Stereo-3D game footage : Now in HD !

[BlackShark]

Footage from games in Stereoscopic 3D format

------------------------------LATEST UPDATE (July 21 2011)-------------------------------------------

New video
Dolphin (Gamecube/Wii emulator)
Video HD #2 : Zelda : the Wind Waker, Download Part1(190MB) Part2(180MB) - Youtube3D - -NEW-

Unreal Tournament 3
Video HD #1 : Download Part1(193MB) Part2(192MB) Part3(183MB) - Youtube3D - -NEW-

Video format :
Stereo-3D configuration : Side By Side : crosseyed or Over/under : left eye on top
Codec : video H264, audio MP3
Container : Matroska (.mkv)
Resolution : SD 720x480 or HD1280x720 stacked either horizontally or vertically
Aspect ratio : anamorphic (squashed) SD 16:10 or HD 16:9
Framerate : 60fps, except if stated otherwise

Need codecs ?
To open .mkv files in any windows based video player : install haali's media splitter
H264 codec : install FFDShow (open source), or DivX 7 (only DivX 7 plus, you do not need to install the rest)
These codecs are included in many codec packs like K-lite or CCCP codec pack, if you already use any of these codec packs and still have trouble, try to reinstall with the latest version available.

Need 3D Video player ?
Once you have installed the appropriate codecs you can use any windows based 3D player like :
Peter Wimmer's Stereoscopic player : http://www.3dtv.at" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Nvidia's Stereo player (based on Peter Wimmer's player) : http://www.nvidia.com/object/GeForce_3D ... loads.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
iZ3D's modified Media Player Classic : http://www.iz3d.com/3dsoftware" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Download the videos :
All videos tuned to use mostly depth (little or no obvious "in your face" pop-out effect)

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
Video 1 : (recording made by cybereality) Youtube3D

Assassin's Creed
Video 1 : Download (91MB) Youtube3D
Video HD #1 : Download Part1(100MB) Part2(93MB) - Youtube3D

Audiosurf
Video 1 : songs, Noumenon & sign of colossus : Download (95MB) Youtube3D
Video HD #1 : song, DKC3 Flight of the Zinger (ocremix) : Download Part1(99MB) Part2(94MB) - Youtube3D

James Cameron's AVATAR : the game
Video HD #1 : Download Part1(95MB) Part2(95MB) Part3(73MB) Youtube3D

Crysis
Video 1 : footage from 1st level (recording made by Cybereality) Youtube 3D

Devil May Cry 4
Video 1 Alto Angelo, /!\High separation /!\ Download (38MB) - not for streaming -
Video 2 Prologue Download (80MB) Youtube3D
Video 3 Level1 cinematics Download part1 part2 (2x 95MB) Youtube3D
Video 4 Level2 intro Download (53MB) Youtube3D
Video HD #1 : Alto Angelo HD Download (95MB) Youtube3D

Dolphin (Gamecube/Wii emulator)
Video HD #1 : Soul Calibur 2, Download Part1(98MB) Part2(98MB) Part3(96MB) - Youtube3D
Video HD #2 : Zelda : the Wind Waker, Download Part1(190MB) Part2(180MB) - Youtube3D - -NEW-

Left4dead
Video 1 - No Mercy campaign level1 /!\High separation /!\ Download (43MB) - not for streaming -
Video 2 - Dead Air level 1 /!\High separation /!\ Download (81MB) - not for streaming -
Video 2b - Dead Air level 1 Download (94MB) Youtube3D
Video 3 - Death Toll footage - Download part1 (95MB) part2 (58MB) Youtube3D

Mirror's Edge
Video HD #1 : Prologue and beginning of lvl4 - Download Part1(99MB) Part2(94MB) - Youtube 3D

Overlord Raising Hell (v1.4) (recording made by Zerofool)
Video: 800x300 (2x 400x300) 30fps, x264 ~2800kbps (using --crf 22)
Audio: mono, ogg vorbis ~130kbps
Filesize: 132MB
rapidshare | megaupload | badongo

