Fixes for Common Stereoscopic 3D Technical Problems
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:39 am
Hello everyone!
One of the biggest challenges of the available NVIDIA stereoscopic drivers is their finicky nature. I am confident that this will improve with time, and I have put together this sticky to resolve some of the most common problems with the drivers.
1. My Computer Locks Up / Dual Core Issues
Unfortunately, the NVIDIA stereoscopic drivers are not compatible with AMD and Intel dual or multi-core CPU setups. There has been some success, but nothing consistent.
Fortunately, if you follow these steps, you will be able to get your games to reliably work with the NVIDIA stereo drivers without facing the lock-up problem!
The issue is the CPU itself. You can only run it as a single core CPU until corrected stereo drivers are released.
Run MSCONFIG, and select the BOOT.INI tab.
Once there, selected ADVANCED OPTIONS.
Set NUMPROC to 1.
Reboot your computer, and you're in business.
If this works, you can set up a dual boot mode on your computer.
2. I?m Getting a Headache!
One of the most popular technologies for stereoscopic 3D is LCD shutter glasses.
This technology is strictly for CRT or tube based monitors.
The 3D software quickly alternates two images on your monitor screen for each eye, and in perfect sync, the glasses alternately flash their LCD panels to black (on) or clear (off).
The end result is each eye gets a unique image, and your game is in 3D.
The challenge with this technology is if the flashing between eyes doesn?t happen fast enough, a strobe effect is created, and you get a terrible migraine.
Usually, a monitor refresh rate defaults at 60hz. The refresh rate refers to how many times an image is drawn on the screen per second. Normally, this would be acceptable, but with the glasses, 60hz gets halved because the image is being drawn for each eye independently. This is where your headache comes in!
Fortunately, your monitor has the means to increase its refresh rate to compensate for this problem. The faster the refresh rate, the less strobe you will experience, and the less likely you will get a headache!
The only caveat is the higher your screen resolution, the more limited your refresh rate will be. Most CRT monitors can support at least 1024 X 768 at 100hz.
In the NVIDIA stereo panel, go to ?Stereo Setup & Test?, select the resolution 1024X768, and go to the maximum refresh your monitor will support. In practice, it should be no less than 100Mhz for this resolution. Consult with your monitor's manufacturer to determine its capabilities.
Tick the box labeled ?Always use Stereo Refresh Rate?. This will make sure that every time you are in this resolution, your monitor doesn?t waiver from the desired refresh rate.
If you don?t tick this box, your screen will resize when you are in and out of stereoscopic mode because the refresh rates won?t be consistent.
Your headache should be gone now.
Please note that these instructions are only applicable for LCD shutter glasses. Polarized monitors and LCD based stereoscopic 3D monitor technologies don?t face this challenge.
3. I?m Getting Ghosting!
Ghosting refers to cross-talk or an imperfection in the ability for the stereoscopic hardware to completely filter the left and right sided image for each eye.
While manufacturers are working hard to overcome this challenge, there are some measures you can take to reduce this.
In all cases, it is beneficial to be in a dark or dim room. Ambient light can impact the 3D effect.
If you are using a projector with polarized glasses, a silver screen is reported to greatly reduce ghosting.
While not an official adjustment, if you are using a 17? iZ3D monitor, I have had success with reducing the front panel brightness to 81% through the NVIDIA color calibration utility. There is also a noticeable improvement if you tilt the monitor backward.
Hitting CTRL-G and ALT-G will alter the brightness of the image, and depending on the game, this can impact ghosting as well.
You are going to find that after a few hours of play, the ghosting will become unnoticeable as you will be overwhelmed by the 3D effect.
4. The Coloring Looks Bland!
Most stereoscopic 3D solutions require you to wear tinted glasses. Most players compensate by increasing their gamma settings or brightness control, and the downside is the screen?s colors will seem more washed out the brighter the screen is.
