Since Sir Charles Wheatstone invented three-dimensional imagery in 1840, it's a concept that has fascinated and enthralled. However, 3D has never quite managed rocked our worlds in any meaningful way... until now. The new Zalman ZM-M220W 3D display is startlingly impressive and very addictive, so if you get one prepare to divest of at least half of your social life.
Stereo who?
The three dimensional effect of the monitor works by transposing two slightly different images on a screen at once. The filters in front of the display then work in conjunction with a lightweight (and rather dashing) pair of polarised glasses so that only one of the images is viewed by each eye.
Then your brain meshes the images together to create a lush three dimensional effect. Thanks to the fact that all games have been rendered in 3D and videocard drivers are delivering the effect anyway, this can be viewed in almost any game. There is an extensive list of titles listed on the monitor’s 3D set-up screen and more are added regularly. These include anything from Half-Life 2 to Age of Empires.
Get set
Setting the monitor up is a time consuming process and it requires a very specific set of drivers. Currently these are only available for the 32-bit edition of Microsoft Windows Vista but they are promised for the 64-bit edition and Windows XP. It is also only compatible with the nVIDIA GeForce 5000-8000 graphics cards.
You will have to get the monitor’s height, angle and your distance absolutely right before you’ll see anything at all. Fortunately a test image is provided on continuous loop and when we got it right, we nearly fell over backwards trying to avoid the incoming nVIDIA logo.
And this is an experience that will repeat itself as you start to play the different games. To start with we launched into the opening sequence of Half-Life 2 and the 3D effect was impressive as a disembodied head burst out of the screen. Unfortunately this awe and amazement did go down several notches once we entered the game as playing a fast FPS does make your eyes water and the effect is not that noticeable. However, when we turned to World of Warcraft, the experience became unbeatable.
