Zalman ZM-M220W tested (Edit7)

[Sjonnie]

Hi everybody!

I promised to tell about my experience with my new 3d-monitor, here is the beginning (tomorrow I'll edit this post to add stuff, now I want to go back to my games ASAP)

The monitor
In 2d the monitor looks terrific! When I bought my other 22" tft screen (iiyama E2200WS) I payed 150 euro's more than the cheapest because I liked it so much, but now my Zalman stands next to it it looks like some cheap model from some cheap company!
However, if you are planning to use the monitor in a place with much light I wouldn't buy it. Even at 8PM I could do my hair with the Zalman as a mirror, because of the glossy coating :O.
If you are planning to use it beside some other 22" tft-screen it's very nice that you can adjust the height and angles very easily.

The 3d-glasses
The glasses are very light weighted and comfortable, and your screen barely gets darker when you wear them.

The effect of the interlacing
To get a 3d-image the Zalman monitor shows one line of pixels for the left eye, one for the right, one for the left, etc.
A positive effect of this method is that you barely see stereoscopic crosstalk("ghosting") (when looked from the right height and angle!).
But the negative side of this technique is that your resolution gets cut in half. It's not that you see disturbing black lines or so (unless you have very good eyes), but I miss my real 1680x1050 resolution a bit.

Some 3d-games I've tested
The first game I tried was Crysis: Wow! What a beautiful game! I almost fell from my chair (it's new for me, real 3d, was used to red/blue glasses). The performance was great (everything on high except shadows on low, postprocessing and shaders on medium, 1680x1050 0xAA, very fluently on my 8800gt). However, I sucked at shooting people It's very nice to get that feeling like you're really shooting someone, but I can't aim anymore.
Summary: looked really great except for a few bugs, but it's (for me) impossible to play with this settings (normally I play delta easily, now I had a hard time playing on easy)

Then I tested portal: very good 3d, performance was excellent: perfect.

Call of duty 4 did work, I was totally amazed by the good 3dimensional effect, but after the training level I started the mission on the boat, and then my framerate dropped to 7fps maybe it's something with my settings, haven't tried that much, but this way I couldn't play it.

So I installed GTR2: Wooooooohooooooo it's not normal! So beautiful, that feeling, it's just as if you can grab that steering wheel, and take over the car yourself. I especially liked the raining, then you can really good see the depth of the wind-shield. I never liked this game that much, but now it's my favorite I think, it's so cool in 3d!

I was so impressed by GTR that I had to install Trackmania United: also a very nice game, I really like the jumps in 3d, and it's nice to drive with high speed! However, it was less exciting that GTR (in my opinion) because it isn't first person. Though there was no noticeable performance loss: highest quality on 1680x1050 about 40fps, and I have seen no bugs/glitches, works perfect.

(Probably tomorrow) you'll get more details, message me if you got any games you would like to know if they work, I got a nice collection of games here, so I take requests (as long as it is no game like Barby goes shopping etc )

Ciao,
Very happy sleepless Sjonnie



Edit1:
Ghosting
As I mentioned yesterday it is very important to look from the right angle and height. I want to emphasize this, because a few degrees/centimetres can make the difference between no ghosting and no 3d! If you buy this monitor you'll get used to sitting in the right position, but if you want to brag about it, and show your friends, then some of them will see 2 pictures instead of 3d, and it won't impress them.
With the most games you don't even see any ghosting, at the very most a little, but I have to warn, in games with high contrasts such as bioshock, or other games with a few lamps and a dark background it's pretty easy to notice ghosting!

I've installed another couple of games:

Bioshock: As said, there is more ghosting than in other games, and there is another con: despite the ghosting it is só só f****** not normally 3dimensional, so realistic, that this game becomes very scary! I played it for 10 minutes, and after a few terrifying frightening moments I stopped to catch some air: 5 minutes later my heart was still in my mouth. This is definitely the most impressive game with this monitor that I've seen so far! (Haha I also got a good set of speakers, that also helps)

Grid-demo: Thanks Cybereality for the advice, but hmm, it looked like a really nice game, and the framerates were excellent (60-70fps), but I didn't get any depth, does anybody know how I can make this game 3d?? Btw it's also nice to play this one in 2d, it's a neat game.

Rainbow Six 3: Raven shield: Hmm, this game doesn't work either , same problems as the Grid-demo: no 3d.

