Is Nvidia ’3D Vision’ cheating?

While looking around for something new, I came across the Nvidia’s ’3D Vision’.

The list of supported games includes FSX, BF2, CoD and many more. Due to the use of hardware to generate the 3D stereoscopic view, a supported Nvidia video card is required (test your video card here). The Nvidia ’3D Vision’ drivers are approved by Punk Buster/Even Balance so there is no risk of getting banned  or kicked from your favorite game. Nvidia state on their site: “We have worked closely with Even Balance to ensure players can enjoy a full 3D experience online”.

The Nvidia ’3D Vision’ drivers work to a large extent, at a hardware level. The software does not require 3D Stereoscopic support to work with ’3D Vision’, any software which utilizes ‘Direct3D’ can run with ’3D Vision’. A supported game however, is required because each game will present different Direct3D (OpenGL support is in development) content which needs to be profiled and added to the ’3D Vision’ drivers. The driver/profile directs the hardware on what components should be presented in 3D. There are some issues with the ’3D Vision’ solution, the drivers are Vista (32/64) only and there is only support for anaglyphic 3D or ’3D Vision’ glasses. Most significant is that some games need tuning down to work well. Note that Nvidia actively seek feedback on performance and update the profiles regularly, but these profile updates cant be downloaded separately, the drivers need to be downloaded again as they are released.

Nvidia are not new to 3D, you can still download the Nvidia ’3D Stereo’ drivers from the Nvidia web site. The advantage of this driver is that it supports many 3D technologies from anaglyph to HMD’s. It also runs on older versions of windows and supports Direct3D and OpenGL. The disadvantage is that the drivers were last updated in 2006 and wont work with newer Nvidia cards.

When using the Nvidia ’3D Stereo’ or ’3D Vision’ drivers, the screenshot/print screen features in the operating system or games do not present the 3D image as seen on the screen, the screenshot only contains the original Direct3D/OpenGL presentation.

An issue when playing FPS with ’3D Vision’/’3D Stereo’ is that the ingame crosshair is generally not a 3D object. Nvidia have got around this by providing and extra ’3D laser sight’. The laser sight / crosshair is generated independently and in 3D so, as with other 3D content, the crosshair is invisible to any screenshot/capture software.

My view is, an equivalent crosshair for non ’3D Vision’ / ’3D Stereo’ equiped players should be allowed. Alas, anything not Nvidia 3D will be caught by Punkbuster and you could get banned.

Enable ingame 3D laser sight / crosshair for BF2, CoD etc without 3D divergence.

Nvidia 3D Vision CP : Photo from digital Camera (hence color) : Screen shot/printscreen.

If you have an Nvidia Card and wish to enable the 3D laser, please see below.
If you are using the Journey to the center of the earth magenta/green glasses, change RightAnaglyphFilter to ff99ffff and LeftAnaglyphFilter to ffff00ff.
If you have 3D glasses, try a few games with them, its worth it for a tast of the real thing.
You will have to use trial and error if you dont have red/blue glasses to get through the setup wizard.

Step 1: download and install the Nvidia vision drivers from the link above.
Step 2: open up the Nvidia Control Panel and enable Stereoscopic 3D, go through the wizard,
Step 3: open regedit and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D
Warning: Right Click on Stereo3D and export to a file as a backup or write down the original settings when change registry entries.
Edit: MonitorSize and change to 1000
Edit: StereoSeparation and change to 1
Edit: LaserSightIndex (1-9) to your preference

There are many more options in the registry, but these changes are sufficient.

To manage ’3D Vision’ ingame:
ctrl-alt-insert to display/hide 3D Vision help
ctrl-F12 to toggle crosshair on/off

The complete ’3D Vision’ solution….

Nvidia ’3D Vision’…..you will require proprietry Nvidia 3D Glasses and a ’3D Ready’ 120Hz LCD/DLP (Dual-Link DVI compatible) or a 100Hz+ analog display.

Most people will have a standard 60Hz LCD display. If you have a CRT monitor which will run at a reasonable resolution at 100Hz+, then you could purchase just the Nvidia 3D Vision glasses kit. If you have a standard LCD screen and you cant run at 100Hz+ via the analog connection (15pin D) then you need to purchase a 3D-Ready screen. I did find a forum where someone had a new Mitsubishi or Hitachi DLP TV which came with its own pair of 3D glasses. As the 120Hz LCD’s are still rather expensive, consider purchasing a 3D-Ready DLP TV (one which comes  with 3D glasses) rather than a 22″ LDC. I have read that people have managed to run the 3D Vision glasses and the DLP TV’s glasses at the same time – this is very useful as, we cant purchase the Nvidia 3D glasses separately. 3D displays which work with polarized glasses are not compatible with ’3D Vision’. Nvidia are working on OpenGL support.

Some links to usefull pages:

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t92184.html
http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t55147.html
http://www.stereo3d.com/discus/messages/21/2069.html
http://www.stereo3d.com/nvidia.htm
http://www.3d.wep.dk/registry.html