3D Revelator Glasses

3D Revelator Glasses

Manufactured By: Elsa

Retail Price: $70 wired; $99 infrared

Review Date:10-10-99

Years ago I had a chance to strap on a 3D headset that supported head tracking and displayed Descent I in all of its 3D glory (320 X 200 resolution with no acceleration!). Many things have changed in the video world but true 3D technology has not kept up. The headsets of yesterday are no longer supported by the high performance video cards of today.

All is not lost. ELSA originally released the 3D Revelator Glasses with some of its video card. They only worked on ELSA video cards with the proper mini-DIN plug option. Now ELSA has released wired and infrared versions of the glasses that work on other manufacturers video cards. Currently support is only available for TNT or TNT2 based cards but others may be added.

The only requirement you should pay attention to beyond the video card is the capabilities of your monitor. The refresh rate of your monitor plays an important role in the glasses comfort. You may be forced to use a lower resolution in order to achieve a higher refresh rate. The important equation is- Lower refresh rates + 3D Revelator Glasses = Headaches. To understand why you need to know how the glasses work.

The 3D Revelator Glasses are shutter glasses; no images are displayed on the lenses. Instead the lenses "blink" at a high rate. The "blinks" are timed with the refreshes of the screen image. Further, the "blinks" between the left and right lens alternate. What happens on your screen are slightly different images are displayed every other frame. Thanks to the shutter "blinks" your right eye catches one image and the left eye the other. When you put a series of these alternating images together you get motion and the 3D effect.

The "blinks" are fast enough that your brain is tricked into seeing the alternating frames as one image. Because the frames are slightly different you perceive the differences as image depth. Because the 2 frames are combined to make one the refresh rate is essentially perceived as half of what it actually is.

Combine this with the "brain tricking" that is going on and you will soon understand why their are warnings on the package and in the documentation of epileptic seizures, sensory disturbances, cramping, queasiness, and involuntary muscle contractions. I am glad to say I didn't experience any of those problems. I did have to reduce my resolution from 1024 x 768 to 800 x 600 in order to make long term use more comfortable. I was getting headaches at the higher resolution with a refresh rate of 110MHz. In 800 x 600 mode I was able to set the refresh rate at 140MHz and didn't have any more Tylenol moments.

The other benefit to using the 3D Revelator glasses at a different resolution than normal is being able to resize the screen. One of the side effects of the image modification that creates the different images is a reduction in the horizontal size of the overall image. On my 19" monitor the image is reduced by ~3/4" on either side. The screen will have a black border where the image used to extend to. Since I don't use 800 x 600 with anything but the glasses I was able to adjust my monitor to fill the screen once again.

Features-

• Stellar 3D effect on Direct 3D games

Appropriate For-

Any Direct 3D application or game.

System Requirements-

Elsa video card (Victory II, Winner II, Erazor II, Erazor III, or Erazor X) or other TNT/TNT2 video card

Price -

The $70-100 you'll spend on the 3D Revelator glasses will be one of the most enhancing upgrades you can add to your system.

Performance-

Once the requirements of the 3D Revelators are met, the drivers installed and the basic setup performed you can jump right into any Direct 3D game and take advantage of the glasses.

I tried Half-Life, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Star Wars: Racer, Star Wars: Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Rouge Squadron, Re-Volt, Need For Speed- High Stakes, NHL 99, Mechwarrior III, Blood II and Microsoft FlightSim 98, Combat Sim, Motocross Madness, and Midtown Madness.

The only game/sim from the list above that required additional tweaking was Need For Speed- High Stakes. I still have not gotten the game to look right with the 3D glasses. All others worked quite well using the default configurations.

Interestingly enough, I found the 3D effect actually improved my shooting skills in the Star Wars games. The depth of field added by the glasses allowed me to better gauge my targeting approaches to targets and make faster adjustments to take em' out. The 3D effects in all of the Star Wars games are quite impressive.

Most of the first-person-shooters (Blood II, Half-Life, Unreal) are somewhat marred by the lighting effects in the games. The lighting rings, auras and other effects are translated into an un-natural "thing". The 3D processing obviously does not distinguish between lighting effect and objects; giving lighting effects the same dimension. After a bit of play with the parameters of the effects you can reduce the effect, making the lighting error less prominent but it also reduces the overall 3D effect.

The hotkey to turn the effect on and off was a great idea. Most menus don't like the effect and are difficult to read when the effect is activated.

Setup and Software-

As long as you have the necessary equipment setup and installation of the hardware is quite simple. You don't need to open your computer case, change variables in games, etc. You do have to replace your existing video drivers with "Revelator compatible" ones though. This is my only complaint.

I have been running my Creative TNT2 on the most current nVIDIA reference drivers since I received it. The most current compatible drivers from ELSA are based on the Detonator drivers. They are not the most stable, quickest set available.

To install the glasses unplug your monitor from the video card and plug in the pass through cable. The monitor then plugs into the port on the pass through cable. Plug the glasses into the mini-DIN plug and start the system but don't put the glasses on yet.

Start the system and insert the CD. Install the 3D Revelator drivers and the drivers for your video card and restart the system. NOW put on the glasses. Upon restart you will be asked if you'd like to test the glasses. By all means say yes. The images at the bottom of the page will be displayed in their full 3D glory. You may not catch the effect in its fullest without doing some minor setup though.

The documentation recommends a refresh rate of at least 100MHz. I found 100MHz playable but not for long periods. I have my refresh rate set at 140MHz which gives me a mere 70MHz with the glasses activated.

A new tab will be installed under the advanced display settings. Here you should select your monitor size and approximate the distance between your eyes for optimal performance and effect. Other adjustments are also available but I didn't find any necessary.

Documentation-

The documentation for the 3D Revelator glasses is incredibly weak. I have received more documentation from software packages bundled with other hardware. Most of what you need to get connected is in the documentation but there is no explanation of how to tweak you setting. You'll have to learn by trial and error.

The ELSA website doesn't have too much information on the 3D Revelators; at least nothing that isn't already available in the brief manual. Hopefully a dedicated user will put together a 3D Revelator fan site.

Overall-

Make sure you have a good monitor capable of very high refresh rates, a video card that can meet them and grab a pair of these great glasses. 3D glasses have been around for some time but the 3D Revelators are by far the most affordable, easiest to use so far.

You probably won't want to use them for 100% of your gaming but there will be some games where you just wont play without them.

Pros- **

• Very affordable 3D effects
• Works with many current popular video cards

Cons-

• Requires a high refresh rate
• May cause headaches
• Replaces you video card drivers with older versions

Screenshots of the alternating images that make up one 3D image. Due to the shutter pulses you left eye sees the left image and your right eye sees the right image all in the same space. The end effect is an incredible depth effect similar to what you see when you look into a ViewMaster- but it moves!

You may not see any difference between the images but you can visualize how the images differ by fixing you focus on any object in the room you are in right now. Close your left eye and pick an object 8-10 feet away. Now open your left eye and shut your right one. The slight shift that you should have noticed is what the drivers do to the 2 opposing images. When put together you get depth.

Now open both your eyes- someone may be watching you!