LukePC1 - For crosseyed viewing, it sounds like you just need to reduce the c nvergence (try taking it down to zero).
If the separation and c nvergence are both set high, the overlap area will shrink to nothing so the crosseye effect won't work.
I've checked the side-by-side mode for any sort of asymmetry but I can't see any - the angles look correct. Let me know if the c nvergence setting doesn't fix what you're seeing.
You should also halve the aspect ratio 'Display aspect X' if viewing crosseyed.

yuriythebest1 - Thanks for the suggestion, an overall graphics quality setting is a great idea and easy to do, so I'll try to squeeze that in at some point. For now, the most effective way to increase speed is to edit the 'FrameRT' setting in the config file (details).
But like I say, I'm still puzzled by the unusable framerate you're seeing I always make sure it runs at 60fps on my 8800 when I test it in Z800 3DVisor mode. Even on a 7900 driving a WOWvx widescreen display it ran acceptably (although that's actually only 960*540).
Are you using a high fullscreen res? Let me know if you happen to have any more luck with it.

PS - There's an option called 'Chugmaster' in the debug menu - this is a testing feature designed to slow the game to a crawl - make sure you never turn it on! I'll remove it completely from the next release.

Thanks for the help,
phil

Hi,
Version 20.2 provides mirrored dual-monitor stereo modes (flip left / flip right / flip both).
There's also a cross-eyed mode (like side-by-side but adjusted for cross-eyed viewing).
Anaglyph mode now supports yellow filters and magenta filters.

http://download.programmerart.org

Cheers,
phil

Hi,
I've uploaded Version 21.0 which has some funky improvements:

- Geometrically correct stereoscopy - a vastly more convincing, life-size 3D effect.
This relies on measurements that you can edit in the config file (see 'realWorld' in Profiles\Default.txt).

- TrackIR head-tracking has been overhauled - 'virtual window' viewing with clean movements and a calibration mode.

- Head-tracking now enhances stereoscopic modes by cancelling-out screen parallax and head tilt.


http://download.programmerart.org
As always, please let me know if you have any problems.

Cheers,
phil

This doesn't work at all for me. It is just blackness with a few grey circles. It seems to be turning slowly even when I don't use the mouse. The menu displays nicely though.

It took me forever to even find the exe file (in the source/master diectory). I don't know if I am supposed to run it from where it is, or what.

I have a GeForce 7300 GO.

I like what you are doing with all the 3D modes. And I like it that you do geometrically correct 3D (as I did in AssaultCube).

But I can't get it to display anything that looks like anything.

Hi CarlKenner, pleased to meet you I finally got round to trying your native stereo support in AssaultCube - great work!

Thanks for trying my game, and for letting me know it's not working for you GeForce 7300 isn't a card I'm familiar with - the lowest I've tested with recently is 7900.

The problems you're seeing aren't ones I've seen before. If you want to email me a screenshot and a dxdiag.txt, that could be really helpful.

The only suggestions I can think of so far are:
- Have a look at C:\Program Files\Le Cauchemar\Profiles\Default.txt. There are settings there that you can paste into Custom.txt and alter. I would try setting 'numProjectors' to 0, or 'frameRT' to [/2], to see if they make anything appear.
- Try disabling bloom and glare, in case something's gone wrong with the HDR stuff.
- Try disabling motion blur?

If the view seems to be spinning, is it possible you've got a game controller or headtracker of some kind plugged in? Is there any reaction when you move the mouse or press the arrow/WASD keys?

Are you using standard graphics drivers? I don't know much about drivers, but I know my game has trouble with the iZ3D ones (they need to be deactivated before running the game).

About the .exe - the game installer should have put a shortcut in your start menu, eg. "Le Cauchemar (version 21.1)". Is the shortcut not there??

If you manage to fix or change any of the problems you're seeing, please let me know

Thanks,
phil

I have a fake joystick (PPJoy) and a fake TrackIR (made by me). The fake TrackIR uses the TrackIR API though, so Le Cauchemar shouldn't see it.

The fake joystick wasn't being used, so it should have all the axes centred.

I had the old graphics drivers that came with the laptop. I just upgraded it to a much later version, so I'll give it another test.

I tried turning on and off the bloom and glare.

Ah, there is a shortcut in my start menu.

EDIT: I had another try, and I'm still having the same problems. I can see the weather effects, rain, water on the (invisible) ground, fog and the bloom and glare but not the scenery. I can see the lights but not lampposts. I think I found one lamppost, and it looked completely black, I could only see it because of the hole it made in the weather. I think I found a doughboy too, but I'm not sure since I only saw a silhouette against the weather. And I saw some dark blurry greyish blobs in various places, but they were hard to see. I think I might have found a wall too, but it was completely invisible.

