Nvidia 3D Vision

I'm sure you enjoyed our in-depth article on the progression of 3D technology, and in case you missed it, you can read it here. Gone are the dorky glasses that we've seen in the past, now say hello to a very trendy looking 3DVision goggles from NVIDIA. Yes, 3D gaming or 3DStereo, that's how NVIDIA likes to call it, has finally hit our shores bringing new life to old games and making newer games even more fun.



So how does it work?


There are three primary requirements you will need before you go 3D.

3D Glasses


First and foremost you need the glasses that will help you view images and video in 3D. Unlike the previous red and blue glasses, the Nvidia 3DVision sports liquid crystal (LC) lens that can each open and close 60 times a second. When I say open and close, there is no mechanical shutter but instead the lens goes on and off that many times.

But in order to draw 60 frames on each lens, we would require a monitor with a refresh rate of above 100Hz, which brings us to our second requirement, a 120Hz monitor.

120Hz Display

In order to display 60 frames per lens the monitor should have an effective refresh rate of 120Hz, which is where the Samsung 2233RZ comes in, as it's currently the only '3D ready' monitor available. We got the monitor along with the 3D glasses without which the 3D effect is not possible. This is a 22-inch LCD with a native resolution of 1680x1050. The response time of the LCD is a quick 2ms, which is perfect for gaming and of course it supports 120Hz.

Now that we have a 3D ready display, every frame is rendered twice just like the traditional 3D movies, but instead of seeing red and cyan videos, you get the full color spectrum, which is what distinguishes these glasses from home made ones. But in order to draw two frames simultaneously you need a beefy graphics card, which brings us to our third and final requirement, a powerful graphics card.

Graphics card

The third and final requirement to go 3D is a graphics card. The supported cards are 8800GT and above and 9600GT and above, including all the GTX series of course. Since you're going to render each frame twice, the graphics card has to do double the work, so if you want all the eye candy as well in 3D, then you better save up for a good mid-range card. We used a GTX260 (216 shaders) given by Nvidia but we also tried it with a 9600GT to see how it handles it.



Bundle



The glasses are packed well in the sponge packing with all the necessary cables and accessories.



The Samsung monitor comes with the following;

* Power cord
* Manual/CD
* Dual link DVI cable


You need a Dual Link DVI cable that comes with the monitor due to the increased bandwidth required. Normally Dual link DVI cables are used for monitors with a resolution higher than 1920x1080, like 30-inch displays

Build and Construction




The glasses have a full gloss finish and look pretty cool. They can easily be worn over standard glasses without much discomfort. The IR transmitter is on the front which connects to the transmitter. The left side houses the power button and a power indicator that glows green when fully charged and blinks red when the battery is low. The lens looks exactly like regular shades except when they are turned on, they go dark.



This little protrusion you see is actually the battery compartment (Lithium-ion) and a mini-USB port for charging. You can use the glasses while charging as well as the cord is long, so you can sit back comfortably and play.

It is the transmitter that connects to the PC via mini-USB and basically keeps the flickering of the lens in sync with the games refresh rate. Since it is IR it needs to have a line of sight in order to work. The little Nvidia logo is actually a button that glows green. You can turn the 3DVision on and off with this.





At the rear is the mini-USB port used to connect it, VESA 3-pin Stereo cable (used for 3D ready DLP's) and a wheel which is used to adjust the depth. We'll go into more detail on how this works in a bit.


Very similar to the 2233SW in design, the RZ version has some slight differences. At the front, it sports exactly the same design with a blue power light in the center. Unlike the 2233SW though, the aspect ratio is 16:10 and comes with just a single DVI port. The rest of the specifications are pretty much standard with 5ms response time, 20000:1 Dynamic contrast ratio and a 170 degree viewing angle. What sets this apart though is that it is the world's first true 120Hz display, which is needed for 3D gaming.



