Zalman Vista Driver Release Date Finally Confirmed.

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:52 am

Hi All,

Myself and Oruq from the Nvidia forums have been constantly sending Zalman emails for updates on the driver release.

Oruq has now posted on the forum stating that he has recieved an email back from Zalman stating that the official release date for their driver will be 22nd Feb, a little over a week away. If this is true, this is good news and will bring hope that there is finally some movement from Nvidia.

Maybe if someone from Mtbs could speak to Zalman and confirm this date. Please see link to post.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?act= ... ntry326536

Regards,
Ribuck.

Post by **The_Doctor** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:58 am

Has hell finally fronzen over? Maybe they work for other stuff somehow if they work in the first place. But we heard that before. November, December, January and now February.

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:03 am

Well don't know if it's true, but every other time we emailed Zalman they refused to comment, now they saying a specific date. This also ties in with a couple of major trade shows coming up in march, so with a bit of luck it might be true, as i'm sure they'll want to showcase their screen.

I've PM'd neil to see if he can do some snooping and maybe call Zalman to confirm this.

Ribuck.

Post by **The_Doctor** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:06 am

Let's hope it's true. But can there be so much money to be squeezed out of Zalman by Nvidia to make drivers only for them? I doubt Zalman will sell lots of monitors. I guess some money is better than nothing even if only 10 people buy the Zalman

.

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:29 am

Well there is some big consumer electronics show in Germany in the first week of March, so i guess they will be hoping to display stuff there, and well as a few big shows coming up in Asia very soon, so i guess this is where they might really push the screen.

I've spoken to Oruq to get a copy of the email to post it on the forum so we can see Zalmans response.

Hopefully we will get further confirmations.

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:34 am

Here is the E-Mail I've sent to Zalman support on January 22nd ...

<quote>
I've read on your information page for your 2D/3D Monitors that stereo drivers for Vista are to be released in January 2008, so I have just purchased a Zalman 2D/3D Monitor.

Since my system is running Windows Vista and using a GeForce 8600 GTS card, for which it looks like there are currently no stereo drivers available, could you please give a definite date for the release of stereo drivers for nVidia cards on Vista, or (in case that date is not in January anymore) a date when a BETA version of new stereo drivers would be available?

Thank you.
</quote>

And here is the reply I have received from Zalman Today, February 14th ...

<quote>
Sorry to keep you waiting. It seems that we will have the vista driver available from 22nd of this month from our web site.

Best regards,
Support/Zalman
</quote>

Post by **cirk2** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:57 am

So we've got n releas Date, but everyone who want to use this driver have to gotn an loving zalman Display and Vista 32bit.

hat the hell is about Schutteglasses/HMD (vr920) and 64bit?

In theory an 64bit driver should be more performant, because you can 2 or more Prozessors
paralell ( one Rendering left, one Right). So have we to ask Nvidia, when ther will be an 64bit driver, I say "It's done, when it's done"

Also I would find it intresting to know how much Dollers have zalman payed to Nvidia... Millions? Ten Milions?
It's just bullshit, it's dicriminating. All withput an Zalman are customer second class...

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:32 am

I can confirm that i managed to get a hold of a representative from Zalman USA about 10 mins ago 5:30pm uk time (feb 14), and he confirmed that the drivers will definately be available on the 22nd Feb.

Regards,
Ribuck.

Post by **Tril** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:40 am

In theory an 64bit driver should be more performant, because you can 2 or more Prozessors
paralell ( one Rendering left, one Right). So have we to ask Nvidia, when ther will be an 64bit driver, I say "It's done, when it's done"

I would say this is not completely true. You can't have one processor render one eye while the other renders the other. It's a limitation of DirectX but I don't think it matters much because the cpu mainly queues commands for the GPU and the GPU does all the work.

NVIDIA is a big company with over 4000 employees. They are on the stock market. They do what they believe will turn in profits for their investors and right now, it's a deal with a major company like Zalman. Giving stereo drivers for free does not turn in any (visible) profit.

What I would like NVIDIA to do is to incorporate some limited stereo drivers support for developpers through an SDK for shutterglasses (page-flipping). The problem with shutterglasses is that you have to switch the picture during the blanking of the CRT monitor at a high speed. As far as I know, it's hard or impossible to do in DirectX. What I would like is a way to tell the NVIDIA videocard drivers if you are sending it a left view or a right view. The card would store these two views in two surfaces on the card memory. The card would output the left and right view one after the other and switch DDC to tell which eye is rendering. This can all be done in hardware on the videocard. Basically, I would like the driver to work like in the old stereo drivers for shutterglasses, except that the two different views would be provided by the developper instead of the stereo driver.

Post by **The_Doctor** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:33 pm

From reading reviews, the Zalman seems to be a piece of crap(http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?show ... 7515&st=20). But who knows with new drivers.

As for nvidia building in support for developers, yes they should do that. But we'll be all dead before anything comes out that uses that. To just use available games and applications on high-end cards that they make they should just release some drivers. The iz3d people do it and they don't even make the cards, so it can't be too hard for developers that do this their whole life. Sell them and make money like that if that's the problem.

