Some questions about playing older games in anaglyph
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:45 pm
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to stereoscopic gaming.
I have a GeForce 9600 GT, LCD display and anaglyph red/cyan glasses.
I have tested a lot of old and new titles with the latest Tridef, iZ3D and Nvidia drivers available for the 9600 GT.
I was disappointed to find out that there are a lot of old titles that are not supported by any driver (although NVidia keeps them in the supported games list). Especially OpenGL games and older DirectX games.
Some games I would really like to play in anaglyph are Heretic 2, Hexen 2, American McGee's Alice, Drakan, Messiah, Deus EX, Doom 3 (the original, not the BFG edition!)
After some research I found some threads here and on other forums recommending older video cards (e.g. GeForce 7 series, usually 7900GT or better)+Windows XP and respective XP drivers to play these older games.
I have searched some offers for second hand video cards in my country and I have found several offers for 7600 GS, 7900 GT and GTX cards.
However, I have also found offers for 6800 Ultra for 1/3 the price of the 7900 GT and about 1/2 the price of a 7600 GS. I know 7900 GT has better performance than 6800 Ultra, but not 3 times better.
Looking at the specs, another important thing I see is the OpenGL 2.0 support for the 7-series cards vs OpenGL 1.5 support for 6800 Ultra.
I have found a list of OpenGL games in Wikipedia, but the OpenGL version is not specified.
So, having in mind that for DirectX 9.0 and higher games I could use my 9600GT, my questions are:
1/Is 7900 GT worth the price vs 6800 Ultra for older games?
2/Is any 7-series card with lower performance than 6800 Ultra still better for stereo anaglyph gaming only because of the OpenGL 2.0 support?
3/Could anyone help me with a list of OpenGL 2.0 games?
4/Does an unsupported OpenGL 2.0 also mean that OpenGL 2.0 games would not be playable in stereoscopic anaglyph?
5/Are there any other alternatives for playing such older games:
5a/ Ati/AMD alternative old cards?
5a/ Nvidia Quadro Alternatives?
5b/ Is it possible to emulate an older video card, install XP and older drivers on some virtual machine, e.g. VMware (I think that's impossible, but anyway - if someone has tried it)?
6/ What about games with OpenGL higher that 2.0 - is stereo gaming not supported by any drivers and video cards for such titles (except titles that support stereo natively)?
7/ I still haven't thought of that solution but I have read that some 3d displays come with software that converts games to stereo - e.g. LGs - does it really convert ANY game, the oldies included?
8/ I am also a little bit confused by the way the driver developers list supported titles -e.g. if an older title is listed as supported, it could be for older shutter glasses+CRT. Does that always mean that it would work in anaglyph+LCD and if not, how can I find out?
Many thanks, guys!
I have a GeForce 9600 GT, LCD display and anaglyph red/cyan glasses.
I have tested a lot of old and new titles with the latest Tridef, iZ3D and Nvidia drivers available for the 9600 GT.
I was disappointed to find out that there are a lot of old titles that are not supported by any driver (although NVidia keeps them in the supported games list). Especially OpenGL games and older DirectX games.
Some games I would really like to play in anaglyph are Heretic 2, Hexen 2, American McGee's Alice, Drakan, Messiah, Deus EX, Doom 3 (the original, not the BFG edition!)
After some research I found some threads here and on other forums recommending older video cards (e.g. GeForce 7 series, usually 7900GT or better)+Windows XP and respective XP drivers to play these older games.
I have searched some offers for second hand video cards in my country and I have found several offers for 7600 GS, 7900 GT and GTX cards.
However, I have also found offers for 6800 Ultra for 1/3 the price of the 7900 GT and about 1/2 the price of a 7600 GS. I know 7900 GT has better performance than 6800 Ultra, but not 3 times better.
Looking at the specs, another important thing I see is the OpenGL 2.0 support for the 7-series cards vs OpenGL 1.5 support for 6800 Ultra.
I have found a list of OpenGL games in Wikipedia, but the OpenGL version is not specified.
So, having in mind that for DirectX 9.0 and higher games I could use my 9600GT, my questions are:
1/Is 7900 GT worth the price vs 6800 Ultra for older games?
2/Is any 7-series card with lower performance than 6800 Ultra still better for stereo anaglyph gaming only because of the OpenGL 2.0 support?
3/Could anyone help me with a list of OpenGL 2.0 games?
4/Does an unsupported OpenGL 2.0 also mean that OpenGL 2.0 games would not be playable in stereoscopic anaglyph?
5/Are there any other alternatives for playing such older games:
5a/ Ati/AMD alternative old cards?
5a/ Nvidia Quadro Alternatives?
5b/ Is it possible to emulate an older video card, install XP and older drivers on some virtual machine, e.g. VMware (I think that's impossible, but anyway - if someone has tried it)?
6/ What about games with OpenGL higher that 2.0 - is stereo gaming not supported by any drivers and video cards for such titles (except titles that support stereo natively)?
7/ I still haven't thought of that solution but I have read that some 3d displays come with software that converts games to stereo - e.g. LGs - does it really convert ANY game, the oldies included?
8/ I am also a little bit confused by the way the driver developers list supported titles -e.g. if an older title is listed as supported, it could be for older shutter glasses+CRT. Does that always mean that it would work in anaglyph+LCD and if not, how can I find out?
Many thanks, guys!