Polarized stereo 3D using 2 projectors + cheap foil filters

Yes I have not experienced 3-D before so I really want to see if it is all that and not hype. ... Can't wait.


23.7.10 Vistied Skaut's 69 (Peter) place. I’m stood at my car and see the door open side on. A hand sticks out with a three-finger gangster salute and then a head pops out. “Rock and roll” he says lol. He will set everything up and will leave you on your own to experiment and test everything. I spend 5 hours approx. Just wanted to see if I feel any after effect.

Spent all that time testing his DIY polarised 3D set-up (200 inch) apart from 20 minutes test of the Samsung 22 3D monitor with nvidea shutter glass.

The first thing you feel is a pair of glasses on you lol. You'll always feel a little weight on the nose bridge. You want to feel free so for racing game. It could be possible to do this, which might work.



Big filters joined together and used as a visor for the helmet. Maybe you'd have to add normal glass on the side because of the curve. Also you'll need some sort of divider in the middle.

When you wear glasses you can see the black frame from the corner of the eye. You need to do away with that.

I don't know. Maybe we can get a doctor to implant 3-d contact eye lenses. So before a game which just put them in the eye.
And take out afterwards.

Is 3-d really that good?

Yes it is. BUT you need a screen that is going to reflect the most light. This is a MUST. The Samsung NVDIA way is so DULL it is not worth it Not because of their screen, but the shutter glasses. What is the point of having all the colours in the world and then having a poor dull view of it? Imagine sitting in the car with heavy tints on the window. The polarized way was better. It was brighter but the screen Skaut69 used was some aluminium material, which I think, can be improved. So the lighting was better than the shutter glass way but there was still a slight tint. I think he is trying to get another material. Awater 3D is a German company and they can provide you with a A-Spec screen. Can anyone do a review on this if they ever get one?



Explain 3-d. We played some first person shoot em ups. When you see a room it feels like you can put the hand in the TV screen. In fact your mind forgets there is a tv so what you do is you put your hand out into the screen thinking it is a “depth” your hand ends up hitting the screen and then you smile.

3-d works best with first person shoot em ups. You can’t go back to playing it another way once you’ve experienced 3-d because once your on that peace of land and your seeing scenery far out into the distance where your mind measures the distance, it will have you gob smacked.

Now I don’t know why and I have to be honest but when you have the glasses on, (skaut (peter) never felt it, probably because he is used to it) I felt like my mind was focusing (like a little pressure). Maybe this was to do with it being a 200inch screen like 1.5 metres away from me.

Because watching on the 3-d Samsung TV, it was fine. I did not feel my mind was trying to focus. That is maybe the picture was small: 22inch

I never played long enough in the shutter glass way to feel any after effects. I played for 4 hours on the polarised way NON-stop. 3-d shoot ems and race games and then drive 60 miles back home. No after effects, no nothing. No tiredness. In fact had 6 hour sleep and woke up early next morning feeling energetic.


Now for racing games. Cockpit view:

You feel “true distance” from eye point to dashboard.
You feel “true distance” from dashboard to ROAD.

Now if you concentrate on that Dashboard/Road point. IT’S BLUMMING REAL.



When you see the spot of the road moving and distance from your and the road. It is just real. You feel the same thing when you’re driving your car and if you were to look at the road head down closest to the bumper.

Now far away: you see the same picture you would in 2-d. It is like a picture so in the racing games I think they need to be developed better for 3-d. I’m talking about the environments.

When objects like trees get closer then they appear more 3-d. Hard to explain this. But 3-d shoot em ups have much better environments.

When you drive your car next to a (barrier), you again feel the depth of the barrier. The ridges stick out and same with the “red/white” corner road strips. So you need to kind of get close to these items to feel the 3-d.

The best aspect of 3-d in racing games is:

1: EYE – TO- Dash board to Road scenario which we talked about

2: The CARS: Right This is where it gets fun. You’re on the back of the grid. (This works best on a 200inch screen I bet)

Right, you’re on back of the grid. Now look down through the grid, all of the cars, and concentrate on car one and two:

You will feel the blummin (tunnel effect) distance from you and the furthest car. It is like your T’V turns into a long tunnel. It is out of this world.




When your behind the car you do not need to concentrate on the brake lights of a car because you get a feel of the depth in between you and the car in front.

3. CORNERRING:

When you flying down the straight approaching the corner you still have to concentrate on the braking zone, don’t expect 3-d to help you.

It is when you start to turn through the bend the 3-d environment hits you. You feel the world around you. The best example of this is on Laguna Seca. THE CORK SCREW corner. Now this is epic.