In the NVIDIA Forceware color profiles section, there is a ?Digital Vibrance? control. Turn this up by about a quarter or to your liking, and this will compensate for the color change.
5. The Game Just Isn?t Looking Right in Stereoscopic 3D!
Here are some common problems with the current NVIDIA drivers:
? Special effects seem to separate from the objects they are associated with.
? Special effects or coloring don?t mesh with the screen as a whole.
? The stereo effect will suddenly turn on and off in the middle of a game.
? Everything is just out of whack, and you can?t get the game to work in Stereoscopic 3D.
One of the biggest challenges with the NVIDIA stereoscopic drivers is their incompatibility with post processing effects. Post Processing effects include game features like HDR (High Dynamic Range lighting), bloom, glow, anti-aliasing, and more.
We will outline the best settings we could find for each game that is certified. However, here are some steps you can try to resolve issues on your own:
? Turn off Bloom and HDR effects.
? Turn off Anti-aliasing.
? Reduce the game shaders.
? Reduce the lighting quality.
? Reduce the shadow effects.
I would go so far as reducing everything to bare minimum just to make sure the game will work at all, and work your way up from there.
6. A Bunch of Stereo Driver Settings Don't Work!
There are some important hot-keys in the driver that help in cases where the interface splits when you adjust separation and/or convergence.
To get them to work, you may have to select FORCE HW TnL OFF in the NVIDIA Forceware driver (Stereo Compatibility Settings).
This makes your CPU do the calculations for Transform & Lighting instead of your videocard.
A big benefit here is that when you hit CTRL-F10 and CTRL-F9 in your favorite game, you will be able to adjust the screen depth and fix the interface.
Unfortunately, you will see a dramatic drop in performance because your videocard is no longer doing all the hard work it was intended for.
At this time, there is no other way to benefit from these hotkeys until an updated NVIDIA driver is released - and your special screen settings are ignored once you reactivate teh TnL feature.
----
Got a solution you'd like to share? Post it here!
Best wishes,
Neil 8)
One of the biggest challenges of the available NVIDIA stereoscopic drivers is their finicky nature. I am confident that this will improve with time, and I have put together this sticky to resolve some of the most common problems with the drivers.
1. My Computer Locks Up / Dual Core Issues
Unfortunately, the NVIDIA stereoscopic drivers are not compatible with AMD and Intel dual or multi-core CPU setups. There has been some success, but nothing consistent.
Fortunately, if you follow these steps, you will be able to get your games to reliably work with the NVIDIA stereo drivers without facing the lock-up problem!
The issue is the CPU itself. You can only run it as a single core CPU until corrected stereo drivers are released.
Run MSCONFIG, and select the BOOT.INI tab.
Once there, selected ADVANCED OPTIONS.
Set NUMPROC to 1.
Reboot your computer, and you're in business.
If this works, you can set up a dual boot mode on your computer.
2. I?m Getting a Headache!
One of the most popular technologies for stereoscopic 3D is LCD shutter glasses.
This technology is strictly for CRT or tube based monitors.
The 3D software quickly alternates two images on your monitor screen for each eye, and in perfect sync, the glasses alternately flash their LCD panels to black (on) or clear (off).
The end result is each eye gets a unique image, and your game is in 3D.
The challenge with this technology is if the flashing between eyes doesn?t happen fast enough, a strobe effect is created, and you get a terrible migraine.
Usually, a monitor refresh rate defaults at 60hz. The refresh rate refers to how many times an image is drawn on the screen per second. Normally, this would be acceptable, but with the glasses, 60hz gets halved because the image is being drawn for each eye independently. This is where your headache comes in!
Fortunately, your monitor has the means to increase its refresh rate to compensate for this problem. The faster the refresh rate, the less strobe you will experience, and the less likely you will get a headache!
The only caveat is the higher your screen resolution, the more limited your refresh rate will be. Most CRT monitors can support at least 1024 X 768 at 100hz.
