3D Vision

3D Vision
Information
Type	Stereoscopic 3D system (active-shutter glasses + GPU driver)
Industry	PC gaming, 3D display
Developer	Nvidia
Operating System	Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Supported Devices	GeForce 8 series and later; 120 Hz LCD monitors, compatible DLP projectors and 3D TVs
Release Date	January 8, 2009
Website	nvidia.com (discontinued)

3D Vision (also styled GeForce 3D Vision, and later Nvidia 3D Vision) was a discontinued stereoscopic 3D system developed by Nvidia that let compatible PC games, photos, and video be viewed in stereoscopic 3D using active-shutter glasses, a GeForce graphics card, and a high refresh rate display. It was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 8, 2009, and Nvidia ended driver support for it with its Release 418 graphics drivers in April 2019.

The system worked by having the graphics driver render each frame of a 3D scene twice, once from a slightly offset viewpoint for each eye, and present the two views in alternation on a display running at 120 Hz. Wireless active-shutter glasses with liquid-crystal lenses darkened each lens in turn, synchronized to the display by an infrared emitter, so that each eye saw only its intended 60 frames per second. The driver could convert many existing Direct3D games to stereoscopic 3D automatically, without changes to the game itself.

3D Vision was one of the most widely used consumer products for stereoscopic PC gaming in the years before consumer virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift reached the market. When Nvidia retired it, the company said it was redirecting its driver effort toward virtual reality and other newer immersive technologies.

How it works

3D Vision relies on the same per-eye stereo principle later used by VR headsets: a separate image is generated for the left and right eye so that the viewer perceives depth from binocular disparity. According to Nvidia's developer documentation, "each 3D scene gets rendered twice, once for the left eye, and once for the right eye," with the driver modifying a game's shaders at runtime to produce the two offset views.

The two views are shown one after another on the display. To avoid visible flicker, the display must refresh fast enough that each eye still receives a smooth image while the other eye's frames are interleaved, which is why 3D Vision required a 120 Hz display: 60 Hz per eye. The shutter glasses contain liquid-crystal lenses that switch between transparent and opaque many times per second, kept in step with the display by an infrared emitter so that the correct lens is open for the correct frame. The glasses recharged over USB and provided roughly 60 hours of use per charge.

Developers could rely on the driver's automatic conversion or take explicit control of stereo parameters such as convergence and out-of-screen effects, and were advised to render heads-up-display elements at screen depth so interface elements appeared correctly in stereo.

Hardware requirements

The consumer 3D Vision kit (Nvidia SKU 942-10701-0003) bundled the wireless active-shutter glasses, an infrared emitter, and the stereo driver software. It required a compatible Nvidia GPU, a supported high refresh rate display, and Windows Vista or later.

Component	Requirement at launch
Graphics card	GeForce 8, 9, or GTX 200 series and later
Operating system	Windows Vista (later Windows 7, 8, and 10)
Display	120 Hz LCD monitors such as the Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ and ViewSonic FuHzion VX2265wm; also some 100 Hz-plus CRTs, DLP projectors, and DLP 3D TVs
Glasses	Wireless liquid-crystal active-shutter glasses, USB-rechargeable
Emitter	USB infrared emitter to synchronize the glasses to the display

At launch the kit was offered for pre-order at 199 US dollars, and a bundle that added the Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ monitor was priced at 598 US dollars.

History

Nvidia announced 3D Vision at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, 2009, presenting it as a stereoscopic 3D solution for home PCs built around its GeForce graphics cards. Contemporary reviews in early 2009 covered the kit, its 120 Hz display requirement, and its automatic conversion of Direct3D games.

In July 2010 Nvidia introduced 3D Vision Pro, a version aimed at professional users such as engineers, designers, and scientists. Announced on July 27, 2010, it replaced the infrared link with a 2.4 GHz radio-frequency (RF) hub that did not need line of sight, supported ranges up to about 150 feet, allowed many users in the same room without crosstalk, and reported glasses status and battery level back to the host. It targeted Quadro professional graphics cards, with the glasses listed at 349 US dollars and the RF hub at 399 US dollars.

In 2011 Nvidia released 3D Vision 2, a second generation of the consumer glasses. Announced on October 14, 2011, the new glasses had lenses about 20 percent larger than the originals, a redesigned frame meant to fit better with gaming headphones, and remained backward compatible with existing 3D Vision content. They worked with displays carrying Nvidia's LightBoost feature, and the first certified LightBoost display was the 27-inch Asus VG278H. The 3D Vision 2 kit with emitter was priced at 149 US dollars and an extra pair of glasses at 99 US dollars.

Related features

Nvidia shipped several features alongside 3D Vision:

• 3D Vision Surround combined up to three displays into a single large surface so games could be played in stereoscopic 3D across a panoramic, multi-monitor field of view.
• 3DTV Play was Nvidia software that let a GeForce GPU drive the 3D capabilities of a compatible 3D television, for use with a single TV rather than the multi-monitor setup used by 3D Vision Surround.
• The 3D Vision Video Player played stereoscopic 3D video files on the PC.

Nvidia maintained a 3D Vision game compatibility list that rated tested titles as Excellent, Good, Fair, or Not Recommended so users could gauge how well a given game ran in stereoscopic 3D.

VR and AR relevance

3D Vision belongs to the period of stereoscopic 3D PC gaming that preceded the modern consumer VR era. Its core technique, rendering a 3D scene twice from two slightly offset eye positions to create depth, is the same approach used to drive the two displays of a VR headset, although a VR headset replaces the shared 120 Hz monitor and shutter glasses with a dedicated per-eye display and adds head tracking and a wide field of view.

The link is also explicit in why Nvidia ended the product. In its statement on discontinuing 3D Vision, Nvidia said: "We have seen the industry and our user base move to newer forms of immersive experiences such as Virtual Reality, and are focusing our driver support on these newer technologies." The retirement of 3D Vision in 2019 coincided with Nvidia's growing involvement in VR, where it shifted its stereoscopic rendering effort.

Discontinuation

On March 11, 2019, Nvidia announced that it would end support for 3D Vision. The company said that "following the posting of the final driver from Release 418 in April 2019, GeForce Game Ready Drivers will no longer support NVIDIA 3D Vision," and that the support team would "continue to address critical driver issues for 3D Vision in Release 418 through April, 2020." Game Ready Drivers released after the Release 418 branch dropped 3D Vision entirely.

Nvidia folded 3DTV Play into Release 418 free of charge and stopped offering it as a standalone download, while the 3D Vision Video Player remained a free standalone download until the end of 2019. Nvidia's developer SDK for 3D Vision and Surround is now described as a legacy SDK that developers may still download but that is no longer supported.