Do you 3D

So can someone explain to a 3D newb...do movies and television shows need to be shot in 3D in order to appear in 3D on your TV? Or can you watch anything in 3D, regardless of how it's shot? Same with games, I take it you can play any game at all in 3D if you have a 3DTV right? But some games need 3D patches? How do you know which games are 3D compatible? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Zloth said:

3D is great in games but as for TV shows and movies… I'm not real convinced yet. So much of that 3D is just 2D done over by a computer to try and figure out how it should look in 3D. Cameras seem to be getting into it, though.

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How about 3D animation movies like Pixar's? Aside from positional problems in a theatre those should be okay, right?

Or is it the configuration that you can do for games that makes the difference?

Movies and TV don't NEED to be shot in 3D. They can be converted to 3D later by the studio. The results aren't as good but it's often done anyway. There's even a 3D movie player on PC that can use similar routines to put 3D in as the movie is playing. The results are even less good there but it does work. Sorta. I have no idea if TVs have software like that built in but, even if they do, don't expect much from it. So, if you're wondering about how much content there is to see on a 3D TV, the answer is "very little."

3D games can go on TVs. If you're using 3D Vision then you need to buy a program from NVIDIA called 3DTV Play that will push the 3D down the HDMI cable to a TV. As I mentioned earlier, you can't get 60Hz at 1080p because of limits to HDMI.

Some games work with 3D Vision right off the bat (e.g. Star Wars: The Old Republic). Some games work after patching from NVIDIA and/or the game developers (e.g. Witcher 2). Some games never work very well (e.g. Mass Effect 2) or just work fine for screenshots but not so great in normal play (e.g. Dragon Age: Origins). Older games that are pre-DirectX 9 or even modern games that are in OpenGL (e.g. City of Heroes) will not work at all. And, of course, some games wouldn't make any sense in 3D (e.g. Dungeons of Dredmor).

NVIDIA has a list of games and how well they work here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-games.html However, do *NOT* trust this list for games that are more than three years old. (NVIDIA changed technologies when they put 3D Vision out but they did not update thier compatibility list! For instance, Gothic 2 is listed as "good" when, in fact, it can't run with 3D Vision because the game is pre-DirectX-9.)

Thaurin, Pixar-style movies are certainly in a better position. They don't need to use funky algorithms to try and guess the depth of a given pixel. However, they still have to choose all the 3D settings, render the movie, and plop it down on a DVD (or whatever). At least they do have the option of putting out different versions, such as a "big screen in a small room" version, but I haven't seen them do this yet.

All in all, though, put a lot of salt on what I'm saying when it comes to TVs. I'm firmly entrenched in the monitor world. (There's also a big, wide world of projection "monitors" to explore!)

Finally ordered my 3d monitor. The asus vg278h. Seems like they got the backlight bleeding issue taken care of but just in case I ordered from buy.com because they had a 45 day return policy. It's got lightboost and nvidia 3d vision 2 glasses. Hoping the 3d experience is good but i'm just as excited about having true 120hz capabilities. Should be here next week then I will post my experience with it.

Congrats! I think I'm going to be jealous of your lightboost. So what game is going to be first?

Thanks. I'm thinking batman arkham city. I've heard it looks great in 3d. I'm sure I'll be trying out all different games though. Any suggestions?

It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. Unfortunately I won't be able to get any significant time with it until the weekend, very busy at work this week.

Arkham City is very good in 3D! There's also a 3D Compatibility mod now for Skyrim which makes it look very nice in 3D. After several misfires, Witcher 2 is now excellent in 3D. Dragon Age 2 is terrible in 3D. Drakensang works pretty well in 3D. Dungeons of Dreadmore, not so much.

Two Worlds 2 works all right but it's a VERY different approach: instead of making almost everything look like it's further away than the screen, they make the most distant objects look like they are right at screen depth while everything else (including the UI) pops out of the screen. I don't think it's as nice as "real" S3D but it works far better than I would expect.

