X-bit labs

ELSA 3D REVELATOR 3D Glasses Review

Category: Video

by FastSite

[ 08/20/1999 | 12:00 AM ]

Some time ago a new stereo 3D image technology in 3D graphics appeared a really significant event for the whole computerindustry. Of course, the special tool, which serves to create depth effect for the 3D images displayed on the monitor,can't remain unnoticed.

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Some time ago a new stereo 3D image technology in 3D graphics appeared a really significant event forthe whole computer industry. Of course, the special tool, which serves to create depth effect for the 3Dimages displayed on the monitor, can't remain unnoticed. Even when the very first 3D accelerators cameinto the world, you could already hear a lot of enthusiastic replies about the reality of "that" worldbehind the monitor. Remember Unreal game and the reaction of those, who were lucky to have quite apowerful PC (in those times this game was extremely exacting about the computer resources). The generaltone of all the replies and exclamations was very delighted: "I wish I could look at the world inside!It is so fantastically interesting!"

However, life keeps going, and the technological progress inevitably develops further. And voila! Nowwe can watch the action in Unreal with all the stereo effects, which became possible due to special stereoglasses. The new tool provides an absolutely different level of perception and you really wish you couldsee behind the monitor: what else is there, that we can't notice from outside? The stereo glasses make theimages on the monitor look not flat but real 3D and we can easily follow the missile flying from the frontsomewhere far to the horizon. We still remember how impressed we were with the "square" flies in Quake2,when it could be clearly seen that they flew from behind the monitor glass towards us. And the mostimportant thing here is that these stereo effects can be achieved without any drastic changes of your PCconfiguration. All you have to do is to activate a special instrument, such as stereo glasses, which changethe way you perceive the graphic images displayed on the monitor.

In Russia the appearance of this special tool for 3D graphics in stereo regime was marked with themass supplies of H3D glasses from Metabyte - Wicked3D eyeSCREAM. They can boast very flexible and easilyadjustable settings and well-done software, but at the same time are pretty expensive. Besides, theycouldn't be so widely used because the only graphics cards, which supported them, were and still are3dfx Voodoo2 and 3dfx Voodoo Banshee. We would also like to point out that Metabyte finally madeGlobal eyeSCREAM drivers, which allow using Wicked3D eyeSCREAM glasses together with graphics cardsbased on 3dfx Voodoo3, nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2, ATI Rage128 and some other chips. However, this softwareis somewhat "raw" and Metabyte developers' extreme "passion" towards 3dfx chipsets doesn't let useeyeSCREAM with graphics cards based on nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 chipsets. Some time ago we tried to installGlobal eyeSCREAM in order to be able to use Metabyte stereo glasses together with nVidia Riva TNT2based graphics card, but unfortunately, all our attempts failed: the glasses properties page didn'tappear and nothing could help. In all the games (with the only exception of Incoming) we noticed nostereo effect. Only having installed a 3dfx Voodoo3 graphics card and Global eyeSCREAM drivers onceagain the page suddenly turned up and it became possible to operate the stereo effects. Then we replacedthis card with nVidia Riva TNT2 one moe time and reinstalled the drivers. We noticed that the propertiespage stayed where it was. This time it appeared possible to operate the stereo effect with the card basedon nVidia Riva TNT2 chipset as well. So, was it a mistake? Well, looks as if it were an evident omission.Nevertheless, the drivers were released, which implied that they were not a beta-version but absolutelyready for use. Hm, pretty puzzling, isn't it?

We decided not to compare ELSA 3D REVELATOR with VR100 stereo glasses from ASUS, because the latter havevery restricted application (they are supported only by two ASUS graphics cards) and are very badlysupported in most games, which was mentioned in our ASUS v3800 review.

