Edimensional 3d glasses and TrackIR - Wow!

[Guest]

I finally got a chance to try out these today after being too busy since their arrival on Monday. What a difference these make. The atmospheric lighting is so much nicer with the glasses. The sky has volume, you have a great sensation of height and distance from the runway and the big AI planes feel big at the airport. The IR tracker makes taxiing and turning so much more natural feeling. I had to turn down my monitor settings to 800X600 32bit 100Hz (I could detect flicker at 85Hz) but it still looks fantastic at that resolution. The only disadvantage I can see sofar is that it doesn't appear possible to have HostSB open and have 3d stereo on at the same time. You have to run SB host and leave full screen mode (and stereo) for squawbox interaction. Has anyone figured a workaround for this issue? Regardless, I am one happy camper.Tony.

[Guest]

Hi Tony,I have the same setup, ED 3D glasses and the IR head tracker, and I also fly at VatSim all the time (XB-PEP), what I do is leave the sim in full screen and fly around using only the virtual cockpit (the 3D effect here is the greatest!), I don't use the SB popup text screen, instead all the text is displayed on the top of the screen, if I do hear a DING DONG! meaning a message TO ME then I will try to read it on the top, if another message blocks my message only then will I hit enter and open SB text window, since I always use Roger Wilco and more and more ATC stations in VatSim do the same thing text is becoming something of the past.You are right about the resolution, in fact the 3D effect makes the screen look bigger, so 800 x 600 is a nice number, also I find that 3D stereo makes the screen a little darker, but you can fix this by hitting CONTROL+G (increase gamma), I use it 2 times to get the screen as bright as I need it.Happy flying and enjoy your new virtual cockpit!Alex.

[Guest]

Alex,Thanks for the tips. I guess when you say you don't use the SB popup you are meaning that SB host is running in the background (minimized) and you are referring to the green scrolling text window near the top of the screen? Is there a way of performing ATC frequency changes or examination of the TCAS without leaving full screen mode? I totally agree with you about the VC, it looks fantastic, I cannot fly without a virtual cockpit now and I had never enjoyed it before because it seemed like a lot of work.Thanks,Tony.

[kpop1364 2]

Hi Tony,Just got my TrackIR and I like them alot.Only thing I have a problem with is they are very sensitive and Ihave them set at the lowest setting. Are you finding this or am I doing something wrong?Thanks,Gerry

[Guest kdfw]

HiWelcome to the 3D+trackIR club. It makes FS more real.On my monitor I can get 120Hz refresh at 1152x864x16 so no flickering whatsoever.For smoothness on trackIR I set my x & y speeds at 11 and smooth setting to 117.Pat

[Guest]

Gerry,It is pretty sensitive, I don't think you are doing anything wrong. I've found I like a custom setting halfway between the slow and medium setting. If you sit extremely close to the monitor(the IR tracker) I presume you would find it more sensitive. I haven't tried this but I think if you were to sit the tracker as far back on your monitor as you can you might like the sensitivity better. Also, I think it takes a little getting used to anyway because you are so used to having the static view out of the cockpit. By my fourth flight today, my head was starting to learn how much to turn, when to stay still etc.... although I still lock my view for about the last 3 miles of descent for a landing. My interest in VFR flying has been renewed!Tony.

[kpop1364 2]

Thanks. I'll try moving back a bit.Gerry

[Guest byoung]

I have the ELSA Revelator Glasses (basically the same thing) and I can't get them to work consistantly...It is a pain in the posterior all the hoops you have to jump through just to get them to work. Not worth the effort... The drivers are poorly engineered.Are you using the NVIDIA stereo drivers? Because you will have a problem with future support. The latest NVIDIA drivers have no 3d stereo panel...So I am waiting for someone to give me the correct configuration or the revelutionary insight to make it work consistantly.When they do work, they are pretty cool. It is just getting them to work properly that is the problem...Barry

[wb5okj 26]

