Dying to use my New Zalman 22" 3d Screen
  5 / 5    
[quote]I hadn't noticed your first nVidia driver WIC review. I have now had a good read and found it to be very informative.[/quote]

Thanks! I try.

[quote]You say they sent you a 8600 for nVidia testing... Is the game/driver not compatible with your 8800? It seems strange as they are the same family.

I'm just thinking how great it might have been to have an FPS comparison between the two.[/quote]

I have an 8800GTS 512 as well running on the iZ3D system, and the drivers should work for both. However, I only have two testing machines with each dedicated to an iZ3D and NVIDIA solution. Despite repeated emails to their PR teams and S-3D driver development teams, they have yet to be forthcoming with a better GPU media sample. I haven't received an explanation for this.

I'm not going to risk system stability by pulling cards in and out for every game review because I count on these machines for my day to day business.

The good news is we will have more evenly matched systems in upcoming game reviews. Keep watching MTBS for jaw dropping industry news. /w00t.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':w00t:' />


[quote]Also, with the 1.07 iZ3d, did you find that the unit info ie health bars was at screen depth? I had found that to be one of the biggest "glitches"... did you have the same experience? If it was the same for you, what about the nVidia driver?[/quote]


I confess, I didn't pay attention to that. But looking at the screen captures from both the iZ3D and NVIDIA drivers, the interface and individual visual tags and health status is at screen depth. I didn't see it as a glitch though - at least, I didn't think of it that way.



[quote]About the camera angles, I find that a lot of games nowadays try to mimic movies in their cutscenes hence large camera angle and FOV changes, and I find that the iZ3D's 3 profile view settings to be very helpful in such cases - nest of both worlds at the press of a button. Does the nVidia driver have any profiling hotkey functionality?[/quote]


I didn't find any such functionality with the NVIDIA driver. At least not yet.


[quote]Posting here instead of MTBS as there seems to be only one reply to such a breakthrough review... it didn't seem to get much exposure maybe... I missed it till today atleast and then only after you pointed out you had nVidia vs iZ3D comparison... hoping the info you might provide will get more exposure in this thread :P[/quote]


Thanks! There are a lot more reviews coming for games new and old. The best part is the game developers are submitting samples for review, and that's a first for our industry. This was only possible because members demonstrated a sincere interest in S-3D technology, either NVIDIA or otherwise.

Regards,
Chopper
I hadn't noticed your first nVidia driver WIC review. I have now had a good read and found it to be very informative.




Thanks! I try.



You say they sent you a 8600 for nVidia testing... Is the game/driver not compatible with your 8800? It seems strange as they are the same family.



I'm just thinking how great it might have been to have an FPS comparison between the two.




I have an 8800GTS 512 as well running on the iZ3D system, and the drivers should work for both. However, I only have two testing machines with each dedicated to an iZ3D and NVIDIA solution. Despite repeated emails to their PR teams and S-3D driver development teams, they have yet to be forthcoming with a better GPU media sample. I haven't received an explanation for this.



I'm not going to risk system stability by pulling cards in and out for every game review because I count on these machines for my day to day business.



The good news is we will have more evenly matched systems in upcoming game reviews. Keep watching MTBS for jaw dropping industry news. /w00t.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':w00t:' />





Also, with the 1.07 iZ3d, did you find that the unit info ie health bars was at screen depth? I had found that to be one of the biggest "glitches"... did you have the same experience? If it was the same for you, what about the nVidia driver?






I confess, I didn't pay attention to that. But looking at the screen captures from both the iZ3D and NVIDIA drivers, the interface and individual visual tags and health status is at screen depth. I didn't see it as a glitch though - at least, I didn't think of it that way.







About the camera angles, I find that a lot of games nowadays try to mimic movies in their cutscenes hence large camera angle and FOV changes, and I find that the iZ3D's 3 profile view settings to be very helpful in such cases - nest of both worlds at the press of a button. Does the nVidia driver have any profiling hotkey functionality?






I didn't find any such functionality with the NVIDIA driver. At least not yet.