Ok, let's pass over to the device, which will be the today's center of the universe on our site. Forour tests we got 3D REVELATOR stereoscopic glasses from ELSA. They are pretty cheap compared to Wicked3DeyeSCREAM ones: almost 3 times as cheap as eyeSCREAM. This significant price difference is caused by thefact that ELSA 3D REVELATOR glasses don't use a very expensive IR-emitter and receiver as eyeSCREAM do,which is of course reflected in the final price. Besides, it should be also mentioned - and we wouldlike to stress this fact, actually - that ELSA 3D REVELATOR work only with nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 based graphicscards. That's why if you own a completely different accelerator, this review may be just a good source ofsome interesting info - nothing more.

Well, let's take a closer look at the stereo glasses ELSA REVELATOR.

As you can see on the photo, ELSA 3D REVELATOR glasses are very light and comfortable and have a verylong (about 3 meters) wire connected to the adapter, located between the graphics card and the monitor.The glasses don't require any additional power supply. (As far as we know, there is also a wireless ELSA3D REVELATOR version, which like eyeSCREAM utilizes IR technology.) Instead of the simple glasses ELSA3D REVELATOR is equipped with special LCD monitors.

For a considerable while ELSA 3D REVELATOR glasses worked only with ELSA's own graphics cards (Erazor II,III), however, about a few weeks ago the company released universal drivers, which allow these glasses towork together with any nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 based graphics card. Before passing over to software settings,we would like to tell you about the main principle of ELSA 3D REVELATOR stereo glasses.

So, how do these glasses work? Well let's briefly explain how we see things spatially. You all probablyknow that all humans have binocular vision, which means that we have two eyes, which are located a certaindistance apart. This distance allows us to perceive two different angles of the same scene. After that ourbrain interprets this data and creates the spatial image. The stagger in the image field is what allowsus to perceive the depth of the scene. With only one eye you are severely limited in your depth perception.With this basic knowledge of sensory and depth perception ELSA pushed its engineers to work on light andinexpensive glasses that produce no flickering. Here is how they themselves explain the technology of their3D REVELATOR glasses:

1. The graphics driver receives instructions from the 3D game to draw a three-dimensional scene. In themeanwhile two 2D images located horizontally are created.
   
   
   
2. Depending on the distance between the objects, they are moved to the left or right picture with acertain offset, and images with the similar perspective are consecutively calculated for the left and theright eye.
3. While the computer is working on the next scene, these images are shown in sequence.
4. When the image for the left eye is shown, the right LCD is darkened and then vice versa: the image forthe right eye is shown with a darkened left LCD.
5. This process is repeated 120 times per second, providing a maximally fluid display with 60 images persecond per eye.

The lack of speed of the eye and the fact that LCDs, unlike the monitor, are outside of the focalrange of the eye prevent the image seen through the glasses from flickering. So, the user sees a truethree-dimensional image.

Judging by everything mentioned, we can state that the monitor should have 120Hz framerate. In fact,this seems to be the only important hardware requirement for ELSA 3D REVELATOR stereo glasses.

And now let us draw your attention to the settings peculiarities of ELSA 3D REVELATOR glasses. Havinginstalled the required software, we got an additional page "Stereo" in the display properties list.Unfortunately, when trying to install ELSA drivers for the graphics cards by other manufacturers, all3D graphics settings totally disappeared (there was a sort of a hint about it, which cropped up duringdrivers installation process, as if it was telling you that the software you have is the newest oneintended to provide higher quality, etc.). That is why if you want to use ELSA stereo glasses withother cards on nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 chipsets, you'll have to find a separate utility for 3D graphicssettings (such as PowerStrip, for instance).

Here is a screenshot of ELSA 3D REVELATOR settings page:

In the middle of the page you can notice a list of games supported by these glasses. And this list isnot big at all, actually. Besides, you should also bear in mind that ELSA 3D REVELATOR does not work withOpenGL games. Theoretically, it is possible to run these games in stereo regime, but you'll have to resortto OpenGL emulator through Direct3D, such as Wrapper from SciTech, for example. But to do it you will alsohave to add the game to the games list in the properties page. To our great disappointment, it appearedabsolutely impossible to do it in a "civilized" way with buttons and menu. That's why we had to go deepinto Registry editing.

