Over at Computex 2008, a few companies have been showcasing some new stereo 3d solutions. At the moment there are only two consumer-level 3d monitors available, the Zalman Trimon and the iz3D. Both are 22″ widescreens at 1680×1050 resolution. Zalman, however, has some upcoming monitors in their Trimon series: a 32″ model shown at the recent GDC and also a new 24″ model debuted at Computex both running in 1080P. With a MSRP of $1900 and $1200, respectively, they are a little on the pricey side but what do you expect for a 32″ 1080P 3D monitor? The 24″ model comes out next month, the 32 incher will follow in August.

Another company, Sapphire, has come up with a solution for ATI gamers. Their 3D monitors work on a similar polarized technique like the Zalman and iz3D. They reportedly have developed their own 3d driver that works for ATI cards, unlike the Zalman Trimon which is for Nvidia owners only. They demoed their product with dual 22″ screens running the ATI Ruby demo in full stereo 3d. These new Sapphire-branded 3d monitors should be hitting the streets in the next few months.

link: Zalman improves almost everything it’s got [The Inquirer]
link: Sapphire develops 3D gaming graphics driver [CustomPC]

Tags: Hardware, Stereo 3D by cybereality
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Zalman, a company largely known for their cooling products, had quietly launched a line of 3D monitors late last year. The newest product in the Trimon series is the ZM-M220W, a 22″ widescreen 2D/3D convertible lcd monitor. Now what the hell does that mean? Basically for normal applications, its works just like a high-end 2D lcd monitor. However when you are playing one of the many supported games, you just hit a hot-key, put on the included glasses and start playing in true 3d! These aren’t your grandmother’s red-blue paper glasses either. The monitor works using circular polarized light, and the glasses you wear look just like regular sunglasses. This is called “passive stereo 3d” and a similar type of technique to that used in theaters like for Beowulf 3D. The device also works for 3D-DVD although, aside from the IMAX movies, most of them are pretty low-budget.

I’ve been keeping an eye on this monitor since I first heard about it. Tweaktown broke the review last month, and since then I’ve just had to have it. I have yet to see it with my own eyes, but I’ve got a good feeling that this is really going to complete my setup. I still have a few more additions I want to make to my new machine (SLI, etc.) but a 3D monitor will really take it to the next level. However it just doesn’t work on any computer. First off, you need an Nvidia video card and the drivers are for Vista only. So when building my new rig I made sure to hook something up that would support this 3D monitor. The device is a bit more than a standard 22″ monitor, it lists for $800, but I’ve seen deals for under $700. I figure I’ll be writing my own in-depth review sometime later this month, stay tuned.

For those of you still using XP or running ATI cards, all hope is not lost. There is another 3D monitor thats been on the market for some time. Its called the iz3D and it works with a wider range of platforms (xp/vista/nvidia/ati). The iz3D is supposed to be really nice for gaming in 3D, and can be had for under $600 on NewEgg.

For all you Mac readers, sorry, not much luck there. But you already knew all the cool stuff always comes out on the PC first. Maybe by the time OSXV comes out Apple will debut the eyePod 3D and it will be heralded as the greatest innovation in computing!!! Remember, you read it here first!

link: Zalman TRIMON 22″ 3D Monitor [TweakTown]

Tags: Hardware, Stereo 3D by cybereality
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I actually finished building my rig last week, but I got caught up with RL stuff so I hadn’t posted it up yet. So far its running great. I’ve been playing Crysis on very high! Oh yeah! I’ll be honest, I had to drop the resolution to 800×600 to get playable framerates on very high settings, but it still looks great. Thinking about getting another video card, maybe running SLI so I could get to higher resolutions. Aside from that, all the other games and demos run great. Playing Unreal Tournament 3 getting above 100fps at 720P on a 32″ LCD. Its pretty sweet. Not only that but boy does it look sexy with all that metal and blue LEDs. Check the video after the break.

