The Installation

Since the hardware had failed in looks and practical use we decided to move onto where the glasses selling point is, the compatibility. Just as we thought it wasn't possible for things to get any worse, they did. The installation instructions decided they wanted to be written in the wrong order so that before you have even installed drivers to make full use of the kit, they have you watching silly animations and pictures, which use a horrid interlacing method to produce depth. The IR Emitter has the ability to go into a 'Link Blanking' mode that simulates the stereovision effect without the need for drivers, only works if supported by the software and sadly it's a terribly ugly method that shows virtually no depth. Things got worse still, the included drivers are Wicked3D's own old 3Dfx Voodoo set (v2.10) not even the recently released global ones.

Hardly a good set to choose for a pair of glasses that are supposed to be global, how is anybody out there who doesn't know about stereovision going to know where to get the right ones? And how is anybody out there who doesn't know about such things going to know how to even make the proper settings to it anyway. Thankfully we do and so a quick visit to Elsa and a download of their global drivers became the only way to know just how well these glasses would work. In addition the Wicked3D eyeSREAM drivers should be avoided and this is because even if you don't select a 3Dfx card it seems to overwrite your D3D and OpenGL with MiniGL and D3D 3Dfx stuff. Plus it still puts Glide on your hard disk, just plain silly and causing plenty of incompatibility problems with hair-raising tension.

After a brief installation I placed the glasses on my head, flicked the switch and tuned in the drivers ready to get the stereovision going. If you haven't used such things before then load up something like Half-Life in D3D and press the '*' key, this is the best way to get the depth you want set correctly. Simply use the keys to set the depth and various other settings to how you would like. Thankfully the glasses did perform well, however they didn't look good because the gap between eyes makes the images seem fake and wrong, the 'eyeSCREAM' Glasses do a better job as they mould both eyes vision into one image using mirrors. Finally we got it working right and the stereo was fairly clean, however to be honest using the real IR Emitter 'Revelators' would be a far better choice. If you have forgotten what 'eyeSCREAM' and 'Revelators' are then look back at the start of this review again, just competitors glasses.

Analysis

I wasn't impressed with the Eye3D's at all basically sighting them as a good try but in being limited in likeability only to the Stereo enthusiast and those that have very fat heads and can stand to keep their head tilted back, better get that doctors appointment ready. The stereo itself was the only good point and the fact it supports almost all drivers is a plus, sadly the stereo isn't quite as clear cut as that with the 'Revelators' due to bad shutter design. You know it gets to a point where bigger stutters actually make the experience less interesting. So who should buy these? Only the Stereovision enthusiast that understands the settings + drivers + has a fat head and a big monitor with high refresh rate. Normal gamers would be better suited to 'Revelators', which are light, well designed and have native drivers. At around $60 USD, buy something else.

by Mark 'KILLZAT' Jackson

Price - 7 Performance - 7 Usability - 5 Overall - 6.5 (65%)

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