Right when ever there is hills : background scenery. This is when 3-d is at its best.

Soon as you approach the left turn. You’ve reached the blind spot because the track DIPS. So all you can see if the scenery like 200 miles away into the distance and you FEEL this. You can’t see the dip of the road until you actually have turned left.

And then as you turn left you FEEL THE DIP. And you feel the depth /distance from that point all the way down to the bottom of the road where is eventually flattens out.

Belgium Spa would be great.

Back to the cars. When you take over a car, you get the exact same feeling when your taking a car over on a real road. So you feel a 3-d object along side you and not a picture image. This is important.

Now the drawbacks. You can’t go the shutter way because it is too dull.
And also, I can’t vouch for this cuz I only played 20 minutes. They say shutter glass way can cause headaches. Sickness etc because it is shutting your eyes like 120 times a second or something.

Well if they can sort the dullness, which is at least something. Price wise a 40inch Samsung and the dull pair of glasses is a good price option because I think for , 3-d i would only pay around £1500 max.

The projectors (skaut) Peter used were really top of the range 1080p High contract ones. You’re looking at about 4000 pounds for two of them unless you find someone selling them on Ebay for couple hundred less.

I want 3-d but it is too much. And I don’t want nvidea shutter glass way because they were so dull.

Must wait for future options because things rapid changing and we’ll get the perfect solution one day soon. I say within 2 years from now. That could be cheaper top spec projectors or even a polarised 3-d screen with cheap polarized glasses. Or even 480hz shutter glasses that are not dull. And won’t cause after effect.

Damn man, didnt expect to talk too much. anyway thanks goes to Peter. (skaut69)

Wow man this is great review, i couldn`t write this better. Big thanks for all yours explanations. Your point of view gives me different look at whole experience. Probably you have noticed this as well that you`ve kept an eye on some aspects of 3D which i didn`t see before - like mentioned distance from car hood to the ground. Also this idea of helmet with polarized filters on it is so great.
I am looking forward to your next visit. Now i have to focused on the screen quality. I have some options with this anodized one which i showed you. It will be without all small issues which we had.

Thanks for your opinions. You just verified what I had posted before about shutter vs. polarized 3D in Peter's other thread.

The dullness of the shutter glasses CANNOT be corrected. That is an inherent fault of the technology, the fundamental operating principle is that 50% of the time one of your eye is blinded. That is the basis of how 3D is created with it. They can increase the frame rate and shutter frequency, but that only makes it a smoother and not brighter.

I wish I could join you guys on all the fun!

Of course you can FRAKK. I`ve said that before - everybody is welcome to see it. Me and Fahim are going to repeat this test when i`ll change the screen to that anodized one. Then i`ll put it in right, permanent place and we can properly have fun! This time we had to many adjustments to picture quality because of shape of the screen and because screen is on the floor (moves and change shape).
Frakk - just let me know if you want to be on this test next time and i`ll let you know when time will come.

Many people think 3D is about objects popping out the screen. Though this is quite impressive, the real immersion comes from the depth. Really being able to see the distance to the car or the bend in front of you is what is amazing about stereo 3D.

But in real world it is that way as well. Objects really far away seem 2D as well, as both eyes catching almost the same picture.
However, you are right. If all objects would be in 3D, the experience would be better.
Game developers (unfortunatly) often use simply 2D pictures for objects far away from the track, as it is less performance demanding.

Fahim said about trees from Race On game which are kind of flat - compare to that he was impressed about those from L4D2. Everybody knows that simulator is more about driving experience and SimBin keep an eye on this aspect of the game. If visual side of a game will be same as this from GT5 then it will be 3D stunning.

Thanks for the invite! Unfortunately I'm on the other side of the world, but I will definitely let you know when I'm around you guys.

I don't think this verified at all, it's polarized projector vs. shutter 22 screen. This isn't a projector vs. projector comparison.

Using 3D Vision on a projector is a very different experience than using it on an LCD screen. I have tried both and found the LCD monitor quite a bit darker and somewhat more difficult to enjoy than a DLP projector/3D Vision combo, which is quite pleasant.

To assume the problem with the experience is the shutter glasses mechanic and not any of the other variables is probably premature, especially since nobody here has tried it.

Fahim - can you please write this site address which you have been telling me about. That was about IMAX - how they setting up theirs projectors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIKzPgo2 ... re=related

From 13 seconds, it shows your how to put projectors side by side.

Can someone explain what advantage this is.

