Area 51 (the 2005 game) looks flat

[DevilMaster]

I got Area 51 some days ago, so naturally I tried to run it in stereoscopy, but everything in it looks flat. There is no difference at all between running it in stereoscopy or in "normal" mode: there are not even two distinct (but identical) images, a single image is all that is displayed.

I even tried to run it with Dragon's utility (TuningNSD.exe), but all it does is display the HUD on a plane and the game world on a different (more distant) plane. The game world still looks flat. On top of that, when I reach the second room of the first level, the game locks up.

Did anyone succeed in playing it in actual stereo 3D? The .ini file where the graphic options are set controls only a few parameters (windowed mode on/off, resolution, detail textures on/off). Are there any other options I can try to tweak?

My specs: Pentium M @ 1.73 GHz; 512 MB RAM; GeForce Go 6200; ForceWare 78.01.

[thud]

Are there any other options I can try to tweak?

Look into vertical synchronization (vSync) as it will definitely affect Stereo 3D.

There are a number of ways you can either turn it off or on, perhaps the best
is to use the nVidia console to tweak the game profile if there is nothing in the
INI file.

--- Thud

[DevilMaster]

I tried turning it off from the nVidia control panel, and the results are exactly the same as in my first post, when it was on.

[LukePC1]

I bet there is some (or a lot) of postprocessing such as motion blur in the game. I don't know if it is possible to turn it down though.
If you already looked in the .ini and the menue there isn't much left.
The Vsync does only help when the game is already in 3D, but flickers a lot.

Maybe FSAA is the problem? Or a dualcore?

What makes me curious is, why doesn't it just crash? BSOD?

[DevilMaster]

Maybe FSAA is the problem? Or a dualcore?

I always keep FSAA off to increase performance, and as I wrote in the first post, my processor is a Pentium M, not a dual core.

[shonofear]

hey,
have you tried Dragons Utility at all?
Can be found in the MTBS3D downloads section.
I believe it helps with stuborn games going into S3D,
well thats wat i thought anyway...
give it a shot anyway
But like others have said, not all games work with Stereo

Cheers

[thud]

I tried turning it off from the nVidia control panel

Umm, I think it needs to be ON. I think the games that are ported from XBox to PC
all use the Unreal engine. If so, there are lots of configuration options to try (as in
Bioshock, for one example). If you see 'tearing' in-game, then vSync is OFF. If you
have S3-D and some occasional 'flicker' then probably vSync is enabled in two places
and one of them needs to be turned off.

Why don't you search all of the INI files for anything like 'VS' ? As LukePC1 says,
any post-processing (as in SWAT4 or STALKER) will prevent S3-D. If you were
to post the game INI file here, perhaps someone might have a good suggestion.

One final thought is to turn OFF hardware TnL, this sometimes helps. The standard
route is to set everything LOW. Then if you have S3-D, you can add things until
either things are acceptable or else as good as you can make them.

--- Thud

[LukePC1]

My specs: Pentium M @ 1.73 GHz; 512 MB RAM; GeForce Go 6200; ForceWare 78.01.

I don't know if it ever ran in 3D, but I played it once. Was quite fun.
Maybe it's your driver? In Bioshock a newer driver is supposed to help, but I never got it to run.

I'd suggest 91.31 the newest official driver. It should be most stable and maybe has a little more compatibility.
I'll download the demo and try it out myself. But somehow I think the game uses too much postprocessing and stuff to run with NV drivers

[DevilMaster]

have you tried Dragons Utility at all?

Do you mean TuningNSD.exe?
If so, I have tried (as I wrote in the first post), and all it does is display the HUD on a plane and the game world on a different (more distant) plane, but the game world still looks flat.

Umm, I think it needs to be ON.

Vsync was on during my first test. After seeing that having it disabled changed nothing, I re-enabled it.

I think the games that are ported from XBox to PC all use the Unreal engine.

I don't think Area 51 uses the Unreal engine. The executable is in the main directory of the game, not in the System subdirectory as I would expect in an Unreal engine-based game. There isn't even a System subdirectory. And the .INI files have a lot less parameters than the usual files of an Unreal engine-based game.

If you were
to post the game INI file here, perhaps someone might have a good suggestion.

Here's UserVConfig.ini:

Window = FALSE
ScreenWidth = 800
ScreenHeight = 600
UseHiResTextures = TRUE
Gamma = 0.998000
Contrast = 1.000000
Brightness = 0.000000

The other .ini files (UserInputConfig.ini and LangConfig.ini) control the keyboard and mouse input, and the language localization.
BTW, I tried setting UseHiResTextures to FALSE, and I did not get stereo.

One final thought is to turn OFF hardware TnL, this sometimes helps.

I tried to disable it from the nVidia control panel, and I did not get stereo.

[shonofear]

Quote:
have you tried Dragons Utility at all?

Do you mean TuningNSD.exe?
If so, I have tried (as I wrote in the first post), and all it does is display the HUD on a plane and the game world on a different (more distant) plane, but the game world still looks flat.

opps,
indeed you did mention it, sorry bout that.
not sounding good for it though...
Im using driver 94.24 Forceware/Stereo from NV with shutters which r a good combo for my older system
have u even other 3d outputs? (Anaglph)
Or even IZ3D's latest beta driver in Interlaced mode (are u using shutters?)
hope it works for ya