Post by **ribuck** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:18 pm

it's a bit early to say Zalman is crap and write them off seeing that the driver isn't out until Feb 22nd.

Comparing Iz3d's drivers with really old Nvidia ones isn't really a good comparison, and nvidia will continually update the driver, it's one thing they excel at, when they actually do it.

Post by **Neil** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:47 pm

I spoke to my contacts, and unofficially, February 22nd is correct. Officially, it's still March 1st. I think the Feb 22nd prediction is reasonably accurate, though.

Regards,
Neil

Post by **The_Doctor** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:57 pm

I hope it will be good with the new drivers, I think everybody here does, the more choice the better.

ribuck wrote:it's a bit early to say Zalman is crap and write them off seeing that the driver isn't out until Feb 22nd.

Comparing Iz3d's drivers with really old Nvidia ones isn't really a good comparison, and nvidia will continually update the driver, it's one thing they excel at, when they actually do it.

Post by **ribuck** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:11 am

Yeah hopefully it will be good news, but on the other hand lets not forget that Iz3d are looking to produce a universal driver which people would have to pay for. I and i'm sure many others would pay for drivers if it means that we get better support and development of this technology.

If companies are turning a profit from drivers it keeps their focus on the product and it's future support.

Regards,
Ribuck.

Post by **CarlKenner** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:48 pm

I agree with Tril. Providing a way to render separately to each eye can ONLY be done at the device driver level, and it is nvidia's job to provide that. We paid money for an nvidia graphics card, and they need to provide us with drivers that expose its hardware capabilities.

Post by **3Dward** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:26 am

Just bumping this topic to remind everyone that the above mentioned date of Feb the 22nd ... is tomorow!
Let's hope it is not going to be postponed, and we can do some testing here tomorow.

Post by **cirk2** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:11 am

Hope that that kind of bullpoop will come tomorow...

More S-3D for the others, not for me...

Letzt hope that the 64bit Variant has pageflipping or Vr920 support...

Post by **ribuck** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:52 am

Well it's mid day in the uk and still no signs of the driver appearing, Zalman is based in korea and i think they are 9 hours ahead of the ukl, so for them the end of the working day has passed, so i'm not confident that it's going to be today.

Guess we will just have to wait a bit longer, but I suspect todays date given by Zalman is just more of their flim flam.

Post by **3Dward** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:34 am

Hi Ribuck, be careful if you're looking to the East,
those drivers might just come from behind you:
nVidia is based in Santa Clara !

This being said, we can wait roughly until hmmm .... 2 am GMT ?

Post by **ribuck** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:54 am

Yeah but it's Zalman who are releasing the drivers on their site and they are in korea and +9 hours ahead. I would imagine Nvidia would have sent them the drivers well in advance.

Post by **apogrif** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:48 pm

hello,
excuse my poor english i m french and i ll do my best .

when i read this post from you Neil :

Neil wrote:I spoke to my contacts, and unofficially, February 22nd is correct. Officially, it's still March 1st. I think the Feb 22nd prediction is reasonably accurate, though.

Regards,
Neil

and compare to this wich is post in the locked thread :

Gentlemen,

I'd like to share a few words.

First, I know you are angry, and I know someone dropped a rumor that the drivers would be out on the 22nd of February. When I spoke to Zalman and NVIDIA, they didn't know who sent such a rumor which is why I never made official news of it. I think it will be less than a matter of weeks for a driver release, but today is not going to be the release date for sure.

That said, I have to ask that you cease this thread and others like it. MTBS is an advocacy group. We promote stereoscopic 3D technologies with the mindset of them getting adopted by game developers. You are angry about driver delays, but I think the delays are an indication of NVIDIA taking care to release a good set of drivers. Something radically different than what we have seen so far.

I have also heard about MTBS members sending hate email to Zalman and NVIDIA, and this just hurts the MTBS image and is completely counterproductive for everyone. That's not what we are about and I want our site to have nothing to do with that kind of thing.

If you want to pick an enemy, choose Punk Buster for treating S-3D as a false cheat, or ask game developers to implement driver or natively supported S-3D to their titles. Answer threads in 2D forums about false myths about S-3D like red/blue glasses dependency, slow performance, etc. These are where our energies need to be placed.

Finally, I think GDC has been a big success for S-3D above and beyond NVIDIA. So hang tight, as some exciting developments will be coming out over the coming weeks above and beyond NVIDIA drivers.

