| Author | Message | ||
     John Winningham Rating: N/A |
This is the reply to the thread on the "problems" board: http://www.stereo3d.com/discus/messages/22/1710.html?1041108995 It is more appropriate to continue here I would think.... anyways and now the reply: As for the problems, look like the things may have gotten a bit of abuse during shipping. Stewart gave me the i-O address which I shipped the unit to on Friday. In a couple weeks I should get a replacement pair back. (Dag nabbit! I want to play with them now!  ) The size and resolution are very nice, especially for the price. The top of the image was very sharp. I wish I could go more into the quality of the image, but I will hold back until the replacement comes. The colors were very pure, but only at proper refresh rates... an overly high refresh rate causes a very reddish tone. Make sure the refresh rate is set properly. (The red I mention as it was listed as a problem in another thread.) When I got them, I pulled up Battlefield 1942 right away. Sadly, my "dinky" Asus v6800 Deluxe has a bit of trouble running the game in 640x480 so the 800x600 is out of the question. It was a very interesting experience to fly a plane in 3d that way. At one point I nearly bobbed my head out of my chair. :D It added quite a bit of entertainment value indeed. I look forward to getting it back so I can mess about with some more games. Before I got these I was using the Asus shutter glasses. (The old style ones... bleh) The color/contrast/brightness improvements the i-Glasses provide are reason enough to buy them. If you can muster up the cash I would highly recommend getting yourself a pair. The Future? (or... the "and stuff" part) Not sure what exactly will be my next move in building up a decent VR setup. A new graphics card will most likely make up my next purchase. Things that expensive should last longer! :/ After that I am considering a head tracker of some sort, will check them out after I save up from the graphics card. Think I will try some DIY VR stuff sometime as well. One of those cockpit tilting mechanisms looks like it might be interesing to build. | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
John is Stewart at cyberworld  | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
I knew somebody would say that. No, I am not. I am "Timelord" who is the admin of an IRC server for the fans of a long-time-in-development MMORPG "Horizons". You will notice the January 6th news item at: http://www.of-istaria.com The item will be there for several days before I remove it. You can look up the domain whois if you wish as well. BTW, anonymous, who are you? :P Anyways, now that I have posted far more information than I cared to post about myself on these boards, I will sit back and wait for the accusations that I am really a space alien to come in. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
For future reference, I am trying to get an actual account but as far as I can tell the only way is to contact bungert@stereo3d.com. I have done so and will await a response. | ||
| Pierre Rating: N/A |
Hi John, Looks like you are having the same problem as I'm. I also purchased the i-glasses SVGA 3D a few weeks back. i-glasses actually send me a second HMD to test out before returning the first HMD for comparison. Might be during shipping, the HMD is damage as second unit is also having the same problem as first unit. Just a bit of advice for i-glasses - packaging should had been better with thicker bubble wrap or sponge casing. White boxes doesn't look professional when you are selling something cost around USD 800. But the most unacceptable problem I have is when enable 3D mode, the right lens had very visible verticle strips. So, it overall reduce smooth graphics for HMD viewing. Now... return the unit for refund and buy an Infocus X1 projector (brand new model with 2000:1 contrast). Hope your second unit would work out fine for you. Good Luck. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
The projector is impressive, but its only 2d. You will need a page flipping splitter and a second one with polarized lenses to have 3d, and that is most certainly not a cheap setup. Also, an HMD is much more useful for the kind of VR I have in mind. 3d projection would be nice to have to put in the living room for movie watching and the like, but thats way beyond my price range. Good luck to you as well. | ||
| syb Rating: N/A |
I admit to being slow to return my faulty I-Glasses SVGA 3D unit as I had more important urgent tasks but I sent it off last week and I intend to review the unit (and problems) in detail once I have a 'working' unit again. However, living in Australia means that it will likely be more than a 'couple of weeks' *grin*. [John]: I too have considered buying a Head Tracker - most likely the Intertrax 2 that is supported by the 3D GUI project at www.3dwm.org - but due to a huge branch falling on my car I may now be short of ~ $6000 AUD (~ $3000USD)!... so obviously no 'spare' money for more HighTek VR gear :-( | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Hadn't seen the 3d GUI project at that site before, but it seems that the 3d is being used mainly for eyecandy instead of usefullness. Off to work (I'm late!). Will look at it more when I get back. | ||
| Pierre Rating: N/A |
Let me know if the new unit is working as expected. I kind of give-up once the second unit is just slightly better then the first unit. John, you do mention in the other thread that you are having problems where the top part of the screen is clear (in focus) else the bottom part look blur (I think it is out of focus as when I shift the HMD higher, the bottom part become focus and top become blur). How do you resolve that problem? I'm having the problem with both previous unit. Now I'm more into PS2 game and DVD movie so projector would be a more suitable unit than HMD. I'll look into HMD again when there is new improvement in HMD and 3D stereo driver. Another comment I had for current HMD is I think the LCD should not be flat but curve. Reason is if we look at the LCD at such a close distant, if your eye look to left and center, the distance is different. You will get a sense that center is nearer then the edge because our eyeball is sphere. Maybe the new LCD technology that is bendable would make this possible. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
