Gaming in 3D

People's reaction to 3D:


The great thing about 3D is the sense of depth and the image quality improvement. The monitor looks hollow and things poke out of it (or at least that's what it looks like). You can judge distances when using a granade launcher or flying, and Your stomach turn if You jump off a high tower. When playing racing games objects rush at You with high speed, but You can easily judge the distance to the car in front or behind You. The image quality is improved because Your eyes get 2 slightly differently views of the game world and thus double the information on the objects.

Allmost all the 3D setups displays Your games from 2 different views simultaneously - left eye and right eye. The 3D glasses then filters the left image to the left eye and the right image to the right eye. This is the same technique IMAX3D, Disney, Dolby 3D and RealD use in 3D cinemas. Suddenly the flat monitor no longer looks flat, but rather like a window through which You see the 3D gameworld. You can actually create Your own IMAX3D at home using 2 DLP projectors, a silverscreen and polarized glasses.

If You have never seen 3D in games then put on some red/blue glasses and watch these videos:



Or sit back and cross Your eyes slightly viewing these images:



I use 2 digital cameras side by side like this:


to shoot 3D photos or videos (2 Canon IXUS 70's in a waterproof plastic bag to shoot underwater).
It can be done with 1 camera if You move it and people stand really really still.
Playing computer games in 3D is fun and watching 3D videos and 3D photos (with 3D glasses or slightly crosseyed) is really entertaining.
There are some free programs for making 3D videos and 3D photos.
All the images here can be watched slightly crosseyed or with red/blue glasses and You can download my 3D videos from here.

You can download a 3D driver here: the iZ3D driver - just install it, change 'NSMode' from '5' to '2' in the 'C:/Program Files/iZ3D Driver/Config.xml' file (Win XP) using Notepad (For Win Vista the path should be C:/Program Data/Application Data/iZ3D Driver/Config.xml according to the friendly iZ3D guys), put on some red/blue glasses and start gaming in 3D (in games without PunkBuster). Works with both Nvidia and ATI cards.

Nvidia has for some years made a 3D driver for their 5, 6 and 7 series graphics cards to be used with CRT/tube monitors, head mounted dispalys, dual LCD monitors or projectors. However now they have teamed up with Zalman and their new 3D LCD monitor:


Their 3D drivers can be found here: Nvidia's 3D drivers

In 2007 iZ3D released a 3D LCD monitor and their own 3D driver.

There's some new head mounted displays available as well, and movies like Beowulf and future movies from Dreamworks and George Lucas will be in 3D.
You can get an idea of what 3D looks like in the image below.


This site has information about how to install the driver, what it looks like, where to get the 3D glasses and other useful links. Have a look - and turn Your monitor into a window to a 3D game world.

If You want to see the same image in true 3D then try this:
  • place Your head about 50cm/20in from the monitor
  • put Your finger at the yellow dot on the image below
  • focus on Your finger and move it slowly towards Your nose
  • when Your finger is approx. 5cm/2in from Your nose, the image above Your finger will be in 3D

Here's Lara Croft in 3D:

and a Dino:

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare:

NASA Apollo Moon Missions:




My desk and monitor showing a game in 3D:

Old News:
  • Nvidia 5, 6 or 7 series graphic cards and Win XP 32bit SP2 works in 3D.
Latest News:

Questions, answers and comments box:

 
 

This site was made to make gaming in 3D easy. I'm not selling anything.
If You have suggestions, info, guides, videos or links which should be here, then pls email them and I will put them up, thx.
(The connection to this site can be bad at times, sry about that)
And check out MTBS3D. They are trying to improve 3D gaming for us all.
Site last updated 7. mar 2010.
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