Portal
Video 1 - Challenge #18 Stereo3D (78MB) Youtube3D

Prince of Persia (2008)
Video HD #1 : Download Part1(99MB) Part2(100MB) Part3(93MB) - Youtube3D

Resident Evil 5
Video 1 : footage from chapter 2-1 Stereo3D Part1 (96MB) Part2 (78MB) Youtube3D

Street fighter IV
Video 1 : Benchmark (in slow motion recording made by Lollandster) Youtube3D

Tomb Raider Anniversary
Video 1 - The Colliseum Download part1 (91MB) part2 (47MB) Youtube3D
Video 2 - The Caves Download (95MB) Youtube3D

Unreal Tournament 3
Video HD #1 : Download Part1(193MB) Part2(192MB) Part3(183MB) - Youtube3D - -NEW-

notice 1 : if you use iZ3D's MPC (iZ3D's modified Media Player Classic)
MPC ships an internal matroska filter which is buggy (it doesn't detect the aspect ratio correctly). To disable it, go to MPC's options / internal filters, and in the source filters list, disable both "matroska" and "mp4/mov"

notice 2 : Videos with multiple files
Videos with multiple parts use matroska's automatic file linking, due to the filesize upload limit I had to split the video in multiple files, You don't need to do any re-stitching : just put them in the same folder, open any of the files like an ordinary video and the video will be read normally just as if it was a single file.
If it doesn't work, go check in haali's matroska splitter's options : "Input / Try to open linked files" should be on.



-----------------------------------------OLD TOPIC---------------------------------------------------------

IT WAS SO DAMN OBVIOUS !!!!!!


Hardware requirements :
-Videocard with tv-out (almost all of them have it)
-cheap 50$ TV capture card
-a compsite or S-video cable to connect TV-out and capture card

Software used :
-Virtualdub
-HuffYUV lossless codec
-iz3d v1.09 beta2

Method :
-clone output on tv-out (requires to lower the main monitor resolution since GPU doesn't scales in clone mode)
-set iz3d 1.09 in shutter mode (simple)
-start recording
-play in shutter mode (60Hz : it's tv ntsc) (yes i know it's ugly and hard to watch a flickering screen but you just record once, promise !)
-stop recoding
-open footage in a 3d player
-tell the 3d player that your footage is interlaced


I need to experiment more with this technique. It seems to have the same issues as shutterglasses, which mean that you have to use v-sync and you must have a constant 30fps or the video unsyncs.
I'll try again in the next few days and if it works as i'm expecting it to work, you'll have a Devil May Cry 4 stereoscopic video this week end.
I now need to figure out how to make the picture look better, i need to do some colour and gamma corrections, how to edit the files without damaging the precious interlaced fields, etc...

[BlackShark]

I went through the editing process.
Expect a video sample this afternoon.

EDIT :
and here's the final footage !
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cwugzmmm2rj
It was quicker than i expected since i had already found most of the workflow when i worked on my previous trackmania video Vertigo3D.

Stereo format : Side by side : crosseyed
H264 1504x240 anamorphic (it's not a mistake, these numbers are right)
image ratio 16:10.
.mkv file -> i edited the file meta data, it should automatically open with the correct ratio

requirements :
Any stereoscopic player that supports directshow filters (iz3dmpc works, and last time i tried stereoscopic player it worked but haven't tested with this file)
A H264 decoder (there's a good free one in FFDshow : this software is included in cccp codec pack if you have it already installed)
A matroska (.mkv) splitter (the best one is haali's matroska splitter, it is also included in cccp codec pack if you already have it installed)
if you use iz3d's mpc, don't forget to switch off it's internal matroska filter to allow haali's splitter to be used.


Remarks : although the quality is quite good, i'm not happy with it, i still think i can improve it, especially dark colurs are too dark and there's this scanline effect that i think i could get rid of if i use better settings.
I'm also looking at switchnig to pal recording to get a little more vertical resolution.

edit 2 :
i've just found where te scanline effect was coming from... it was a bug with my upscaling algorithm, the file is intact it was just a playback issue on my side.

