intermittent flickering shutterglass problems and solutions

Discussion of legacy stereoscopic 3D gaming hardware and software (e.g. NVIDIA XP stereoscopic 3D drivers).
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iondrive
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Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:13 pm

intermittent flickering shutterglass problems and solutions

Post by iondrive »

Hey guys,

Multicore mode fixes intermittent flickering:
Yes, I'm still learning more about these old-school drivers and that's my latest revelation. I recently tried an OpenGL game called "Ghost Master" and had some intermittent flickering when I was in single core mode. Then later when I was in dual-core mode I noticed the flickering was gone. CPU load was not bad in either mode so I don't think it's an overload problem except that in a sense I guess it is since dual-core mode fixes it. I have confirmed this in both modes using drivers 77.77 and 162.50. Flickering in single-core mode, none in dual core mode.

Specs:
32 bit winXP Home w/ SP3
7800GTX video card using drivers 77.77 or 162.50.
AMD CPU 6400 X2

If I remember correctly, I also tested and confirmed this conclusion with the nvidia logo test but I should retest someday in case I'm remembering incorrectly. That is a DX8 app so I should test a DX9 also. If you want an interesting OpenGL game to test on, find a demo of American McGee's Alice. I like to use it since it doesn't need a disk to run it. I have the full version too and someday I'll make a YouTube 3d video of it for fun.

Laptop low power mode:
Oh yeah, one time I was using a laptop with a CRT and things were fine but later on, I had flickering and it was because my laptop was unplugged and went into a low-power mode that screwed up the timing of the game and glasses. Plugging it back in fixed things.

CRT / computer communication interference:
Another time I switched monitors and got flickering that was fixed when I switched back to the original CRT. I think it's because the computer was trying to talk to the monitor over the same DDC line that controlled the glasses. When I used the ED-Activator, it prevented the flickers. That CRT was a little odd since it had a built-in mic and speakers and something was different about it's video cable. I think it also carried the mic signal as well as video so it had an extra pin or something. Anyway, if you change monitors and suddenly have flickering, you might have a monitor-related issue.

OK well I hope this helps someone. I know I'm much happier knowing this info. I don't know if this will hold true for intel CPUs. Additional data from other testers is very welcome.


Other possible assistance:
these things should help minimize flickering in theory, but in my experience they seem to have no influence:
on the nvidia panel, quality was set to highest performance and least image quality
triple-buffering on
vsync on (this helps fix tearing)
max frames rendered ahead: 3 or 4

antialiasing off (OK this one does help but I always have it off in the game config menu)

--- iondrive ---
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