Couldn't test many games today because I had to babysit, but tonight I'm installing Battlefield 2, DiRT, Unreal Tournament 2004 and if there's time left I'll play Call of Duty 2
AJ, I don't have flight simulator X so I can't test that one for you, I have IL-2, but I borrowed it to a friend, tomorrow I'll get it back, and I'll test it for you

Stay tuned

Edit2:
Battlefield 2 is very beautiful in 3d, especially when you shoot someone, however guns you wear and vehicles you're in are a bit strange (looks like there are 2 shadows of them in the air or so), not very distractive, after a quarter or so you don't even notice anymore. It is difficult to aim because the guns get double I think, it's hard to say, but I can conclude that it is really nice to play in 3d, but not if you want to be as good as possible.

DiRT didn't work, I think it runs on the same engine as Grid because it's from same designer, and looks the same, shows just like Grid only some 3d with convergence.

UT2004 is só awesome in 3d!!! Very cool! Just like you're playing UT for real , though the cross-hair is 2d, and I know how to disable it, but I don't know how to enable Nvidia's laser sight in this game, any help would be appreciated!

My Call of Duty 2 cd is broken I payed for it, so I think I'm gonna download that one.

Edit3:
IL-2 Sturmovik did NOT work for me, it was even worse than DiRT and Racedriver Grid, nothing worked, the game started but there was totally no interlacing. Maybe others get it to work (I've read) but I don't.

NFS: Most Wanted is awefully awesome in 3d! You can't play it first person, but when you use the hood-camera it's really entertaining! Framerates where perfect, and thanks to the color-use there's most of the time totally no ghosting visible. If you own a Zalman 3d-monitor, and you never played this game I really think you should give it a try, I really enjoy it!

Btw I barely see any ghosting anymore, so you have to get used to sitting in the right position, but after 2 days this becomes a monitor with almost no ghosting.

Tomb Raider Anniversary everything works perfectly in 3d, as if the game was meant to be 3d Can't remember that I saw any ghosting, Lara Croft looks nice ^.^ and it's exciting in 3d

Any more requests?

Edit4:
GTA San Andreas works, but it's so full of bugs that I don't like to play it

Call of Duty 2 is super awesome in 3d! The first shooter in which it isn't superhard to aim and that works (in the meaning of at least 30 fps). Aiming is just as easy as without 3d except for aiming from the hip, but you don't use that so much, and it doesn't take too long before you're able to shoot from the hip without a cross-hair; though if you have to be accurate you use your right mouse button.
It is super cool! The gun is beautifully in 3d, and the surrounding too. I couldn't imagine any better 3d except for higher resolution, bigger screen etc.

Post requests, and I'll test the demo, or the real game if I got it (got a whole collection, so if you got a good taste, I'll probably have your game too)

Edit5:
Starwars Battlefront II is just like CoD2 super awesome in 3d! Aiming is easy and the third dimension is very nice Menu's suck, but in menu's you can use ctrl-T to turn stereo off.

Edit6:
Rainbow Six: Vegas doesn't work , same problems as Race Driver Grid and DiRT: It has convergence, but no separation, even with Dragons utility.
UT3 Does work, though you have to use dragons utility, and then it is 3d, but not as much as UT2004 :S, I find it weird that this game works, and R6:Vegas not, because they use the same engine!
MotoGP07 is very cool in 3d! Just like Tomb Raider it is so perfectly 3d, that you can't imagine any better 3d-experience with it, though it's hard to find this one in stores (or you have to buy it online).

Right now, after using the monitor for a week I can tell that the ghosting is about 1% of the first time I used the monitor, in other words: when you get used to sitting in the right position the ghosting will be as good as gone

Edit7"
Assassin's Creed doesn't work :'( :'(, does anybody know how I can get it working? same probs as with R6:Vegas, convergence, but no separation :S even with Dragons utility :S

Edit8
Heya everybody. Haven't posted here for a while, but I have to do an update because of the new drivers.
Crysis still has the water-bugs, but the rest is great.
Call of Duty 4 now works perfect in 3d, and has high framerates (couldn't be more fluently)
Grid now work perfect in 3d, with perfect framerates as well. Haven't tested Dirt, but I guess that one works too now, since it's based on the same engine as Grid and of the same makers.
Assassin's creed works great too now, it's really fun in 3d! I especially like the moments when you jump off high buildings.
Haven't tested Unreal Tournament 3, but I heard people say that it works great now too.
I have tested Saints Row 2 with the drivers before this one (i thought it was something like 177.10 or so), but it sucked because of low framerates.
I also installed two other games that worked perfect in 3d: Audiosurf (which had great depth in it) and Attack on Pearl Harbor which couldn't have a better third dimension It's so cool to experience the depth of the sky and of the bullet rounds that come fly at you.
The last game I would like to mention is Battlefield 2, there are still some weird shadows, but even then I think it's one of the best games to play in 3d. I don't know what they have changed since the last drivers, but it suddenly looked even better than before.

