Using 3D Ready Display with Checkerboard format?

[cagatay]

Dear colleagues,

I am developing a 3D player myself and I would like to display my content on 3D displays without using a special software or graphics card. For me, it is easy to display a checkerboard pattern to monitor combining left/right images in real-time using OpenGL and shaders. But I don't know if this just works fine without writing any other special code for a 3D ready display. I dont have a 3D display yet, and cannot find where to buy.

Are these 3D displays can show a checkboard image without having any special software/hardware?
Should I flip left/right image pixel orderings in checkerboard in 120Hz manually or just a static checkboard pattern (left first, right second, and so on) and a static image shown on the display is enough?
Should I control the IR-emmiter with my software, or it just works itself when plugged to display?
Are all 3D ready displays/projectors can use checkboard format?
Where can I find list of 3D displays that supports checkboard format and IR-emmiter without need for a PC control?

Best regards

[cybereality]

The checkerboard format is just used to pack the left/right images into one frame. It is a static format, there is no need to "page-flip" or sync the refresh at all. The television itself handle the sync with the shutter glasses (via wire or IR, etc.). So all you need to do is provide the proper checkerboard image and the TV should handle the rest. Usually this means that the user must select 3D mode in the TV options. There are a number of Mitsubishi and Samsung models that support checkerboard. You can see a list here: http://www.3dmovielist.com/3dhdtvs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (scroll down to the 2009 3D DLP section).

[cagatay]

Thank you for the information. It is very appreciated

Does 1920x1080 (1080P), 1024x768 ("720P"), 1360x768 (720P) mean checkerboard?
Are other formats similar to checkerboard? Where can I find definition of these?

As I understand world goes to "frame-sequential 120Hz". What is this? A static image cam make them work?

http://www.3dmovielist.com/projectors.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; lists some projectors. Are these also compatible with that format?

[cybereality]

Checkerboard has been used at different resolutions. If you are buying a TV make sure to get 1080P as its the standard resolution. Frame-sequential 3D is also known as page-flipping and is when the left and right views are shown in quick succession (e.g. LRLRLRLRLRLR). The frame-sequential 120Hz commonly refers to using the Nvidia 3D Vision glasses with a compatible display. This could be done for gaming and also video purposes. However for this to work you need low-level access to the video card and thus is only supported by Nvidia proprietary software. This is very difficult to support with your own software and is not easy like checkerboard or interlaced formats. I am not really sure how those projectors would work as I don't have much experience in that area.

[cagatay]

Seems to be bad

Checkerboard was easy to implement, but new displays does not support that I think. In 2010, there was none in the list.

[cybereality]

Thats right. The industry seems to be moving away from checkerboard so it will soon be considered "legacy" 3D-ready.

[Likay]

And what is 3d-ready??? I assumed these displays were approved with the nvidia 3d-vision but in reality most of them aren't. They're not even compatible with the same hardware or inputformat so what's the "3d-ready" stamp for? Goofish marketing?

[cagatay]

But what I don't understand is that putting a stereoscopic image on the screen should not be that difficult.
There are video players that can display stereo videos in 3D, but these videos are not rendered as a 3D model, are they? They are just left and right images, not a 3D polygonal model. Therefore, there should be an easy way to visualize a stereo image without rendering it on the screen.

I wonder if there is an API command/interface in DirectX or OpenGL for visualizing raw left and right images?

[DmitryKo]

I wonder if there is an API command/interface in DirectX or OpenGL for visualizing raw left and right images?

Well, OpenGL spec supports page-flipped stereo, though it only works if OpenGL application supports quad-buffered rendering, a feature mostly reserved for professional CAD/CAM. Also, NVidia has proprietary NvAPI which supports stereo, see my reply in another thread. Direct3D does not support stereo at all.