Posting here instead of MTBS as there seems to be only one reply to such a breakthrough review... it didn't seem to get much exposure maybe... I missed it till today atleast and then only after you pointed out you had nVidia vs iZ3D comparison... hoping the info you might provide will get more exposure in this thread :P






Thanks! There are a lot more reviews coming for games new and old. The best part is the game developers are submitting samples for review, and that's a first for our industry. This was only possible because members demonstrated a sincere interest in S-3D technology, either NVIDIA or otherwise.



Regards,

Chopper

#61
Posted 05/20/2008 03:50 AM   
[quote name='RAGEdemon' date='May 18 2008, 06:37 PM']Granted the iZ3D has ghosting, but the biggest advantage there is the driver which supports pretty much all D3D games with all effects. The old nVidia driver couldn't do that... I wonder if the new one can.

I feel that this is of special importance because modern games look horrible without modern effects - bloom, HDR, per pixel lighting and shadows, post processing, blur effects etc.

Would you please spend a few hours with a couple of modern games and give some impressions on what the new driver can actually do? This would be extremely helpful to everyone.
[/quote]
Ok, I just spent some time with the new nvidia driver (175.16 WHQL w/ 174.76 Stereo Driver). I also installed the iz3D driver (1.08 beta) for comparison. All tests were done in anaglyph mode since I own neither the Zalman nor the iz3D. I'm using a 32" Samsung LCD @ 1368x768 / 60Hz w/ an 8800GTS 512MB on Windows Vista 32-bit. This is not scientific, just my initial impression.

[b]Crysis:[/b]

-NV: Crysis was working good in 3d. In the driver notes it suggested disabling motion-blur and setting shader/post-process to medium. I just left everything at very high. It was still in 3d, but it did look a bit muted depth-wise (which I assume is due to the blurring effects muddying the image maybe). HUD and other 2D elements were rendered correctly at screen depth and did not shift when adjusting the 3d settings. Performance took a noticeable hit but was still playable.

-IZ: For some reason the iz3D driver would not work with Crysis. When stereo is enabled all I see is black and red on the screen (like looking through a red filter). Hotkeys show the settings, but they do nothing. Then it started glitching out with these white blocks moving across the screen like tetris. I have a feeling this is due to the fact that I patched Crysis for the VR920 and I think that is interfering.

[b]Call of Duty 4 (SP Demo):[/b]

-NV: Worked in 3d. HUD was correctly rendered. The gun looked *really* three-dimensional. However after playing for a minute or two I noticed that the background was 2D. It had separation, but both views were the same angle. The gun however was clearly in 3d, and looked like I could practically touch it. After much tweaking I realized this was a trick. Only the gun was 3D, everything else was 2D. Not only that, but there was some glitch where performance would drop to like 5 FPS, for no reason. Otherwise it would run fullspeed 60FPS, then it would start choking for no reason. Shuttering even, and go back and forth between good and bad performance. In 2D I get a silky smooth 100 FPS, its not an issue of the hardware.

IZ: COD4 worked great with the iz3D driver. The background was actually in stereo 3d, unlike whatever hack was going on with the nv driver. The gun didn't look as good, but it was ok since the whole scene was fully 3d. Performance was fine, no hiccups or stuttering. 2D HUD elements rendered correctly for the most part (some were slightly off, like when sniping, but it was minor). Highly playable.

[b]Unreal Tournament 3:[/b]

NV: Didn't work AT ALL. Its actually disabled in the driver. If you go to the nvidia stereo panel it lists UT3 in the games list, but its compatibility is "N/A". Only displays in standard 2D mode.

IZ: UT3 worked great with the iz3D drivers. Everything was fully 3D. HUD elements were correctly rendered at screen distance. When shooting rockets you could clearly see the line of smoke in 3d. Flying vehicles were very fun, good sense of depth overall. Post-processing effects seemed fine.

[b]Half-Life 2:[/b]

NV: It worked in 3D, but displayed the same exact issues with the HUD as on the old drivers. It has not been updated at all. Still provided a pretty fun experience, and after some tweaking, the HUD was not a big issue. Performance took a hit, but it was still very smooth on an 8800GTS at 1360x768. Getting about 50-60fps average which was fine. After about 15 minutes there started getting glitches on the HUD, pieces of the HUD would become rendered in the middle of the screen and get stuck there. I'm somewhat disappointed they did not attempt to fix these issues on a game this popular.

