3D Vision Mega Evaluation – Gimmick or Gaming’s Future?

This editor has been interested in modern Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) PC gaming especially since 2008 when Nvidia held their first Nvision08 and demonstrated 3D Vision for the first time in public to the attendees.  In fact, the first article ever written for ABT was, Nvision08 – Nvidia’s 3D Future Showcased.  And we have been closely following the “3D Movement” at the trade shows – the follow-up to Nvision08, Nvidia’s GTC 2009, and at CES 2010 and CES 2011.  We bucked the trend and correctly predicted at CES 2010, that the 3D HDTV adoption rate would be very slow due to a lack of 3D TV programming, but we were more optimistic about Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) PC gaming taking off more quickly.

In April of this year, Nvidia sent AlienBabelTech two 3D Vision Kit Bundles (two of each: wireless active shutter glasses, emitter, 120Hz 1080p display) and a third matched ASUS 23″ 120Hz display also for 3D Vision Surround evaluations at 5760×1080.  This editor then mostly set aside his hardware-reviewing duties and plunged headfirst into the world of 3D Vision and Stereoscopic 3D (S3D).  Evaluating S3D has been the number one priority for well over 5 months by playing more than 80 PC games with 3D Vision.

This 3D 80-game evaluation included playing 6 relatively new games from start to finish with 3D Vision; and we also invited about 20 friends, relatives and neighbors – in ages ranging from 8 to 86 – to audition it with us.  Here are the new games that we played with 3D Vision all considered to be excellent or even made with stereoscopic 3D in mind – 3D Vision Ready.

• Metro 2033
• Bulletstorm
• Duke Nukem Forever
• Alice: Madness Returns
• Dungeon Siege III
• Crysis 2

We also played or attempted to play more than 80 games from the past decade to the present with 3D Vision over this same 5 month period. However, before we get into the details of our 3D Vision evaluation, we need to give you some background on stereoscopic 3D (S3D) and the hardware required to play it. There are also many misconceptions about S3D and we will work to clear them up.

It doesn’t take much in the way of hardware to transform a 2D experience into a stereoscopic 3D one.  All it generally takes to turn a 2D HDTV display into a 3D experience is 120Hz support, an upgraded chipset and an IR emitter. Of course, we shall also focus on what 3D gaming brings over 2D besides “looking cool” and thus we will look at its value to determine if 3D Vision is worth the extra you must spend on hardware to enjoy it.