On this video you can just see different type of projectors - you are not able to put them other way. IMAX recording camera is build this way - two lenses next to eachother simulating distance between human`s eyes.
In my case two projectors can be put this way - flat or vertically (with rotated desktop) but it will mess with clearness of 3D effect. I need to have them (lens) as close as i can. If i will take one picture with different angle than other one (way to far) - i will end up with crossed view which will be difficult to accepted through long play. Basically in this setup i must keep two pictures on the screen in the same place.

Actually i wrote about this trick with two pictures separated from eachother (with 3D drivers off). It works well but still to get noticeable 3D effect you need to have left and right picture projected with different perspective (seen from different angle) and only drivers can do it or stereo recording system.

Some extra informations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX

I`ve purchase anodized aluminum screen. I managed to find one with smooth surface without any straps, scratches - just clear with ideally smooth structure. Like this other anodized piece this one is completely non reflective which work the best with strong light from projector. Finally i can keep flat screen and get properly set 3D effect (now it is very easy to put each picture in the same place).
Effect is amazing. Everything what i had before can`t be compare to this one. Smooth without even small dots or straps (like usually metal have) and dull, non-reflective surface. Picture looks just perfect. Whole view is equally bright - without dark sides (like it use to be). Sharpness is even better than on white wall - now it feels like big LCD screen (because of kind of glassy effect).
Sheet is very tough. Surface is very hard to damaged and it is stain resist. Size which i bought gave me about 100 inch size of the screen. It is still great - now i just sit closer.

Sheet size 2500x1250 (1.5 mm thick) cost me: 88 £ / 105 Euro / 138 $. That is cheap compare to other polarized screens with this size (more than 300 £ saved).
Because they had this size in stock (already anodized) i paid theirs price. If i would like to go for bigger one i will have to pay for anodizing process which will cost about 100 £ extra (depends on size).

That looks really good! I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of your aluminum screen and a commercial 3D screen. I bet there is not a big difference in picture!

Fahim: in the video at 0:13 they show the cameras recording the image, not the projectors. Effectively you don't want the projectors to be far apart as Peter said, you want them to project onto the very same spot at the same angle to produce the same shape and quality picture.

It is hard to see any difference between picture projected on snow white, smooth wall and this anodized alu. I`ve been watching 3D movie recently and i have seen the same details as previously on the wall. Still Full HD picture is sharp with all details like arm hairs or wrinkles on face. Even better because of 3D effect.

BTW: TriDef (DDD) Drivers doesn`t work with Dual Projector system. It works with movies but didn`t kick with games.

Cleeve - i have question about yours screen which you purchased from Awater 3D. Are you still using it ? Since we need to compare quality of this anodized aluminum with pro silver screen - i thought that you can resell it.
You are only one who i know with such thing.


BTW: Awater 3D came up with new polarized screen for rear stereo projection:
http://www.awater3d.com/en/rear-projection/

The rear projection polarized screen looks very promising. It makes the most sense from the polarization point of view to let light through, instead of reflecting it.

Cleeve, we would be happy to see your review on this new screen if you get a chance.

That does look cool. I'm probably going to hold off on another polarized projection review until there's a 3D Blu-ray playback solution, but when it does I'll try it out.

If anyone's interested my polarized vs 3D Vision article has been published here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d- ... ,2687.html

I can't really resell it, but we can probably work something out as far as a lending agreement. Drop me a line at staryards@hotmail.com

Few things to update this topic.

IZ3D updated theirs drivers so now they can works with DX11 games. Other games fixed well - for example Dirt 2 works fine for me. Looks better in stereo than Grid.

I have noticed that iz3d drivers affects game with less frame drop compare to 3D Vision. On Nvidia it use to be 50% or even more since here it is about 30-40%. For example Dirt 2 on gtx480 is about 120fps and in Stereo mode it drops to 80fps. I had this with lots of games thats why i can say that frame drop isn`t that big when it comes to their drivers.

IZ3D still works to get theirs drivers works with Multi-GPU system (Lucid Hydra 200, SLI, Crosfire). They confirm that it is about to be very soon.

I`ve read some news about CRYSIS 2 and CryEngine 3 in case of 3D. With my satisfaction they admited that stero code will support Dual Head Output. The same situation is with Avatar The Game. This mean no extra drivers will be needed to run stero mode. I have to remind you that they have some trick with it to get frame drop about 1-2% in stero compare to normal mode.
You can read this right here:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=75

I remember when Fahim said about glasses - that he can see frames and that disturbe him a bit. I have changed that and i have to say that it makes me feel a little bit more comfortable.
I have just cut out whole frame arround filters and left middle part which holds them together and on my nose.