[yuriythebest]

awesome news. unfortunately I don't have video out on my 8600gt but would love to see more video clips from you

[yuriythebest]

hmm I'm unable to view it iz3d media player classic. It opens fine in media player classic (no3d), but in iz3d it gives an error about missing codecs and just plays the sounds. I've downloaded and installed fddshow and matroska splitter again but it didn't help. This video looks very impressive would love to see it in 3d.

[Welder]

hmm I'm unable to view it iz3d media player classic. It opens fine in media player classic (no3d), but in iz3d it gives an error about missing codecs and just plays the sounds. I've downloaded and installed fddshow and matroska splitter again but it didn't help. This video looks very impressive would love to see it in 3d.

Try to install this: http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

[BlackShark]

hmm I'm unable to view it iz3d media player classic. It opens fine in media player classic (no3d), but in iz3d it gives an error about missing codecs and just plays the sounds. I've downloaded and installed fddshow and matroska splitter again but it didn't help.

Alright.
To disable mpc's internal (buggy) matroska splitter and use haali's instead go to :
mpc's options, in the internal filters, and uncheck .mkv (you can also uncheck .mp4)
this willl make the player use haali's matroska splitter instead of mpc's internal splitter

Then about missing codec. Once you have installed the latest version of ffdshow tryouts.
In order to check if H264 support in enabled :
go to your start menu / programs / ffdshow / video decoder configuration
in the big menu on the left of ffdshow's configuration, go to the top item called "codecs".
You'll get the big list of ffdshow's supported codecs.
at the top is the one called H264, check it's status is not "disabled", if it is, change this to "libavcodec" (it's the name of ffdshow's codec)

It should work, i've installed ffdshow and haali's splitter on many computers.


EDIT :
about more videos :
i wanted to record some Tomb raider anniversary but there's this huge interface bug, so i keep it for later
then i wanted to record some Unreal tournament 3 but for some reason UT3 refuses to start in shutter mode (works fine in anaglyph though)
I tried Racedriver GRID demo, but it crashes when reaching the main menu (same bug as in v1.07, was solved in v1.08 for anaglyph but apparently not for shutters)

I have to test some more games :
i have to try :
-half life 2, hl2 ep 1 & ep 2
-portal (in 1.08 i had a bug the view in the portal was off for one eye i wonder if this bug is still here or if it's solved)
-Audiosurf (this game is HIGHLY unstable even in 2D; i managed to get anaglyph working, i truely hope it will work in shutter mode, i love this game so much)
-Flatout 2 (was working well in anaglyph)
-Future pinball (i never tried it, i wonder how this one will look like)
-Trackmania Forever

other games i have but will not even try :
-Test drive unlimited (framerate too low)
-Crysis (framerate too low, ugly in my opinion with low shadows. Well it's not that ugly but there's a whole graphics generation between the low and high shadows rendering)

[Tril]

I tried it with shutter glasses and the VR920 with Stereoscopic Player. It works fine. Nice video.

I thought about this method before. I gave it up before even trying because you're limited to the capture card maximum input resolution. Do HD capture cards exist?

[BlackShark]

I thought about this method before. I gave it up before even trying because you're limited to the capture card maximum input resolution. Do HD capture cards exist?

Yes but they're expansive.
The cheapest one : http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/
250$ (knowing that if i ever buy one i'll take the 350$ one for recording console YUV)
and you need separate PC to record (too cpu intensive to compress HD footage live and play the game on the same machine) or you need 3-way RAID0 hard drive array to cope with uncompressed HD.

[yuriythebest]

hmm I'm unable to view it iz3d media player classic. It opens fine in media player classic (no3d), but in iz3d it gives an error about missing codecs and just plays the sounds. I've downloaded and installed fddshow and matroska splitter again but it didn't help. This video looks very impressive would love to see it in 3d.

Try to install this: http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

amazing what can be achieved by reinstalling klite. reinstalled it and it works thanks Welder.

BlackShark- that video was amazing, but can you add more separation in your next videos.