IZ: For some reason this didn't work for me. Getting the same red screen thing that was happening on Crysis. I think its due to having a VR920 stereo driver patch (which I did on Crysis too) so I can't really fault IZ here. Will revisit this at a later point.

[b]3DMark06:[/b]

NV: Worked great in full stereo 3d. HUD elements rendered correctly. Some very nice depth and some out of screen effects (with the spaceships). Minor performance hit. There were some glitches with the shadowing (double shadows, random polygons, etc.) but otherwise the image quality was good.

IZ: Worked very well in 3d. Good depth, looked almost identical to the nvidia driver. The preset was perfect, the nvidia one needed some tweaking. Also, there were no glitches or visual anomalies with the shadowing. Performance about the same.

[b]GRID (demo):[/b]
[i]
This is notable because the demo came out last week and there is no way either company could have tested their drivers with it.[/i]

NV: Stereo 3D worked great. Might be the best anaglyph gaming I've ever seen. Its a typical racing game like need for speed. The sense of depth was great. After a little tweaking it really blew me away how good even anaglyph could look on a 32" HDTV. 2D HUD elements were rendered fine. HDR lighting effects and smoke from the car and everything looked good. There were no glitches or anything like that I noticed. Performance seemed fine (barely any noticeable hit).

IZ: The demo starts, the first part is indeed in 3d (the intro) but as soon as I get to the title screen it crashes. Tried a few times, no luck. -1 on IZ here.

[b]Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars:[/b]

After installing new 3d drivers this game no longer works. It gives a DLL error when I try to start it. Not sure what happened. But I installed 3 different stereo drivers (nvidia, iz3d and vr920) so I probably mucked something up myself. Will come back to this one.

[b]Nvidia demos:[/b]

None of the nvidia demos (adrianne, nalu, luna, etc.) would work in stereo with either driver. Neither one of them would enable at all. This is strange because these same demos used to work with the old nvidia driver on XP. So not only has nvidia removed stereo hardware support, but they have also removed software support as well (for their own demos!?!?). I'm not sure if this is an isolated case or not, but it seems strange to disable support like this.

- - -

Overall its a mixed bag. On the whole the iz3D driver seemed better (or at least more usable), but there were some compatibility issues as noted above. The nvidia driver showed some improvements. They added an on-screen HUD, but it will only display the separation, *NOT* the convergence. I found this odd, but its at least a step in the right direction. The iz3D driver however displayed all the values so you could easily write them down or remember. The 3 stereo presets were also very helpful. The nvidia driver is supposed to be able to save and load profiles, but it has never worked right for me. The iz3d driver was most definitely easier to use and to tweak. The iz3d also displayed a far superior stereo image in COD4 than the nvidia driver. And iz3D worked for UT3 very nicely while the nvidia driver disabled support for it.

On the other hand, the most impressive 3d I saw tonight was on GRID using the nvidia driver. With the iz3d driver enabled it would crash that game. The nvidia list of supported titles was also much larger, however it appears that they still have the same compatibility issues on older titles (borked HUD etc.). There are about 20-30 games that have been recently updated (including Crysis, COD4, Bioshock, Burning Crusade, etc.) so I assume thats all there is in terms of new support.

Its still hard to make a decision between the iz3D and the Zalman just based on my initial tests of the drivers under Vista 32-bit. It would be nice if everything just worked together (ie I could run any driver on either monitor). As it stands, neither driver is a clear winner, and both suffer from compatibility issues. On the brighter side, this at least proves that Vista is gaining support in terms of stereo 3d. Speaking of Vista, the performance I'm getting is pretty good. I mean, if I'm running COD4 in Vista *and* in 3d while still getting above 60fps, it can't be all that slow.

// cybereality
[quote name='RAGEdemon' date='May 18 2008, 06:37 PM']Granted the iZ3D has ghosting, but the biggest advantage there is the driver which supports pretty much all D3D games with all effects. The old nVidia driver couldn't do that... I wonder if the new one can.



