A Little About the Input Lag of the LG W2363D 120Hz LCD Monitor (21)
• ViewSonic PJD6531w is a New 3D-ready 120Hz DLP Projector (10)

Thanks to Acer and one of their local distributors today I was able to get a hold of a test sample of the new Acer GD245HQ 120Hz 3D-capable Gaming Display that has just arrived. It will take another month before the actual units for sale are available on my local the market, but I’ll be ready for when that happens and you’ll also have more information if you are interested in this particular display for 2D gaming at 120Hz or for Stereoscopic 3D gaming with a pair of 3D Vision active shutter glasses from Nvidia. Expect my first impressions and an in depth review in the next days and meanwhile you can take a look at the unboxing video above. Also feel free to ask anything you want me to check or test on the monitor, of course besides the obvious things like input lag and ghosting that I’m going to check anyway… ;)

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Acer Aspire GD245HQ 120Hz 3D Vision-ready Monitor Review (131)
• What Happened With Asus’ VG242H 120Hz LCD Monitor? (12)
• The Game CSI: Deadly Intent in Stereoscopic 3D (1)
• The 3D TV Channels are Coming, When and What to Expect From Them (15)
• The 3D Samurai New S3D Demo Video from Hua Hin, Thailand (0)

Earlier this month the first 3D Vision compatible laptop – the Asus G51J 3D started appearing on the market and it also seems that in the last few days in Asia the first Acer GD245HQ 3D Vision ready monitors are also starting to become available. This however rises one interesting issue that is related to the 3D Vision drivers that add the support for these products and it seems that there is some confusion going on around with people having trouble and not knowing what drivers to use to make their new hardware work. So here goes a little clarification on the topic…

For ASUS G51J 3D laptops there is a separate 3D vision driver available based on the normal 195.62 driver version. You can find it already available on Nvidia’s website in the drivers download section in a section called 3D Vision ASUS Laptop Driver that is also available in a separate form of CD v1.17.

The situation with the Acer GD245HQ monitor is quite similar and this is making a bit of a confusion. Both the 195.62 and 195.81 drivers for 3D Vision do not offer support for the Acer, you’ll need to download the driver version 195.66 that will add the support for the Acer GD245HQ monitor and this driver is also only available as a full package release.

- To Download NVIDA 3D Vision CD v1.17 driver for Asus Laptop (32/64-bit)…
- To Download NVIDA 3D Vision CD v1.18 driver for Acer Monitor (32/64-bit)…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Alienware Revealed OptX AW2310 23″ 3D Full HD Widescreen Monitor (13)
• Acer HS244HQ is the First 3D Monitor with HDMI 1.4a Stereo 3D Support (33)
• Acer Aspire GD245HQ 120Hz 3D Vision-ready Monitor Review (131)
• Why There Are Still No Portable 3D-capable Laptops Available (8)
• Where to Get the Planar SA2311W 3D Vision-ready Monitor in Europe (3)