[BlackShark]

I'll probably increase a little but not much.
You're lucky to have a 3d monitor but i just have anaglyph and too high separation hurts my eyes.
I also believe that peoplu using bigger monitors or TV would have trouble with too big separation values since they might get diverging images.

I don't know the exact ideal separation value i should use to please everybody but i try to use about half of the maximum separation on my 22" monitor.

I know it might be a little too small for some people but since i won't record videos under these conditions often (high flick, watch without glasses) i'd rather not use too high values and have to re-record them.

So, about the next video... this is the game i've just recorded.
video coming during the afternoon.

[yuriythebest]

nice- can't wait to see it will probably use my anaglyph glasses to watch it though since at lower separations those actually give a more pronounced effect (more than a 3d monitor under the same separation conditions). still, no one has ever made the effort before so I really value this. I believe anyone that most people here are pioneers of something great and amazing, and everyone contributes in their own unique way.

[BlackShark]

1st post updated, portal video available

I noticed i had a better depth effect when i take a step back, and that's with all videos.

EDIT :
Just tried Audiosurf.
The game is too unstable and framerate too low in shutter mode. Looks like the game doesn't appreciate forced vsync

EDIT 2 :
PURE demo is out, downloading, will test this immediately !

[Likay]

Lol! Nice performance on portal advanced level 18.

[BlackShark]

I just downloaded PURE demo...
What a disappointment !

Can't configure anyhting, screen depth skyboxes, demo is full of bugs. Damn !
Will have to make a video of something else...

[BlackShark]

I've just recorded some Half-life 2 : the lost coast footage.
Watching it looks like a nightmare, everytime the games loads anything (enemy, gun, explosion, new sound, anything) there is a micro-lag that breaks the sync.
So this one is going to be way longer to edit than the previous video. Damn i hope we get fraps working again soon and some feature like maybe a squashed side by side on a single monitor output to record videos.
That would be cool (that's my wish for christmas, black q if you hear me...)

[chrisjarram]

I just downloaded PURE demo...
What a disappointment !

Can't configure anyhting, screen depth skyboxes, demo is full of bugs. Damn !
Will have to make a video of something else...

I have the full version and its awesome... amazing visuals on triple proector but you do need a lot of horsepower. Great game, great fun - Disney have done a fantastic job IMO

[aju12]

BlackShark, very impressive video. It seems like the iz3D driver splits the view of the game into both right and left image separately, and you are recording each video and interlace to view in 3D. Is this correct? This looks almost perfect (very little ghosting) separation. Well done indeed.

[BlackShark]

All 3D drivers have to calculate both views separately and then do stuff with these two images to display them on the screen.
I couldn't get fraps to work so i used my tv-output and plugged it into my tv-capture card.
It uses a composite signal, which is the worst quality of all available tv signals (except the antenna) so the resolution is very poor and quite blurry.
But the interesting part is that it uses an interlaced signal, which transmits 60 fields per second.
The tricky part is getting the Left and Right images in the correct field.

I first tried to use iz3d's interlaced output but unfortunately i was never able to get the resolutions to match perfectly. So parts of the images were mixed up. Producing horrible line-by-line view swapping.

So i had to use some other method.
I finally used the shutter output and it works.
The NTSC tv signals use 30 interlaced frames per second, which equals to 60 fields per second.
iZ3D's simple shutter mode is quite simple, it just outputs the frames alternatively and uses vsync to try and keep the sync.
As long as the game manages to keep a perfect stable framerate with vsync, it works perfectly.
Left view goes through one field and right view goes through the other field and are recieved and stored as such by the tv-capture card. And i get a perfectly separated 30fps interlaced stereo movie file.
The problem is that any disturbances in the framerate, any micro-loading produces a 1 frame lag completely brakes the sync, so i have to edit the video in a video editor to get things corrected.
Worse, any CPU overload produces both the game and the recording to unsync. And that's what's happening to my half life 2 recording. It unsyncs all the time and sometimes the recording skipped frames because cpu useage was too high : i'm using the same PC to play and record footage since i don't have a second PC.