What settings do you want me to use when I take a screenshot? And what do I press to do a screenshot?

Sorry for getting in the middle. I'd like to know more about what do you both mean with "geometrically correct 3D". Maybe, is it convergenceless stereo with asymmetrical frustrums? or is it about the relation between FOV, stereo separation and convergence?
Maybe any of you could open a thread about it if the topic is interesting enough.

I assume he means that only virtual objects that are closer than the screen is appear in front of the screen, and things appear the correct distance behind the screen if they are further away than the screen is. So everything feels life-size. This way "convergence" is controlled by setting how far away the screen really is.

Of course for the whole scene to be geometrically correct, the FOV has to match the field of view of your vision that the screen takes up. With a standard size monitor that is quite a low FOV. I'm not sure how best to handle the stereoscopic parameters when the FOV is non-realistic, so I chose to pretend the screen was taking up the FOV of your vision that you specified for the FOV.

I think he uses the Johnny Lee kind of head-tracking too, which has to be geometrically correct. It makes the screen indistinguishable from a real-life window into a real-life world (except that your eyes have to focus at screen depth and converge at a different depth).

crim3 - Hi Yes, by 'geometrically correct' I was mostly referring to asymmetric frustum stereo (I didn't know there was a name for it at the time). Like you said, there's no convergence; it's replaced by projection offsets when a monitor is used. When an HMD is used, I don't apply the projection offsets, because I assume each eye has a screen directly in front of it.
(UPDATE: As explained in the next post, this assumption was wrong. I've now corrected the HMD stereo in v21.2 to produce a full range of depth.)

The game also gives you a life-size FOV, dependent on the measurements you enter in the 'Real-world parameters' menu. If you connect TrackIR, it takes this further by keeping track of your eye positions, re-shaping each eye's frustum accordingly (I've been calling that 'virtual window' headtracking).

The way the stereo and the headtracking work together is extremely satisfying - it's almost like adding another dimension to the screen. Every tiny head movement reinforces the stereo illusion where normally it would weaken it. I want more people to see that effect, one way or another.
I would like to see 3D screens that come with their own hassle-free headtracking, like Sabre2552 suggested.

CarlKenner - Any settings should do, I think. The 'print screen' key should put a screenshot in the clipboard, that you can then paste. ('Alt' + 'print screen' captures just the current window).
A screenshot of the pause menu might be helpful too, thanks.
It sounds as if maybe all the textures are coming out black, or as if there's no lighting, hmm...
Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
phil

Your assumption (about HMDs) is wrong (I used to struggle with that assumption too). If it were true, then whenever you looked at a 2D program it would appear to be infinitely far away, which it doesn't. HMDs work exactly the same as monitors when it comes to stereo. When you buy a HMD, it says something like "virtual display equivalent to a 62-inch screen at 9 feet" (that's the VR920, the Z800 will be different numbers). That's not just a marketing spin to make the low FOV seem more than it is (although in the same sentence it calls 640x480 "extraordinary high resolution video"). Your eyes really do need to focus and converge at 9 feet. You need to treat the HMD exactly as though it was a 62 inch monitor 9 feet away.

The only difference between HMDs and monitors is the head tracking. Because the display is mounted to your head, your eyes stay in the same location relative to the screen. But with a monitor your eyes move relative to the screen so you need to do the Johnny Lee thing, aka "virtual window", aka desktop VR, aka Fishtank VR, aka Head-tracked perspective, aka CAVE. With a HMD you just move the camera with headtracking instead.

OK, here's the Everest Report for my GeForce Go 7300.

Note the lack of support for texture compression.

DirectX Video
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Primary Display Driver ]

DirectDraw Device Properties:
DirectDraw Driver Name display
DirectDraw Driver Description Primary Display Driver
Hardware Driver nvd3dum.dll (7.15.11.7561 - nVIDIA ForceWare 175.61)
Hardware Description NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300

Direct3D Device Properties:
Rendering Bit Depths 16, 32
Z-Buffer Bit Depths 16, 24, 32
Min Texture Size 1 x 1
Max Texture Size 4096 x 4096
Vertex Shader Version 3.0
Pixel Shader Version 3.0