Here is an example for Quake2:

To begin with you may set "DefaultSettings" parameter the same for all cases, and then thesesettings may be edited in the properties page.

So, what can we change in the settings for each particular game? The screenshot below is "Advancedsettings" form:

The first setting, which is worth mentioning, is Dyna-Z technology, which allows each user to set thevisual distance to the objects, and then with the "Front-Back" slider you can set the initial coordinatefor the whole scene: in front of the monitor or behind it. In the latter case, the 3D effect will be muchcooler and more impressive. Those of you who are fond of fine tuning may manually set the initial value.Besides, pretty often we come across such situations in 3D games when you are in a room and sees anotherone through the open door. In order to make that farther room look three-dimensional as well and for someother complicated effects they introduced Enlarge Clipping rectangle parameter.

All other settings are very specific for each particular user, namely for the user's eyes. They may bemade during the game as well by pressing a special hot key, which you can define yourself:

Here you can also fill in the path, where the screenshots made while playing will be saved (you willget the same "twin" pictures as you have already seen above). We would also like to note that once youinstall the software, you'll be able to run a special viewer for these stereo pictures.

There is one more very important setting for ELSA 3D REVELATOR stereo glasses - monitor size and eyesdistance, which help achieve maximum stereo effect:

It is worth saying that one of the greatest advantages of ELSA 3D REVELATOR eyeglasses is the possibilityto set them for any eyesight type. Even those, who always wear glasses in everyday life can use ELSARervelator without any discomforting feelings.

Here we would like to share our personal impressions with you. Despite the fact that we have been usingeyeSCREAM for quite a long time already, ELSA 3D REVELATOR also won our hearts almost right away. We usedELSA 3D REVELATOR with Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra. Note that sometimes these eyeglasses provedsignificantly cooler than eyeSCREAM in terms of the created stereo effects quality and generalimpression made. First of all, the text was very clear-cut, which has always been a stumbling stone foreyeSCREAM. They are also very easy to use - the feature, which doesn't need any comments. You don't haveto top your monitor with an IR-emitting device and to check al the time if you are still within the IR-ray.We hear that eyeSCREAM is also available in wired version, but there are no samples in Russia, so we can'tsay anything particular about it.

Another very weighty point is ELSA 3D REVELATOR's low cost, which makes these glasses affordable for mostowners of nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 based graphics cards. We hope that the software will keep developing andimproving and the main 3D settings will become also available for the users, who have nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2based cards.

However, ELSA 3D REVELATOR stereo glasses are not deprived of drawbacks. First of all, it the limitednumber of graphics cards, which support this device. If you remember, we said that these glasses canwork only with nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 based graphics accelerators. Here eyeSCREAM glasses win a considerablelot even with all those omissions in the Global eyeSCREAM software. Another drawback is the lack of OpenGLsupport. You can run the OpenGL games through the emulator but the speed will significantly drop and thismeans that if your PC is relatively weak you may be simply unable to play at all. However, ELSA's engineersare said to be working hard on new software with OpenGL support. And to finish with the drawbacks we wouldlike to say that unfortunately the only way to enlarge the list of the games supported by ELSA 3D REVELATORstereo glasses is to type in the names manually, making changes to the Registry.

In conclusion, we would strongly recommend nVidia Riva TNT and TNT2 based graphics cards owners to purchasethese glasses since they are almost three times cheaper than Wicked3D eyeSCREAM, are very comfortable andprovide beautiful stereo-effect. But you should bear in mind that some people don't perceive any graphicstereo effects at all. That's why we would advise you to obligatory try the glasses in use for your eyesno matter which model it is - ELSA 3D REVELATOR, or anything else.