Inofficial nVIDIA stereoscopic3D driver page

This page was first released on June 13, 2001
Last update: March 29, 2005
Current driver version: 71.84

Introduction
Download
Pro & Con
How to configure the nVidia stereo driver for your 3D-glasses, HMD,  3D-monitor or 3D-projector:
How to activate and use the OSD
How to configure games which are not pre-defined by nVIDIA
How to use ASUS glasses with the nVidia stereo driver
VGA-board compatibility
Glasses-compatibility
nvidia stereo profile editor
Forums

HOME
 



Introduction

nVidia decided to put stereo-capabilities to their reference drivers. NVidia based boards were already the best choice for gaming and amateur level stereo applications. With the reference stereo driver the gap between NVidia and it's competitors gets even wider. If you're interested in 3d-glasses and stereo-gaming a NVidia-based VGA-board is the logical choice.

The driver supports D3D and OpenGL games and full screen applications under Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP and a variety of 3D-glasses (including red/blue cardboard glasses), projectors, HMD's and autostereo-monitors. The stereo driver comes with a stereo image viewer.



Download

At the nVIDIA site you'll find 3 files, which are required:

- the latest NVidia reference stereoscopic driver
- the fitting NVidia reference graphics driver (choose between 9x/Me or 2000/XP version)
- a huge manual for the driver

The version numbers of the graphics driver and the stereo driver must match!



nVidia stereo reference driver Pro & Con

Pro

- Very good stereo quality
- Good game compatibility and stability
- Unusually good documentation
- Gigantic game settings library for virtually all demos and full versions ever released (minus the latest ones)
- Medical and graphics mode tests
- Laser Sight stereoscopic aiming
- JPS full res stereo image viewer with slide-show function
- Configurable hotkeys
- Supports wide range of stereo-hardware

Con

- Uses the same glasses-control-technology as the ELSA Revelator driver at it's core - the DDC-trigger. This can cause problems with certain monitors, 3D-sound drivers and digital input devices on the game-port. This may very well be the fault of the likes of Microsoft and Creative Labs, not necessarily the stereo-driver developers. Someone doesn't play the rules of fair IRQ-usage.
- Hotkey and OSD problems



How to configure the nVidia stereo driver for your 3D-glasses, HMD, 3D-monitor or 3D-projector:

Activate selection for all stereo viewer types:

- Start the Windows Registry editor at c:\windows\regedit.exe
- Choose: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> Software --> NVidia Corp --> Global --> Stereo3D
- Select in the menu:  edit -> new -> DWORD
- Create new entry:    ShowAllViewerTypes
- Set dword to  1



How to activate and use preliminary stereo OSD (on screen display):

- Start the Windows Registry editor at c:\windows\regedit.exe
- Choose: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> Software --> NVidia Corp --> Global --> Stereo3D
- Select edit -> new -> DWORD
- Create new entry:    StereoOSDEnable
- Set DWORD to  1

The OSD will come up automatically when using any hotkey.

By disabling HW-T&L and HW-Vertex (in the nvidia stereo compatibility
settings) the chance of making the OSD work seem to increase. After
configuration you can return to normal compatibility settings.

nVIDIA uses many synonyms for the same thing in the display properties, the OSD
and the manual:

F = Frontplane = RHWgreater@screen = screen depth = forward plane = Bildschirmtiefe
S = Screenplane = Convergence = zero parallax =  screen depth = Konvergenz
B = Backplane = RHWLesser@screen = Hintergrund

Note that the term 'screen-depth' is used inconsistently.

If you are lucky you will see the following in the OSD:

A graph with y- and z-axis. The z-axis is the depth. The left
side of the z-axis shows objects which are closer to you - the viewer.
The right side shows objects farther from you. Objects are depicted as
light-blue or yellow lines or dots. Often there is a light-blue-line
on the left side which may represent the 'Minimum RHW
(depth information provided by the game)' !? Often the game's HUD is located there.

There should also be green lines marked as F and B for the frontplane
and backplane settings. The magenta line marked S is for the
screenplane. All objects left of F will have no parallax, they won't
be in stereo. The same applies for all objects right of B. S - the
screenplane should be somewhere between F and B. Objects between F and
S will come out of the screen, objects between S and B will be inside
the screen.   (Please also see the diagram in the nVidia stereo manual -
71.84_ForceWare_3D_Stereo_Users_Guide.pdf.pdf,  figure 3.3, page 25 -
which explains the same facts.)

If the OSD won't work in a certain game or if it  doesn't give valid information,
you have to use the hot-keys blind. However the logic remains the same.
So if you don't see the OSD, the OSD or the diagram must be in your head.
Without this logic you won't know what you're doing when using the hotkeys for F, S, B.

Often the value for F, S or B are far off
and you would have to hold the hotkey forever to get decent values or
to get a depiction in the OSD (you may see a F, S or B with an arrow
to left or right). In this case go to the windows-registry and
manually define a decent value first. You can use values from other
games or if one of the values (F, S or B) is O.K. and/or visible in
the OSD use this value as a starting point for the others.