Ghosting:
After some experience there is totally no ghosting anymore. The trick to get rid of the last bits was just to sit at the right distance (about 60cm I guess), the right angle (easily adjustable) and the right height (eyes at 3/4 of the screen).

Zalman vs. 3d Vision
First of all I would like to say that I have no experience with 3d vision at all.
I have thought about buying a huge tv in combination with 3d vision. Reasons to do so are:
- Higher resolution (Full HD: 1920x1080, M220W: 1680x1050)
- Less ghosting. If you play from the right position there is totally no ghosting on the Zalman. But if you like showing off you'd rather want a 3d vision, since friends will see the depth immediately and be astonished. With the Zalman you are helping them to see the effect for the first 5 minutes.
- Size (Up to 73" vs. 22"). To have the best 3d experience you'll want a very big monitor. The bigger the better. Although you can better have a 22" at 60cm distance on your desk, than a 66" at 2m from your couch.
On the other hand Zalman's monitor is very cheap nowadays. There can be lots more reasons to buy Zalman's monitor, but I don't know the negative sides of 3d Vision + DLP TV, since I haven't used it.

[cybereality]

Cool man, thanks for the review. Sounds like the Zalman Trimon is definitely a contender. I can't wait to get mine!

If you want to see some good stereo 3d with the nvidia drivers, try the GRID racing demo. 3dMark06 also looks fantastic in S3D. The MadOnion XLR8R demo is pretty cool too. The demos for Quest3D also work very nicely: http://quest3d.com/index.php?id=15

[A.J.]

Good review, thanks. Has anyone tried Il-2 1946 or Flight Simulator X with Zalman, neither is on the supported list.

[cybereality]

Grid-demo: Thanks Cybereality for the advice, but hmm, it looked like a really nice game, and the framerates were excellent (60-70fps), but I didn't get any depth, does anybody know how I can make this game 3d?? Btw it's also nice to play this one in 2d, it's a neat game.

You need to tweak it a bit to get a good 3d effect. You can do this on the menu (in the garage) or while playing a game can be a bit easier. Just start a game but don't go anywhere, let your car sit there and switch to the closest camera that still 3rd person outside the car. Now take the glasses off, hold F3 until the images merge. Then press F4 two or three times and you should see a little separation. Now I think you need to hold F6 for a second or two. You want to see the car merge back into one image, but have the background blurry. If the 2 images are moving the wrong way, then try holding F5 to reduce the convergence. After you get to this point you should have a decent baseline 3d effect. Try adjusting the convergence with F5-F6 until you get more depth (pressing F6 will generally increase the depth effect). If the image seems difficult to look at, just turn the separation down by pressing F3 (lowest setting goes back to 2d). It takes a second to get this right. When its configured correctly you should not be straining your eyes at all. The stereo 3d works nicely on this title (but not by default). You can press F7 and it will save the settings. I've had trouble in the past getting the custom settings loaded, but it should hopefully work on the new driver (I haven't tested yet).

All the hotkeys I was talking about are Control + Function key, just in case you didn't know.

[Sjonnie]

Grid-demo: Thanks Cybereality for the advice, but hmm, it looked like a really nice game, and the framerates were excellent (60-70fps), but I didn't get any depth, does anybody know how I can make this game 3d?? Btw it's also nice to play this one in 2d, it's a neat game.

You need to tweak it a bit to get a good 3d effect. You can do this on the menu (in the garage) or while playing a game can be a bit easier. Just start a game but don't go anywhere, let your car sit there and switch to the closest camera that still 3rd person outside the car. Now take the glasses off, hold F3 until the images merge. Then press F4 two or three times and you should see a little separation. Now I think you need to hold F6 for a second or two. You want to see the car merge back into one image, but have the background blurry. If the 2 images are moving the wrong way, then try holding F5 to reduce the convergence. After you get to this point you should have a decent baseline 3d effect. Try adjusting the convergence with F5-F6 until you get more depth (pressing F6 will generally increase the depth effect). If the image seems difficult to look at, just turn the separation down by pressing F3 (lowest setting goes back to 2d). It takes a second to get this right. When its configured correctly you should not be straining your eyes at all. The stereo 3d works nicely on this title (but not by default). You can press F7 and it will save the settings. I've had trouble in the past getting the custom settings loaded, but it should hopefully work on the new driver (I haven't tested yet).

All the hotkeys I was talking about are Control + Function key, just in case you didn't know.