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Tags: Hardware, Ramblings by cybereality
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John Nilsson has come up with a really great tool for immersion in PC gaming. He’s dubbed his creation the J-Dome and already has a patent on the design. Basically its a 180 degree hemisphere with back projection. I imagine it would be possible to combine this device with a 3d-ready DLP projector and get some active-stereo 3d action like IMAX 3D. A pretty simple concept thats been done, yet something that hasn’t been brought to market yet. There’s a similar product called the Z-Dome, which was shown at the GDC 08, but those guys want like $15k for it!

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Tags: Hardware, Video Games, Virtual Reality by cybereality
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I’m almost done putting this rig together, though the process turned out a little more rocky than expected. After much ado, I have finally mounted the motherboard onto the chassis tray. The Coolermaster Aquagate water-cooler was left running for 3 straight days, not a leak in sight. Since the cpu water-block needs to be mounted from the back of the board it was necessary to do the thing in one shot. It took some elbow grease but I managed without damaging anything (I hope). I even used an anti-static wrist-strap just for that extra peace of mind. Pretty much all the parts are in there now, the main stuff at least. A 3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (E8400), the GeForce 8800GTS 512MB, EVGA nForce 780i mainboard, and 4GB of some Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 RAM. Continue reading for some shots of the progress…

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Tags: Hardware, Ramblings by cybereality
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After some initial confusion, things are going a lot smoother building my new rig. This is the first computer I’ve built from the ground up in probably like 5 years. I’ve just been upgrading my trusty Pentium all this time, but its starting to show its age. So I really want to take my time and do this right. I’ve been reading all the manuals from cover to cover and planning out how everything is going to connect. Now that I know what I’m working with I just need to snap it all together. Read on for some more photos…

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Tags: Hardware, Ramblings by cybereality
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Some folks at the New York based Eyebeam have created an open-source multi-touch platform to rival Microsoft’s $10,000+ Surface. The project, called Cubit, includes plans (or kits) to build the cube-like device and a software platform to develop applications for it. You must add your own web-cam and projector, which the creators say can run about $500-$1000 for all necessary parts. The software uses the webcams to detect infrared light reflected when a user touches their finger to the “screen”. This is the the same technique MS used for Surface, their own proprietary multi-touch technology. However Eyebeam’s open-source solution clocks in at about 1/10th of the price.

Although Apple seems to gather a lot of praise for their multi-touch “innovation” on the iPhone, this technology has been around for a while. One such product that I’ve owned was the iGesture Pad which was released back in 2003. It looked like an over-sized touchpad and supported all types of gestures. Wave your hand to close a program, pinch a file and drag it to copy and paste, use both hands to resize windows, etc. It worked pretty well, and had more advanced programmable multi-touch options 5 years ago than the iPhone/iTouch have today. Yet it floundered on the market and now its discontinued and the company’s gone. The lesson for today: its not how good your idea is. Its all how you market it.

link: Open-Source, Multitouch Display [TechnologyReview] // via: KurzweilAI

Tags: Hardware, Human Interface, Open-Source by cybereality
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I’ve finally got all the parts I need to start building my brand new gaming rig. This thing is going to be a beast when its complete. Its got a 3GHz Core 2 Duo processor, from the new 45nm Wolfdale line, the WD RaptorX 10,000RPM HDD, an 8800GTS 512MB factory-overclocked GPU, 4GB of RAM, 1,000W PSU, water cooling, the works. All housed in a Coolermaster Stacker 830 Special Edition case. I’ve tried not to get too excited, because I know how shit likes to go wrong, so I prepared for the worst. And of course, Murphy’s Law kicks in on cue…

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Tags: Hardware, Ramblings by cybereality
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I’m currently on the market for a new gaming rig and I’ve been assembling a list of various high-end parts. Many late nights have been spent reading benchmark after benchmark, it really never ends! The rig I’m putting together is nothing to laugh at, but boy do I feel chump after taking a look at some of the hardware on MillionDollarPCs. These rigs put almost everything I’ve seen to shame. No doubt the case-modders have spent countless hours and ungodly amounts of money to produce such masterpieces. Wish I had $$$ to burn like those guys apparently do.

link: Million Dollar PCs // via: HardForum

Tags: Hardware by cybereality
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