Unigine Dual API (Direct3D9/OpenGL) Built in S-3D

Post by **maxthreat** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:53 am

I don't know why I didn't post this here earlier. I searched around and didn't see anything so apologies if this has been posted already.
Back in May I joined in on a thread started by DenDiesel who is associated with Unigine Corp. The thread was about their upcoming Unigine...engine. http://unigine.com/download/
I was blown away to find it had hard coded postprocessing anaglyph stereo mode, no stereo driver required. I asked DenD about their shutter glasses capabilities. In reply he said

"Our stereo mode is a kind of cheating It uses different color channels for different eyes (Anaglyph image) since shutter glasses are based on time-divided frames, so our demo is incompatible with shutter glasses (however it's rather easy to add such mode). Anaglyph glasses are cheaper and more widely spread than shutter ones, so we decided to implement only Anaglyph image mode."

I hope mtbs3D is already working with this great team. I really miss S-3D since I got my 8800 almost a year ago and can't wait for something stable to come along.

Post by **sharky** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:20 am

hi!

thank you for posting this! i tried it with the iz3d drivers and it works only in windowed mode. it seems to me that the engine is very powerfull but also needs a powerfull pc and gpu. i have a core quadro with a 8800, and with standart settings, (AA off and so on) i had 3FPS at the beginning and 15 fps later (with iz3d drivers on) and 60 with drivers off.

but it looks great!

Post by **maxthreat** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:05 pm

Hello,
There must be some kind of issue between it and the iz3D drivers. Its made to work without any special drivers just the standard Nv and AMDTI drivers. I'm running an x2 3800+ @2.5ghz and an 8800GTX and I get well over 120fps. I just found it most interesting that he said it would be rather easy to add in a shutter glasses mode. S-3D without any special drivers would be awesome.

Post by **sharky** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:02 am

hi! i made some screenshots with iz3D drivers.. i tested it tithout iz3D drivers enabled and get 50 fps... maybe because of vista?

could somebody else with vista/xp test it?

the drivers have been uploaded into the galery.. as soon as neil accepts them they should be online...

Post by **Freke1** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:59 am

With Nvidia and XP I get 88,9 when I run it "out of the box".
If I run it fullscreen and in 3D I get 25.

Post by **maxthreat** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:10 am

When you say tested with iz3D drivers are you testing with page flip mode? My prev numbers were in XP, in vista I get about the same, almost faster 160fps at the default settings and about 55fps @ 1600x1200, I also enable motion blur.

It's really nice to see all the postprocessing effects like DOF and motion blur in 3D even if it is just anaglyph.

Post by **sharky** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:18 am

nope, iz3d is not pageflipping.. its the iz3d visualization mode.. for the iz3d monitor. i am performing a defragmentation, and removed some things from the startup.. in more or less an hour i am going to test it again and see if tehre where any improovements.

Post by **sharky** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 9:52 am

ok tested again.. in windowed and in fullscreen, with AA at 0, directx mode, 1600 x 1000 e get 50 fps. with iz3d drivers enabled, same settings i get 6 fps

Post by **Jahun** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:59 am

hmm it doesn't run here. Has issues with main.exe, dunno why..

they don't have a forum either.. so ah well

Post by **sharky** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:13 pm

the images are online.. check them out...

http://www.mtbs3d.com/cgi-bin/members_photosharing.cgi

Post by **RAGEdemon** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 5:09 pm

Isn't it interesting how well stereo is handled? We were always told by nVidia that it was really difficult to code stereo or make a proper stereo driver, but many of us suspected that this was just not true.

I for one, get 150fps with or without stereo with all post processing in D3D and OpenGL. Isnt it interesting how even FSAA can't be enabled but stereo is so easily dealt with?

Granted its hard coded, but shame on you nVidia. How difficult could it have been after all these years of unfulfilled promises. iZ3D and now DDD have managed to do it with such a small budget and team.

Speaking of which... weren't there some Win3D people who nVidia hired to make the stereo driver? an experienced crew?

The way this engine handles stereo so effortlesly is nothing less than beautiful.

Post by **Jahun** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:18 am

heh, all sounds good
If only I could get it run.. *snif*

Post by **RAGEdemon** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:17 am

Hi Jahun,

What seems to be the problem?

Its weird it doesnt work for you... I won't patronise you with "update drivers" and all the malarky

Have you tried running it in windows 2000 compatibility mode if you are under windows XP?

Or maybe you are using vista?

Can you list your specs?

Post by **sharky** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:59 am

hi jahun.. try these steps:

-restart you computer
-defrag the pc
-update drivers
-update windows
-pray
-try to pres the keys in this exact order: "W O P H ENTER T T ESC F5 G K"
-then open your cd-rom
-put the monitor upside-down
-remove the ball from your mouse

now run the game.. it should work.

joking

whats the problem?
i am running on vista with a 8800 gts and works good.. so it does not seem to have compatibility problems.. if you are in vista you have to run it as administrator.

bye

sharky

Post by **Jahun** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:17 pm

hey guys, thanks for the hints..

