RSSCompany Debuts 3D Gaming Monitor
By Ed Oswald | Published August 28, 2007, 11:44 AM
A San Diego, Calif.-based company has released a new monitor for gamers that would allow them to play games in three dimensions.
Built by iZ3D, the 22-inch widescreen monitors would require a special set of polarized glasses to make the effect work. The display is compatible with Windows XP and Vista, and works on the newest graphics accelerators and processors.
"More content is being produced in 3D. All popular games and many new movies are now created in 3D -- most viewers are unable to see the game or movie as it is meant to be seen in 3D," Thomas Striegler said. CEO of parent company Neurok Optics.
Current PCs should be able to power the monitor without a problem, according to the company. The display supports a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels in up to 16.7 million colors, and has a 170-degree viewing angle.
iZ3D said that it had developed the system to create the 3D effect without the typical side effects that 3D can create, including eyestrain, spatial disorientation and headaches.
According to an online FAQ about the technology, most modern games should run in 3D. However, its list was not available online as of press time.
Not all games would work, however. "Some older games, or even newer ones, either do not have 3D information built in, or have been designed using shaders and vertex algorithms that cannot be easily converted to 3D by our drivers," the company said.
The iZ3D screen is now available for purchase via the company's Web site at a price of $999 USD.
With glasses? I'll wait for my real 3D monitor instead...~
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It's about as real as its going to get. A monitor is a single surface image. To get true 3D effect, you need two surface images. Two images are created on the same surface, seperated by different polarizations of light. The glasses block certain polarizations so that only one of the two images shows through each lens - thus a convincing 3D effect. The only catch is that since it only allows light of certain polarizations through, hypothetically image brightness would suffer, but I'm not sure how much.
I don't see much of a better way of getting two images - one for each eye - off of the same surface area, without glasses to seperate the different polarizations of light.
I'm not sure how you could seperate the images without glasses, unless perhaps the view angle is so incredibly small that you can't move your head while you play.
If the monitor is really good for general desktop use(since very few people use their computers for games only), it would be a worthy buy.
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The problem is, there have already been consumer level eyewear based 3d solutions that didn't require a special monitor. Heck, I got a pair of them with my Ti4400. They were nothing special, not much more than a novelty as they tended to create headaches after using them for extended periods; I might still use them today if my cat hadn't chewed through the cord on them...well, that, and it would've helped if nVidia bothered keeping up on the driver support.
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Well, in ten years or so, we may be seeing three-dimensional holographic displays using technology like this:
http://www.pinktentacle....lops-3d-image-projector/
So 'as real as it's going to get' may be premature. Considering the improbability of anyone in the 1900's being able to predict any of the uses to which we put computers today (or monitors, or LCD displays, or cathode tube displays, for that matter), I'd hesitate to make sweeping generalizations about where technology is going.
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