My main advice would be to keep the 3D muted a bit. The default is something like 30% depth. That's just fine for when you're starting out. After some time (hours? days? weeks?), you'll start to notice that people don't look so 3D. They look more like cardboard cutouts placed at the right depth. That means your brain is getting used to this whole stereoscopic thing. Go ahead and crank it up to 60 for a bit. Then even higher!

There's also some things the manual doesn't talk about much. Convergence is a big one. Changing the convergence essentially moves the depth of the screen. Crank up (or was it down?) the convergence and your screen will seem to move into the game world so you'll get more stuff popping out of the screen. However, if things are trying to pop out of the screen when your game UI is covering them up, it's very distracting. So you'll want to find a balance that's comfortable for you.

The manual, however, doesn't say a word about this. Also, for reasons simple mortals can't begin to understand, you need to go to the keyboard mappings to turn it on!

Another hint… you can take screenshots with the drivers! Just press alt-F1 while the S3D game is going and the shot will be saved to your My Documents directory under NVStereoscopic3D.IMG. There's a photo viewer included with the driver so you should be able to simply double click on the file to view it. If you don't like using Alt-F1 then the 3D Vision Blog can show you how to change it.

So how's it working sakichop?

...oh dear, it must have been too much for him. Well, I guess some must die so that others might get sweet eye candy...

Those of you with S3D and playing Skyrim, beware the 1.5 patch. It sounds like Bethesda has done something nasty to shadows. It would be a good idea to make a complete backup of your game directory ASAP.

Crap I forgot to come back and post my results. Well in 1 word Awesome.

Much better than I thought it would be. I really thought the real draw of the monitor was going to be the 120 Hz and i'd fiddle around occasionally with 3d. I was dead wrong. I play everything I can in 3d now. The depth adds realism you just can't get otherwise.

So far batman is by far the best. You can really tell it was made for 3d. I'm surprised though how good games look in 3d.

So far i've tried…

Skyrim— Very good 3d I don't play it any other way now. (actually I don't play any game that does 3d any other way now.) Once I installed the 3d mod which fixed the crosshair in 3d person it was great. Now when your behind a tree and in front of a rock you really are. I started seeing a lot of potions i'd missed in baskets.

Batman AA haven't tried AC yet. As I said above it's excellent. There's not much you can say about it it's something you have to see. Only gripe is the cut scenes were in 2d.

DAO worked surprisingly good. Only problem was when I would press tab to highlight items the words were 2d so they weren't really by the items. I don't do that often enough though for it to really bother me.

DA2 didn't work and neither did koa.

As far as the monitor it's self I haven't used any of the monitors without lightboost so i'm not sure how bright they are but I never ran into any situations where the games weren't bright enough and never needed to adjust the in game brightness. When compared to my 73" dlp 3dtv the asus is brighter.

I had some ghosting at first with factory settings but reducing the contrast to 55 as suggested by 3d vision blog got rid of it.

Sometimes when I exit a 3d game the monitor will stay in 3d mode. It will show everything in 2d but wont revert to my 2d brightness or contrast settings. It's not that big of a deal though and I didn't notice at first, until I went into the menu and it wouldn't let me change the 2d settings because I was in 3d mode.

For me the monitor is small. I'm coming from a 46" vizio tv I was using for a monitor. The colors are better on the asus however. Hopefully they will release bigger monitors in the future. I'm getting used to it though but I miss the extra real estate when I'm working and have many windows open. I do have an extra monitor laying around maybe I'll go dual monitors when i'm working.

I've had no dead pixels and no oval backlight bleeding issues. It's been flawless so far. Knock on wood.

I've noticed my mouse is more accurate as well. I'm guessing from the 120hz and reduced input lag. I no longer overshoot the X when I go to close extra windows. I should fire up a FPS and see if it benefits me there as well.

Overall If I can play it in 3d I want to. I will not own another monitor that doesn't support 3d. It takes the immersion factor to another level. I haven't had any eyestrain or headaches from the 3d. My longest play session was a little over 3 hours.

The only major issue I see with 3d monitors is the price. You can get an equivalent 2d monitor for about $400 less than what this monitor cost. On the other hand though it feels like money well spent.

