--Planet AvP | Articles | E-D 3D Glasses Review

ED 3D Glasses Review The world of 3D 'realism.' Is it worth it? That was a question I asked myself, once, while watching movies through so-called "3D glasses." I was just a boy, back then, but that made my experience of using these glasses only more real. (I had to learn not to wear them backwards first, though.) Now, almost more than a decade later, I get the chance to wear another set of 3D glasses... maybe with a bit more technology put into it. Most importantly, it's meant for a more favored subject of mine: gaming. I Wear My ED Sunglasses at Night They're called ED 3D Glasses, and they were developed by a company named eDimensional. It's meant for games, but can also be used for DVDs and such. The glasses was basically my chance to play games (Aliens vs. Predator 2, most particularly) through the world of 3D realism. Sure, I've heard of other types of 3D glasses before, and even considered buying one of them; but I never really got around to it. With this set, though, I'm glad to know I waited. I'm more prepared than ever now to enter the world '3D gaming.' The ED 3D Glasses themselves work through something called, "Stereovision." What is Stereovision? (Is it as good as Thermal, Electromagnetic or even PredTech Vision? Certainly not -- way beyond our time) According to eDimensional, it's actually just the normal way we view the world; with depth perception. Splitting your screen in two like the hot knife through butter, the glasses proceed to convert the two images, and then 'trick' your eyes into believing that objects are closer than they really are. Heck, it's almost like they're in front of you! *Gasp* The point is, of course, to make you feel like you're actually in the game. Well anyway, enough with the technical aspects of the glasses, for now. We wanna' actually try these E-D 3D glasses, don't we? We want to find out if it's better than the ones made in paper... First, we'll have to go through the process of product installation. Installing the Glasses Backwards... With two or three plug-ins, the manual said I made a perfect hardware install. That's good. I applauded eDimensional on the user-friendly hardware setup, and proceeded to turn my computer on for the awaited software setup. Dum. Dum. Dum. Well, for some darn reason, my monitor could simply not display my desktop. It kept flickering and flickering; it kept on going. Realizing I couldn't really do anything more software-wise, being unable to reach even Windows, I began thinking it might have something to do with hardware. I began switching hardware with a friend of mine to find out which one was at fault. The monitor? No. The faulty wiring? No. The video card? Yes. For some reason, and despite eDimensional's claim that it will work on all GeForce cards, the ED 3D glasses did not work with my standard GeForce 2 video card - it worked only with the GeForce 2 GTS version video card. And, later, a GeForce 4 standard video card. Thinking probably that the age of my card was the problem (almost three years old, people!), I proceeded to steal my friend's GeForce 4, and made a quick and easy install of the E-D-required software and drivers. Kudos to eDimensional for the easy setup, but a warning that they might want to look into computability problems with the older GeForce 2 card. Samples of Excellence! There's some sample graphics included in the program to view with your glasses. While simple, I was very impressed when I noticed how 'close' the images seemed to get to my eyes. It almost feels like it's going to hit you, you know? It made me felt like I was 'there.' This was certainly a taste of things to come. Aliens vs. Predator II: 3D Realism? Of course, the first game I tried the glasses with was Aliens vs. Predator II. Having full compatibility with the game, the software said, I quickly booted it up, and replayed the first mission in the Colonial Marine campaign. Woah. You don't notice it, at first, you know? You don't notice it until it jumps out at you: the game is not inside the monitor, but more in front of the monitor. Yikes! In a world where Aliens leap from no where, it's a 'real' and frightening experience. For example, the biggest effect for me was moving around and going past objects. It's a real strange experience, that can best be described as having an urge to duck when things fly past you -- whether they be incoming rockets or incoming Facehuggers. After completing the first Colonial Marine mission, I went and tried the first Predator mission. There really wasn't much a difference (which isn't bad at all), other than seeing 3D in different colors/vision modes. Of course, to get the best experience with 3D in AvP2, you have to play the Alien campaign right away. The 'fishbowl' view the Aliens are known for makes for a fun, frightening and, if you're not careful, sickening-sort-of experience. But it is literally breathtaking to scale the walls or ceilings of a large room or corridor with these glasses on. Killing is a whole new ball-game as well. It can be a particularly gory (and maybe sickening) experience to Headbite or decapitate an enemy now, with blood 'n' guts seemingly spurting right in front of you. Not for the faint of heart! As you can tell, I look upon favorably towards the ED 3D Glasses in AvP2. It brought passion and excitement back into a game I usually only played once a week, but now play at least once a day. All AvP2 players should definitely give this product a chance to enhance their gaming experience. Problems, Mr. Shipley? Advertisement Unfortunately, not everything is perfect with these ED 3D Glasses. For example, I had trouble reading the in-game text in AvP2, they were so jumbled up. While it can be fixed easily by changing the stereovision alignment (hit 'F6' just seven times), you can't save your settings, so you have to do it over again every time you play. eDimensional says soon-be-released drivers will institute an in-game save feature. It's not a big problem, but I'm glad it's being fixed. Another problem comes if you don't have a good monitor. Without a good monitor, especially one that can have high refresh rates, you can get eyestrain from using the glasses too much. It recedes after time, thankfully, but I still recommend having maximum possible refresh rates as possible. If it means lowering your resolution, do it. The biggest problem is how the glasses might slow down your computer. If you're playing a game that takes all your processing power, expect it to get maybe ten-percent slower while using the glasses. Not huge, but it is noticeable. Thankfully, AvP2 is not a processor-heavy game, so this is really irrelevant here. Oh, and the biggest problem with these glasses is, of course, how you look like complete dork while wearing 'em. Don't let anyone you love see you use in these glasses, unless you want 'em to call you four-eyes or dork-maggot. Summary The ED 3D Glasses is an amazing product that brought life back into AvP2. I even have more passion for buying games now, if just to try them out in 3D. But most important is my renewed interest in AvP2, and my quest to finish the entire single-player game without save games. *Grin* If you're looking for an incredibly fun, gory, frightening and, yes, sickening experience to add to your AvP2 gameplay, this eDimensional product should be your ticket there. Have fun! By David Shipley Comments? Flames? Praise? Mail feedback!