I feel that this is of special importance because modern games look horrible without modern effects - bloom, HDR, per pixel lighting and shadows, post processing, blur effects etc.



Would you please spend a few hours with a couple of modern games and give some impressions on what the new driver can actually do? This would be extremely helpful to everyone.



Ok, I just spent some time with the new nvidia driver (175.16 WHQL w/ 174.76 Stereo Driver). I also installed the iz3D driver (1.08 beta) for comparison. All tests were done in anaglyph mode since I own neither the Zalman nor the iz3D. I'm using a 32" Samsung LCD @ 1368x768 / 60Hz w/ an 8800GTS 512MB on Windows Vista 32-bit. This is not scientific, just my initial impression.



Crysis:



-NV: Crysis was working good in 3d. In the driver notes it suggested disabling motion-blur and setting shader/post-process to medium. I just left everything at very high. It was still in 3d, but it did look a bit muted depth-wise (which I assume is due to the blurring effects muddying the image maybe). HUD and other 2D elements were rendered correctly at screen depth and did not shift when adjusting the 3d settings. Performance took a noticeable hit but was still playable.



-IZ: For some reason the iz3D driver would not work with Crysis. When stereo is enabled all I see is black and red on the screen (like looking through a red filter). Hotkeys show the settings, but they do nothing. Then it started glitching out with these white blocks moving across the screen like tetris. I have a feeling this is due to the fact that I patched Crysis for the VR920 and I think that is interfering.



Call of Duty 4 (SP Demo):



-NV: Worked in 3d. HUD was correctly rendered. The gun looked *really* three-dimensional. However after playing for a minute or two I noticed that the background was 2D. It had separation, but both views were the same angle. The gun however was clearly in 3d, and looked like I could practically touch it. After much tweaking I realized this was a trick. Only the gun was 3D, everything else was 2D. Not only that, but there was some glitch where performance would drop to like 5 FPS, for no reason. Otherwise it would run fullspeed 60FPS, then it would start choking for no reason. Shuttering even, and go back and forth between good and bad performance. In 2D I get a silky smooth 100 FPS, its not an issue of the hardware.



IZ: COD4 worked great with the iz3D driver. The background was actually in stereo 3d, unlike whatever hack was going on with the nv driver. The gun didn't look as good, but it was ok since the whole scene was fully 3d. Performance was fine, no hiccups or stuttering. 2D HUD elements rendered correctly for the most part (some were slightly off, like when sniping, but it was minor). Highly playable.



Unreal Tournament 3:



NV: Didn't work AT ALL. Its actually disabled in the driver. If you go to the nvidia stereo panel it lists UT3 in the games list, but its compatibility is "N/A". Only displays in standard 2D mode.



IZ: UT3 worked great with the iz3D drivers. Everything was fully 3D. HUD elements were correctly rendered at screen distance. When shooting rockets you could clearly see the line of smoke in 3d. Flying vehicles were very fun, good sense of depth overall. Post-processing effects seemed fine.



Half-Life 2:



NV: It worked in 3D, but displayed the same exact issues with the HUD as on the old drivers. It has not been updated at all. Still provided a pretty fun experience, and after some tweaking, the HUD was not a big issue. Performance took a hit, but it was still very smooth on an 8800GTS at 1360x768. Getting about 50-60fps average which was fine. After about 15 minutes there started getting glitches on the HUD, pieces of the HUD would become rendered in the middle of the screen and get stuck there. I'm somewhat disappointed they did not attempt to fix these issues on a game this popular.



IZ: For some reason this didn't work for me. Getting the same red screen thing that was happening on Crysis. I think its due to having a VR920 stereo driver patch (which I did on Crysis too) so I can't really fault IZ here. Will revisit this at a later point.



3DMark06:



NV: Worked great in full stereo 3d. HUD elements rendered correctly. Some very nice depth and some out of screen effects (with the spaceships). Minor performance hit. There were some glitches with the shadowing (double shadows, random polygons, etc.) but otherwise the image quality was good.



IZ: Worked very well in 3d. Good depth, looked almost identical to the nvidia driver. The preset was perfect, the nvidia one needed some tweaking. Also, there were no glitches or visual anomalies with the shadowing. Performance about the same.



