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>> Hi everyone, this is Eric Franklin from CNET, and today we're looking at the nVidia 3D vision kit, which is basically these 3D glasses here, and this infrared emitter here. Basically this gives your games, which are viewed on a 2D plane like a monitor, actual 3D depth. The glasses are designed pretty well. They fit pretty comfortably on an average size head like my own. There's also an LED light that tells you how much battery power you have left in the glasses. And it's kind of disappointing that we actually can't show you what it looks like when you're viewing these games in 3D, because you can't look through these 3D glasses. Or can we show you?
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>> You mindless wretches!
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>> Okay, okay, okay, that was just a joke. That wasn't an actual 3D game, that was just some toys I had laying around the office. But we did test it with actual 3D games. The first game we tested it with was Unreal [inaudible] Three. In UT3 when we turned the depth slider up to its highest point, we found that it was hard to see distant detail. For example, if we put our crosshairs over an enemy that was far away from us, the nameplate would appear over the character's head. Once that happened, our eyes would have to refocus on the nameplate, and made our eyes strained even more than before from already focusing on the 3D effect. In World of Warcraft, we found that if we'd slip the slider up to its highest point, all we saw was double vision. And even when our eyes adjusted to this, as soon as we moved the character, or even moved our heads, all we saw was the double vision again. Also when we had the 3D effect on, we found that we couldn't see our cool down timers, which as any WoW player knows, is a necessary component of the game. Bio Shock's probably the best of the bunch. It had noticeable ghosting, but it also had the least amount of pull on our eyes. However, we noticed that when there was fast movement, our eyes had trouble keeping up with the action. In order to use the glasses, you'll need either an nVidia G-Force 8800, 9600 or later card, or an nVidia G-Force GTX 200 series card. You're also gonna need one of two 120 hertz capable LCD computer monitors. The first one is a Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ, and the other is a Viewsonic Fusion 2265WM. Because of its performance, I felt the Samsung was the monitor of choice for the 3D glasses. Overall our experience depended heavily on the amount of depth we chose with the IR emitter slider. Whenever we changed the depth on the emitter, it took our eyes a few seconds to adjust to the new setting. With the depth turned high, our eyes needed to adjust constantly. It helped if we focused our eyes on one object, but with a fast moving action game, this is rarely possible. Through all the games over three days of play, we could not get over the pull our eyes felt from playing with the glasses on. While the 3D effect is well done, and in certain cases enhanced our emersion into a scene, the constant focusing and refocusing required, that was just too much strain to be worth playing this way all the time. And in some cases, it compromised the playability of the game. Though casual gamers will be satisfied by the kit's gimmick, which costs about two hundred dollars, the unacceptable compromise of playability of some titles means hardcore gamers should probably steer clear.
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Once again, this is Eric Franklin, this has been the first look at the nVidia 3D vision kit.
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