I was using Vista Home Premium 32-bit with a Geforce 7100 since the start of 2007 and had no luck getting any Stereo3D function at all. A few months ago I went back to using XP (Professional SP2 32-bit) due to getting sick of Vista being incompatible with stuff and randomly messing up. I recently had to get a new card so I got a Geforce 9600GT (512MB). I also upgraded my RAM to 2GB from 1GB.

My question is this: Is it possible to get any sort of Stereo3D working with XP and a 9600GT? Even if it is just the red/blue stuff, as I have some cheap red/blue glasses (not sure if its blue or cyan). Also, I use a widescreen (16:10) LCD monitor, and I can plug in a 4:3 flatpanel CRT (screen isnt curved, but still has the big back) into the 2nd monitor port on the card. I was wondering if it would be possible to have games run with one image on the LCD (obviously in 4:3 mode), and another image on the CRT right next to it, so I can go crosseyed and get a 3D image? I know thats not the best solution for long term, but just as a test to see how cool realy 3D graphics look, that would be pretty cool to try out.

So yeah, any help anyone can give me would be appreciated!

I'm not sure about the Nvidia stereo 3d driver with that setup. You could try the iz3D driver, that should work in anaglyph mode (red/blue).

Hmm, I just tried iZ3D just before, and the Anaglyph mode seems to work, except that when I look through my red/blue glasses it doesnt look right. They are ones I got with a magazine about 5 years ago, so they are not very good quality, but I dont think thats the reason. My guess is that the screen is showing cyan and the glasses have blue, or the screen is showing blue and the glasses have cyan, or something like that. I am going to have to take a look and find the other ones I got which were from that Spy Kids 3D movie.

I found my other Red/Blue glasses which are much stronger, and it works a bit better, but I get the impression that Anaglyph mode is not very good for gaming. With my current setup, what would be the cheapest option for 3D gaming? If a second monitor is required, I have one I can use.

Also, I should point out that I wear long-distance prescription glasses (I am short-sighted), and I wear them while looking at my computer monitor too. I dont know if this will affect anything, but I thought I should mention it.

I also get the impression that NVIDIA now support Vista with Stereo3D drivers. Typical, considering I only swapped back to XP a few months ago... If I need to swap back to Vista to get a good 3D solution with my 9600GT, then I will.

i'm playing in almost the same conditions as you are : (long distance glasses, standard 16:10 lcd monitor, anaglyph glasses, nvidia 8800gtx : very close to your graphics card) Except i don't own windows vista, so my only choice is iZ3D.
I've also got spy-kids 3d type glasses (red/cyan), and it's almost the best way to view anaglyph 3D, the only thing you could improve is find hard plastic glasses instead of the paper ones and that's it.

Anaglyph is the cheapest way to experience S-3D, and both iZ3D and nvidia can use it.
Nvidia is no better than iZ3D, at the moment both have successes and issues. But i wouldn't recommand you to switch your operating system if you don't like vista.

I think you can do crosseyed with iZ3D using the dual output mode, but i've never tested it. You also may need to have two identical montiors for it to work (at least identical screen size and aspect ratio), unless one of your screens can resize the image and add black borders to get the correct image, but i don't know ANY recent monitor which is able to do that (old CRTs could because you had to use these controls to setup your screen in the first place, but since the digital switch all of this is now automatic, so these controls are gone since they're not needed anymore)

if you are a skilled crosseye viewer I advise you to visit the galery! There are a lot of 3D shots from games with very different settings and drivers!

http://www.mtbs3d.com/gallery/index.php?theme=mac_ox_x

Thy should be crosseyed in most cases.

The Dualoutput by Iz3D could 'work' for your system. I tried it with 2CTs and had to sit very far away (longer than arms lenght) to get it good crosseyed. Also it's hard to get popout, because you don't have a reference point. I don't advise to get 2 monitors in such a settup, except you are REALY good at crossing your eyes or you don't want to sit near your screen anyway...

However you could easyly take screenshots (with Iz3D driver) and see them in full color (for comparison to Anaglyph) on one monitor. Afaik they are always saved as normal .jps --> perfect for viewing crosseyed when renamed to .jpg!

O and if you have more money you could get a Zalman for your Vista and NV GPU

Or you could get a Iz3D for any OS and any GPU and many games...

Anaglyph is of course the cheap option, but you can definitely game with it. I'd recommend starting out with a decent pair of plastic glasses, much better then the paper ones you get for free. There are some good quality glasses available here:

http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/gla.html

I will see if that is possible. My BenQ Widescreen LCD has 2 inputs (1 DVI and 1 VGA), and my card has 3 outputs (DVI, DVI, and S-Video), and i have a DVI-to-VGA converter plug, so I will plug in my monitor into the second port on the card and see if that Dual Output mode actually does output how I want it to output. If that works, ill go find that second monitor and set it up and see if I can get that working. The only thing is that I think that dual output mode is limited to 30 days after you install the driver, but I could be wrong.


I dont know how good my eye crossing is compared to whats 'good' and whats 'bad' as I have never compared it to anyone before, so I guess I will find out.

Good idea about the screenshots - I will see if I can figure out how to get screenshots of my games on 1 monitor to view crosseyed and see what they are like.

Zalman and iZ3D are monitors right? I cant afford to buy any monitors right now. Perhaps in a few years I can.


Really? I was finding it difficult to use correctly, but I dont think I had it set up correctly. I will try again.

Oh, and is GarrysMod (GMod) a good game to test this stuff with? Or doesnt this work well with the source engine?

I haven't tried Gary's Mod, but I assume it works. I didn't have a problem with any of the Source games (aside from minor glitches, like with the shadows).

Go here and download the latest iz3D stereo driver. The anaglyph mode you can test for free. Paper glasses will work fine, but the quality is improved with plastic glasses. That is about as good as it gets if you are on a budget and with your current hardware (ie 9600GT, LCD screen, etc.). With anaglyph you won't get crazy out-of-screen effects, but with a minimal amount of 3D it can look alright.

I might be wrong, but isn't there a (secret) option for S-3D in Garys mod for HL2? I think it might be possible to view it crosseyed natively! If I'm right, there should be a command in the console

@ screenshots: You shouldn't have much problems viewing them crosseyed. There are also very nice galeries (for real photos). You'll just have to use google a little and type in crosseyed (or 'Kreuzblick' for Germans)

Good fun