A friend brought his computer to my place, i'll try again with his computer playing the game and mine recording. Maybe i'll get better results, because the current HL2 footage i have is a nightmare.

[BlackShark]

NEW :
Tomb Raider anniversary : the colliseum with a little higher separation. (80% of max separation on my 22")
Uses even more high tech matroska feature : automatic multi-file linking

More info and download links on 1st post

[BlackQ]

Of course, I hear you!! your work is great!

[BlackShark]

NEW :
Left 4 Dead video : no mercy campaign, level1

[Likay]

The best quality live gaming vids out there. Bows and thanks!

8)

[BlackShark]

i'd like to make the full Devil may cry 4 intro.
But there is a graphics issue on some shots with some post process effect. It's a special effect only used on some action shots ~5% of the cutscenes. I can disable it but that requires me to turn the graphics down a lot

Should i make the video with full graphics but with the FX bug or with low graphics ? (or both)

[Tril]

Nice Left 4 Dead video. It looks frightening. The crosshair is separated but the right shift (or maybe it's the left shift) seems to work well when you use the handgun.

Too bad the game "Condemned 2: Bloodshot" is only available on Xbox 360 and PS3. It's not about zombies but it's a very frightening game.

[BlackShark]

oops wrong button i just redone the Devil May cry4 video with my updated technique.

edit :
some more Devil May cry 4 awesomeness incoming : the game intro cinematic in S-3D

edit 2 :
have made anaglyph versions of the devil may cry videos to try and upload them on video websites all over the web.

Unfortunately, color subsampling and multiple conversions later, ghosting tends to be very high and the quality poor.
Which web video sites do you think i could try ?

[CraziFuzzy]

hmmm.. makes me wish you had opted for the dual Happauge HD-PVR option I had suggested in the forums. 1920x1080x30 >>> anythingx240...

[BlackShark]

hmmm.. makes me wish you had opted for the dual Happauge HD-PVR option I had suggested in the forums. 1920x1080x30 >>> anythingx240...

Makes me wish I had a set of HD capture cards... and the computer to generate such high def images.... and a second computer to record them...

That will come over time.
I will buy the necessary hardware when i buy my next PC (which will be when next year's new GPUs come out, and the iZ3D 26" monitor)
But for broadcast, stereo 1080p might be too big at the moment.
But when i get the hardware, you should expect 1920x540 or 1280x720 resolutions from me (single capture card). Even with two computers, I'm not sure i will have the ressources at home to do dual capture cards recordings.
(external PVRs are not an option for me)

I also take advantage of christmas to show my videos to all my family, most of which is totally new to 3D.
Most of them have a lot of trouble focusing on my strong separation videos.
This makes me think that for wide broadcast i should make each video twice :
- a high separation version for 3D enthusiasts
- and a low separation version for beginners

[Zerofool]

CraziFuzzy, your idea sounds good, but unfortunately it's not possible unless iz3d adds new mode "side by side dual output for recording" or something... Because it currently outputs 2 images, but they are special ones (see here) so they are unusable for making videos yet. Probably some day such option will make it in their drivers or fanmade software that does the conversion. I think this will be the only way to capture 2x full rez videos in realtime.
I searched a lot on this matter whole last week and the best thing I managed to do is capture 1024x768 interlaced video, 30fps (no additional hardware required), so the final video is 2048x368 (quality doesn't benfit much from keeping the full rez so resizing width in half is good filesize-wise move). But when inspecting the video closely it's visible that motion isn't absolutely perfectly fluid (some frames are duplicated, so real captured frames per second are ~ 25-27). I should probably capture @25fps, or lower the rez to 800x600. The strangest thing is my CPU isn't used @100%... I'll experiment some more tomorrow and post the videos and more details on how I did it.
Here's a shots from the final video I made few days ago (the resized version - half width), just to get idea for the colors and overall quality (I use different x264 settings (-crf mode)). Unfortunately it appears that there's no way to turn anti-aliasing on for ATI cards atm and that's why it looks jaggy (apart from the interlacing that is ).