Testbench

In order to test the 3DVision we didn't go with the extreme set of components, instead we settled for a modest testbench consisting of a quad core Phenom II X4 940 and 2GB of DDR2 memory.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940

Motherboard: Asus M4A79 Deluxe

RAM: 2 x 1GB DDR2 1066 MHz G.Skill

HDD: Hitachi 300GB SATA II (10000 rpm)

PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W

Cabinet: CoolerMaster Mystique

Monitor: Samsung 2233RZ (120 Hz Display)

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

VGA Driver: Forceware 186.18

However, please note that the 3DStereo only works on Windows Vista
and 7 so if you're still stuck on XP then you're out of luck. Next, let's go ahead and set it up.

Hardware Setup

Setting up the hardware was as simple as plugging in the transmitter and installing the software. Upon first use the glasses need to be charged for at least three hours. Nvidia claims around 40 hours of gaming on a single charge, so let's see if it lives up the claim. There is an indicator light on the glasses that show you how much charge is left.





Before you install the 3DStereo drivers it's recommended that you first uninstall any old drivers. At the time of testing we used the 186.18 drivers, which are the latest ones. Apart from the display drivers you also need to install the 3DStereo drivers for the transmitter. Once everything is installed you'll see a new section in the Nvidia Control Panel
called 3DStereo




Checking the box for the first time takes you through a setup process where you can configure the glasses. The software automatically scans for a 3D ready display after which it shows you a couple of patterns to test if the 3D Vision is working or not. Once that's done you're all set to game. Nvidia has a list of more than 100 games that are 3DStereo certified but not all of them work well.



For this they have a rating system of - Fair, Good, Excellent - for most of the games, so games with an excellent rating will give you a very immersive experience as compared to a game that's rated Fair.



Also, make sure you you've selected 120Hz as the refresh rate, or else it wont be able to split the frames. Now that we've set up everything let's begin gaming and see if the hype is really worth it.

Analysis

When it all comes together, the 3D effect is simply stunning and even makes a boring game enjoyable. The glasses are lightweight and very comfortable to use even for long hours of gaming. Like I said, the 3D effect will takes some time getting used to, as it's a little disorienting at first but once you get the hang of it you won't take it off, that's for sure!

The battery of the glasses easily lasted for a couple of days, mostly because we weren't gaming continuously. Once the line of sight breaks or you close a game the glasses automatically turn off, which also helps save battery life. Games based on OpenGL don't work as of now, so Doom 3 and Quake 4 will have to wait.



This is Nvidia's strategy to get people into purchasing 3DVision and I'm glad they've included it. What this does is it lets you use traditional anaglyph glasses (red and green) to view 3D. That's right; you can select the type of 3D processing in the Nvidia control panel. When you select 3D Discover, instead of drawing alternate frames, one frame is shifted towards the red spectrum while the other is toward the cyan spectrum. The resulting effect is the same when you watch a 3D movie but now you can even play games using this. Of course you won't get the proper colors, but the effect is still maintained. The best part is you can make these glasses at home and enjoy 3D on any monitor, just make sure you have Vista or 7 else it wont work.
Pricing and Verdict



The Nvidia 3DVision kit, which includes the glasses and the transmitter, retail for around Rs.10,000! Wait, there's more, you also need a 3D ready display, and Samsung is currently the only one offering you a 120Hz display, the 2233RZ, which retails for 20K.
It's expensive sure, but it's currently the only way to go 3D. This product is not meant for the masses yet but only for serious gamers. You also need to remember that apart from the glasses and the LCD, you also need a beefy system in order to handle the double processing. This means shelling out more money for the graphics card. Thankfully the price have dropped recently and the GTX 260 (216 shader) that we used now sells for just 11K, which is a really low price and can easily handle this sort of 3D processing.

3D seems like the next logical step in the evolution of gaming. With all this fancy shader effects we see, watching the same thing in 3D really enhances the experience, no doubt about that. For now this technology is restricted to Nvidia cards only but very soon we'll be seeing 3D displays that will eliminate the need for glasses and will work with any type of configuration. But until then if you want to experience 3D then this is the way to go.