And yeah, updated drivers and all, at least as far as I want them updated :p Removing the ball from my laser mouse was troublesome though.. but I will keep on trying..

I am running XP SP2 on a Q6700 core 2 duo and tried comp. mode. But I think the issue may be hard to find so I can't spend time on it..

Could be anything.. I have had this pc for 9 months now, but it is already in dire need of a reinstall. Too much clutter

Thanks though!

One question though, is it easy to make your own scene in that program? Importing 3D models and such..

Post by **sharky** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:03 pm

you cant create your own scene.. you only watch the created scene... its only a demo of what can be done.. but you can also watch teh demo-clips to get an idea...

Post by **maxthreat** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:57 pm

No no you can.

It's available in few different fashions. This is just a demo/benchmark of their upcoming Unigine. The engine is available for pre-ordering and eval kits. It starts at a meager $2495 + $7490, 5% royalty all the way up to $19,985, 3% royalty... That is, if your making a game.
http://unigine.com/products/
I hope allot of games get made with it. Hearing how they said how easy it would be for them to add a shutter glasses mode I hope a somewhat more prestiges member than I approaches them on a serious level about being MTBS certified. Hard coded time-divided postprocessed page flipping would be Huge! No stereo driver required, just an option in the game menu.

It sounds like they also have a Dx10 path up and running if you check out the development log.

Post by **binstream** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:41 pm

Jahun wrote:And yeah, updated drivers and all, at least as far as I want them updated :p Removing the ball from my laser mouse was troublesome though.. but I will keep on trying..

I am running XP SP2 on a Q6700 core 2 duo and tried comp. mode. But I think the issue may be hard to find so I can't spend time on it..

You also need updated DirectX 9 (June 2006 or newer).
Having all prerequisites met you just have to run some of the .bat files inside the demo. If it still fails to load, please send us generated log.html file to support@unigine.com

Jahun wrote: One question though, is it easy to make your own scene in that program? Importing 3D models and such..

Yes, Unigine is a virtual worlds engine shipped with visual tools. Prices are listed here: http://unigine.com/products/ If you have non-game project requiring some specific licensing terms, feel free to contact us: sales@unigine.com

Post by **binstream** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:45 pm

maxthreat wrote:I hope allot of games get made with it. Hearing how they said how easy it would be for them to add a shutter glasses mode I hope a somewhat more prestiges member than I approaches them on a serious level about being MTBS certified. Hard coded time-divided postprocessed page flipping would be Huge! No stereo driver required, just an option in the game menu.

Well, if this whole thing is really popular, we have to find a pair of shutter glasses and implement alternative stereo mode 8)

maxthreat wrote:It sounds like they also have a Dx10 path up and running if you check out the development log.

Yes, we are now working on Direct X 10 framework in Unigine, so it will provide 3 renders: OpenGL, Direct3D 9, Direct3D 10.

Post by **sharky** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:49 am

maxthreat wrote:No no you can. It's available in few different fashions. This is just a demo/benchmark

its exactly what i meant.. with the demo you can't create anything... but it would be cool to have a demo you can test!

hi binstream!
nice to have you here! have you ever thought abouthasking for mtbs certification? don't know how it could be managed because it is not actually a game, but if you contact neil i think something could be figured out. certification is free..
have you seen the stereopictures i have taken from your demo? the one with the statue has a great pop out effect..

bye

sharky

Post by **binstream** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:29 am

sharky wrote:nice to have you here! have you ever thought abouthasking for mtbs certification? don't know how it could be managed because it is not actually a game, but if you contact neil i think something could be figured out. certification is free..
have you seen the stereopictures i have taken from your demo? the one with the statue has a great pop out effect..

First of all, thank you for the warm words!

We haven't catched the idea of this certification, we'll think it over.

Post by **sharky** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:01 am

well the idea behind could be this one:

you have a engine wich is lets say (just as example.. the numbers come out of my head) 95% compatible and gets gold or platinum certification.. that would mean that whoever uses your engine to create the game will most likely have the same ammount of compatibility. (if they don't mess up the code..

) that would mean that somebody could have a great starting point to have a certificated game in future...

bye

sharky

Post by **Neil** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:54 am

Hi Binstream,

I'm Neil Schneider, and I'm the one who runs MTBS.

First, MTBS is completely on the up and up. If you google us, you will see we are all over the place, and this is a professional outfit.

Sharky is a little off with his description of MTBS certification. It's not the programming code that determines it, it's what is visually seen. So, you can use an S-3D compliant engine, but bad rendering can leave you with a poor result.

HOWEVER, he is correct that using an engine like yours may indeed increase the chances for game developers to quickly earn MTBS certification, and that would be a selling point for you.

We have never certified a game engine before, but because you have implemented stereoscopic components and are compatible with leading S-3D drivers, we should seriously discuss it.

I'll PM you with hopes that we can review this further.

Regards,
Neil