Over the last few years, Nvidia and the rest of the PC gaming market have tried their hands at various innovations aimed at making gaming more appealing. Whether it be new innovations in VR or improved graphical fidelity, there’s always something new being pushed by one company or another in an attempt to appeal to the lovers of immersive and hyper-realistic gaming experiences.
One of the innovations came from team green, with Nvidia’s introduction of 3D Vision. First introduced back in 2008, featuring a pair of special stutter glasses and an infrared emitter device, the technology would allow players to project 3D visual through certain 120Hz LCD displays and with select CRT monitors, 3LCD and DLP-projectors.
Each lens would project an image at 60Hz, and using stereoscopic vision, would create the illusion of a 120Hz projection in 3D. The company even introduced an improved version with upgraded glasses. This new version had 20% larger and more comfortable lenses which allow a greater field of view, 1080p resolution per eye and reduced ghosting.
However, both versions suffered from many of the same problems that early VR adopters experienced, with prolonged use leading to headaches and other health problems. The tech also experienced sustained problems with performance, given that each rendered scene was effectively being broadcast twice, effectively cutting performance in half. The earlier version of 3D Vision was also beset by problems with image artifacts. This all combined to lead to a limited number of users, and it’s clear that the technology has now been outpaced by more modern VR headsets.
Nvidia has now confirmed that support for the 3D Vision products will officially end with next month’s GeForce Game Ready Driver.
Following the posting of the final driver from Release 418 in April 2019, GeForce Game Ready Drivers will no longer support NVIDIA 3D Vision. The NVIDIA support team will continue to address critical driver issues for 3D Vision in Release 418 through April, 2020. Those looking to utilize 3D Vision can remain on a Release 418 driver.
Our software that enables the use of 3D gaming with 3D TVs, 3DTV Play, is now included for free in Release 418. It is no longer available as a standalone download. Our 3D Vision Video Player will continue to be offered as a standalone download, for free, until the end of 2019.
