• Does anyone have experience with 3D-Max and the Tseng ET6000 chip? It's officially supported by 3D-BIOS 3.0beta, but I've heard of problems. Please drop me a note.
• Kasans address is now: www.kasan.co.kr. There's a 3D-Max download page, but nothing else.
• Fix for S3 chipsets, Comanche 3 and the "Split Screen Problem" (Terminal Velo, Madspace etc.)
• NEW LINKS: Kasan Sweden +++ Cult 3D +++ Cycore
• 3D-MAX compatibility list
• Check the Kasan FTP-site (ftp://pcvr.kasan.co.kr) for updates.(server seems to be down)  Log in as user: guest, password: guest to see the 3D-Max stuff, log in as anonymous to see other stuff.
• 3D-Max is the perfect system for Hexen 2 and WinQuake!
• 3D-Max page at Virtual Media Systems South-Africa featuring 3D-BIOS 3.0 beta and new Magic Carpet plus patch. There's also a new chipset compatibility list.
• Check the VGA card page for Kasan boards with 3D-Max controller built in.

 

General Information

3D-Max is a low cost 3D-VR system based on LC-Shutterglasses. It comes from Kasan Electronics, Korea (adress updated). There seems to be only one 3D-Max page left on the Kasan server, a 3D-Max download page. It contains 3D-BIOS 3.0beta and 3D-Image for DOS 2.60. Kasan still produces the glasses, but seems to leave marketing and support to the distributors, especially Kasan, Sweden.

3D-Max can be ordered through the Internet from Kasan Sweden. Keep in mind that Sweden asks for 25% sales tax. NEW:  They promised to gear up support in the future. Let's see what happens in '98.
UDAC, Sweden no longer distributes 3D-Max.

US-Dealers are  VWorld and  many (?) others. 3DTV distributes the Max too, along with their own products.

 Virtual Media Systems distributes the Max in South Africa. They provide the best support of all distributors yet.

3D-Max is distributed in Germany exclusively through PEARL Agency GmbH, Compuserve: GO PEARL, BTX: *PEARL#, but the complete 3D-Max Kits are sold out. They still have glasses without controller. You might use them for homebrew or other controllers.

Visit the LCD-Bios page for additional information, software and interesting 3D-Links.

Check the Kasan FTP-site  for driver updates. (server seems to be down) Log in as user: guest, password: guest to see the 3D-Max stuff, log in as anonymous to see other stuff.

Tips for potential 3D-Max buyers:

• Ask for 3D-Max controller card type II. This one doesn't need a feature connector, supports the wireless version of the glasses and has better compatibility to certain VGA-chipsets (S3, Cirrus Logic, Western Digital).
• You should own a VGA-board with a common chip set. Nothing exotic! Nothing brand new! Otherwise you have to wait for a driver update (maybe forever). For the newest update on chipset support look at Virtual Media Systems .

Kasan developed several PCI-VGA cards with 3D-Max-Controller on-board. See the VGA board page. 

3D-Max Wireless Version (requires controller type II)
 

Kasan 3D-Max is controlled by an ISA-slot card. This controller needs a VGA-chipset specific driver (3D-BIOS) to work. A VGA-chipset specific driver has advantages if you have the right one.

There are other Shutterglasses connected to the serial, parallel or VGA-port that are controlled by LCD-BIOS. LCD-BIOS uses page-flipping of normal VGA and VESA graphics modes and is, in theory, chipset-independent. There are reportedly problems with certain VGA-cards/chipsets though. LCD-BIOS is partly backward compatible with 3D-BIOS.

Advantages of Kasan 3D-Max

One advantage of the 3D-Max system is the compatibility to almost all stereoscopic software (3D-BIOS, i-glasses, CyberMaxx, VFX1 and even LCD-BIOS titles in most cases). Another advantage is the use of interlace which allows high refresh rates and that's really important. I reached up to 150 Hz. Users of systems using LCD-BIOS (page flipping) might only dream about this, unless they have the right monitor. Using alternate line material (like Quake) 3D-Max eats up only half of the monitor V-frequency compared to LCD-BIOS at the exact same effective resolution/refresh rate!

Another advantage is the compatibility with any Windows desktop graphics mode. This helps a lot for watching slideshows, 3D websites and the new generation of games (especially WinQuake and Hexen2).

