We've managed to get our eyes stuck into NVIDIA's latest diversion from its graphic card empire, 3D Vision. As yet it's unclear how NVIDIA is going to sell the system over here in the UK, where 120Hz monitors are as rare as dog eggs.

Given this, it's unlikely that it will be selling the 3D Vision glasses separately straight away, probably going down the bundling route with panel manufacturers until the 120Hz screens are more commonplace.

But we've got one of said screens, the necessary goggles, a PC harnessing the raw power of the sun and a clutch of games waiting to go 3D. So it's time for us to get some 3D hours under our belt and give it a good going over. So then, how does this first generation of 3D Vision stack up?


Well, everything about it shrieks pain. From the potential mind-splitting ache it can induce in your head to the wallet-splitting system specification required to get it to work. It's the proprietary of the proprietary; requiring specific drivers, games, displays, graphic cards, Windows Vista and of course glasses; all that even before you can consider trying it.

It's like buying a car and then being told the petrol can only come from one garage, washing it with the wrong water will make it explode and using the wrong air in the tyres will make it ride like a drunken bucking bronco. Who would put themselves though all of that pain to experience something you can get by poking your head out from under the duvet each morning? Nvidia fans, apparently.

But enough whining, does it work? Well of course it does – this technology is technically years old, ELSA (a now defunct Nvidia partner) was offering 3D i-glasses back in the 1990s and there were even some insane anaglyph-based attempts on the Spectrum requiring the traditional red and green-lensed glasses.

The run-down of required equipment shapes up as Windows Vista, a Nvidia GeForce 8800 or better graphics card, the stereoscopic 3D driver from Nvidia, a compatible 100Hz+ display, the glasses and a compatible DirectX 9/10 game. If you've got all of that then you're sitting pretty.

The weakest link in this house of cards is the gaming element. Despite Nvidia's ability to have more than 300 directly supported games, if the game's not listed then it's not going to work. Take a peek here for a list of games Nvidia likes to claim have good compatibility, though it lacks the larger 'Not recommended' list found within the driver.

Pumping on your Stereo

Nvidia does need to be given credit for designing a near foolproof installation and set-up. Testing with a basic 8600 GT (despite the minimum requirements) and then a GTX 285, the 3D Glasses install wizard asks you to run through a couple of basic display checks to make sure the stereoscopic vision is working.

The final step offers alternative 110Hz and 100Hz modes to help remove the effects of any lighting flicker for 50Hz power supply countries like the UK. Once that has been completed, whenever a compatible game is launched, the 3D trickery kicks in automatically. A number of hotkeys enable you to toggle the effect, tweak it and enable an embedded laser-sight.

It's surprising how instant the effect is – millions of years of evolution have created a beautifully adaptable stereoscopic viewing machine: us. Pop on the correct glasses, look at a 120Hz screen and the brain is fooled into seeing depth. But is it any good?