GRID (demo):



This is notable because the demo came out last week and there is no way either company could have tested their drivers with it.




NV: Stereo 3D worked great. Might be the best anaglyph gaming I've ever seen. Its a typical racing game like need for speed. The sense of depth was great. After a little tweaking it really blew me away how good even anaglyph could look on a 32" HDTV. 2D HUD elements were rendered fine. HDR lighting effects and smoke from the car and everything looked good. There were no glitches or anything like that I noticed. Performance seemed fine (barely any noticeable hit).



IZ: The demo starts, the first part is indeed in 3d (the intro) but as soon as I get to the title screen it crashes. Tried a few times, no luck. -1 on IZ here.



Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars:



After installing new 3d drivers this game no longer works. It gives a DLL error when I try to start it. Not sure what happened. But I installed 3 different stereo drivers (nvidia, iz3d and vr920) so I probably mucked something up myself. Will come back to this one.



Nvidia demos:



None of the nvidia demos (adrianne, nalu, luna, etc.) would work in stereo with either driver. Neither one of them would enable at all. This is strange because these same demos used to work with the old nvidia driver on XP. So not only has nvidia removed stereo hardware support, but they have also removed software support as well (for their own demos!?!?). I'm not sure if this is an isolated case or not, but it seems strange to disable support like this.



- - -



Overall its a mixed bag. On the whole the iz3D driver seemed better (or at least more usable), but there were some compatibility issues as noted above. The nvidia driver showed some improvements. They added an on-screen HUD, but it will only display the separation, *NOT* the convergence. I found this odd, but its at least a step in the right direction. The iz3D driver however displayed all the values so you could easily write them down or remember. The 3 stereo presets were also very helpful. The nvidia driver is supposed to be able to save and load profiles, but it has never worked right for me. The iz3d driver was most definitely easier to use and to tweak. The iz3d also displayed a far superior stereo image in COD4 than the nvidia driver. And iz3D worked for UT3 very nicely while the nvidia driver disabled support for it.



On the other hand, the most impressive 3d I saw tonight was on GRID using the nvidia driver. With the iz3d driver enabled it would crash that game. The nvidia list of supported titles was also much larger, however it appears that they still have the same compatibility issues on older titles (borked HUD etc.). There are about 20-30 games that have been recently updated (including Crysis, COD4, Bioshock, Burning Crusade, etc.) so I assume thats all there is in terms of new support.



Its still hard to make a decision between the iz3D and the Zalman just based on my initial tests of the drivers under Vista 32-bit. It would be nice if everything just worked together (ie I could run any driver on either monitor). As it stands, neither driver is a clear winner, and both suffer from compatibility issues. On the brighter side, this at least proves that Vista is gaining support in terms of stereo 3d. Speaking of Vista, the performance I'm getting is pretty good. I mean, if I'm running COD4 in Vista *and* in 3d while still getting above 60fps, it can't be all that slow.



// cybereality
#62
Posted 05/20/2008 07:02 AM   
Crysis works on the iZ3D driver - but it requires an AMD card. I don't know about Half Life 2.

Regards,
Chopper
Crysis works on the iZ3D driver - but it requires an AMD card. I don't know about Half Life 2.



Regards,

Chopper

#63
Posted 05/20/2008 01:29 PM   
Aah thanks for the comparison.

I had no problems with HL2 Ep2 on the iZ3D, I'm guessing ep1 and HL2 itself won't be much different.

Of course, HL2 always did look gorgeous even on the old nVidia driver :P

Mixed bag indeed...

I have heard rumblings of iZ3D trying to find the best way to support shutter glasses with a driver you pay for... it might offer the best of both worlds if paired with the right solution... a projector perhaps... large screen, virtually no ghosting, no interlacing, all special effects. This is still in development apparently... can't imagine when it will see the light of day.

Certainly, with nvidia stopping shutter glasses support, if this driver is reasonably priced, I think it would be a very attractive option with most stereo gamers who do not wish to invest in one of the 3D screens.

I also wonder if nVidia will not update their driver regularly... previously, we have been lucky if we got a release once a year on average. If money did in fact change hands then I would surmise that they were under some kind of contract to push out a new driver every so often, and then would it continue the "new profiles" fiasco?

