Talk to me about 3d gaming: resolution reduction

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jbrukardt

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 28, 2005
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So i've been wanting to jump on the 3d kick for a while just out of curiosity. I have GTX460s in SLI that will support it just fine, but in recently looking at displays (televisions) I have found a concern.

It seems every modern 3d technology, either passive or active cuts your resolution in half. My question to you all is if any display exists, that wont make my gaming resolution drop 50%.

I really am very used to 1920x1080 gaming, and I think it would really bug me to be dropped down to half of that with blurrier textures, more anti-aliasing required, etc
 
Afaik resolution is not cut in half with 3d vision. Refresh rate is what is halved so gaming in 3d on a 120hz screen results in a perceivable maximum 60fps in each eye.
 
I think you mean cut in frame rate since stereoscopic 3D renders two frames per scene though of course resolution is capped at 1080P per screen because of this but this is the resolution that you are currently using, you would have to drop down that from that for other than performance reasons, and if you're using SLI you will have plenty of performance for a single 1080P display in most cases even with 3D.
 
Active shutter technique does not cut your resolution in half, unless you are using checkerboard 3d with DLPs. Same thing with 3d-vision, it's full resolution.
 
A panasonic 3d plasma (active) should result in a full resolution 3d experience then when hooked up to my cards?
 
Again, you can get up to 1080P resolution, assuming that display is supported. nVidia has a list of of officially supported displays in 3D though more than what's on the list will work.
 
heatlesssun said:
Again, you can get up to 1080P resolution, assuming that display is supported. nVidia has a list of of officially supported displays in 3D though more than what's on the list will work.
Click to expand...
interesting read on the passive tv's and how the halving of resolutions may not be quite as bad as many think
http://www.displaymate.com/3D_TV_ShootOut_1.htm

but yeah, resolution halving per eye is only on the passive tv's, the active one's use shutter glasses, they half the refresh rate per eye.
 
their list of officially supported tvs is pathetic. Its all laservue or rear projection DLP.
 
Passive displays which are based on FPR (film-type pattern retarder) will cut the resolution in half, yes. For displays that a 1080P (1920 x 1080) in 2D will become 1920 x 540 in 3D (per eye). Now, in practice, this does not look nearly as bad as you would imagine. I have a Zalman Trimon monitor which uses this technique, and it can still look alright. Obviously not full resolution, but not as bad as you think "half-resolution" would look. But passive also has other downsides, like limited viewing angles (which can be really annoying).

For active displays (ie 120Hz displays) they offer the full 1080P resolution in 3D. However the refresh rate is divided up between the eyes in 3D, so you get 60Hz per eye (out of a total 120Hz in 2D). This still looks nice and smooth, and can look even smoother than playing 2D games on a 60Hz monitor. The downside is that the image is rather dark, and there can be some crosstalk, as with most 3D displays.

If you are using an Nvidia card, then it is best to go with an Nvidia certified 120Hz monitor. You can see a list of them here (under desktop LCD monitor): http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-system-requirements.html

Unfortunately, you cannot game in full HD (1080P@60Hz) with 3D HDTVs (including the Pansonic plasma and everything else). This is because they are limited by the HDMI chipsets. With an HDTV you can watch movies at 1080P, since this is at 24Hz, but only game in 720P at 60Hz. There are newer HDMI chipsets with enough bandwidth for the full 1080P gaming, but they won't make it into HDTVs until 2012/2013.

So if you want the full resolution 1080P in 3D, then you need to go with an Nvidia certified 120Hz monitor.

If what you really want is a big-screen HDTV, then you can still game in 3D if you can live with 720P. For this you would use the Nvidia 3D TV Play software, which supports a wide variety of HDTVs:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dtv-play-system-requirements.html
 
serpretetsky said:
interesting read on the passive tv's and how the halving of resolutions may not be quite as bad as many think
http://www.displaymate.com/3D_TV_ShootOut_1.htm

but yeah, resolution halving per eye is only on the passive tv's, the active one's use shutter glasses, they half the refresh rate per eye.
Click to expand...
That article was very interesting. Turns out the resolution reduction isnt nearly as bad as expected with passives, and that theyre better in a lot of ways.

It did bring up a deal-killer for me though, you have to be 6-8 feet away with the passives, thats just a bit too far. I could deal with 4ish, but being that far away from a monitor, even a large one, is a pain.
 
cybereality said:
Passive displays which are based on FPR (film-type pattern retarder) will cut the resolution in half, yes. For displays that a 1080P (1920 x 1080) in 2D will become 1920 x 540 in 3D (per eye). Now, in practice, this does not look nearly as bad as you would imagine. I have a Zalman Trimon monitor which uses this technique, and it can still look alright. Obviously not full resolution, but not as bad as you think "half-resolution" would look. But passive also has other downsides, like limited viewing angles (which can be really annoying).

For active displays (ie 120Hz displays) they offer the full 1080P resolution in 3D. However the refresh rate is divided up between the eyes in 3D, so you get 60Hz per eye (out of a total 120Hz in 2D). This still looks nice and smooth, and can look even smoother than playing 2D games on a 60Hz monitor. The downside is that the image is rather dark, and there can be some crosstalk, as with most 3D displays.

If you are using an Nvidia card, then it is best to go with an Nvidia certified 120Hz monitor. You can see a list of them here (under desktop LCD monitor): http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-system-requirements.html

Unfortunately, you cannot game in full HD (1080P@60Hz) with 3D HDTVs (including the Pansonic plasma and everything else). This is because they are limited by the HDMI chipsets. With an HDTV you can watch movies at 1080P, since this is at 24Hz, but only game in 720P at 60Hz. There are newer HDMI chipsets with enough bandwidth for the full 1080P gaming, but they won't make it into HDTVs until 2012/2013.

So if you want the full resolution 1080P in 3D, then you need to go with an Nvidia certified 120Hz monitor.

If what you really want is a big-screen HDTV, then you can still game in 3D if you can live with 720P. For this you would use the Nvidia 3D TV Play software, which supports a wide variety of HDTVs:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dtv-play-system-requirements.html
Click to expand...
wish the tech was a bit more advanced. Ive been on my westinghouse LVM37W3 for about 6 years now, and itd be really hard for me to go back to a smaller display again I think.

Im sure technology will advance with time, but for now its not quite there yet to get a full HD experience it would appear at anything larger than 24 inches or so.
 
jbrukardt said:
wish the tech was a bit more advanced. Ive been on my westinghouse LVM37W3 for about 6 years now, and itd be really hard for me to go back to a smaller display again I think.

Im sure technology will advance with time, but for now its not quite there yet to get a full HD experience it would appear at anything larger than 24 inches or so.
Click to expand...

There are a few 27" 3D monitor available. That is the biggest size so far for monitors.

But there are a huge number of HDTVs that support 3D, however at 720P60 or 1080P24. So you can still watch movies at Full HD. Its just games that suffer. I mean, it still looks decent. 720P is not horrible, but obviously not as crisp as 1080P.
 
If i recall, its also something to do with the HDMI bandwidth availability, even 1.4 cant carry the dual streams at a full 60fps in the tvs (hence why it works at 24).
 
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