How Nvidia Wants To Bring 3D Glasses Back 341
notthatwillsmith writes "For the last ten years, we've heard the promise of 3D shutter glasses, which when combined with the proper video card drivers and a good display, can trick your brain into thinking that your 2D monitor is creating 3D images. Unfortunately the glasses never really took off, partly because there were rendering problems with many popular 3D games but mostly because monitors didn't support high enough refresh rates to display games without giving people crushing headaches. Nvidia thinks they've solved both problems--the software works much better, and there are a surprising number of supported 120Hz-capable TVs and monitors that ameliorate the headache factor. Maximum PC has a hands-on with Nvidia's new tech, plus details about Nvidia's planned hardware solution."
Can I have my 5 minutes back? (Score:2, Insightful)
Windows Vista 32-bit (64-bit support coming soon)
Couldn't this have been at the top of the article?
Re:Can I have my 5 minutes back? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yea... like the games that will support it will work in Linux...
Lets be reasonable. You are making a new device trying to get new customers, why would you make XP or Linux drivers first... XP is on its way out. Yea Vista sucks but with more and more companies no longer shipping XP means more people will get Vista Preinstalled. Linux is not a gaming platform, it is barely a desktop platform, it only has like 1% market share, most of these people are running on Linux that is not powerful enough to run the drivers. so .25% market share? Yea lets spend millions of dollars in a new product design and spend half the funds for a tiny knitch market.
Most hardware purchases are sold when they get new hardware, thus getting Vista Preinstalled. So if I were to get my Ultimate Game computer with all the hardware I would have vista anyways.
Now if the product kicks off and becomes popular then you will get more drivers Linux drivers Mac Drivers, if there is still demmand they may have XP drivers. But if you are going to release a new product you might as well develop for the latest version, no matter what you religious stance is.
Effective refresh rate (Score:2, Insightful)
a refresh rate of 120Hz still means you have an effective refresh rate of 60Hz for each eye.
Personally, I'm a little sensitive to low refresh rates; anything below 75Hz will give me a headache, and I prefer 85Hz or more. Some monitors can show 170 frames per second, but those are very rare.
Also, this won't work with LCD displays, because they are just to slow.
It's only a matter of time (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone is going to create a way to convert standard porn to 3D and then these things will really take off.
Re:"Mostly" monitors? (Score:3, Insightful)
But I think that the really big market for this will be the console, so I want to know- Will this work on any of the current/planned TV technologies?
Ignore the monitor! (Score:4, Insightful)
Instead of hoping that your monitor is good enough, lets get LCD glasses that display something better then 800x600. Most eye glasses are around 2" in diameter, if you could cram enough pixels into that space to give a minimum of ~1024x768 resolution then you will have a market.
Portable gaming anyone? portable and PRIVATE browsing? Sign me up.
Re:"Mostly" monitors? (Score:4, Insightful)
You also wouldn't think the nun chuck Wii controller and boxing would have been popular considering how stupid it looks but its taking off as well.
Also One of my favorite sega genesis games had the lcd based 3d glasses. While they were crazy uncomfortable the potential seems pretty impressive, I'm sure they could work things out. We have to be better at video game ergonomics now than we were when I was a kid.
I WANT MY FREAKING 3D GAMES!!!!
Re:Can I have my 5 minutes back? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bucking the peripherals trend? (Score:5, Insightful)
Even on consoles, it's rough to convince people to play games with something other than the standard controller.
Like Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Singstar? Or Buzz? Or Wii Fit?
Re:Bucking the peripherals trend? (Score:3, Insightful)
Even on consoles, it's rough to convince people to play games with something other than the standard controller.
Like Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Singstar? Or Buzz? Or Wii Fit?
Or the Wii remote even.
.
Re:My religious stance? (Score:5, Insightful)
I got a new Dell a couple of months ago myself. An Inspiron 540 with a 2.4 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of Ram. It came installed with one of the several dozen versions of Vista, the one a step above home.
I originally was intent on getting XP, but my brother recommended Vista just to give it a try. I was reluctant, given the constant onslaught of negative press and my own brief interactions with the system. I've tinkered with it in stores and have used it briefly on my coworker's laptop.
Lo and behold, I actually thought the OS was quite decent. Thus far, I haven't had a single issue. I've been quite pleased and I do generally feel it improves on XP.
It's more than I can say for OSX 10.5. I have far more issues with my iMac at the office running that OS than I've had with my iMac at home running 10.4. It seems that people just are as vocal about problems with OSX.
So I can't but wonder if I'm one of the few to not have problems or if too many people are simply jumping on the bandwagon and putting down Vista without actually having used it. It's almost like it's a fad to crap on Microsoft. And I'm sure I'll be dismissed as a Microsoft fanboy.
Re:"Mostly" monitors? (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is fine if you don't need glasses for normal vision. One pair of glasses over another is never good.
No! (Score:3, Insightful)
Speaking as a person who has vision in only one eye, I say NO!
Come up with a way to wire 3d images directly to my brain.
It'd be pretty cool to see what most of you folks see everyday.
Re:diopter adjustment, please? (Score:3, Insightful)
NVidia might have a bit of trouble with their current GPU lineup but that doesn't mean they should become a giant international optician shop.
Also, I usually don't run around in my underwear, so two layers of headgear would still work for me. But I'm from Europe; I don't know what America's stance on underwear is.
Re:"Mostly" monitors? (Score:4, Insightful)
I dont think its the glasses. The problem here is that 2D is really good enough for humans. We have a good idea of how things look in 3D space on a 2D screen. Its not such a huge problem for us. The glasses just feel extraneous and gimmicky.
2D is good enough in most cases, but not all. I think 2D has stunted the growth of true 3D design in games that just aren't possible otherwise.
Some interesting effects of 2D on 3D games are:
- When using a knife/punching, players run continuously at the opponent like an idiot to make sure they are within distance. Because they really can't tell if they are or not.
- Any kind of platforming requires just the right camera angle. Otherwise it really is just a leap of faith.
- Targeting systems in third person games to make sure you don't flail your sword like an idiot missing your target. Even then distance can be tricky.
These are all tricks to make up for lack of 3D. While humans can do an admiral job adapting, but it's no substitute. Go ask a person who has lost sight in one eye (maybe not).