In order to create the 3D-MUVE I had envisioned for the V-Lab, I needed a way to generate a 3D world. (Disclaimer: the idea was formed in Oct 2008, WAY before I watched James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D.)
Now, the Alienware with the ATI Radeon 5870 (Eyefinity) may have been set up for “surround gaming”, but unfortunately, the high-end Radeon will not do 3D it is now possible to do 3D using the ATI Radeon cards with iZ3D’s driver! I had originally thought that a PC with an NVida card that is hooked up to any large screen would do it, but to my dismay, it was not so. I was hoping to get the new Samsung LED TV at 240 Hz, but (shocking) they are not 3D ready! There used to be two manufacturers who produce 3D-ready DLPs (i.e. Samsung and Mitsubishi), but it appeared that Samsung has dropped out of the race. So Misubitshi is now the only manufacturer that is making 3D ready DLPs. [The new 3D ready TV doesn't use cyan-red color separation to show the left-right image, instead they made use of polarization technology (as in the case of JC's Avatar). Rear-projected DLPs are different because they convert the left right stream into a checker-board patterns (white-on, black-off) to project the correct image to each of the two eyes.] (More on “3D ready TV/DLP” in this article.)
Answer: The 3D glasses from Avatar will not work with nVidia’s 3D kit. Those glasses will work with 3D projectors that use polarization technology. 
Answer 2: Added on Feb 3, 2010: iZ3D & ATI Radeon will be the answer! 
Anyhow, I had to order a GeForce GTX 285 for the Alienware computer, in order to turn it (from a surround game machine) into a 3D MUVE generator. The card arrived yesterday, and I couldn’t wait to try it.
After installing the needed software drivers and connecting the hardware (like the image shown below), I was instructed to turn on the 3D glasses and put it on. What I viewed next was several 3D photos, but (wow!) that initial effect was totally mind-blowing! You totally need to see it in order to believe it.
Connecting: PC » 3D Vision kit » DLP
Note the 3D glasses emitter port in the diagram? Most of the time, they are simply labeled as “3D Sync Out” behind the DLP. And yes, a DLP with this 3-pin port is 3D ready. A DLP without it is not a 3D ready DLP.
3D Sync Out por
Since viewing 3D photo is working fine, I then fire up NWN2 to see how well it fare under the 3D settings. Unfortunately, even though I can “sense” the 3D-ness of the NWN2 game world, the 3D effect was no way near as spectacular as the 3D photos. [Perhaps I should have checked nVidia's list of "approved" 3D-games first? NWN2 was not listed as compatible at all.]
Since I ran out of time today, I will be back tomorrow to report on Resident Evil 5 — which is one of two 3D ready games currently available on the market. (The second one being Batman: Arkham Asylum).
Apart from the 3D readiness, I noticed two oddities.
- the PC screen was cut off by the DLP. (I lost about 1-2 inches of screen real estate all around)
- there is no sound output through the DLP (I am connecting it from PC to DLP using HDMI)
There are some suggestions on how to fix them on the Web and in the product manual. Perhaps I will work on it tomorrow and report a fix. (Stay tuned.)
P.S.: Came across the 3D Vision Blog which discusses 3D gaming. There is even a write-up and AVISynth plugin for converting 2D movies to 3D. Hmm…. interesting!
The ATI Radeon 5xxx (original card in the Alienware) came pre-configured with 2 HDMI ports – hence, HDMI audio also. Unfortunately the NVidia GTX 285 that I bought did not have HDMI port! So NVidia’s workaround is to provide a (very flimsy) S/PDIF passthrough cable (going from the video card to the S/PDIF header pins that is sometimes found on the MoBo, or add-on sound card). You would think that Creative’s X-Fi Titanium card would have S/PDIF header, but nah! What are they thinking?
This means that I must now connect the cable to the MoBo and turn on the RealTek on-board audio chip to “hear” HDMI audio. And if I want to use the Soundblaster, then the HDMI audio must be turned to off. (But apparently Nvidia’s driver has a glitch: it will reset itself to HDMI if it detect the presence of a HDMI cable! As in this case where I connect the Alienware to a DLP! In my home rig, I am connecting the Nvida card to a LCD monitor via DVI, and the driver works fine. That’s why I never see this coming!)
Long story short, I broke the S/PDIF cable when I tried to remove it (thinking maybe I don’t need it) and found that a replacement of the cable will cost me $15! (In Singapore, I can get the same cable for $2!!) Fortunately, I did find a spare S/PDIF cable because I am using a GTX 260 at home (and since I wasn’t connecting the comp to my LCD monitor via HDMI, it was still lying around doing nothing.)
Well, this nVida thing is really giving me a lot of grief…. Sigh!