Oh yeah the other flaw is that I now have to go back and replay all my games in 3d. I already have a pretty extensive backlog of games and now it will only get longer.

Another successful conversion! Welcome to the new world!

Im currently looking to buy one of the new 3D vision 2 monitors:

23"

Acer GN245HQ
BenQ XL2420TX
viewSonic V3D245

27"

Asus VG278H
Acer HN274H

Money isnt a problem but quality is. Both 27" monitors have serious lightbleed issues so Im not sure what Im suppose to buy? Perhaps I should pick some quality 2D monitor instead? Are there oled monitors yet?

As far as the monitor it's self I haven't used any of the monitors without lightboost so i'm not sure how bright they are but I never ran into any situations where the games weren't bright enough and never needed to adjust the in game brightness. When compared to my 73" dlp 3dtv the asus is brighter.

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Why doesnt mitsubish sell its 73" 3D TV in europe for 1000 euros?!!!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Mitsubishi-WD-73738-73-Inch-DLP-HDTV/dp/B003HJ5CKE

zakhal said:

Im currently looking to buy one of the new 3D vision 2 monitors:

23"

Acer GN245HQ
BenQ XL2420TX
viewSonic V3D245

27"

Asus VG278H
Acer HN274H

Money isnt a problem but quality is. Both 27" monitors have serious lightbleed issues so Im not sure what Im suppose to buy? Perhaps I should pick some quality 2D monitor instead? Are there oled monitors yet?


Why doesnt mitsubish sell its 73" 3D TV in europe for 1000 euros?!!!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Mitsubishi-WD-73738-73-Inch-DLP-HDTV/dp/B003HJ5CKE

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The monitor i'm using is the asus vg278h. I've had no backlight bleeding. I think that was a problem with initial shipments but has since been resolved. I have no concrete evidence that's just my thought's based on my own experience with that monitor and more recent user feedback.

The mits is an awesome tv and cheaper than lcds. It's also bigger though and needs a new bulb about every 3 years. They cost about $100. Worth it though I think. They recently released a 92" dlp that can be had for $3500. That thing must be a beast.

I ordered the vg278h. Hopefully it inst a backbleed version. Skyrim sounds promising in 3d.

zakhal said:

I ordered the vg278h. Hopefully it inst a backbleed version. Skyrim sounds promising in 3d.

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Skyrim was great in 3d. Unfortunately patch 1.5 ruined it by making shadows 2d. Hopefully they or a modder will fix it soon. If they do I also recommend getting the complete 3d mod ( or something like that I forget what its called) from skyrim nexus.

They don't seem to be 2D. I don't know WHAT they are. HeliX, who did most of the fixing to get it working in 1.4, explains it on the NVIDIA forums but I don't know enough 3D graphics-speak to know what he's talking about.

Bethesda/Steam really need to make the older version available.

Until then, you just have to go in and turn shadows off completely. I'm not sure of the exact setting but it's likely covered somewhere in the NVIDIA tweak guide that's on GeForce.com.

Edit: If you have Windows 7 and the system is turned on, you might be able to right click on TESV.exe and get a previous version. If you can, be SURE to back that one up!

I heard about the shadows. I think I will just avoid installing the latest patch if it breaks the game.

the name off the mod I was thinking of was 3D Vision Complete Compatibility Project. It's worked great for me.

There is hope! HeliX (who did the shader work behind 3D Vision Compatibility) has figured out a way to get the shadows working again! See the same link I posted above, only down a few posts. I think it still needs a little more time in the oven but I tried it out against 1.5 and it DOES work.

The Skyrim compatibility project is on Nexus here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9718

Zloth said:

There is hope! HeliX (who did the shader work behind 3D Vision Compatibility) has figured out a way to get the shadows working again! See the same link I posted above, only down a few posts. I think it still needs a little more time in the oven but I tried it out against 1.5 and it DOES work.

The Skyrim compatibility project is on Nexus here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9718

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Thanks I will give it a try.