Various Activators, H3D and others
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:02 pm
Hi all,
I decided to try some old Activators and now I thought I would start a thread about them. Please post any info or comments about Activators here.
Here are the Activators I have and have tested on XP with a 7800GTX card:
(I expect them to work on Vista with newer cards too)
H3D Activator (versions 1.3.0.0 from 1998 and 1.4.0.0 from 1999),
H3D Controller version 1.0.0.0 from 2000
X3D Controller version 2.5.0.0 from 2002
E-D Activator version 2.7.0.0 from 2004 (original filename R3DCTL for Razor3D)
All these activate my glasses using the dongle I tested and so I think they are interchangable but there are some differences. The dongles that should work with these are triangular and have either an "H3D" logo or a "3D World" logo or an "E-Dimensional" logo on it (possibly X3D or maybe Razor3D as well but I haven't seen these). These Activators work by putting some colored lines on the top of the screen and the dongle watches for that and uses it as a signal to trigger the proper 3d mode on/off. It's a hardware function that happens in your dongle but it is triggered by those colored lines. That will generally be interlaced mode (which generates line-blanking inside the dongle) or over/under mode (which generates sync-doubling in the dongle) and page-flippig mode which shutters the glasses on/off. In that mode, it syncs perfectly with refresh rate but not necessarily with frame generation. On to the details...
H3D Activator 1.3 does NOT put an icon in the taskbar tray and has no hotkeys. You use it from it's own control window. It has 4 modes: page-flipping, interleaved, top/bottom, and top/bottom interlaced. That last mode is unusual and I didn't notice any difference from normal top/bottom mode.
H3D Activator 1.4 puts an icon in the taskbar tray and otherwise is the same as 1.3.
H3D Controller 1.0 uses a taskbar icon and has the 3 basic modes: page-flipping, interleaved, and over/under. Only interleaved mode has a stereo reverse option. If you select properties, then you can change a hardware setting between H3D Gamer and H3D Cruiser. This is the only Activator that has a Cruiser opton that I know of. I'm not sure what the difference is but it looks like the Cruiser only has interleaved mode and I can't select the test button to test it. I don't have a cruiser so maybe that's why but I think the cruiser may be tricky to get working. This is the first Activator to have hotkey settings.
X3D Controller 2.5 is like H3D Controller 1.0 but only shows "3D Viewer" under the hardware selection box so there's no Cruiser mode.
E-D Activator (H3D/R3D Controller) version 2.7 is like X3D Controller 2.5 but includes 2 optional LCD modes. These do nothing on my hardware and I think my dongle doesn't have those functions and so does not respond to the LCD mode signals. I think I need a newer dongle to test these LCD modes or else there is no difference on/off. I will update this later. Don't get your hopes up for generic LCD monitor support. They just don't really work right for 3d.
E-D Update installs ED Controller 4.0.0.10: be advised that this is not just an activator but an actual activator/driver combo. I will discuss it elsewhere/elsewhen. If you just want an activator to turn on your glasses, this is not for you. It has only interlaced mode although you can tweak an ini file but that doesn't seem to help any.
I have some wicked3d-eye-scream files but they must be tested on my win98 computer some other day.
Be warned that if you try the top/bottom modes, it doubles your vertical sync so make sure that your monitor can handle both 60 and 120 Hz, then set your display to 60Hz and when you activate over/under-sync-doubling mode, the dongle will generate the 120Hz signal by changing the vertical sync. This is usable on a CRT if it can handle it and might be OK for the iZ3D driver if they change the driver so that you can adjust the vertical alignment of the images. If your monitor goes black due to a too high refresh rate, you may need to mouse-click blindly to hit the deactivate function or else remember the "off" hotkey.
Bottom line, just use E-D Activator if you need to. The only reason to use a different one would be if you have a cruser, then use H3D Controller 1.0.
Bye now.
I decided to try some old Activators and now I thought I would start a thread about them. Please post any info or comments about Activators here.
Here are the Activators I have and have tested on XP with a 7800GTX card:
(I expect them to work on Vista with newer cards too)
H3D Activator (versions 1.3.0.0 from 1998 and 1.4.0.0 from 1999),
H3D Controller version 1.0.0.0 from 2000
X3D Controller version 2.5.0.0 from 2002
E-D Activator version 2.7.0.0 from 2004 (original filename R3DCTL for Razor3D)
All these activate my glasses using the dongle I tested and so I think they are interchangable but there are some differences. The dongles that should work with these are triangular and have either an "H3D" logo or a "3D World" logo or an "E-Dimensional" logo on it (possibly X3D or maybe Razor3D as well but I haven't seen these). These Activators work by putting some colored lines on the top of the screen and the dongle watches for that and uses it as a signal to trigger the proper 3d mode on/off. It's a hardware function that happens in your dongle but it is triggered by those colored lines. That will generally be interlaced mode (which generates line-blanking inside the dongle) or over/under mode (which generates sync-doubling in the dongle) and page-flippig mode which shutters the glasses on/off. In that mode, it syncs perfectly with refresh rate but not necessarily with frame generation. On to the details...
H3D Activator 1.3 does NOT put an icon in the taskbar tray and has no hotkeys. You use it from it's own control window. It has 4 modes: page-flipping, interleaved, top/bottom, and top/bottom interlaced. That last mode is unusual and I didn't notice any difference from normal top/bottom mode.
H3D Activator 1.4 puts an icon in the taskbar tray and otherwise is the same as 1.3.
H3D Controller 1.0 uses a taskbar icon and has the 3 basic modes: page-flipping, interleaved, and over/under. Only interleaved mode has a stereo reverse option. If you select properties, then you can change a hardware setting between H3D Gamer and H3D Cruiser. This is the only Activator that has a Cruiser opton that I know of. I'm not sure what the difference is but it looks like the Cruiser only has interleaved mode and I can't select the test button to test it. I don't have a cruiser so maybe that's why but I think the cruiser may be tricky to get working. This is the first Activator to have hotkey settings.
X3D Controller 2.5 is like H3D Controller 1.0 but only shows "3D Viewer" under the hardware selection box so there's no Cruiser mode.
E-D Activator (H3D/R3D Controller) version 2.7 is like X3D Controller 2.5 but includes 2 optional LCD modes. These do nothing on my hardware and I think my dongle doesn't have those functions and so does not respond to the LCD mode signals. I think I need a newer dongle to test these LCD modes or else there is no difference on/off. I will update this later. Don't get your hopes up for generic LCD monitor support. They just don't really work right for 3d.
E-D Update installs ED Controller 4.0.0.10: be advised that this is not just an activator but an actual activator/driver combo. I will discuss it elsewhere/elsewhen. If you just want an activator to turn on your glasses, this is not for you. It has only interlaced mode although you can tweak an ini file but that doesn't seem to help any.
I have some wicked3d-eye-scream files but they must be tested on my win98 computer some other day.
Be warned that if you try the top/bottom modes, it doubles your vertical sync so make sure that your monitor can handle both 60 and 120 Hz, then set your display to 60Hz and when you activate over/under-sync-doubling mode, the dongle will generate the 120Hz signal by changing the vertical sync. This is usable on a CRT if it can handle it and might be OK for the iZ3D driver if they change the driver so that you can adjust the vertical alignment of the images. If your monitor goes black due to a too high refresh rate, you may need to mouse-click blindly to hit the deactivate function or else remember the "off" hotkey.
Bottom line, just use E-D Activator if you need to. The only reason to use a different one would be if you have a cruser, then use H3D Controller 1.0.
Bye now.