The only thing that worked for me was the convergence, separation didn't do anything at all! DiRT got the same problem. But the convergence alone looks really flat, and the HUDs are double. I'll give it another try, but I don't expect it to work. Thanks btw

[cybereality]

The only thing that worked for me was the convergence, separation didn't do anything at all! DiRT got the same problem. But the convergence alone looks really flat, and the HUDs are double. I'll give it another try, but I don't expect it to work. Thanks btw

Sometimes the nvidia driver can appear like the settings aren't changing, but they are. You should see an on-screen HUD that says "Depth Amount" with a green bar, similar to the volume display on a tv. I usually have this at 3 or 4 bars. The convergence doesn't have this HUD, but you should see the image shifting at least if you are not wearing the glasses. You may have to hold F6 for a *looong* time but it will eventually escape from the dead-zone. Sometimes you have the hold F5 down, it depends on the game (usually Control-F6 is the ticket). I would go to the nvidia driver and set "stereo enabled by hotkey" instead of auto. That way you can press Control-T when you want to play in 3d and you can be sure its working (by pressing Control-T on and off without the glasses it will be obvious if it is working or not). The GRID demo wasn't the easiest to configure, but it looks very impressive when done right. Its worth spending the time to tweak it and get it working.

[Dyssident]

The only thing that worked for me was the convergence, separation didn't do anything at all! DiRT got the same problem. But the convergence alone looks really flat, and the HUDs are double. I'll give it another try, but I don't expect it to work. Thanks btw

I had a similar problem with Dirt with the older nvidia drivers (162.50 with shutterglasses). I admit I didn't try much to get it to work, but it would always appear flat with 3D enabled. Separation and convergence changes would alter the 2 eyes' images but combined together they would always look 2D. I'll try it again soon and let you know if I discover anything.


Edit:

I was so impressed by GTR that I had to install Trackmania United: also a very nice game, I really like the jumps in 3d, and it's nice to drive with high speed! However, it was less exciting that GTR (in my opinion) because it isn't first person.

Press the number 3 key to switch to the always-exciting bumper cam. It's the only view I use for that game.

[Sjonnie]

The only thing that worked for me was the convergence, separation didn't do anything at all! DiRT got the same problem. But the convergence alone looks really flat, and the HUDs are double. I'll give it another try, but I don't expect it to work. Thanks btw

Sometimes the nvidia driver can appear like the settings aren't changing, but they are. You should see an on-screen HUD that says "Depth Amount" with a green bar, similar to the volume display on a tv. I usually have this at 3 or 4 bars. The convergence doesn't have this HUD, but you should see the image shifting at least if you are not wearing the glasses. You may have to hold F6 for a *looong* time but it will eventually escape from the dead-zone. Sometimes you have the hold F5 down, it depends on the game (usually Control-F6 is the ticket). I would go to the nvidia driver and set "stereo enabled by hotkey" instead of auto. That way you can press Control-T when you want to play in 3d and you can be sure its working (by pressing Control-T on and off without the glasses it will be obvious if it is working or not). The GRID demo wasn't the easiest to configure, but it looks very impressive when done right. Its worth spending the time to tweak it and get it working.

I tried it again, but it just doesn't work. Convergence only changes how close to you everything is, separation causes the difference in depth. So without separation working (I tried it again, it just didn't work), you can make things closer to you, but everything comes equally at you.

[cybereality]

I tried it again, but it just doesn't work. Convergence only changes how close to you everything is, separation causes the difference in depth. So without separation working (I tried it again, it just didn't work), you can make things closer to you, but everything comes equally at you.

Thats strange, I'm not sure what to say. Mind you, I only tested this in anaglyph mode, so maybe that would make a difference but it shouldn't. Maybe its a software thing, I don't know.

Also, what you said about convergence/separation is not entirely accurate. Its unfortunate that separation is labeled as "depth" because that is deceiving. Ideally the separation should be very minimal, in real life your eyes are only a few cms apart. In a game world 6cm would only be a few pixels of separation if even that. The convergence controls the focal distance, which is an essential part of simulating stereo 3d. Convergence is much more important. That is what adjusts how different the angle is that you see from each eye. Without correct convergence you are just looking at a double 2D image, doesn't matter how high the separation is. Thats what I was trying to explain.

[Sjonnie]

I tried it again, but it just doesn't work. Convergence only changes how close to you everything is, separation causes the difference in depth. So without separation working (I tried it again, it just didn't work), you can make things closer to you, but everything comes equally at you.

Thats strange, I'm not sure what to say. Mind you, I only tested this in anaglyph mode, so maybe that would make a difference but it shouldn't. Maybe its a software thing, I don't know.