Regards,
Neil

it seems that we don't have the same definition of hte word NEVER and news.

i sorry about that i don t want to clach with you at all but i need to expose my thinking about this.

i read your forum very often each weekin fact. and like a lot of us , i m waiting for real solution to get S3D at home and i was thinking that ZAlman was the best solution but now one again we need to wait and wait again after a REAL solution witch can really work ( i mean in Directx and OpenGL), why not with NVIDIA with SLI or GX2 or ATI and their CROSSFIRE and X2 solution.

i think your forum is the best because all the S3D fan are here waiting and waiting again for good solution i saw the post of the first open source 3D game it s marvellous but enought right now

sorry once again Neil but please be honest with US, i ve not lost my Faith in S3D but this is not Very FAIR with US

Apogrif

Post by **sharky** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:03 pm

hi, i am not neil but i chat a lot with him so i think i might say my oppinion on this..

as you read on the first quote you posted it is unofficial. it becomes official when the informations arrive from a high-level member of the company. MAYBE the information came from a minor person inside nvidia. what he said is not against the truth.. he said that he did not make a news out of it. news usually are the official announcements, forum posts are rumors, ideas, hopes, facts, everythign a little bit.. im sorry to see that you took it this way. but i know neil and i can guarantee that the last thing he wants to do is to lie to members, loose members, or not be honest to you.. like already said by neil in other posts there are unsaid things which can not be tolduntil a certain moment, that is normal, and on every site it is so. but why lie if oyu can simply keep it hidden?

im shure he will confirm this.

bye and have fun on the board..

igor

Post by **apogrif** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:17 pm

hello sharky

once again let me explain my thinking i never wanted to say that Neil was a liar but i said that not fair that he said he never said it was correct and also that he blocked the thread.

i have not any anger with Neil or the forum members at all i promess.

i just to expose the fact like they are;
Once again Neil is not reponsable at all of the report of the release date of the nvidia driver, but i took a place in our wainting/hope that all i want to say

Sorry about that but it was important for me tell write my thinking

once again i m just talking in my name, and don't want to hurt anybody just be as clear as i can with my mind.

i respect all the work that is done bye all the TEAM of MTBS3D and all the members of this forum that's why i prefer to heard "no i don't any idea about the release date" that really happen today on the blocked thread.

Apogrif

Post by **The_Doctor** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:51 pm

Watch the bbc interview, the nvidia dude says there will be Zalman drivers in a couple weeks, that would be the first week of March from the date posted on that bbc interview. If it's true, who knows.

I agree that it's kinda shady for Zalman to sell the monitor without drivers when the old ones don't work very well. Why they want to tarnish their reputation is beyond me.

Post by **sharky** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:52 pm

hi! i just saw that it was your first post! so welcome to the board!

ok so i misunderstood your words.. sorry.. it arrived to me as if you were saying that he/we lie in order tokeep users here.. i apologize..

[off-topic]
anyway, did you see that there is also a french forum on the board? maybe you could bring some of your friends to the site and populate that section..

[/off-topic]

bye

cu soon

Post by **Neil** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:37 pm

From my point of view, someone posted on the forums that Feb 22nd was a release date. I called Zalman, and they were stunned such a thing was posted. However, they thought the date was reasonably accurate, but March 1st was the official release goal date. Now, I spoke to NVIDIA today, and they said the release of the drivers are "imminent".

No one is trying to lie or create false hopes. How is that beneficial to anyone?

Regards,
Neil

Post by **ribuck** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:58 am

Neil,

What your saying isn't etirely true at all as you confirmed that you had rang them as well and that they had also told you that the drivers would be on thw web site on the 22nd as well as the email recieved by myself and others from Zalman also stated the 22nd, so this isn't just 1 junior person at Zalman making a cock up.

I'm personally dont have an issues with any memeber of this site or board as i think the work you guys are doing is great, but for Zalman to turn round and now basically turn round and say that they know nothing about such dates after confirming by telephone and by email to a few different members is them basically calling us a bunch of liars now and it's not acceptable.

they are doing more dammage to their reputation by not just putting their hand up and admitting they made a mistake and just saying that the drivers are late again, instead of blaming others.

Zalman how can you say you know nothing about it when you have sent a few people emails confirming the date of the 22nd ????? Did they magically send themselves ?? and come on neil, lets be fair you had spoke to them and confirmed this too

Well either way, all this moaning wont help, but it' just tarnished Zalmans reputation and annoyed a lot of people, myself included.

Post by **Welder** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:53 pm

Never trust anything word of mouth, if it's in a News Release, then i would beleive it

Post by **Neil** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:51 pm

Hi Ribuck,

Zalman didn't tell me that the drivers would be up on the 22nd. When did I say that? If I was 100% convinced of it, I would have made it official news.

As to what was discussed with other members, I don't know what happened. I wasn't there, I can't speak to it.

I don't think Zalman is blaming anybody. Are you aware of any public statements by Zalman placing blame on someone?

Yes, let's be fair. I posted as I heard; March 1st was the official goal date. There is no need to put words in my mouth or make assumptions of the content of my conversations.

According to NVIDIA, the driver release is "imminent".

Regards,
Neil

Post by **chilledsanity** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:34 am

Letzt hope that the 64bit Variant has pageflipping or Vr920 support...

Not bloody likely. That's the reason for a lot of the controversy behind the Zalman drivers. Nvidia was supporting pageflipping along with several other methods of stereoscopic rendering, then after a year and half of no updates, decided to axe all support and make the new drivers compatible with the upcoming Zalman monitor only. It blows my mind how people can trust Nvidia for future S-3D after a move like that, but whatever.

Zalman Vista Driver Release Date Finally Confirmed.

Zalman Vista Driver Release Date Finally Confirmed.

the subject is close but i can speak here : Zalman failed