Stereoscopic 3D Gaming FAQ

Overview
Humans have two eyes which are capturing light from slightly different positions and therefore produce slightly different images. The difference in observed images is unconsciously processed by the human brain and results in sensation of depth, or 3D sensation.
Stereoscopic 3D refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3D depth.

Why 3D gaming ?
Immersion. The feeling of being inside the game that 3D technology provides is far superior to the traditional 2D. In many games, it becomes almost impossible to go back to 2D after you experience the immersion offered by this technology. On the other hand, the quality of the effects varies greatly from game to game, beyond which there is an inevitable loss in performance when you enable 3D.

Whats is the performance drop i should expect gaming in 3D ?
Back in early 2009, nearly all of the performance results demonstrated a 50% frame rate drop with stereoscopic 3D effects turned on. This made sense, because two staggered versions of each frame were being displayed. Almost two years later, the newest titles are beginning to overcome this trend. Mafia II proves this point, and loses only 30% with 3D Vision enabled and a mere 11% when tested using an SLI set. Crysis 2, for example, loses not more than 15% with 3D enabled.
Anyway, this technology is still best suited for gamers capable of providing high-end graphical power.

What do i need to experience 3D gaming ?
It will depend on the technology you may choose, but genereally speaking a 3D compatible monitor, TV or projector, a shutter glass, compatible graphics card and appropriate software. You can check the hardware requirements for Nvidia 3D Vision here, plus the specific requirements for Nvidia 3D Vision Surround, AMD HD3D here, and also the software solutions IZ3D and TriDef.

What is currently the best 3D solution for gaming ?
Nvidia 3D Vision offers the best support for 3D gaming. It develops its own 3D drivers, differently from AMD, wich uses third party drivers (iZ3D / TriDef), needed to enable 3D on its graphic cards. Also you can run multi GPUs and multi monitor setups with Nvidia 3D Vision, unlike AMD HD3D solution.

How can i adjust convergence and depth ?
Running 3D Vision you may adjust the level of depth by either turning the scroll wheel on the IR transmitter, or by using CRTL+F3 or CTRL+F4, decreasing or increasing it. If you run a new game, or some one you might notice that there is nothing impressive when you run it with 3D Vision, you can try to change the convergence in order to improve the situation, changing the convergence and thus improving the level of depth, the pop-out of the screen effect or even both.
You should know that by default the keys for changing the convergence level are CRTL+F5 and CTL+F6, but they are not active so even when pressing them nothing will change. In order to be able to control the level of convergence you must first “Enable the advanced in-game settings” from Nvidia’s Control Panel by going in to “Stereoscopic 3D”, choosing “Set up stereoscopic 3D” and then opening the “Set Keyboard Shortcuts”.

When you activate the advanced settings you would be able to use the CTRL+F7 key combination in order to save the custom settings you set by changing the level of convergence so that you will not have to make them each time you run a given game. However you should know that there is still no graphic representation showing you the level of convergence, so when you are changing it you must carefully watch the changes on the screen. Nvidia is probably going to build additional functionality into a later version of the driver that will show you visually the level of convergence such as the one already available for the level of depth.

Can someone with vision in one eye only see in 3D ?
The overall 3D effect is that the right eye and the left eye see slightly different images (two different 2D images), which gives the illusion of depth.
If you only have one working eye, you will only see one of the two images. Playing a game this way, or with one eye closed, or with only one eye, is like playing a game in 2D only, so no 3D effect will be experienced.

Is 3D gaming compatible with multi GPUs ?
Yes, Nvidia 3D Vision supports SLI. AMD HD3D currently doesnt support CrossfireX, so the 6990 is out for 3D.

Can i have 3D at multi monitor resolutions ?
Yes, with Nvidia 3D Vision Surround, that requires a SLI setup. AMD HD3D does not currently support Eyefinity (multi-mon). These are the currently supported 3D Vision Surround display modes and resolutions.

Is bezel compensation supported in 3D Vision Surround ?
Yes, it works just as in 2D Surround, the game that supports it in 2D will also support bezel compensation in 3D.

Does 3D Vision run in windowed mode?
Yes, 3D Vision does support running games in window mode, with some limitations. SLI isnt supported, and it also cant be used to run the 3D Vision Photo Viewer or the 3D Video Player. YouTube 3D is supported.

What games are supported ?
Nvidia rates games according to their native 3D support ([i">3D Vision Ready[/i">, [i">Excellent[/i">, [i">Good[/i">, [i">Fair[/i">, [i">Poor[/i"> and [i">Not Recommended[/i">), the full list can be consulted here. IZ3D also presents a list of compatible game in their site.
TriDef lists the supported games, plus respective DirectX version, here.

How do i configure games to run in 3D ?
Many games present issues when running in 3D, like ghosting, incorrect depth values for 2D elements such as nameplates, healthbars, , UI, wrong object placement, incorrect shadows position, and not working when a particular tech is used, like AA.
Nvidia offers a comprehensive list of suggested settings, separed by game, embedded in their 3D drivers, that you can check in the Nvdia Control Panel, before launching a game, and that is displayed when the game is loaded. Also you may try different values for depth and convergence (if unlocked) to minimize ghosting effect and achieve the best 3D experience. Some sites like Solution Gaming are dedicated to share specific 3D solutions, submited by the 3D gaming community. You can also discuss and share solutions in our Stereoscopic 3D Gaming forums.

How can i capture and view 3D screenshots and movies ?
Please refer to this article on how to capture 3D content. This mini-tutorial explains how to view 3D screenshots that you may download in net with the Nvidia Photo Viewer. There are several 3D video players that you can use, such as the Nvidia 3D Video Player and TriDef Media Player.

Where can i upload my 3D content ?
You can create 3D screenshot galleries here at WSGF, the images can be upload directly in .jps format (under your nickname on the left, go [i">Create content > Gallery[/i">, please refer to the How To Create A Gallery article if necessary), after the upload 2D previews of each screenshot will be automatically displayed. You can check our 3D galleries here, the 3D images have an anaglyph glasses icon in the upper left-hand corner.
3D videos can be uploaded directly to YouTube, that supports stereo 3D. Add the tag “yt3d:enable=true” to enable YouTube 3D video mode. If your video has a 16:9 aspect ratio, also add the tag “yt3d:aspect=16:9”. YouTube 3D expects crossview formatted side by side, so if you exported as side by side parallel instead of crossview you will need to add the tag “yt3d:swap=true” to ensure the left and right eyes are presented correctly

Source: Nvidia, IZ3D, DDD, AMD and 3dvision-blog.com.