Here's what I achieved:
 

VGA-chipset	S3 864 and S3 Trio64V+	Tseng ET4000
320*200	type I: N/A; type II: 83 Hz	120 Hz
320*400	type I: N/A; type II: 83 Hz (IRQ), 96 Hz (Interlace)	120 Hz
640*480 and higher	120 Hz to 150 Hz	>120 Hz

Refresh rates under 3D-BIOS with 3D-Max controller type I and II
 
 

Please note that I'm talking about controllers and drivers, not the glasses itself. Most glasses have a standard stereo jack. (See picture above.) Some products like those of 3DTV, Chinon and APEC use exactly the same glasses, but different controllers.
 
 
 
 

Compatibility

3D-Max is somewhat compatible to stereoscopic software for the VictorMaxx CyberMaxx and Virtual i-O Inc. i-glasses. (Both companies are out of business.) Most games for these systems offer headtracking only, no stereoscopic 3D. Programs with native 3D-Max support are mentioned in the 3D-Max sections only.

What about LCD-BIOS compatibility? Well LCD-BIOS is the de facto standard for consumer shutterglasses, so this is important. 3D-BIOS uses interlace, while LCD-BIOS uses page-flipping. What happens when running software written for LCD-BIOS? You'll get a page-flipped image. Everything you need is there on the screen but the 3D-Max glasses are turned off. So you have to load 3D-BIOS and invoke cyberon.com. Now you get an image which is page-flipped and interlaced simultaneously (that's what I presume it is). IT WORKS unless your VGA-card doesn't freak out on this! Let's make this clear: 3D-Max is 100% NOT COMPATIBLE to the LCD-BIOS driver. I'm talking about software titles here!!! The 3D-Max controller only wakes up to 3D-BIOS. And you still need the proper VGA-chipset to use 3D-BIOS.

If a program has 3D-Max support this doesn't mean it runs on every PC. It's tricky to get them to work and you need some luck too. This page doesn't handle the hassles of VGA card compatibility, 3D-drivers and VESA-drivers in-depth. I'm certain every 3D-Max owner has his own story what works and what's not. Imagine the possible combinations of hundreds of VGA-cards with tons of programs and the different types of 3D-Max controllers (two at least). The problem lies in the interlaced screen modes 3D-Max uses. They're exotic to say the least. Which VGA-chip designer cares for say "512x700-pixel-16bit-hicolor-interlaced-mode"??? Not the guys from S3 I tell you. And they're the market leaders! I'm just listing programs which offer 3D-Max, CyberMaxx or i-glasses implementation. That means it may work in theory. The most nagging thing is the inconsistent behavior. If you try 5 programs all using the same screen mode, say 320x400 with 256 col., you might get 5 different results from no go, over buggy to perfect. BUT don't get too excited in case you own some LCD-BIOS driven glasses. Page-flipping has it's own hassles and you might not reach these high refresh rates interlace can provide.

The term "Tested" in the following tables means: tried by the author of this list. I'm using S3-864 2MB and Avance Logic 1MB VGA's with 3D-Max type II (rev.1.0) board. I also tried most programs on ET 4000 and type I. The Tseng ET4000 seems to be more suitable for 3D-Max use. I'm not going to mention each and every problem I encountered. Most of them are configuration dependend and doesn't apply to the rest of the world.

NEW: There are problems like the Comanche 3 "jump-bug" or the Terminal Velocity "split-screen-bug" especially in conjuction with S3 chipsets. This problems seem to be caused by the use of IRQ-mode. The hidden C3 3D-Max mode seems to force IRQ. CYBERON forces IRQ too!!!  Virtual Media Systems South-Africa released a patch package called "maxgames". The package includes a tool called MAX3D. This program forces 3D without the use of IRQ mode. It helps with a lot of programs. It also might force 3D where Cyberon completely fails. Don't forget to choose Interlace mode in 3DCFG when using MAX3D and try to avoid the use of Cyberon.
MAX3D fixed my problems with S3 Trio 64V+ and Comanche 3, Terminal Velocity and Madspace. I also tried it on DOS-Quake 1.08 which lead to a crash.

Dear users of other systems:  MAX3D will only work on 3D-Max!!! There is no point in experimenting! MAX3D needs 3D-BIOS and 3D-BIOS needs a special controller to be installed in a slot of your PC! (Hmmm, maybe it'll work on Russian Shield, which seems to be a Max-clone.)

