The LCD shutter glasses
After opening the box with the eyewear I immediately noticed how
light the were. Weighing in at about 2 ounces these are the lightest LCD shutter glasses
I've ever put on. Inside the glasses are two long-lasting Sony batteries. The only
problems I've have with the glasses are:
1.The battery cover doesn't fix correctly when the batteries are in.
2.The lenses are tinted a slight green which makes colors look off.
3.The LCD shutters are rather small, So you have to adjust them from user to user.
The Transmitter
While opening the transmitter box something fell out...The
adapter (which connects in-line with your monitor) isn't attached to the packaging in
anyway. I recommend, If your going to open the transmitter box, don't do it on a ladder or
the roof of your house unless you want a 10 piece H3D system compared to the average 3
piece system.Also you might hope to find lots of little buttons on the transmitter to play
with...SORRY TO BURST YOUR BUBBLE...you won't. The only thing you will find on the
transmitter is a little switch that changes the range of the transmitter from near to far
and vise versa.
The Adapter
OH MY GOSH!...This thing is HUGE!! If your going to use this
thing I would suggest you prop the adapter on a stick or something unless you want
unnecessary strain on your video card or 3Dfx card. (Who's wants to lose a $300 Voodoo2 over a stupid little adapter? Not Me) This is
the second most important part of the system. This is the device which makes your monitor
think your video card is producing 2 separate images. Thus, producing higher refresh
rates.
The Games
The one thing that really bugs me about this system is the game
support. Currently, as of 5-20-98, the game support is very limited. Currently supported
games are Quake I + II , and Andretti Racing with more games promised in the future.
Performance
If your looking for glasses with virtually no flicker these are
the ones for you. Even running at 60Hz refresh rate there won't be a noticeable flicker,
which is why you will be able to use this set on standard 60Hz televisions in the future.
Because your video card doesn't have to render 2 separate images the performance hit will
be very low. In the 10%-15% range. The reason for this is normally your video card would
have to render 2 separate images.One for each eye, which halves the framerates. In the
case of the H3d Glasses your video card does render 2 images but,each image is only
640x240. This is where the adapter comes into play. The adapter then intercepts the image
and inserts a black line in-between each scanline giving the effect of interlaced 640x480
which gets you the 2 images you need for each eye.
Conclusion
If your in the market for a very good, well priced 3D shutter
glass system this is the one for you. If your looking for game support you might want to
wait a bit longer before purchasing a pair of these glasses or consider buying a pair of
Simuleyes or 3D Spex.