How to configure games which are not pre-defined by nVIDIA

Don't get disheartened, configuration can be very tricky at first.

Read the nVIDIA stereo manual 71.84_ForceWare_3D_Stereo_Users_Guide.pdf.pdf
This page is just meant as an add-on to the official manual.

Check the forums and profile-editor-page for hints and pre-configuration-files.

You should reconfigure the hotkeys. The default values fail in many
games. CTRL-X and ALT-X hotkey combinations often collide with game-functions or
are disabled. I had some good experiences with CTRL-ALT-X hotkey combinations.

Activate the OSD via registry (see above). It will make using the
hotkeys much easier.

By saving your settings via hotkey the original settings are overwritten,
even the values given by nVidia for pre-configured games.
Make a backup of the original nVidia settings with the
'nvidia stereo profile editor' before you proceed.

By saving the values of a game which isn't pre-defined by nVidia an
entry is made in the windows-registry under the name of the game's exe-file.
However the game will not show up under
'game-configuration' in the nVidia display stereo properties, like the
pre-defined games.

One goal of configuring a game is to bring the HUD (head up
display/on screen info), like dashboard, scores, etc to the plane of the
screen (zero-parallax). The HUD usually looks the best this way.
There are basically two ways to achieve this: by F-hotkeys (frontplane setting) -
and/or S-hotkeys (screenplane setting). I'd prefer to do it by frontplane setting,
because this way you keep the freedom of configuring the screenplane
setting freely to achieve the best stereo effect and the best balance
between inside- and out-of-screen-effects. This technique is
suitable if no objects are closer to the viewer than the HUD. If, for
example, in a racing game your car is closer or at the same level as
the HUD and you use the frontplane-setting to kill stereo for these
front objects your car will also become flat. If that's the case use
the S-screenplane-setting to achieve flatness (zero-parallax) for the
HUD. Unfortunately the F-frontplane and B-backplane hotkeys don't seem to work.

Anyway the main goal is to get good, meaningful stereo, which means a true distinction
between close and far objects. Sometimes the HUD has to be sacrificed completely
in order to get good stereo.

Another goal is to prevent the backdrop/sky/horizon from sticking out. Usually this can't
be fixed. You should check however if the backplane is set correctly. In some
games the problem can be fixed by bringing the 'B-backplane-setting' behind the horizon.
 



How to use ASUS glasses with the nVidia stereo driver

In order to use ASUS-glasses (onboard or VR100-upgrade kit) with the latest nVIDIA stereo driver (71.84) follow the instructions above to make all stereo viewer types visible in the setup. Then choose 'Direct 3-Pin VESA connector'. There seems to be no more ASUS mode. There is no control to achieve correct stereo-left-right-orientation by default with ASUS glasses. You may experience inversed stereo (right eye sees left image and vice versa), which must be avoided! Use the stereo on-off-hotkey until the orientation is correct (left eye sees image dedicated for left and vice versa).

ASUS Deluxe VGA boards - modified onboard glasses-controller design

Certain models of the ASUS Deluxe-line of nVidia based VGA-boards featured an on-board shutterglasses-controller. In the past (at least up to model V6600) the controller was always active, making it possible to use 3rd party drivers. In the newer design (at least since model V84x0) the controller is usually inactive. Use the 'Direct-3-Pin VESA connector'-mode as described above to activate the glasses. Take care not to use inversed stereo. The latest ASUS deluxe models doesn't seem to have the stereo-connector anymore.

Hint: If you use VGA-port 2 on V8xxx deluxe dual VGA ASUS boards the glasses will be always on, just like on older models.

If you have some spare ASUS-glasses with no controller and no ASUS-deluxe VGA-board to plug them into you can't use them. Apart from buying a controller, which may be difficult, you can build one.



VGA-board compatibility:

all nVIDIA based boards with chipsets from the TNT-, GeForce- or Quadro-familiy



3D-glasses compatibility:

Glasses which are fully supported with automatic stereo-orientation and automatic on/off:
 


Glasses which are fully supported with automatic stereo-orientation:
 


Glasses supported with manual stereo-orientation (make shure you choose the right stereo-orientation to avoid inverted stereo):
 


Glasses which are not (fully) supported:
 


Editor

Check out the 'nvidia stereo profile editor' by Mikael Gustafsson. It allows you to edit and save nvidia stereo driver registry settings. On the site you can share (upload, download) and rate stereo settings for every game.



Forums

For discussing the driver please join the following webboards:

stereo3d.com Discussion Board
Stereovision.net Forum
nVIDIA ForceWare Forum
 
 

              Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
              The author doesn't guarantee the accuracy of the information given on this page.
The text and images on this page are the intellectual property of the author.
Don't copy any part of it without credit and link to this site!