I have just ordered myself a Zalman Trimon 3D monitor because I’m a massive gamehead and was just wondering if anyone knows how well these monitors work with Blender. I also do a little bit of modelling/animation and am keen to teach myself game design, and just thought how cool it would be to model in stereoscopic 3D.
Blender’s game engine currently has a few options for rendering games with stereographic visualisation. Take a look at the options in the “Game framing settings” in the “Format” panel in the render buttons (F10). I’ve not really used these so I’m not sure how effective they are, but it might be interesting for you.
Edit:
As far as I know, Blender doesn’t have the option to use this in the 3d view when modeling but who knows what the future will bring…
Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to provide a review. To be honest, I’ll be happy enough just playing games like Crysis, Bioshock, Dead Space, etc, on it. If Blender is compatible with it, it’ll be an added bonus. And if it’s just plain naff, I can send it back any time within a month.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how 3d modelling interfaces are evolving. I really love the intuitive nature of sculpt mode and can see how it might potentially develop in sync with display tech. Wouldn’t be cool to put on a pair of gloves that act as virtual sculpting tools? If you were to combine that type of interface with a stereoscopic display just imagine how intuitive that’d be. Just like having a virtual ball of clay.
Then there’s holographical display technology…
Anyway, I’m going off on one now and evidently need restraining!
It’s good to hear that Blender does have an option to create stereoscopic games. It’s early days for me (just did the pumpkin tutorial with the new blender gamekit) but it’s definitely something I want to master. I’m totally addicted to games. Just bought Cryostasis. Man, that’s one scary game. Dead Space has it’s fair share of brown-trouser moments, but this is in another league.
Yep, definitely time for my meds now. I get the monitor on Thursday so check back next weekend for the lowdown.
I have a pair of stereoscopic glasses, the kind with LCD shutters over either eye that synced with a image from the right or left being shown respectively.
Unfortunately, if nothing has changed, Blender doesn’t go to 3-d, except in full screen mode which was last available in (I believe) 2.37.
Now, I can’t use the latest 3d drivers, as I refuse to get Windows Vista and that is the only OS the new drivers work on, so maybe it’s changed some.
I had to stop using the glasses because they only work with CRT monitors (something about their sync) and so don’t work on my 24" LCD.
The glasses worked ok for games (some better than others), but never completely up to my expectations. Mainly because in FPS games like half life, the aiming doesn’t work because your crosshairs the game provides are at a 3d depth that are very close to the screen. Is it was like trying to aim at a far off target with a finger pointed at the bridge of your nose. Their was supposed to be a feature to solve that but I never got it to work for most games.
So, I don’t know for sure, but they haven’t in the past.
I’ve had the Zalman monitor for just about 5 days now, and have to say I’m very impressed. Although the glasses are a bit flimsy, they are certainly more appealing than wearing shutter glasses. First person games work a lot better than 3rd-person games like Dead Space and Gears of War which are a bit harder on the eyes because you have your character to focus on as well as the game environment. Games like Bioshock, Crysis, Stalker, Timeshift and Far cry 2, however, look amazing and don’t seem to run any less smoothly on my machine.
The only slight downside with this monitor is that it uses an interlacing method whereby in conjunction with the glasses one eye sees the odd lines and the other the even. So you can notice a very fine line effect. However, this is so so minimal and hasn’t spoiled my gaming enjoyment at all. For £240, this is a red-hot piece of kit. I’ve had 4-hour gaming sessions with no headaches or dizzyness. Another good thing is that you can adjust the depth of the 3d effect, so as to ease yourself into the experience.
I’ve yet to delve into Blender’s capabilities to render in 3d, but am happy to see it has this ability and caters for a broad range of 3d imaging techniques including, thankfully, the correct one for my monitor which is the side-by-side method. I wonder, to do a basic side-by-side stereo render, do I need two cameras or does blender compute the render from where two cameras would be? I’m sure I’ll work it out, but if anyone knows and can share the knowledge here, I’d really appreciate it.
Alas, it would be awesome to be able to actually use blender in stereoscopic mode, but just knowing I can create stuff to be viewed this way on completion is enough for me. For now…
I’ve played with the 3d in the game engine only a little since I don’t have the hardware to use it, but it seems to create the display automaticaly using a single camera. I’m not sure, but you may need to “save game as runtime” to get the game framing settings to apply.
Hope it works, and glad to hear you’re impressed with the monitor. I’m now considering something like it for when I get a decent rig. Since you gave the price in £, I’m assuming you’re in the UK too so I’ll take that price as being what I’d actually pay.
Ah, I just discovered, by exporting the pumpkin game as an exe (one of the gamekit games), that the rendering option i require does not currently exist within blender. I tried the side-by-side option and got exactly that. I thought they might come out interlaced for some reason (doh!). So that left me with the Vertical-interlace option which is no good as my monitor is horizontally interlaced. Damn. I hope there are plans to add this feature to blender 2.5.
so I’ll take that price as being what I’d actually pay.