HeadPlay drivers for 3d gaming...?

[user867]

Hi everyone. I received a HeadPlay set for Christmas, but I'm not sure which drivers to use for 3d gaming...

I'm using Vista Home Premium 64-bit, and a GeForce 9800 GTX+.
(I also have a laptop, also with Vista Home Premium 64-bit, but she has an ATI Radeon HD 3670 in her...)

Obviously, I immediately ran into the problem with nVidia's 3d Vision driver. I do know that their drivers did work for HeadPlay once upon a time tho... But I don't know how far back I'd have to go...or if that would would even work or be worth it.

Am I completely hosed here...? From what little I've been able to gather, it seems that some people have had some success with iZ3D's driver, but I'm not sure how to go about that, or even which one to dl... (I'm "shutter" I believe...?)

Any help would be much appreciated! So glad I found this site! You're my peops!

[cybereality]

Well Nvidia dropped support for Headplay (and a bunch of other hardware) years ago. If you really want you could cobble together an old rig with Windows XP and a 7000 series Nvidia card. Might work alright for some older titles, maybe Left4Dead at the newest. This is at least known to work. If you want to utilize a modern rig then you will need to look at the iz3D drivers. They used to have a "simple shutter" output. It is suspiciously absent from the latest driver (maybe because it never really worked right). If you find an older driver you might be able to use this. I think if you can play a game that can maintain over 60fps then it will be able to keep sync (meaning 60fps minimum, not average). Otherwise you will have the problem that the eyes will switch and you will need to constantly be fixing it. Still worth a shot if you have some older games you want to play.

[user867]

Cool! Thanks so much for the reply!
An older rig with XP might actually be an option for me... Do you have any idea which of nVidia's drivers were the last to support it like that...?

I checked out the iZ3D drivers, and I have had some success so far with the "120Hz output device" option. I did experience the `switching' when it dropped below 60fps, but fortunately, it shouldn't be a problem to maintain that at 1024x768 on my system by dropping a few bells&whistles on some games...

What about TriDef...? Or is that not an option for me...

Thanks again for the reply! I'm really happy I was at least able to play a game in 3d!

[cybereality]

The last Nvidia driver that I know works was 91.31 (both video and 3D must match). I think the best card that is supported is the 7900 GTX. I guess the "120Hz output" on the iz3D driver is what replaced the "simple shutter" mode. As you see, it has problems with sync. You could also try the DDD driver, but I think it will suffer from the same issues. I imagine this issue could probably be fixed if there were more modern devices that needed it, and if the 3D companies involved could work with the GPU manufacturers to add this support (or rather restore support in the case of Nvidia). However, right now Nvidia has a strangle-hold on this functionality and is using this tactic to force people to buy their glasses. AMD has finally woke up to 3D, however they are pushing for the new HDMI standard and don't look as interested in supporting legacy hardware. I doubt this is going to change.