GeForce G310 Fermi - Nvidia news! 2010

Final Considerations

Besides the 3D glasses, another limitation is the cost of the required hardware. As it was mentioned before, the graphic engine has to calculate two frames for each of the two eyes, for each image. So the cost to make such a gaming platform could be rather high.

Those are, however, limits that can be overcome with time, also because the immersion and the game experience obtained with the 3D Vision Surround is worth the wait.

Final Considerations - Part 2

The stereoscopic experience cannot be a common thing just yet exactly due to the presence of the 3D glasses. Those glasses make the whole gaming experience tiresome and the lack of brightness also make it harder to play. The 3D experience is in the future of gaming, but it’s likely that we’ll need to wait for monitors that can offer the 3D experience without the 3D glasses.

The technology is moving to the right direction, albeit slowly. The Nintendo 3DS’s screens have achieved something similar, but only for small displays. Applying this technology on bigger displays would occur in the loss of precision. The big manufacturers are testing and trying solutions but there are still no satisfactory results.

Final considerations - Part 1

The gaming experience with 3D Vision Surround is very absorbing and completely different from normal gaming sessions. It could be the future of videogames. However, there are many negative points, one of those being the need of using the 3D glasses. Also, the stereoscopic gaming can be tiresome, and it’s almost impossible to play for more than 30 minutes without feeling slightly ill.

Another negative point is about the 3D glasses, once again: using it, the player will lose 85% of the brightness in games. Which means the images are much darker than usual. Changing the brightness on the monitor doesn’t work as well, as it would occur in a change in contrast as well.

The Gaming Experience - Part 3

In a driving game, for example, the length of the vehicle can be seen in 3D and the space it occupies on the track. The objects pass by in an incredible speed, giving the realistic feel to the game. In cases where the game allows to crash against objects, those seem to come towards the player with quite a violence.

If playing in first-person mode, then the immersion is even bigger. The crashes against obstacles and objects are even more real and spectacular. Other things that can be highlighted when in 3D mode are the interface items, such as mini-maps, that are highlighted, for example.

The gaming experience - Part 1

The gaming experience when using a 3D stereoscopic system will be completely different from what every gamer’s used to. The sensations are different and it brings new perspectives in game, perhaps even adding new tactical solutions and a bigger immersion.

The usage of three monitors in stereoscopic vision also gives different sensations depending on the game. In a driving title, the landscape will pass by on the sides, giving a better sense of speed. In a shooter, there will be different possibilities and strategies as players can see their enemy’s movements from the sides.

Some games don’t have the support for the resolution that would be needed in order to play without stretching the image. Although for some games it is possible to force a change on the driver panel, some titles, such as COD: Modern Warfare 2, will still not give the right proportion to the images.

Introduction

3D Vision is the name nVIDIA chose to their new technology that manage 3D contents: Thanks to a graphic card, a kit that includes glasses and a transmitter and a monitor capable of reaching 120 Hz, it’s possible to use the PC to play or see movies in 3D.

Our next few articles will talk about the 3D Vision Surround, a slightly modification of the 3D Vision technology brought by nVIDIA to gamers: with this name, nVIDIA indicates the possibility of using the 3D technology from 3D vision simultaneously in three displays.

Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2 is an action game that features shooting scenes and driving sceens in a free-roaming world, in which the character can freely explore the game maps. It was developed with an AI system that allows the character to interact with the scenario and adapt to the situations in a dynamic way.

For this title, the sessions were done in DirectX 11, with all settings in high or very high. The ambient occlusion was selected but in a low level, and the Bokeh filter was disabled. Also enabled were the Anti-aliasing at 4x and the anisotropic filter at 16x. The resolutions chosen were 1920 x 1080 and 1680 x 1050.

GeForce GTX 480

- 1920 x 1080 - 64.4
- 1680 x 1050 - 71.9

GeForce GTX 470

- 1920 x 1080 - 52.5
- 1680 x 1050 - 58.5

Metro 2033

Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter developed by 4A Games. It was released not too long ago and it features one of the most advanced graphic engines in the market. Metro 2033 is based on a book by Dmitry Glukhovsky and features a post-apocalyptic scenario: a bunch of survivors have found safety beneath the Moscow subway, and there’s where the game takes place, while the surface on Earth is poisoned and destroyed. Metro 2033 is based on 4A Games’ own technology, and it supports DirectX 11.

In order to evaluate the performances with this game, the tool Fraps was used, recording the medium framerate. The resolutions chosen were 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1080, anisotropic filter 16x and no anti-aliasing, with the DirectX 11 APIs and settings in the maximum.

GeForce GTX 480

- 1920 x 1080 - 28.2
- 1680 x 1050 - 31.6

GeForce GTX 470

- 1920 x 1080 - 21.8
- 1680 x 1050 - 25.5

Battleforge

Battleforge, like many of the titles in this review, also features an internal game benchmark. In this specific case, each configuration option was set to high, except for shadows and effect quality, which were left in “medium”, and anti-aliasing at 4x.

GeForce GTX 480

- 2560 x 1600 - 91
- 1920 x 1200 - 126
- 1680 x 1050 - 145
- 1280 x 1024 - 162

GeForce GTX 470

- 2560 x 1600 - 73
- 1920 x 1200 - 112
- 1680 x 1050 - 125
- 1280 x 1024 - 146

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum offers an integrated benchmark, that was executed using the very-high quality level and anti-aliasing 8x.

GeForce GTX 480

- 2560 x 1600 - 82
- 1920 x 1200 - 134
- 1680 x 1050 - 164
- 1280 x 1024 - 202

GeForce GTX 470

- 2560 x 1600 - 65
- 1920 x 1200 - 106
- 1680 x 1050 - 132
- 1280 x 1024 - 163

Batman: Arkham Asylum was commercialized as one of the main games following the “the way it’s meant to be played” motto by nVIDIA, and its internal configuration menu gives the possibility of managing the anti-aliasing only if an nVIDIA card is being used. For ATI cards, the solution is to force an anti-aliasing, which compromises the performances.