[Welder]

Our next version should have 2 images on 1 screen (Split)

[Zerofool]

Our next version should have 2 images on 1 screen (Split)

WOW, that's some good news! How will it work? Will it be like "letterbox" i.e. black bars at the top and the bottom while retaining the aspect-ratio (AR) of both images? Or will it add custom resolutions (with double width)? Or both images will get "compressed", breaking the AR and filling the whole screen? Or something else I couldn't think of..

[Welder]

good Question!

I beleive it is the first you said. Letterbox

[Likay]

Great news Welder!

[CraziFuzzy]

The iz3D drivers DO have more modes than just 'iz3D special' and checkerboard. Interlaced mode would work just fine with 1920x1080i output, which would easily provide 1920x540 frames for each eye, with no compression crosstalk. It also supports dual output, which would work VERY well with dual HD-PVR's, though obviously, that would cost more.

[Likay]

I know. I was thinking more of a decent oppurtunity to directly make stereovideos. Side by side is not optimal but will make it easy!

[Zerofool]

good Question!

I beleive it is the first you said. Letterbox

Great, althought that means it's not really full resolution, but it's much better than interlaced captures. Can't wait to give it a try .

The iz3D drivers DO have more modes than just 'iz3D special' and checkerboard. Interlaced mode would work just fine with 1920x1080i output, which would easily provide 1920x540 frames for each eye, with no compression crosstalk. It also supports dual output, which would work VERY well with dual HD-PVR's, though obviously, that would cost more.

Interlaced mode works just fine, and it's currently the best way to capture both images. Using one capture card will give 2x 1920x540 as you said (or even 2x 2048x640 if you like (and if the card in particular supports it)) but iz3d team needs full resolution capturing (look closely at first post of the recording contest thread). Using dual output and two capture cards is useless, the second image will probably look something like that (look at page 5, a combination of both lower pictures I guess).
I'll post more details on my amateur-grade quick&easy capture method a bit later.

[BlackShark]

The iz3D team has enough computer programmers to make a small program to convert images from iz3D back/front format to RGB left/right images.
Or if it's not a full program, at least an avisynth script.
I even wonder if there wouldn't be already an axisting avisynth function that already allows to do that.

The biggest problem with stereo capture is to get both images either already synched due to the recording format :
AFR, interlaced, side by side, no preference...

...or by recording unsynched and have some element in the scene that allows an easy synchronization : something that can be used like a film clap (a very fast character animation, a gunshot, etc...). Last but not least : both recordings must be made on the same clock, which means that external PVRs are not an option.
You need to have both capture cards on the same pc.
I have had this issue every single time i use two different recording devices to grab a video and sound, it always unsynch at some point. (camcorder + archos sound recorder, pc + camcorder, etc...)

---------------------------------

Letterboxing would be useful for viewing side by side crosseyed, but useless for recoding, at least for us.
We already have such low resolution recording ability, i wouldn't want to loose a single pixel.

For recording, squashing both images horizontally would work, They fit on one screen and they are inherently synched together, and in case of insufficient framerate, the recording isn't borked like with my current recording method. And it would be much much easier to play under these conditions than using shutter without glasses at 60Hz like i currently do.
It wouldn't help with full resolution recording though, it's impossible to fit such a big resolution through a single DVI bandwidth and i don't know any capture device that can grab dual link DVI.
But at least that would help us, the low budget people trying to record footage with a single capture device.
(wether if it's hardware based : a capture card, internal or external, or software based : FRAPS or other software solution)

[snarfbot]

hi blackshark, im sorry to derail this conversation but i have a quick question about ur setup, you only use anaglyph for your games, i was wondering how it performs subjectively compared to the cross eyed video that you posted, in left 4 dead in particular.

reason being im getting some shutter glasses, but my friends have lcds and are going to be using anaglyph probably.

the 3d in that video looks so incredibly real its amazing. i really cannot wait to get those glasses.

