By Anton Belev
Looking for a way to get more depth out of your games with NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision? Special thanks to Anton Belev from 3DVision-Blog.com for making this guide available to our members. This is considered a “hack”, so Meant to be Seen and its authors will not be held accountable or responsible for any risks or damage associated with trying this.
Legacy NVIDIA sterepscopic 3D drivers may remember an option in the Control Panel to set the screen size. In the new 3D Vision drivers, there is no such option. Instead, the size of the monitor is automatically chosen when a 3D Ready LCD panel is detected by the drivers. Its size and specs are then recorded in the operating system’s registry.
While this is fine for most people, it can be inconvenient for users who like to have more depth when playing games in S-3D mode. Since the 3D Vision’s driver capabilities are proportionately related to your screen size, the 100% depth setting may be too moderate for some. Fortunately, you can increase the level of depth by manually adjusting the registry setting that defines your display size.
WARNING: NVIDIA’s recommended screen size settings are defined for both comfort and safety. Under no circumstances should you choose depth settings that make your eyes diverge or create discomfort of any kind.
Earlier driver versions prevented this adjustment, but the latest 3D Vision Driver CD 1.27 and the stereo driver version 257.15 re-enables this workaround. Unfortunately, the 3D Vision MonitorSize value resets itself, so the workaround needs to happen after the reset has taken place. Depending on the windows type you are using, 32-bit or 64-bit versions, the place where you can find the required value in the registry you need to modify is different.
For 32-bit Windows:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]
For 64-bit Windows:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]
The value MonitorSize in the image above represents the normal value for a 22″ Samsung 2233RZ monitor. The value in HEX is 2C, and in decimal, the value is 44. This is purposely double the size of the monitor with good reason. Each increment represents half an inch in size, so 44 represents a 22-inch monitor. It was done this way so the sizing would be more accurate.
To increase the maximum depth level, you need to decrease the size of the monitor. For example by reducing 44 figure to 22, you will get double the depth flexibility. Each percentage point in the depth slider will now reflect double the depth it did before – but still behave within the 100% scale. If you choose, the same can be applied in reverse whereby doubling the figure to 88 will reduce the depth potential, but allow finer tuning.
The catch is that every time you run a game with 3D Vision, the MonitorSize value gets reset to its default according to the display connected (e.g. 44 for a 22-inch monitor). Therefore, you need to modify this value every time you run a game, and AFTER the game has started. The best way is to ALT + TAB and run Regedit to change the value in the registry each time you need it after you run a game. You can also create a “.reg” file that will automatically import the new setting for the MonitorSize value when you double click on it on the desktop. Here is an example of “.reg” file code that you can save (name it “monitorsize.reg”). For this to work, remember to modify the value of MonitrSize in HEX, not decimal :
For 32-bit Windows:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D] “MonitorSize”=dword:00000016
For 64-bit Windows:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D] “MonitorSize”=dword:00000016
You will likely need more depth in each and every game, and may want to have greater depth levels in some titles and less in others. To get some automation for each game, you can create custom batch files!
The following batch file example will run the game Tomb Raider Underworld, wait for 3 seconds, and then modify the value of MonitorSize in the registry to an 11-inch display instead of the default 22-inch. You can easily save the example files (separate versions for 32-bit and 64-bit OS) with the name of the game to easily identify them like TRU.bat for for Tomb Raider Underworld. Remember to edit the second line of the Batch file to point to the path and the executable file of the game you want to run. With these files, we made the adjustments in decimal, not HEX. So 22 equals 11 inches.
For 32-bit Windows:
@Echo Off
@START /D “C:\Games\TRU\” tru.exe
@TIMEOUT 3
@REG ADD “HKLM\Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D” /v MonitorSize /t REG_DWORD /d 22 /f
For 64-bit Windows:
@Echo Off
@START /D “C:\Games\TRU\” tru.exe
@TIMEOUT 3
@REG ADD “HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D” /v MonitorSize /t REG_DWORD /d 22 /f
For these modifications to work, be sure that you have the latest 257.15 drivers or an older driver that supports this “depth hack”. Otherwise, you are in for an afternoon of frustration because it won’t work.