Wed, 06/09/2010 - 14:36
I got ahold of the 256.76 Win 7 32-bit drivers floating around in public and they work with the 400-series cards and NTHUSIM. I would hold off until an official beta/release is out from nVidia before using 3DVS though. 256.76 has stability and optimization issues making it something I don't recommend to end-users with NTHUSIM quite yet. 3DVS is functional in 256.76 and does work with NTHUSIM just fine. It's just that 256.76 is not an optimized driver and is pretty sluggish even though it works. I just thought you guys might want to know about the current state of things with 3DVS. I've been using it full time for 3 days now on my main projection setup. 256.76 is sluggish, but does work. For now I suggest nVidia users stick to your TH2G boxes till nVidia comes out with a public beta driver. Of course, if you're adventurous, 256.76 is out there in the wild for you to experiment with too. Just keep in mind no one is going to give support for 256.76, not even nVidia. The driver was never meant to be out in the public.
What I have found with use of 256.76 is that nVidia Surround will work with or without nVidia 3D Vision. It works only with 3 displays. There is bezel compensation in the setup wizard for those with LCDs. There is option for portrait or landscape orientation for the surround group. There are also a lot more resolutions available to users now. For instance, I'm using 4800x1200 with the built-in scaler on my setup at the moment. That would have never worked with the TH2G. I have also been using 3D stereographic red-blue anaglyph with my projection setup. It seems to work just fine too. 3DVS will also be for the true 200-series chip cards (GTX260/GTX275/GTX280/GTX285/GTX295) and not the rebadged 200-series that are actually G92 variant chips.
That's pretty much all I've learned so far about the drivers. All this information is floating out there publicly on the internet in a disorganized jumble. I thought I'd post it here in an organized fashon in the context that might help the NTHUSIM users. Hopefully this post gives everyone incite as to what is to come without having to risk installing the beta driver yourself. IMHO, waiting for the official release is probably best.
Edited: Original post has been edited to reflect proper capabilities of 3DVS. There were some inaccuracies in the post. Specificly, 3DVS only works with three displays -- it can't function with only two. Also, 3DVS is Win 7 exclusive -- there is no option for it on Vista or XP. This edit reflects more accurate information than was initially written. I appologise for any confusion the original message might have caused.
Wed, 06/30/2010 - 01:38
#2
258.69 is now available on the nVidia website. It's available for both Win7 32 and 64 bit. It's the first official 3D Vision Surround driver by nVidia. So far it looks to be more responsive than 256.76 was.
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 04:33
#3
Hi Brad,
Couple of questions.
I'm currious about this 3d surround. Do you know if one need flat screens for 3 projector settup or can a curved screen be used.
Also, I have Widwview and wonder if I should find that a good match with this new NVidia technology.
At the end of the day, I want what everyone else does and that is as close to true life as possible without having to pay a fortune for a colimited device. Would this 3d be something that brings me closer to my goal.
I am starting new and want to make sure I get things right from the start.
Thanks for your suggestions and also thanks for your advice and great examples.
Mike
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 08:31
#4
Hi Mike,
You can use a curved screen for 3D, it works great!
Here comes the next thing, though: with Flight Simulator it might make a little difference, but not much. This is because the further away something is, the less inter-occular distance you get, and therefore the less effect that stereo 3D has.
The reason for collimation in flight optics is so that when the pilot and co-pilot look across the cabin at a point, they both see the same scenery at that point. Of course, if you were able to get a spherical first surfaced mirror, you could use NTHUSIM to line up the visuals and get full blown collimated optics...
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 10:05
#5
Thanks for your quick reply to my questions.
So to get the best 3d experience, would it be best to build the screen as close to the plexiglass windows as I can? Perhaps rear projection in order for the sim not to shadow the image in a forward projection set up? Do you know if I could even do 3d with rear projection? Also, any advice on 3d projectors and with use Wideview ( even neccessary?)would be greatly appreciated.
BTW I imagine a spherical first surface mirror be difficult to find or build? I did see some interesting demos that showed how by using a Wii remote or head tracking device one could create a collimated effect, but for the one wearing the device. I couldn't find much on this; however I am open to all creative suggestions.
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 15:20
#6
It's the content of flight-sim that's the problem, not the distance of the screen itself.
Here is an experiment to do! Hold up something in front of you. Now close one eye. Then open it and close the other eye. Notice how the close object moves more than the background? Well when you're looking out of an airplane, its... well... miles until the scenery. So with the stereo it will still seem miles away.
With head-tracking you get parallax that the brain can use to figure out the distance of objects. For example, look at this animated image that shows how effective parallax cues can be:
(I'm not sure where the image came from, if someone knows, I'd like to offer credit to the original author)
As for collimation, it is all about curved mirrors. Curving a mirror means that someone on the left can look to the right but have that ray reflected at a different angle to someone on the right looking to the left. If the mirror is formed to exactly the right shape, they can both look at the same point in the distance, but have it focus on a point very close by. The wikipedia article might help explain it better than me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collimated_light
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 21:46
#7
Agreed, some games are better suited for stereographic 3D than others. It all has to do with the camera perspective in relation to the game content. FPS and 3rd person games where you are constantly moving in relation to nearby mobs and content work well with it, while in something like a flight sim, it only works well when you're on the ground. When you're flying thousands of feet away fro mthe nearest object there are dimishing returns in it's value. I could imagine some flight sims might be better than others for 3D stereographic material. Combat sims where dogfighting occurs or close combat support like A-10 would probably be very interesting in 3D stereo. On the other hand, a commuter flight of a 767 only has a chance to show off the benifits of such tech when it is at an airport setting.
Please note, after re-reading my initial posts in this thread I've appended an edit to the original message stating more accurate information. At the moment, of the three competing surround-screen options (EyeFinity, TH2G and 3DVS), 3DVS is the most problematic to use in relation to NTHUSIM.
I would suggest TH2G or EyeFinity at the moment unless you're willing to wait out nVidia driver stability issues the next few months while nVidia refines them. Both TH2G and EyeFinity are more mature products, even though EyeFinity is still rather new and has it's share of issues too at times. Really, with the TH2G being a self-contained hardware solution there are a lot less driver related headaches to deal with. It's a cost tradeoff though, as you no longer need hardware solutions to achieve surround with both 3DVS and EyeFinity available.
Thanks Brad for all the details. I'm sure your summary will be of help to many .... and a great time saver.
We are looking forward to the offical driver release to ensure that NTHUSIM will support 3DVS. It sounds as though things are promising from your summary.