Also, what you said about convergence/separation is not entirely accurate. Its unfortunate that separation is labeled as "depth" because that is deceiving. Ideally the separation should be very minimal, in real life your eyes are only a few cms apart. In a game world 6cm would only be a few pixels of separation if even that. The convergence controls the focal distance, which is an essential part of simulating stereo 3d. Convergence is much more important. That is what adjusts how different the angle is that you see from each eye. Without correct convergence you are just looking at a double 2D image, doesn't matter how high the separation is. Thats what I was trying to explain.

Interesting! Didn't know, had a wrong idea about it I guess, tomorrow I will experiment more with what you said! Up to now I was playing with separation 50% and only a few times F6 of convergence.

[zoomin]

Hey, I'm having the same issue as you with Grid...

In the menus I can change convergence as if it was seperation but everything is at the same depth. changing the seperation just moves it more, but wont shift it at all if I havent already moved everything backwards or forwards a little with convergence.

While actually racing I can change the convergence and it looks like the 3d is working (the lines in the road get furthur apart) but when i try to bring the car forwards, the moment one object reaches 0 convergence everything moves with it so there is no 3d.

Assassins Creed had a similar problem(but if you can get that working its supposed to be great so id give it a go if you have it) except convergence only moves a 2d image this time and it never has any real depth. I've tried all sorts of graphical settings and the dragon utility (which should probably be what you try next, its in the downloads section) but havent been able to get any results for these two games...

So with the dragon utility, I just find the game executable, open it with the dragon utility, click enable stereo render target, click integrate to context menu, and it should fix post processing issues?

Thanks and Good Luck,

[cybereality]

Hey, I wouldn't stress it. Not every game is fully compatible with the nvidia driver. With my particular setup, I happened to have some success with GRID, however it did require tweaking. I also might play with different settings, so what works for me might not work for you the same. There are other popular racing games, like Need For Speed, that I believe should work fine. Its not like GRIDs the only racing game on the block. I thought it did work very well though, so I'm surprised about the comments here.

[Sjonnie]

Hey, I wouldn't stress it. Not every game is fully compatible with the nvidia driver. With my particular setup, I happened to have some success with GRID, however it did require tweaking. I also might play with different settings, so what works for me might not work for you the same. There are other popular racing games, like Need For Speed, that I believe should work fine. Its not like GRIDs the only racing game on the block. I thought it did work very well though, so I'm surprised about the comments here.

Indeed I got lots of racing games, too bad it isn't working, but I don't care that much, thanks for the advice

[cybereality]

Indeed I got lots of racing games, too bad it isn't working, but I don't care that much, thanks for the advice

My bad, I gave you bunk instructions. I just tried it again to make sure I wasn't bugging or something. You need to hold Control-F5 down, *not* Control-F6. Usually F6 is the one you want, but sometimes certain games have it reversed or whatever. The settings I was using to get decent stereo 3d effect, was setting separation to around 30%, and starting a race. In the third person cam you should see a double image of two cars. Then try holding down Control-F5 for about 25-30 seconds. You should notice the cars begin to merge and then become one. Now don't stop holding the button down! This is what trips many people up and thats why I'm making such a point about it (it still trips me up, so don't feel like a noob or anything). Just keep holding it down. For like 10-15 seconds it will appear to do absolutely nothing, but it is working I assure you. You want to stop when you can see the double of the car reach the other side (just a bit on each side, the 2 images should still mostly overlap). Then adjust the depth (separation) to get a clear image if its difficult to focus. Many games can be confusing to configure like this, so its important you know how to do this for other games (since the hotkeys pretty much work similar in all titles).

[Sjonnie]

It still didn't work for me , I think you use older drivers, since in this thread someone says that Dirt worked for 93.71, but not in the latest.
However, if I come for the same situation again with some other game I'll remember your method, and thank you a whole lot for helping me (I'm a very thankful person, I know )

Right now I'm installing IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, so I'll comment on that game later on.

P.S. I forgot to try the game with dragons utility, maybe that can make the difference ==> D'oh! Now I have to install that game that takes an hour to install for the 4th time >.<

[cybereality]

I am running FW 175.16 with the 174.76 stereo drivers. However I was not able to get the same 3d effect like I did on the first try, I don't know. It definitely doesn't have the "3d" quality of GTR2, I can say that much.

No worries though. There are a bunch of other games that I'm sure work on the Trimon without a problem, and don't require tweaking for half an hour.

EDIT: Upon further testing I'm starting to think the 3d on GRID isn't so hot. NFS: Most Wanted looks way better in 3d. I'm not sure how I got it working the first time, I'm sure there was some 3D effect (when I switched it off and on I could notice a difference) but it wasn't that crisp S-3D like on UT2K4.