[Zerofool]

Letterboxing would be useful for viewing side by side crosseyed, but useless for recoding, at least for us.
We already have such low resolution recording ability, i wouldn't want to loose a single pixel.

For recording, squashing both images horizontally would work, They fit on one screen and they are inherently synched together, and in case of insufficient framerate, the recording isn't borked like with my current recording method. And it would be much much easier to play under these conditions than using shutter without glasses at 60Hz like i currently do.

I have to disagree here. Letterboxing is much better than current methods, because you don't have to loose half of the vertical resolution (whitch makes small text hardly readable). Imagine capturing at 1600x1200 (4:3 mode) - this will result in 2x 800x600 images side-by-side, no interlacing, no resizing needed, and of course 2x 1600x300 black bars at top and bottom which will be cropped (or not captured at all). Wouldn't you like it better than your current method? Now Imagine 2048x1280 (16:10)-> 2x 1024x640 sounds quite good, huh? Of coursh for something like that you should be using capture card of some sort . Doing simple calculations I think capturing on my rig with software will be fast enough (or close) for 30fps 1280x960 (1280x480 directly to be precise) -> 2x 640x480 max. So its still something. For quad core guys (4ghz and up) it should be easier to go on higher resolutions.

[BlackShark]

I have to disagree here. Letterboxing is much better than current methods, because you don't have to loose half of the vertical resolution (whitch makes small text hardly readable).

You do have an important point here. I do not play many games with texts (mmorpgs, text based rpgs, strategy, management, etc...) so i haven't encountered this issue yet.
So far my priority has been to record 3D scenes with the highest resolution possible, in order to get the best 3D effect on 3D objects. But i'm limited by the capture hardware i have.
For my current use, horizontally squashed output would allow me to have slightly easier recording process by removing the risk of images unsynching, and keep roughly the same resolution, except it's halved horizontally rather than vertically. It's a little better visually than my current method but balanced out by the fact that my capture card records interlaced video (it can be about 90% corrected with proper deinterlacing)
So quality wise, horizontally squashed output would even out, but technically, i would no longer fear little framerate hiccups, and that's quite a nice improvement.

Imagine capturing at 1600x1200 (4:3 mode) - this will result in 2x 800x600 images side-by-side, no interlacing, no resizing needed, and of course 2x 1600x300 black bars at top and bottom which will be cropped (or not captured at all). Wouldn't you like it better than your current method? Now Imagine 2048x1280 (16:10)-> 2x 1024x640 sounds quite good, huh? Of coursh for something like that you should be using capture card of some sort .

I have absolutely no issues with having to do some image treatement, i have enough video knowledge and skill to find my way around resizing, and splitting views of interlaced content, since it's what i already have to do to make my current videos.
Having letterboxed images would make it slightly easier for anyone to record, but it would make it much much more expansive for less available resolution.
HD capture cards are not cheap, and i would be really be pissed off to buy an expansive HD capture card to just throw away 1/4 of the precious resolution.

As I previously said, letterboxing could be useful for playing crosseyed, but for recording, i'd rather find some other way around than throwing away some of the resolution.
In fact, I'd rather do AFR recording (full resolution shutter recording) with all the framerate requirement issues than recording letterboxed.
With a single capture card that i have in mind (blackmagic-design Intensity) i could make full resolution 1280x720x30fps videos with AFR recording. (the capture card can record 1280x720 progressive 60fps), and i'd also get readable text.

CraziFuzzy, your idea sounds good, but unfortunately it's not possible unless iz3d adds new mode "side by side dual output for recording" or something... Because it currently outputs 2 images, but they are special ones (see here) so they are unusable for making videos yet. Probably some day such option will make it in their drivers or fanmade software that does the conversion. I think this will be the only way to capture 2x full rez videos in realtime.

The iZ3D driver can output the two LEFT/RIGHT RGB images on two different DVI ports using the dual projector mode. The issue you are talking about is only about displaying a 3D image the current 22" monitor.
The next iz3D models will probably have some other input capabilities they will probably announce at CES (for the console input).

