Is SOW BOB going to be sterescopic 3D compatible?

[distant]

Making S3D video of games by Fraps takes a lot of storage room. A better approach is to download and install iz3D driver and try the game for yourself in anaglyphic S-3D. iZ3D works for both ATI and Nvidia GPU and its anaglyphic output was free last time I checked.

If you had a compatible Nvidia GPU, you can of course install its stereoscopy driver for free and play the game in anaglyphic mode as well.

Have fun.

[drafting]

I really hope that they get Storm of War to be 3D compliant (no 2D rendering tricks)... 3D gaming might not seem important now, but it's definitely approaching over the horizon:

http://hd.engadget.com/2010/01/21/3d...w-at-ces-2010/

and will be here soon... I bet Oleg is pushing for the Storm of War engine to last a good 10 years or more (with expansions, sequels, etc), and it'd be a shame to have it miss the 3D boat when the technology is really starting to take off.

...but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Rodney]

I used to fly IL2 in stereoscopic vision with edimensional glasses all the time. It looked absolutely amazing, absolutely fantastic. You really do not know what you are missing out on if you haven't flown IL2 in 3D. Once you've flown in 3D you can never go back to flying in 2D. I know I couldn't. And I didn't. That's why I stopped flying IL2 years ago when Nvidia mysteriously dropped support for 3D (on newer cards).

I recently bought a new pair of Nvidia's own stereoscopic glasses, now that they've brought back support. I'm pissed that I still can't use my old edimensional glasses and had to buy Nvidia's product but I'm not going to miss out on 3D. I still use my old 22" CRT - (that's why I kept my old CRT but now LCDs are running at 120Hz I guess I'll update) and as usual flying in 3D looks amazingly good, though these days all I fly is Black Shark. Boring game but the graphics in 3D is amazing.

Fortunately because SOW is using DirectX and not OpenGL the odds that stereoscopic vision won't work at all with SOW is negligibly small. You have no idea how happy I was when I heard Oleg had gone over to DirectX instead of OpenGL because I knew it would work in 3D (IL2 did work with OpenGL but getting it to work was a nightmare and eventually it didn't work at all).

The only question will be that things not really done in 3D will become apparent in stereoscopic vision. For example with MS FS invariably the runway lights and the sun are 2D not 3D and it really shows in stereo, though you don't notice it in 2D you sure do in 3D. I don't think Oleg takes short cuts like that though, so we shouldn't have problems. The old IL2 had no problems flying in stereo (I mean when it was working with the OpenGL thing and all) so I don't know why SoW would.

The only problem likely with SoW is as others have mentioned with the aiming reticle not being at the right distance in 3D. It did work in the old IL2 then something changed and it didn't but I found a compromise with the stereo settings that seemed to work enough to use it. Plus shooting things down just with tracers is a lot easier in 3D, you can judge distance between tracers and plane a hundred times easier in stereo. Also landing is a 100 times easier in full stereo 3D. I could never land any flight sim in 2D but in 3D its so easy (I'm not a particularly skillfull flyer but its vastly easier in 3D than 2D). Its also a ton easier flying really close to the ground without crashing in 3D because you can judge the distance so much better.

You guys who've never flown in 3D (proper stereo vision 3D) don't know what you've been missing out on. Of all the games that have ever been made SoW is THE game that should be in 3D. And I'm sure it will be.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Hmm..would be nice to try IL-2 out in 3D..but not gonna buy a nVidia for that Completely happy with my ATI 5870HD. Gotta dig up more on this

[Rodney]

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

S!

Hmm..would be nice to try IL-2 out in 3D..but not gonna buy a nVidia for that Completely happy with my ATI 5870HD. Gotta dig up more on this

edimensional glasses and more importatnly edimensional drivers still work with ATI cards. Or so they claim. I think they use a line interlacing scheme that just isn't as good as the nvidia system though?

One other thing stereo vision can look like crap if you have a lot of ghosting because you have the wrong set up (such as an old CRT or LCD monitor with <100Hz or simply with slow switching pixels). Thats is where in the past stereo 3D has got a bad rep from. On the right system, a ghosting free system, it looks amazing though.

From my research to date the best LCD TV (completely ghosting free) is not the default option Nvidia sell with their glasses but the Mitsubishi WD-60737 60" Home Theater TV. That's what I plan to get.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Thank you Rodney for the info. Will look into this. I can upgrade my current 24" flat to a 120Hz 22" screen..maybe won't be missing those 2" there..

[Rodney]

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

S!

Thank you Rodney for the info. Will look into this. I can upgrade my current 24" flat to a 120Hz 22" screen..maybe won't be missing those 2" there..

Note that while any 100Hz or greater CRT will work with the Nvidia drivers only certain LCDs will work with it because for the LCD monitors there is a special plug thing that needs to plug into the LCD monitor I believe to control the timing or something. Unless nvidia or the manufacturer vouches for it being 3D ready it may not work with the nvidia system.

On the other hand if you are going the edimensional route with an ATI card then edimensional glasses + ATI card will probably work with any LCD.

I can't vouch for the compatability of the edimensional universal driver though. For example I know that now nvidia no longer support edimensional glasses with their stereoscopic driver, edimensional will still sell the glasses to nvidia card owners and tell people on their web site to just use their universal driver. They fail to inform people that their universal driver does not work on any late model nvidia card with any operating system after XP but will still take their money. Only when you try to install the universal driver does it inform you that it doesnt run on vista/windows 7 for nvidia.

Point is I know edimensional have much better compatabilty with their driver and ATI or at least have had in the past but from previous experience wouldn't trust them to tell you if ATI compatability also became broken.