PATCHES TABLE

For Emulation of other glasses you'll need cyberon.com. Don't get confused, cyberon.com is just 13 bytes long. It's not a real program, it's just a switch. I actually had to zip it to make it larger (!), since some browsers doesn't accept such small files for download.

Most patches can also be found at the LCD-Bios page, the Virtual Media Systems South-Africa page and the Pearl Support Forum on Compuserve (GO PEARLS).
 
 

 

3D-MAX compatibility list (based on 3D-MAX type II and S3 Trio V64+)

The selection of titles is based on the Hotlist.
 
 
 

Title	Compat.	Comment
Comanche 3 - hacked 3D-Max mode	YES	buggy on S3 and maybe other chipsets, the image jumps every now and then, visit my Comanche 3 page
Comanche 3 - standard stereo mode	YES	works only with older 3D-BIOS 2.1 and Cyberon, buggy on S3 and maybe other chipsets, the image jumps every now and then, can be fixed using MAX3D, visit my Comanche 3 page
CyberBykes	YES	visit the CyberBykes hint page, without the hints you won't be successful
Depth Dwellers		NOT TESTED
Descent 1	YES	native
Descent 2	YES	for Hi-Res choose LCD-BIOS 640x480 mode and use Cyberon or MAX3D
Dig It!	NO
Duke Nukem Shareware (Wooboo patch)	NO	buggy, I heard of no successes
Duke Nukem Retail (Wooboo patch)	(YES)	NOT TESTED, but I heard of successes
Havoc	(YES)	NOT TESTED, but I heard of a success, even with the demo version
Hexagon-Kartell	(YES)	NOT TESTED, but it offers native Max-support via patch
Hexen 2	YES	it works, just like WinQuake
Hi-Oct	YES	native
In Pursuit of Greed	(YES)	NOT TESTED, but I heard of a success
Madspace (demo) 3D-Max Int. mode	NO	produces a split screen on S3 and some other chipsets, can be fixed using MAX3D
Magic Carpet	YES	native patch
Magic Carpet plus	YES	native patch
Magic Carpet 2	NO	there's an i-glasses stereo mode, I couldn't get the MAX to work with this
Nascar (hi-res)	YES	native patch
Quake Win 1.00 (1.09)	YES	Visit the Quake page for details.
Quake DOS 1.08	(NO)	hotkey defunct, use the windows version
Quake H3D-DOS patch	NO	shows a split screen, no interleave format available
Quake H3D-GL patch	NO	there are currently no OpenGL cappable chipsets supported by 3D-BIOS
Qukae H3D-V patch	NO	3D-BIOS doesn't support Rendition chips at the moment
Quake H3D-Win patch	?	not tested yet
Rise of the Triad	?	NOT TESTED
Sento	YES	native
Shattered Steel - i-glasses mode	YES	use Cyberon or MAX3D
Shattered Steel - SimulEyes mode	NO	use i-glasses mode
Slipstream	YES	It works using Cyberon, but the resolution is cut down from the original 320x200 per eye to 320x100 per eye
Terminal Velocity - Cybermaxx patch	YES	produces a split screen on S3 and some other chipsets, can be fixed using MAX3D
Wendy Models - 3D-Max mode	YES	native
Whiplash	YES	It works using Cyberon, but the resolution is cut down from the original 320x200 per eye to 320x100 per eye
Windows 3.1 desktop	YES
Windows 95 desktop	YES
Windows NT desktop		NOT TESTED, I wonder how to install the 3D-BIOS DOS-TSR under NT
ZAR (3-level-demo) - SimulEyes mode	YES	Cyberon!, produces a split screen on S3 and some other chipsets, stereo image is correct though
ZAR - other versions/modes		NOT TESTED

 
 

The following software lists contain some specific information for 3D-Max owners. They are not complete and might not be up to date. Please refer to the other software pages too.

I removed some of the lists recently to avoid redundance and confusion with the other Software lists.

Games which should work with 3D-Max due to announcement, press report or just presumption but DON'T (as far as I know):

Help!!!

Please visit my Credits page, were you can find the names of other stereo addicts.
 
 
 
 

The author of this list is in no way connected to any of the before-mentioned companies.

Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

The author can't guarantee the accuracy or topicality of the information given on this page.

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Christoph Bungert, Germany