How I resolved it was to send it in for replacement/repairs. I did find that it could be fixed if I moved the unit way down on my face, but then a portion of the screen was cut off it was so low... it also does not fit that low. HMDs have plenty of room for improvement, but there is very little I have found wrong with the stereo driver from nvidia. My only complaint I can think of off hand is the want for an option to not cause double overlays. oh yeah... and some 40.x drivers wouldn't hurt. ;) Curved lcds/oleds or a lens system to allow for that. I would expect that kind of realism would be a rather far ways off from being affordable anywhere in the near future. Full vision range would require a lot of resolution. 800x600 barely covers the small vision area todays good consumer glasses allow. *shrug* Enough of my rambling. | ||
| Jared Wach Rating: N/A |
Great HMD may not be as far off as you think. Check out this link. http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/vrd/ | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
I think the VRD is far from becoming marketable to the consumer. | ||
| Jared Wach Rating: N/A |
Please clarify...Do you mean that consumers will be hesitant to adopt VRDs or that they will be available to Joe Schmoe anytime soon. If it is the former than that is your loss. If it is the latter than you are wrong. They are very inexpensive to manufacture as compared to lcd based HMDs. The initial goal of the project was around $200 for a 3d model. It will not be long before they become available. | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
The idea of shooting a "coherent source (such as a laser diode)" into a comsumer's eye sounds like a law suit waiting to happen. And what about the health risks? | ||
| Jared Wach Rating: N/A |
Not at all, all a laser (light amplified by stimulated emission of radiation)is is light of the same frequency, phase, and direction. Essentially you are looking at only one frequency of light. It's no more dangerous than looking at your television. Lasers of high intensity are what most people are familiar with. It's a little like the diference between the sun and a pen light. Look at the sun for too long, hurt your eyes; look at a pen light...no big deal. In fact, you're probably in more danger from your monitor which uses electrons to stimulate phosphors and creates MPR II radiation. Anyway, some people will be apprehensive, granted, but after people get used to the idea I think they will become widely adopted. They are currently being used to create virtual heads up displays for fighter pilots. They never have to glance at their instrument panel because it's always semi-transparent and floating a couple of feet in front of their vision. Imagine a device a little like a small mic for a headset except you place this one a couple inches in front of your eyes. You could have access to any information anytime. It will be that much closer to wearable computers anyway. For us video game freaks it means TRUE 3D, not just stereoscopic, and wide FOV's. There will be no distancing, because your eye is the screen. I'm excited anyway | ||
| Christoph Bungert (Admin) Rating: N/A |
#####John is Stewart at cyberworld (Anonymous) ### I am "Timelord" who is the admin... (John) ### For future reference, I am trying to get an actual account but as far as I can tell the only way is to contact bungert@stereo3d.com. I think this accusation by Anonymous (!!!) is pointless. Do I really need to spend time and money updating the board-sofware or to start creating accounts manually, just because there are some stupid kids are around here? Christoph | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
I would recommend updating the board-software! | ||
| Stee1hed Rating: N/A |
It should stop a lot of the noise. I really enjoy this board and see that a lot of top people in 3d visit here, but may hesitate on posting simply because they don't want to 'put up' with the accusations/crap. Granted, there are assholes everywhere, but I think accounts would help filter them out. I know I am not the one putting up the money/time for it, so it's just my 2 cents. | ||
| nickyj Rating: N/A |
Yes I agree. To be honest I'm sick of this board because someone is going to get flamed if they make a comment trying to be helpful and I'm sure most companies are scared off for the same reason. If I was a company I'd never post here. But again, not my money. However, there are a ton of free boards that will do what you want and are very robust, as long as you know cgi. | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
UPDATE THE BOARD SOFTWARE AND STOP THE SHIT POSTINGS!!! | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
1) VRDs will be quite nice, but I remember a story a while back about retinal scanning (for security) causing eye damage after long periods of use. As I do not know the power output of either, I do not know how comparable the two are. (and on the subject of the original thread) 2) I recieved the replacement pair from i-O. Same problems as the originals but with some extra bonus problems thrown in. The really nasty one being that in 3d mode (no matter if its a 2d source, 3d source, any refresh rate, any acceptable resolution) siezure inducing random color full screen glitches happen at short, random times. (half a second to 2 seconds. Faster the refresh rate, faster the glitches it seems) This is quite unacceptable. I have asked that they fix it (and pay for all shipping costs for an RMA on the RMA) now or reimburse in full for the original RMA shipping. This product will be fixed or be returned as faulty. The i-Glasses SVGA HMD is a good product that seems to suffer from piss poor quality control. While others have stated they have had no problems I have had horrible luck. I really wish I could use one of these units that functions correctly. i-O really needs to get their act together. As the saga continues, I will post more. | ||