I guess only time can tell.

Again, thanks for the review :)

-- Shahzad.
Aah thanks for the comparison.



I had no problems with HL2 Ep2 on the iZ3D, I'm guessing ep1 and HL2 itself won't be much different.



Of course, HL2 always did look gorgeous even on the old nVidia driver :P



Mixed bag indeed...



I have heard rumblings of iZ3D trying to find the best way to support shutter glasses with a driver you pay for... it might offer the best of both worlds if paired with the right solution... a projector perhaps... large screen, virtually no ghosting, no interlacing, all special effects. This is still in development apparently... can't imagine when it will see the light of day.



Certainly, with nvidia stopping shutter glasses support, if this driver is reasonably priced, I think it would be a very attractive option with most stereo gamers who do not wish to invest in one of the 3D screens.



I also wonder if nVidia will not update their driver regularly... previously, we have been lucky if we got a release once a year on average. If money did in fact change hands then I would surmise that they were under some kind of contract to push out a new driver every so often, and then would it continue the "new profiles" fiasco?



I guess only time can tell.



Again, thanks for the review :)



-- Shahzad.

Windows 10 64-bit, Intel 7700K @ 5.1GHz, 16GB 3600MHz CL15 DDR4 RAM, 2x GTX 1080 SLI, Asus Maximus IX Hero, Sound Blaster ZxR, PCIe Quad SSD, Oculus Rift CV1, DLP Link PGD-150 glasses, ViewSonic PJD6531w 3D DLP Projector @ 1280x800 120Hz native / 2560x1600 120Hz DSR 3D Gaming.

#64
Posted 05/21/2008 10:50 PM   
[quote name='RAGEdemon' date='May 21 2008, 06:50 PM']I also wonder if nVidia will not update their driver regularly... previously, we have been lucky if we got a release once a year on average. If money did in fact change hands then I would surmise that they were under some kind of contract to push out a new driver every so often, and then would it continue the "new profiles" fiasco?

I guess only time can tell.

Again, thanks for the review :)

-- Shahzad.
[right][snapback]380906[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

No problem man. I was wondering as much myself. Really though, above all, I am disappointed with the quality of the "new" driver. As far as I've seen, its the same driver with features disabled and a few more half-working profiles. It has the same issues with doubled HUD, visual anamalies, shallow depth, etc. Big games like UT3 aren't even supported at all, when they work fine on the iz3D driver. Huge titles like HL2 and all the mods/spin offs still don't work 100%.

However on the Vuzix stereo driver HL2 (and all mods, EP1/2, Portal, CS:S, Dystopia, etc) work perfect. No issues with the HUD or anything. I also tested COD4 with the Vuzix driver, perfect stereo. None of the performance issues seen with the nvidia driver. In the past I have overlooked these glitches as the fault of games developers, but after seeing highly working stereo 3d drivers from 2 different vendors on the same games, I come away unimpressed from nvidia's latest driver effort.
[quote name='RAGEdemon' date='May 21 2008, 06:50 PM']I also wonder if nVidia will not update their driver regularly... previously, we have been lucky if we got a release once a year on average. If money did in fact change hands then I would surmise that they were under some kind of contract to push out a new driver every so often, and then would it continue the "new profiles" fiasco?



I guess only time can tell.



Again, thanks for the review :)



-- Shahzad.

[snapback]380906[/snapback]






No problem man. I was wondering as much myself. Really though, above all, I am disappointed with the quality of the "new" driver. As far as I've seen, its the same driver with features disabled and a few more half-working profiles. It has the same issues with doubled HUD, visual anamalies, shallow depth, etc. Big games like UT3 aren't even supported at all, when they work fine on the iz3D driver. Huge titles like HL2 and all the mods/spin offs still don't work 100%.



