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     SamualT Rating: N/A |
Review of EDimensional E-D Glasses Company: EDimensional Web Page: http://www.edimensional.com/ Product: E-D Glasses (3d shutter glasses) Wired: $69.95 US Wireless: $99.95 US What are they -------------- 3D shutter glasses let you see stereo-3d images and games on your computer. It adds depth to your screen by providing two different views, one for each eye. They make a good cheap alternative to HMD's (Head mounted displays). If you want to be "In the action" you need stereo-3d! How they work --------------- Simply put: One image is shown on the screen for your right eye while the left is blocked. Then the left eye is shown an image while the right eye is blocked. This happens so fast that you can't tell how it's done. If you have a monitor that can handle at least 100hz refresh you won't see any flicker either! Viola, you are now seeing in true stereo-3d. Out of the box --------------- I received the wireless model. It consisted of: 1. A VGA dongle. Thing you put between video card and monitor. 2. An infrared emitter. You put this on top of your monitor. 3. One pair of wireless shutter glasses. 4. CD, booklet, and a power adapter. I did think the little manual was slightly confusing. The EDimensional website had better instructions. Here is a tip: You do not need the power adapter for the VGA dongle unless your monitor is very old and just gets a black picture when you boot. Otherwise, just store that away. Also, the narrow side of the dongle goes to your video card. The broad side of the dongle goes to your monitor. Installation takes less than 2 minutes and you don't have to open the computer or anything like that. Very easy. When I first got my glasses they needed batteries. The voltage tested good but the glasses didn't work till I replaced the batteries the next day. I was scared that I had got some bad glasses, but I kept the faith. The folks at EDimensional tech support responded very quickly, and with the correct advice, and even offered some free batteries. They were very nice. Kudo's to their tech support people! I think good tech support is imortant for such products. First Impressions ------------------ The glasses have big honking shutters that give a very wide view. More than enough for my 19" Daewoo monitor. This is important because if the shutters are too narrow then your view will be clipped and you can't see the whole monitor. I was used to the old 3DTV shutter glasses which were very narrow. The E-D Glasses came as a relief. And they're so light they feel just like regular glasses. They also have adjustable length earpieces, the part that goes behind you ears. Too cool! I might add that I bought some wired E-D glasses also and they are exactly the same, with a wire that plugs into the dongle. I do use the wireless more because I like to feel unencumbered. Both are excellent though. Soon I was veiwing stuff in stereo-3d! I couldn't have been happier. I had lots of programs that I donloaded free from the web. Picture viewers, movie viewers, all kinds of stuff. But soon I wanted to try some stereo-3d gaming. Unfortunately, I had an ATI Radeon 9700 graphics card. ATI offers no stereo-3d support at all, unlike Nvidia which has world class stereo drivers for all of their graphics cards. Stereo-3D Drivers ------------------- No matter what brand of shutter glasses you have you will need some stereo-3d drivers. This is software that lets you view DirectX or OpenGL in stereo-3d. This is where you might hit a "bit of a sticky wicked" as the Brits say. I have written a whole other review just on this subject. The gist of the other review was that I like the Nvidia stereo-3d drivers better than anything else I have seen. They are free for all Nvidia graphics card owners and really do work in a most excellent fashion! Up till now, if you owned anything other than a Nvidia card you didn't have many choices. 1. Wicked3D is defunct. Their drivers are old and only for old video cards. 2. Now that Winx3D is defunct, VRCaddy will have to add some code to do page-flipping. Funny they don't mention this on their web page. I mean, you can no longer download Winx3D which VRCaddy relies on for certain functions. 3. Which leaves us with....nothing! Non-Nvidia users have nothing! EDimensional to the rescue! EDimensional is writing some code that can be used with all video cards. Mind you, it is in the beta stage right now. If you go to their web sight you can request the latest version and they will email it to you. I have tried these drivers and they are most encouraging. I hope and pray they keep writting code and polishing what could turn out to be something great. Their new beta drivers work with DirectX as well as OpenGL. We should build temples in their honor for taking on such a task. And so far the results are very positive. What's the downside? Right now they only support over/under mode. Things looked a little scrunchy to me. And they didn't work with all the things I wanted to try. Also, at the moment you have to copy a file to each game directory to get them to work. I am not slamming them at all. They are beta drivers and may take a little while to get everything ironed out. You should acknowledge they are beta drivers before you do anything with them. In that light, they are most excellent. EDimensional will find no bigger booster than me for this software, even if I do think it has a way to go yet before they are finished. BTW, what a boon to EDimensional if they do turn out some really good drivers. No other 3D glasses maker has such software! Right now, I think the Nvidia drivers are much better and that is what I'm using on my new Nvidia graphics card. I bought this card just to try the Nvidia stereo-3d drivers. I am now a huge Nvidia fan. So much so that I'm dumping my ATI Radeon 9700. With the Nvidia stereo-3d drivers I have full screen, non-flickering, perfect stereo-3d. The first thing you should do is get a print-out of all the hot-keys. These are keys that help you adjust things during the game. You won't need them much. It looked so good I spent 2 hours last night playing Descent-3 and didn't even care how badly I played. It's much different in true stereo-3d and you'll have to learn to play most of those games all over, more the fun! The Nvidia drivers only support page-flipping mode for shutter glasses but if you set your monitor to 100hz refresh you won't see any flickering at all. It's very smooth. Also, more things work with these drivers and they are very stable. It can't get much better than this. Conclusion for E-D Glasses -------------------------- 1. + Very light weight and adjustable. 2. + Big honking shutters to see big monitors. 3. + Excellent tech support. 4. + Decent price and good value compared to others. 5. + Easy to install and use. 6. + They are actively writing drivers that can be used by all graphics cards! No one else is doing that. 7. + EDimensional drivers should also work for Nvidia cards also. I am very impressed with the E-D Glasses. I did buy a Nvidia graphics card to get the most out them though. I think that is a good strategy no matter what brand of 3D Glasses/HMD you get. I do hold hope for the EDimensional beta drivers though. I think with a little work that EDimensional could be much more than just a company that sells shutter glasses. They might even end up licensing that software to others. In any case, wheather their beta drivers come through or not, I highly recommend the E-D Glasses by EDimensional. P.S. I have no ties to this company at all, besides owning a pair of their glasses. I have only owned 3 different types of shutter glasses so take my review for what it's worth. Also, I don't claim to be any kind of guru on drivers or software of any type. And last, I believe everything I have said to be true...but I could be wrong ;-) | ||
| David Sykes Rating: N/A |
They also work with the Revelator IR transmitter. I bought a spare pair of glasses as a replacement for the Elsa Revelator ones. They work well. |