I searched a lot on this matter whole last week and the best thing I managed to do is capture 1024x768 interlaced video, 30fps (no additional hardware required), so the final video is 2048x368 (quality doesn't benfit much from keeping the full rez so resizing width in half is good filesize-wise move). But when inspecting the video closely it's visible that motion isn't absolutely perfectly fluid (some frames are duplicated, so real captured frames per second are ~ 25-27). I should probably capture @25fps, or lower the rez to 800x600. The strangest thing is my CPU isn't used @100%... I'll experiment some more tomorrow and post the videos and more details on how I did it.

The reason why you aren't getting stable 30.0 fps is because you are playing and recoding on the same machine via software. Which means that your capture software has to interrupt the game rendering process to access the GPU backbuffer and then bring the image back through the GPU, through the PCI-express bus, and through the central RAM before being even able to access it for compression and disk writing.
These represent a lot of bottleneck possibilities and are the reason why you can't get high res and fluid captures via sofware (fraps and others)

I have personally tested this : using the same capture resolution, i get better framerate and lower cpu useage at the same time by capturing through my tv capture card (on the same PC) than by capturing via fraps.

Software captre sure is extremely practical and super cheap but i has unavoidable limitations.
Switching to a Quad or Octo-core won't help improve the resolution since the bottleneck is somewhere else.

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The only way i can concieve to achieve the iZ3D contest goals is to use 2 computers :
one to play using the dual projector mode, and the other one to record both video outputs using two HD capture cards.
But that's too expansive for me since the HD capture card i intend to buy doesn't officially supports 1680x1050 (only 720p and 1080i).
The other more universal capture cards cost more than 3 times more so they're out of my budget.

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hi blackshark, im sorry to derail this conversation but i have a quick question about ur setup, you only use anaglyph for your games, i was wondering how it performs subjectively compared to the cross eyed video that you posted, in left 4 dead in particular.

reason being im getting some shutter glasses, but my friends have lcds and are going to be using anaglyph probably.

the 3d in that video looks so incredibly real its amazing. i really cannot wait to get those glasses.

Anaglyph glasses work pretty well is most cases and can achieve some quite impressive depths.
Resolution is almost perfect, and in most cases so is the 3D effect.
The drawback is colour degradation.
The right eye (cyan filter) sees colour, and the left eye (red filter) is used to sense depth.
You basically loose the red colour almost completely and the cyan colour (blue + green) tends to blend into the grey shades.
So you basically see in shades of grey, with occasionnal glimpses of green and blue where the game is really using strong colours.

When the game uses vivid red colours, your eyes start to fight one an other as the left (red) eye tried to change roles but your brain fights back.
You also gets some headaches when the screen gets very bright (assasins creed), as both eyes see intense light of completely different colours and your brain gets two completely different informations from both eyes and has a lot of trouble to decide which colour information is correct.
You also sometimes have some issues in very dark areas, since the red filter blocks much more light than the cyan filter.
In darker scenes, the left eye (red) turns almost completely black, while the right eye (cyan) still sees the scene, and then you loose the sense of depth.

So keep your flashlight on, and when playing left 4 dead, you may have to switch off 3D and remove the anaglyph glasses to pass by a witch.

[CraziFuzzy]

Interlaced mode works just fine, and it's currently the best way to capture both images. Using one capture card will give 2x 1920x540 as you said (or even 2x 2048x640 if you like (and if the card in particular supports it)) but iz3d team needs full resolution capturing (look closely at first post of the recording contest thread). Using dual output and two capture cards is useless, the second image will probably look something like that (look at page 5, a combination of both lower pictures I guess). I'll post more details on my amateur-grade quick&easy capture method a bit later.

I was not talking about using the dual HD-PVR's with the drivers in iz3D mode, I was talking about in dual projector mode, where each capture would be in full resolution, and full color. Using two of them, the videos will still be in sync, as the captures are recorded at the framerate from the card, which in a dual projector setup, are already sync'd. All that would be required would be to match up a single point, and the rest would remain lined up.