However on the Vuzix stereo driver HL2 (and all mods, EP1/2, Portal, CS:S, Dystopia, etc) work perfect. No issues with the HUD or anything. I also tested COD4 with the Vuzix driver, perfect stereo. None of the performance issues seen with the nvidia driver. In the past I have overlooked these glitches as the fault of games developers, but after seeing highly working stereo 3d drivers from 2 different vendors on the same games, I come away unimpressed from nvidia's latest driver effort.
#65
Posted 05/22/2008 04:56 AM   
Today I have received a Zalman 22" monitor, and I have test, but only for a short time. It has cost 520 €, and the overal impresion is that is not a bad monitor for 2D, but for this prize would can be better.

Like other people said, the monitor reflect too much yourself if it is off, and I do not need to see an ugly man always I seat in front and power on my computer :PPPP. I have the room relatively dark, and using I had no problem (I must see this monitor runing with a light room).

Buttons to control the menu, volume, etc. can be done better, but it is not important.

The volume with headphones is good (no interferences here, using a soundblaster XFI), not like I read before. But the speakers of the monitor sounds horrible because the low quality.

The monitor working in 2D is a "normal" monitor. The mayor problem in 2D is the backlight and the low quality in dark scenes. I have callibrated the colors and it works something better, but for the prize would can be better.

Working in 3D the monitor is not bad, maybe something better than I thought, but is not the definitive solution, of course. The mayor problem is the half of the pixels lost, that makes it impossible to be a very good job. It is needed to enable antialiasing to minimize this something, but it is still very noticeable. Scaling resolutions must be off in the nvidia drivers, so you can play in any resolution lower than 1650x1050, but with black borders.
Ghosting is present, but is too much lower than using shutterglasses, and it is not a problem. You must be located in the right position in front of the monitor to prevent more ghosting, but it is not dificult to stay well located, so I think it is not a problem, you can move right or left without problems, but you can´t go up or down your head.

Compared with:

- This Zalman monitor is a solution something better than shutterglasses + CRT, I think, because the low ghosting and because you can use a LCD monitor in your desk, but shutterglasses gives more resolution/definition and too much better dark scenes (also with big ghosting). Some games must be played better with shutters than with zalman. Of course with zalman the image is brighter than with shutterglasses, but you are always seeing horizontal lines that are not a big problem, but remember you that you are loosing half of the pixels (the big problem of this monitor without any dude).

- Compared with two monitors up/dwn using a planar system, or with two horizontal monitors with a normal mirror between them... there are no dude, Zalman has nothing to do. The only thing better is that zalman is a simple monitor in your desk and it is more confortable to use, you do not use a mirror, and then you have not why to be placed just in front of the mirror (if you use two horizontal mirrors). But the zalman monitor is the only solution supported by Nvidia, so NOW it is imposible to choose. Planar images gives ART, plenty of details without lossing pixels, and with a practibally inexistent ghosting.

I have test only with Oblivion, Tomb RAider Legends, COD4 and Crysis. Oblivion works well with the nvidia driver, and gives a good feeling, and tomb raider too. COD4 does not works very well, you must disable two graphics options and the convergence must be forced to have stereo working (exactly like it was with shutter+crt). Farcry loose a lot, and forget to play it in stereo3d.

I think that the best for this monitor is the Nvidia exclusive support (at the moment, of corse), that make it to be in a step highter than other solutions that I have tested. I have not seen IZ3d monitors to compare, so I must shut up. This zalman monitor has a BIG problem with the half of the pixels, that is the mayor problem. If someday Zalman makes a monitor without this problem, I will recomend it to anybody, and probably would be the better and easy way to experience a good stereo3d, but loosing half of the pixels... is a high prize. If Nvidia would have not sign this pact with Zalman and give us support for other stereo3d types... there would be no reason to buy this monitor. I must test more with this monitor, only I have written my first impresions, and these days I am too much busy.
Today I have received a Zalman 22" monitor, and I have test, but only for a short time. It has cost 520 €, and the overal impresion is that is not a bad monitor for 2D, but for this prize would can be better.



Like other people said, the monitor reflect too much yourself if it is off, and I do not need to see an ugly man always I seat in front and power on my computer :PPPP. I have the room relatively dark, and using I had no problem (I must see this monitor runing with a light room).



Buttons to control the menu, volume, etc. can be done better, but it is not important.



The volume with headphones is good (no interferences here, using a soundblaster XFI), not like I read before. But the speakers of the monitor sounds horrible because the low quality.



