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

The 3D Vision active shutter glasses

Nvidia’s 3D Vision glasses are reasonably stylish and one could wear them outside in public although it is not a good idea as direct sunlight is harmful for the liquid crystal display nor do they provide any UV protection.   Although they only allow a bit less than half of the visible light to pass, they would not make good sunglasses.

The 3D Vision glasses also have a protective mechanism and the lenses will darken and lighten rapidly when you are not gaming in 3D to remind you to take them off.   Nvidia’s following charts illustrate the functionality of the 3D Vision glasses and kit perfectly.

All of the electronics are located on the inner left side on the glasses and it appears to add no weight at all. The wireless glasses do not require a wire connection although the wired set does.

The wireless glasses are powered by a built-in lithium-ion battery and they will hold a charge for about 60 hours – not 40 hours as for the older edition as the diagram above states.   This is confirmed over months of using them.  The wireless glasses receive their synchronization signal from the IR transmitter and you may have an unlimited number of glasses receiving the same signal from a single emitter.

An on-off button and a Power Battery indicator are located on the top of the frame. The glasses shut down automatically after a few minutes of being idle and out of contact with the emitter. The lenses blink in order to remind you that you should take them off and and an LED also blinks red when the battery is low; it is amber when being charged via the USB cable.

A standard USB connector is included with the kit and is used for recharging the battery.  It takes about 3 hours from discharged to fully charged.  There were no issues for this editor or any of his 20 guests, even those who wore them over prescription eyeglasses. All of the guests agreed that the glasses were quite comfortable.

These glasses can fit most faces because of the 3 different-sized nose pads that are included with the 3D Vision kit.  This editor found no advantages to wearing contact lenses over prescription eyeglasses with the Nvidia 3D Vision glasses as long as all of the lenses were spotlessly clean.

The 3D glasses are automatically synchronized with the computer to dim the left or right lens simultaneously with the display. This is done by means of an infrared transmitter up to a distance of about 20 feet.  The emitter looks like a small black plastic (Mayan – not Egyptian) pyramid. The transmitter must be located in direct view of the glasses or the glass will not function; blink and eventually turn off.

The transmitter has a USB connector for connecting to the computer, a 3D VESA socket for TV-sets that support GeForce 3D Vision and a wheel for instant adjustment of 3D depth as well as an on-off button to turn off the 3D effects in game. Although you can change more parameters with hot keys, the wheel is conveniently and instantly available to use while gaming.

3D Vision is compatible with Nvidia’s video cards, starting from the 8800 GT and 9600 GT, and including the GTX 200/400 and 500 series of cards. Dual-GPU video cards are also supported including SLI configurations with two or more cards.  However, you do not want to use entry-level cards because the load on them is approximately twice what it is for 2D gaming.

Let’s install 3D Vision on our PC.