Hello Barry,I am using the 3087 nVidia drivers from there website, and the 3087 Stero Drivers from nVidia and they work well with the geForce4 TI 4600. When I was using the geforce2 Pro I had problems using the 1241 or 3082 Stero Drivers, but I was able to use the Wicked 3d ver 5.02 Beta. These can be downloaded from the E Dimensional website, if by chance you are using the geforce 2 card. If you are using the geforce 2 give the 5.02 a try.I am assuming that you are in full screen mode,(ALT+ENTER), as the stero will not work in a window, you must be in full screen mode.The few times I have had trouble with the stero starting up, I have been able to start it up by bringing the menu down by hitting the ALT key, then hitting the ALT key a second time to hide the menu, this will usually start the stero up. If toggling the menu on and off dosen't work, then I must go into the MenuOptionsSettingsHardware and change the resolution. If you are using a resolution of 1024x768 then try one resolutioon lower or 800x600. If that starts up for you then usually one is able to go back and change the resolution back to the higher resolution. Try changing the resolution around untill you get a resolution that works., I usually fly at 1280x960 resolution and 85hz refresh rate, I can not notice a flicker at this refresh rate, if you can see a flicker at 85hz it is advisable to go to a lower resolution. At 1024x768 I get a resolution of 100hz and at 800x600 I get a refrsh of 144hz. My monitor is a 19" HP. Another tip is to uncheck the T&L setting in Hardware. This will keep lights and objects on the ground in proper perspective when on the ground, it also causes any text to be readable in 3D.One other thing if you have tweaked your drivers with a program such as Riva Tuner and have checked vertical sync to be permenately off, you need to set Vertical Sync to always on, this can be accomplished from the Stero properties box.Another thing is to properly setup your Stero Drivers to begin with. To do this, right click an empty spot on your desktop, click properties in the Display Properties box, click Settings, Advanced then Stero properties. Click Stero Setup & Test then set your resolution and refresh rate to the fastest your monitor can handle and save each setting. Start at the 640x480 resolution and test for the fastest refresh rate you can get, then save that setting. Do this for each resolution that is offered up to the highest setting your monitor can handle. Many people seem to neglect doing this and it is essential to do. Be sure and save each setting at the highest refresh rate you can get.These are a few of the things that have worked for me, and 3D is definetly worth while, I no longer fly without it.Below is a 3d Stero Image of the Socata panel at 100% resolution to view it save it to your desktop as a .jps extension then double click it. It should be vieable in the Stero viewer. It was done at 640x480 resolution to save bandwidth, so is a bit blurry.Alex and Rex will no doubt come on and give you some more tips, they are full of things that work for 3D. Belive me we are all true believers. :D

[Guest]

Barry,I'm sorry to hear your glasses are so problematic. I am using the nVidia drivers with a GForce 2 card. I actually downloaded 40.something or other detonator drivers before ordering the glasses to see if everything would install correctly and found there was no stereo tab. Then looking around the web found some advice that the stereo driver version has to match the detonator driver version and now everything works well with 30.82(I think) drivers. I am hoping that this technology is here to stay and is going through a few growing pains, but when you see the improvement and usefulness ( I actually have a use for 3d viewing of biomolecules for work), it's hard to believe it wouldn't catch on.Tony.

[Guest byoung]

Hello again,We have had discussions / threads going back and forth on this forum before.. Like I indicated, I can get it to work but it doesn't work consistantly. The only time it has worked is when I rebuilt the FSConfig.cfg file. I have all my AI settings, etc and I don't want to have to do this every time.And I had to mess with the resolution in FS select 800 x 600 exit FS and then go back into it and select 1024 x 768 to get it to kick in.. Totally hokie...I have problems with the drivers not saving settings like 1024 x 768 @ 120hz.. It is a pain in the posterier!All I want to do is fire up FS and hit ctrl T or whatever to go to 3D. I don't want to deal with all of these hacks as it shows a lack of engineering to begin with...Could you imagine if you had to go through 10 steps and restart it 5 times every time you had to boot up your computer??? And it worked only half the time??Barry

[Guest]

Ok, now that you have the ultimate setup, go get Active Camera Pro. Fly in the vc, give it a try.................Have A Good Day !!!! Rex

[Guest]

Tony,Yeah it's pretty neat huh?, about the frequency changes in VatSim, you can try this, when you are given a handoff, let's say "N517T contact NY_V_CTR on 120.10 good day" you would press ENTER to open the SB text window and type:".C 122.20" the .C command changes the COM frequency, now you need to get your voice running so you would type:".atis NY_V_CTR" the .atis command changes the RW freq to the one you typed.All of this is the equivalent of pressing CONROL+TAB going to the SB main program, opening the ATC listing and then double clicking on the freq you want, pretty cool huh?I never use the TCAS thingy, after all ATC is there to provide separation, and I'm the kind of guy that likes to get a traffic warning and actually LOOK AROUND for that traffic, pretty much the whole point of using the IR head tracker and 3D glasses right?, so I can't help you much there.They say that the next SB will be a module inside the sim so we will get TCAS and FREQ listing inside the sim, also they say we'll be able to do a freq change just by entering the freq in the com radio, until that day comes this is the best I can offer you, check out the VatSim forum here at Avsim for news.I hope this helps you!

[Guest]

Alex,Thanks again. That's the info I was looking for. The TCAS is a bit of an issue for me because I often fly in uncontrolled airspace around Eastern Canada and have found it sometimes necessary to be watching it, but it sounds like the upcoming squawkbox may resolve some of this. I am also really looking forward to their new implimentation of multiplayer plane models and inclusion of the Project AI ones.Tony.

[Guest]

Rex,I have installed Active Camera Pro 1.3 now and the ground turbulence effect is neat however I cannot seem to have the turbulence and head latency effect working at the same time as the TrackIR. I only see the turbulence/latency working if I have "shortcuts on" boxes ticked for both under the configuration settings. But as soon as I activate TrackIR the effects are gone.I have Windows 98 and FS2002 Pro.Would really like to have them all working together.Tony.