The monitor working in 2D is a "normal" monitor. The mayor problem in 2D is the backlight and the low quality in dark scenes. I have callibrated the colors and it works something better, but for the prize would can be better.



Working in 3D the monitor is not bad, maybe something better than I thought, but is not the definitive solution, of course. The mayor problem is the half of the pixels lost, that makes it impossible to be a very good job. It is needed to enable antialiasing to minimize this something, but it is still very noticeable. Scaling resolutions must be off in the nvidia drivers, so you can play in any resolution lower than 1650x1050, but with black borders.

Ghosting is present, but is too much lower than using shutterglasses, and it is not a problem. You must be located in the right position in front of the monitor to prevent more ghosting, but it is not dificult to stay well located, so I think it is not a problem, you can move right or left without problems, but you can´t go up or down your head.



Compared with:



- This Zalman monitor is a solution something better than shutterglasses + CRT, I think, because the low ghosting and because you can use a LCD monitor in your desk, but shutterglasses gives more resolution/definition and too much better dark scenes (also with big ghosting). Some games must be played better with shutters than with zalman. Of course with zalman the image is brighter than with shutterglasses, but you are always seeing horizontal lines that are not a big problem, but remember you that you are loosing half of the pixels (the big problem of this monitor without any dude).



- Compared with two monitors up/dwn using a planar system, or with two horizontal monitors with a normal mirror between them... there are no dude, Zalman has nothing to do. The only thing better is that zalman is a simple monitor in your desk and it is more confortable to use, you do not use a mirror, and then you have not why to be placed just in front of the mirror (if you use two horizontal mirrors). But the zalman monitor is the only solution supported by Nvidia, so NOW it is imposible to choose. Planar images gives ART, plenty of details without lossing pixels, and with a practibally inexistent ghosting.



I have test only with Oblivion, Tomb RAider Legends, COD4 and Crysis. Oblivion works well with the nvidia driver, and gives a good feeling, and tomb raider too. COD4 does not works very well, you must disable two graphics options and the convergence must be forced to have stereo working (exactly like it was with shutter+crt). Farcry loose a lot, and forget to play it in stereo3d.



I think that the best for this monitor is the Nvidia exclusive support (at the moment, of corse), that make it to be in a step highter than other solutions that I have tested. I have not seen IZ3d monitors to compare, so I must shut up. This zalman monitor has a BIG problem with the half of the pixels, that is the mayor problem. If someday Zalman makes a monitor without this problem, I will recomend it to anybody, and probably would be the better and easy way to experience a good stereo3d, but loosing half of the pixels... is a high prize. If Nvidia would have not sign this pact with Zalman and give us support for other stereo3d types... there would be no reason to buy this monitor. I must test more with this monitor, only I have written my first impresions, and these days I am too much busy.

- Windows 7 64bits (SSD OCZ-Vertez2 128Gb)
- "ASUS P6X58D-E" motherboard
- "MSI GTX 660 TI"
- "Intel Xeon X5670" @4000MHz CPU (20.0[12-25]x200MHz)
- RAM 16 Gb DDR3 1600
- "Dell S2716DG" monitor (2560x1440 @144Hz)
- "Corsair Carbide 600C" case
- Labrador dog (cinnamon edition)

#66
Posted 05/22/2008 10:13 PM   
Thanks for the initial review, b4thman. The Zalman seems like a decent piece of hardware, I guess nothing is perfect right now. I like the iz3d (and they have good drivers) but I do a lot of work on the computer (photoshop,etc) so I'm not sure I could use it as my primary monitor. The Zalman sounds like its 2D functions are better (which will probably get more use anyway). Please let us know how everything goes with your new Zalman.
Thanks for the initial review, b4thman. The Zalman seems like a decent piece of hardware, I guess nothing is perfect right now. I like the iz3d (and they have good drivers) but I do a lot of work on the computer (photoshop,etc) so I'm not sure I could use it as my primary monitor. The Zalman sounds like its 2D functions are better (which will probably get more use anyway). Please let us know how everything goes with your new Zalman.
#67
Posted 05/23/2008 01:54 AM   
  5 / 5    
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