In the NVIDIA stereo panel, go to ?Stereo Setup & Test?, select the resolution 1024X768, and go to the maximum refresh your monitor will support. In practice, it should be no less than 100Mhz for this resolution. Consult with your monitor's manufacturer to determine its capabilities.
Tick the box labeled ?Always use Stereo Refresh Rate?. This will make sure that every time you are in this resolution, your monitor doesn?t waiver from the desired refresh rate.
If you don?t tick this box, your screen will resize when you are in and out of stereoscopic mode because the refresh rates won?t be consistent.
Your headache should be gone now.
Please note that these instructions are only applicable for LCD shutter glasses. Polarized monitors and LCD based stereoscopic 3D monitor technologies don?t face this challenge.
3. I?m Getting Ghosting!
Ghosting refers to cross-talk or an imperfection in the ability for the stereoscopic hardware to completely filter the left and right sided image for each eye.
While manufacturers are working hard to overcome this challenge, there are some measures you can take to reduce this.
In all cases, it is beneficial to be in a dark or dim room. Ambient light can impact the 3D effect.
If you are using a projector with polarized glasses, a silver screen is reported to greatly reduce ghosting.
While not an official adjustment, if you are using a 17? iZ3D monitor, I have had success with reducing the front panel brightness to 81% through the NVIDIA color calibration utility. There is also a noticeable improvement if you tilt the monitor backward.
Hitting CTRL-G and ALT-G will alter the brightness of the image, and depending on the game, this can impact ghosting as well.
You are going to find that after a few hours of play, the ghosting will become unnoticeable as you will be overwhelmed by the 3D effect.
4. The Coloring Looks Bland!
Most stereoscopic 3D solutions require you to wear tinted glasses. Most players compensate by increasing their gamma settings or brightness control, and the downside is the screen?s colors will seem more washed out the brighter the screen is.
In the NVIDIA Forceware color profiles section, there is a ?Digital Vibrance? control. Turn this up by about a quarter or to your liking, and this will compensate for the color change.
5. The Game Just Isn?t Looking Right in Stereoscopic 3D!
Here are some common problems with the current NVIDIA drivers:
? Special effects seem to separate from the objects they are associated with.
? Special effects or coloring don?t mesh with the screen as a whole.
? The stereo effect will suddenly turn on and off in the middle of a game.
? Everything is just out of whack, and you can?t get the game to work in Stereoscopic 3D.
One of the biggest challenges with the NVIDIA stereoscopic drivers is their incompatibility with post processing effects. Post Processing effects include game features like HDR (High Dynamic Range lighting), bloom, glow, anti-aliasing, and more.
We will outline the best settings we could find for each game that is certified. However, here are some steps you can try to resolve issues on your own:
? Turn off Bloom and HDR effects.
? Turn off Anti-aliasing.
? Reduce the game shaders.
? Reduce the lighting quality.
? Reduce the shadow effects.
I would go so far as reducing everything to bare minimum just to make sure the game will work at all, and work your way up from there.
6. A Bunch of Stereo Driver Settings Don't Work!
There are some important hot-keys in the driver that help in cases where the interface splits when you adjust separation and/or convergence.
To get them to work, you may have to select FORCE HW TnL OFF in the NVIDIA Forceware driver (Stereo Compatibility Settings).
This makes your CPU do the calculations for Transform & Lighting instead of your videocard.
A big benefit here is that when you hit CTRL-F10 and CTRL-F9 in your favorite game, you will be able to adjust the screen depth and fix the interface.
Unfortunately, you will see a dramatic drop in performance because your videocard is no longer doing all the hard work it was intended for.
At this time, there is no other way to benefit from these hotkeys until an updated NVIDIA driver is released - and your special screen settings are ignored once you reactivate teh TnL feature.
----
Got a solution you'd like to share? Post it here!
Best wishes,
Neil 8)