Direct3D Device Features:
Additive Texture Blending Supported
AGP Texturing Supported
Anisotropic Filtering Supported
Bilinear Filtering Supported
Cubic Environment Mapping Supported
Cubic Filtering Not Supported
Decal-Alpha Texture Blending Supported
Decal Texture Blending Supported
DirectX Texture Compression Not Supported
DirectX Volumetric Texture Compression Not Supported
Dithering Supported
Dot3 Texture Blending Supported
Dynamic Textures Supported
Edge Antialiasing Supported
Environmental Bump Mapping Supported
Environmental Bump Mapping + Luminance Supported
Factor Alpha Blending Supported
Geometric Hidden-Surface Removal Not Supported
Guard Band Supported
Hardware Scene Rasterization Supported
Hardware Transform & Lighting Supported
Legacy Depth Bias Supported
Mipmap LOD Bias Adjustments Supported
Mipmapped Cube Textures Supported
Mipmapped Volume Textures Supported
Modulate-Alpha Texture Blending Supported
Modulate Texture Blending Supported
Non-Square Textures Supported
N-Patches Not Supported
Perspective Texture Correction Supported
Point Sampling Supported
Projective Textures Supported
Quintic Bezier Curves & B-Splines Not Supported
Range-Based Fog Supported
Rectangular & Triangular Patches Not Supported
Rendering In Windowed Mode Supported
Scissor Test Supported
Slope-Scale Based Depth Bias Supported
Specular Flat Shading Supported
Specular Gouraud Shading Supported
Specular Phong Shading Not Supported
Spherical Mapping Supported
Stencil Buffers Supported
Sub-Pixel Accuracy Supported
Table Fog Supported
Texture Alpha Blending Supported
Texture Clamping Supported
Texture Mirroring Supported
Texture Transparency Supported
Texture Wrapping Supported
Triangle Culling Not Supported
Trilinear Filtering Supported
Two-Sided Stencil Test Supported
Vertex Alpha Blending Supported
Vertex Fog Supported
Vertex Tweening Not Supported
Volume Textures Supported
W-Based Fog Supported
W-Buffering Not Supported
Z-Based Fog Supported
Z-Bias Supported
Z-Test Supported

Supported FourCC Codes:
AI44 Supported
AIP8 Supported
ATOC Supported
AV12 Supported
AYUV Supported
NV12 Supported
NVDB Supported
NVDP Supported
NVMD Supported
PLFF Supported
R2VB Supported
SSAA Supported
UYVY Supported
YUY2 Supported
YV12 Supported

CarlKenner - Thanks for the info, especially the important advice about HMD stereo! In version 21.2, I've fixed my mistake to produce the full range of depth - much better

When a Z800 is connected, the game now defaults to a screen width of 81cm and a viewing distance of 144cm. These are the rough measurements that I took using the headset today, but I'm sure the ideal values will vary from player to player since they depend on how the eyepieces have been positioned.

http://download.programmerart.org

I've still not made any progress on your compatibility bugs though

Cheers,
phil

I was going to have a go at adding VR920 support to the source code, but that is hard when I can't get it to display properly in 2D yet.
Wiimote head-tracking would also be cool, for those of us who don't have TrackIR.

VR920 head-tracking? That sounds like a good plan... I like that idea.
Could you give me some advice on how to communicate with that headtracker?

I don't have a VR920, so I don't know much about it. Is there an SDK / libs / dll that I'll need? Is there some sample code somewhere for it? Does the tracker detect yaw and pitch only?

What's the stereo input format for this headset? Is it frame-sequential 85Hz?

I don't think I'm going to be tempted towards Wiimote or FreeTrack headtracking though. Supporting one optical tracker was enough work for me (worthwhile in the end though, largely thanks to crim3 for showing me how to track the thing properly).

The Z800 was nice and easy because it simply sends you a stream of yaw,pitch,roll values ready to use (and it comes with helpful example programs).

I would like to support more head-tracking methods, but I've totally run out of time on this project and haven't even replaced those placeholder enemies yet!

I feel bad about those compatibility problems that you and yuriythebest1 and possibly others have been having. Do you know if any of the changes I suggested make a difference? Ideally I should try to get hold of a GeForce 7300 to test with...

Cheers,
phil

85 Hz? I wish.

No, it is Frame Sequential 60Hz, like the Z800. BUT unlike the Z800, it sends a signal on the USB port to change eyes, and the image stays frozen until it gets that signal. That way the stereo works properly even if the frame rate is only 10 FPS. And unlike the Z800, it supports 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions. Its native resolution is 640x480 though, so its best to use that.

Tracking and stereo is easy if you use the SDK. It gives you the yaw, pitch and roll. You don't need any DLLs, since the DLL is installed with the drivers on any computer with a VR920.

You can download the SDK from here:

http://www.vuzix.com/support/downloads_drivers.html

By the way, the iZ3D SDK is open now. I complained about it being closed because I wanted to use it in an open source project, and iZ3D said it has been open for a month now, and they sent it to me. So you can release the iZ3D source.

If you don't want to support other trackers, can you make a way that we can pass tracking information to your game from other programs (eg GlovePIE). While GlovePIE can emulate TrackIR for every other game, it can't emulate the Optitrack SDK that you use.