Open-source project wants to bring stereoscopic 3D gaming back from the dead

[Alfonso Maruccia]

My Eyes Hurt: Long ago, hardware manufacturers and entertainment companies were actively trying to make 3D gaming a reality. Today, stereoscopic imaging is all but forgotten on major gaming platforms, which is why a small group of volunteer developers is working on something that could make stereoscopy relevant again on compatible PC devices.

The recently unveiled "wiz3D" project is designed to "resurrect" stereoscopic support in older games, allowing them to run with compatible goggles and other stereo display devices. The open-source tool acts as a stereoscopic 3D wrapper, injecting hooks into gaming APIs to generate real-time stereo 3D output on modern Windows systems. Unlike proprietary – and largely abandoned – solutions, wiz3D does not require kernel drivers or special hardware components to deliver its stereoscopic effects.

wiz3D is based on iZ3D, a former commercial software project focused on adding stereoscopic effects to games using a kernel-level driver. The original iZ3D ("I See 3D") developers eventually released the source code under an open-source license, and the wiz3D ("We See 3D") developers are now modernizing the codebase by replacing the kernel driver with a proxy DLL loader.

The wiz3D creators acknowledge that stereoscopic 3D gaming has long since faded, despite having been a booming PC technology a decade ago, with multiple competing manufacturers and hardware solutions. Over time, these technologies – including Nvidia 3D Vision, AMD HD3D, Tridef, OpenGL quad-buffer stereo, and iZ3D – were discontinued or have stopped working entirely.

wiz3D aims to "re-enable" proprietary stereoscopic solutions such as 3D Vision and HD3D, while also expanding stereo support to select games across standard PC APIs including DirectX 7 – 11 and OpenGL. In addition, the developers plan to support stereoscopic gaming across a range of VR and AR headsets, stereo 3D displays, and even newer "no-glasses" 3D technologies such as Samsung's Odyssey 3D gaming display.

According to early testing results, wiz3D currently delivers mixed compatibility with legacy stereoscopic technologies. AMD HD3D rendering is "mostly working," as are DirectX 9 titles. DirectX 8 games and Nvidia 3D Vision "Ready" titles are partially functional but require further testing, while support for other APIs (DirectX 7, 8, 10, and 11, as well as OpenGL) remains a work in progress.

Despite owning a 3D Vision-compatible Full HD display for years alongside a long list of Nvidia GPUs, I never became invested enough in stereoscopic gaming to purchase 3D Vision goggles and experience what all the 3D hype was about. A project like wiz3D suggests that interest in stereoscopic imaging still exists, with developers now asking for help to refine their "messy" codebase and further test compatibility across a wider range of games.

Permalink to story:

Open-source project wants to bring stereoscopic 3D gaming back from the dead

 

[NumberNine]

The Migraine Machine v3.0

 

[Subset6]

I used Nvidia 3D vision quite a bit back in the day, even had a 3 panel surround setup at one point. This technology did not get a ton of love from Nvidia but did have quite a following in the community. After reading this it would not surprise me that a user called “Helix” is likely still at it with this initiative.

“Helix mods” as they were known in the 3D vision community were mods that fixed a ton of popular games and made them work very well in stereoscopic. Common issues were things like shadows not rendering correctly in each eye, or problematic shaders causing visual bugs, etc..

When done correctly it was a sight to behold and very immersive. Sadly it’s gone now mostly. I had hoped my future stereoscopic fix would be HMD’s but its progress has been slow and has other issues. Prolly will pick up a steam frame if and when it ever releases. It warms my heart that there are still folks at it tho.

 

[RudyBob]

I wish those worked better than they do.

 

[bl4C3y3]

This could be interesting

When done correctly it was a sight to behold and very immersive.

yes, absolutely ... for me it had an immersive effect similar to adding a sound card in the early days !

played the original 'Deus Ex' and 'Unreal' with the Elsa 3D Revelator shutter glasses, that was a blast ! ... although the flickering was headache inducing
that was on Geforce 256 DDR and later Geforce Ti 4400, just by using the Nvidia driver which had build in support for stereoscopic 3D ... sadly, at some point (Win7 ?) that general support was stopped (in favor of their proprietary 3D Vision ?)

then years later, got a Samsung LCD with stereoscopic 3D shutter glasses, and played 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' ... again great experience, this time on Radeon HD 7970, simply through the game's build-in stereoscopic 3D option

about HMD, this seems to work when the game has stereoscopic 3D support built-in:
some time ago, I tried with 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' on Quest 2 connected to my PC (Virtual Desktop Streamer), and setting the game option + Virtual Desktop Streamer to stereoscopic 3D, was like sitting in front of a very big screen and the stereoscopic 3D was there !
... but at the time, the framerate was not high enough so only played a couple of hours ... probably need to revisit it now again

 

[Antias]

Is it just me or does that keyboard in the image above look totally wrong (like its made for a leftie like me)

 

[urielejh]

Only downsides are wearing glasses - of course - and image quality/low brightness, otherwise I loved them. I remember playing many titles such as arpgs and the stereoscopic effect added a lot of depth.
I'll try it for sure.