Customer Reviews

X3D TECHNOLOGIES X3D Gaming System (Windows)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I highly recommended this system.

I've owned this 3D shutter glasses system for several years now. It has worked great. Since then I have used lots of other 3D hardware. Some of the HMDs available are pretty good, but cost a ton of money. Most of the other similar 3D shutter glasses systems work well too but cost more. I don't recommend using those old fashioned red and blue anaglyph glasses; they cause loss of true color and tend to cause eye strain. If you want true color eye popping 3D effects at a low cost, this is the only 3D shutter glasses system you should buy for your PC.

For a truly amazing 3D experience, try riding one of the roller coaster rides in the Rollercoaster Tycoon game (not included in this system) using this 3D system connected to an InFocus X1A, X1, X2, or X3 DLP projector with a 10 foot screen. There is a little bit of blue ghosting, but on a 10 foot screen the 3D experience is beyond belief! REALLY FUN! WOW!

The only disadvantage I found to this system was that it requires an nVidia graphics card if you want to play games in 3D. For years I only had an ATI graphics card so I could not play games with the system. This did not matter to me because I bought the 3D system to view 3D photos using the JPSViewer software package (not included in this system) which works on any graphics card with this 3D system. After a few years I bought an nVidia based graphics card and was able to play all my games in 3D.

For a good 3D experience you need a good CRT monitor with a refresh rate of at least 100 Hz, some people recommend 120 Hz. This is NOT the default in Windows; you need to set this refresh rate yourself. If the refresh rate is too low the screen will flicker and cause eye strain. For the best 3D experience I recommend one of the Infocus projectors I mentioned above. With these, a refresh rate of 85 Hz seems to work really good. If you don't know how to change the refresh rate of your monitor, ask someone to help you. The other thing you need for a good experience is to properly adjust the 3D effect. If the 3D effect is turned up very high to an unnatural level, your eyes will not be able to view it properly and this will lead to eye strain. I learned this after a few minutes of using the system. Once I had the system properly adjusted I was able to use the system nonstop without making my eyes tired.

Some people with very weak eyes may find 3D content difficult on the eyes. Some eye specialists actually recommend these types of 3D systems for improving weak eyes. I can view 3D content 24/7 without it making my eyes the least bit tired. I have never experienced any eye fatigue whatsoever on a properly adjusted system. If the system is properly adjusted you will have a very positive immersive 3D experience. The other reviewers who complain about the system making their eyes tired either have extremely weak eyes or do not have the system properly adjusted.

I do not reccommend this product. I bought it last week, since it's clame to fame was making your existing games 3D and "jump out of the screen at you". Well, it did what it said it would do in the program demos, but not without heinous flickering of the screen. It didn't work for any of my existing games, but I'm sure it works with the bundled software, but those didn't interest me. I was very disappointed with this product. They call it "amazing award-winning technology"... Just buy some .99 cent 3D glasses and rent a cheesy low-B film and get better results. Stay away from this product!

This kit gives you the VGA dongle and the glasses. You'll need several other items before you can start playing games. Putting this all together can take a little time, but the 3d is pretty amazing.

1) nvidia graphics card. If you're into classic games (lower performance) this needn't be a new expensive card. $20 will get you a GeForce FX5200 on eBay.

2) CRT monitor capable of doing 100Hz. There are LCD monitors now sold that are fast enough, but if you are paying for one of those, you should get a 3D dongle that does better than VGA! You can often find CRTs for free discarded at recycling centers. Companies leave them next to dumpsters as they replace them with LCDs. I found a discarded Sony that looks good at 1280x800 100Hz. It will go higher, but VGA gets fuzzy at high data rates.

3) nvidia stereo drivers. You install these on top of your existing nvidia driver. While freely available from nvidia's site -- I had installation problems. I couldn't get them working with the latest nvidia driver, so had to back up to a version that had the same date as the stereo driver. But then, I'm on Win98...

4) e-d.exe (E-D Activator) available from the edimensional website. This small .exe file enables the dongle and is so much simpler than installing all the junk (including possibly bogus old drivers) on the supplied CD.

While my setup is OK, there's a 20% chance that the game starts up with the right and left eyes reversed. I'm thinking that this is the stereo drivers, but it could be the X3D.

Something I noticed right away with shutter glasses is the darkness. They are shut off half the time so of course the screen is going to be dimmer. You'll have to dim the room lights to see the game well.

I think the title says it all, the setup CD wasn't working and I couldn't find any online support. Pure wasted money

Relatively easy to set up and use, it works with MOST of the 3D games I have. Sometimes they are difficult to use (because part of the GUI in the game is too far in front of everything else), but there are settings to make this more managable.

Using the latest drivers (the drivers themselves are actually normal NVidia card drivers along with the NVidia Stereo drivers), some games wouldn't run on my system without blue-screening it (like Quake III and Everquest), but I chalk this up to my system not liking the latest NVidia Stereo drivers.

3D depth is beautiful on some games (Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings looks wonderful) and it's a nice toy to have.

Now back to some Black & White :)

I have bought this x3D gaming system in April 24 2005.

I couldn't make it work at all: Not all CRT monitors are supported. Part of them requires a spacial power adapter, which the manual sais: "Will be supplied (sent) free of charge" upon request.

I have called the company several times, and sent many emails.

I even talked with someone called "Ray Murph" who promised me few times over the phone "I'll get that in the mail to you shortly". He didn't. They just ignored me.

The company doesn't exist anymore. It changed its name to "Technical Opticallity" and moved to NY.

Now it's June 2006 and I have no power adapter and no X3D gaming system to play. I have wasted my money. J&R took no responsibility.

Don't buy this stuff!!! Don't repeat the same mistake I have made!

Eyal