| Jared Wach Rating: N/A |
1. I can't really verify of disprove your statement about VRD's. My guess is that there simply is not enough information out there. There hasn't really been the need for the research since retinal scanning devices are such a niche product. 2. I'm sorry about your luck with your I-Glasses, I guess that I'm one of the lucky ones who have had no problems. (With the exception of it resyncing every once in a while, but I suspect that that is a problem with my pass-thru box.) | ||
| BOPrey Rating: N/A |
John, Set your display resolution to the i-glasses native resolution 800x600 at 32bit color, and you should be fine with the random color glitches. When I got my a few days ago, works great on the computer in my office. But when I took it home, I had the same problem on my laptop as yours. It took me a while to figure out that my laptop's resolution was not set to i-glasses' native resolution. Once I change my laptop's resolution, the problem went away. The only thing I can complain about i-glasses it the narrow field of view and it's weight. The way it is designed, it is OK to watch movies, not that good for extended game play. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
The glitches only happen in 3d mode, and it does not seem dependent on refresh rate or resolution. I am not sure why you would say its designed to watch movies and not play games. I have heard that shutter glasses are not ok for extended game play either, but I have used them for hours on end with no problems at all. Is your statment related to the shutter glasses "dangers" that don't seem to exist? | ||
| BOPrey Rating: N/A |
The 30 deg of FOV is too narrow for game playing. It is like being in a dark room wearing a helmet with a flash light on your head. It also weights about half a pound, and it keeps falling from on your face if you don't want to be bother with the constant pressure on your forhead. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
Update: i-O will be shipping my glasses back (at their expense) to find out the source of my problems. I hope the trouble can be solved. :/ When anything new happens, I will pass it on. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
Just got my glasses back from i-O today. Same blurring problem. Will talk to Ross tomorrow. Either something is wrong with their QC or I have an eye problem that really shows up when using the i-glasses optics. As new, RMA 1, and RMA 2 had the same problem, I am beginning to think it might possibly be an eye problem. I just recently went to my optometrist and she found no new problems. My glasses are using a current prescription as well. | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
Just got my I-glasses back from I/0 too. My optics where blurry when I first receieved them. Now after the adjustment and repair, I have to say that this HMD rocks!! The images are really impressive. Defintely the best HMD available to the consumer right now. You could replace your monitor with these. -Kevin | ||
| miek Rating: N/A |
How many of these have to go back for repair? Kev, if you work for VRImmersions, why would you send them back to i-O.. Why not Immersions themselves and let them send it. They do sell them, I wouldn't see why you wouldn't get better treatment for doing work for them!!! Just figured to ask... To John, why in the heck would they send out a pair that is blurry when, that was the reason for you to send it back to them! I guess this is why the price has dropped so much over the months... Well good luck to all of you that do have them........... This is Kevin M?? | ||
| Pierre Rating: N/A |
I had the same problem as John. Blurry screen and color glitches every few seconds. I had send it for RMA twice and still getting the same problem. I decided to give up and get my refund. Now I own a projector and happier watching DVD and play games on 100" screen. Only problem is no more 3D gaming. I'll wait for a few more years for better HMD with higher FOV and much stable product. | ||
| John Winningham Rating: N/A |
miek: They (my understanding) worked on the original pair and then sent it back both times. The first time it went through and cleaned the lenses and checked focus/whatnot. I still had the exact same problems with blur. I RMAed them again, i-O paid shipping, they did more testing, had several people there test the glasses who had no troubles. It was then sent back to me. I still see the same blur so I can only assume that it is something with my eyes. Pierre: I am unsure what caused the color glitches for me, they originally didn't. Between RMAs I may have updated my display drivers or something. I did not do much troubleshooting on the color glitches to find out. -------- I really don't know what to say about the i-Glasses. They seem like a decent enough product but I had bad luck with them. I would recommend them to anyone else who is interested in VR but would caution them about possible vision issues. I can also recommend cwonline as a nice place for VR stuff, Stewart has been helpful throughout this ordeal and the store seems to have good prices. Also Ross Rainville, the contact at i-O I have been emailing back and forth, has been quite helpful as well and while I had problems using the product, there were no problems with customer service/support. ------------- The end of this story has finally come, I have had to return the glasses for my money back as I just cannot see clearly. While I am dissappointed I did not have luck with a 3D HMD, I do look forward to getting in to other areas of VR. Perhaps some day I will try again with an HMD but until then I will continue use of shutter glasses. - John |
