rec.autos.simulators

A. Galloway

Hi
I decided to get a set based on the reviews you mention and some comments
from ras. I took me a few days to get accustomed to stereo viewing. I could
not use them for too long without getting aches. This is a normal thing,
which is explained in the NVidia doc (see links below). It is caused by your
eyes having to focus on the screen while looking in the distance or closer
by (convergence). Usually focussing and convergence are linked, with the
stereo viewing focus is at a fixed distance while convergence varies. After
a few days I was accustomed to this and my eyes would adjust as soon as the
stereo became active.

For games that are in NVidia's database, the settings are ok first on. For
games that are not there, some tweaking is necessary. You can adjust the
stereo properties using defineable hot keys while the game is playing. This
is explained very well in the NVidia doc. Settings can be safed for each
game in the registry.

The glasses themselves wear ok. I have prescription glasses and can wear the
3D glasses easily over them. The added weight is not much, despite the
batteries (wireless model). The image is quite dark though, this is why the
drivers have the option to increase the gamma setting (brightness) when 3D
is active. I find myself upping the contrast of the monitor in addition to
upping the gamma. The image gets better when lighting from the surroundings
is low, like in a cinema.

I find I need a refresh rate of at least 100HZ to not see flicker. My system
can run 1024x768 at 100Hz or 800x600 at 140Hz. I prefer the first for the
added detail, enabling to view further ahead. (In non stereo I use 1280x1024

dramatic. I run an Athlon 800 with a Geforce 3 Ti 200. Btw, stereo works for
OpenGL games too, not only DirectX.
A nice side effect is that the stereo has a mild FSAA effect. It provides
two slightly shifted images which in your mind are blended into one. Hence
the 1024x768 looks very good in stereo.

The benefits in racing games are limited in my view. The track is
essentially a 2D thing (even close to 1D if you like, though curling through
space), and the***pit position is very low, which makes it difficult to
see perspective. The things that look best in 3D, like trees, buildings and
hills, are not the things you watch while racing. Estimating distance and
speed of other cars is not helped much by the 3D view. The same goes for
assessing braking points.

In racing games that are not in the database, mostly the convergency has to
be adjusted using Ctrl-F5 and Ctrl-F6 to give the screen depth a position
where the helmet glass would be. Although the glasses can display objects in
front of the screen, I found it not natural to do this with the***pit of a
race car. Probably this is because the***pit usually fills the whole width
of the screen. To show it in front of the screen it would have to get even
wider.

In GPL, I suffered from seeing everything double in the mirrors. This was
cured by setting the D3D paramater DirectMirrorRendering=0 in core.ini.
However now I miss some part of the mirror image in the left mirror. In it's
place is shown a mirrored image of some scenery ahead. The part becomes
greater if I increase the stereo seperation. At max seperation, there is no
mirror image at all in the left mirror and the effect extends to the right
mirror. Apart from this, stereo in GPL works fine. Tracks with nice
surroundings (the Ring!) are nice to cruise. But like I said, when you're
racing there is not time to look at the surroundings!

GP3, though listed at the E-Dimensional site, is not suitable because of the
use of 2D graphics. This concerns the***pit mostly. Also in a race the
game slowed very much and is totally unplayable, comparable to switching on
FSAA. This is using my Athlon 800. Maybe the fastest system today can handle
it.
It seems like E-Dimensional has confused "Tested" with "Compatible" here.
GP3 is in Nvidia's database, but with a very poor rating which is correct. I
am hoping that GP4 will be ok for stereo viewing.

I looked briefly at Super1 Karting, F1 2002 demo, Viper, Nascar 4, Mercedes
Benz Truck Racing. After adjusting the convergence for games not in NVidia's
database, they looked ok. Only MBTR has the same double images in the mirror
as I had in GPL. I don't know if it can be corrected in MBTR.

NVidia's documentation:
User's guide:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Technical brief:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Bart Westra

Achim

...
...

I have a small addition:
I forgot to mention ghost images that you sometimes see. This is because the
left image shows faintly in the right image and vice versa. It is most
obvious with bright objects. The most noticeable were the driver arms and
legs and the steering wheel in GPL. After a while you get to ignore the
ghost images. A bit like you ignore the boundaries of the glasses or
floaters in your eyes.

Also I used the glasses in the Michael Schumacher Kart demo. This game works
well in 3D stereo. The surrounding, a multi layer track in a hall is more a
3D thing than an outdoor track. It is most impressive from the chase view,
from the "cockpit" view (you see no***pit) the perspective on the track is
again not great. So it looks nice, but you can race just as fast without 3D
stereo. I even find I can be more precise in normal mode, but that may be a
matter of what one is most accustomed to.

Bart Westra

http://www.simracingworld.com/html/srw/hreviews/edimensional/

--
------
Paul Tomlinson
SimRacingWorld Network - http://www.simracingworld.com

I run GPL 1201 with D3D patch. Almost no graphics additions, only Ollies
***pits.
I will try the 29.41 driver for win98 and report back.

Bart

I have tried the 29.41 drivers now, and they make no difference. I tried to
make a stereo screenshot to show the partial mirror, but for some reason it
doesn't work.
In the Nascar 2002 demo I got a comparable effect, though much less
noticable. I see a small black area on the left hand side of the mirror. It
gets bigger as I increase the stereo seperation.

I searched forum.racesimcentral.com for "3D glasses". The information in the
threads I found matches with the review I gave. One has to compromise on
certain things to get the 3D working:
- refresh rate is more or less halved (alternating frames for each eye),
which can force you into a lower resolution when you compensate by
increasing the normal refresh rate
- brightness and contrast are less
- cpu load increases, therefor less fps

I was already aware of the hot keys for adjusting the image, but they don't
help in getting back the full mirror image.

Don't get me wrong, the glasses deliver what is promised and compared to
earlier efforts I guess they are a big step in the right direction. Also I
think the impact of the 3D effect depends on the game. For race sims driven
from the***pit I find it is limited. From chase view, or TV view in
replays, the perspective is much better.
I found the increase in resolution from 800x600 to 1280x1024 when I got my
current system of more value for racing than the 3D effect. 1280x1024 allows
me to see more detail in the small part of the screen that is important in
racing: the next turn. Also it allows me to see other cars sooner as I
approach them.

Then for GPL, I would like to hear from one of the "Excellent,  brilliant,
superb" reviewers how he got the mirrors working ok. Possibly the fov was
set so small so that the mirrors are only partially visible, so the faulty
part is obscured. Increasing stereo seperation to max should still reveal it
in that case.
Also I wonder why they don't mention the ghost images from white or shiny
objects like driver arms and legs, edges of gauges and the white lines at
the side of the track.

Bart Westra

Gerry