Build Your Own: Wall-Sized 3D Gaming, Just Like Theaters Do It

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Benchmark Results: Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box

I can't think of a racing title I'd rather play to experience the ugly fun of high-speed collisions in stereo 3D. For the record, this game gets the most traction out of all the titles I demonstrated when I invited people over to experience wall-sized 3D gaming. Burnout is very accessible and players never seem to tire of racing through Paradise City. High-speed crashing and jumps in 3D never get old.

Game Settings:

We set the native projector resolution to 1280x720 and the game's visual detail settings to their highest levels with 8x MSAA.

We use 8x MSAA with this title because, for whatever reason, Burnout is a game that seems to highlight jaggy edges at low resolutions, so lots of anti-aliasing is how we counter that.

Game Experience Using the TriDef Ignition Driver:

Burnout Paradise works very well with the TriDef driver and our only complaint is lower-than-expected performance. The high level of AA might be to blame here, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between 4xAA and 8xAA after changing the setting, and we appreciate the visual improvement.

The Virtual 3D option works fine but lowers the frame rate with both graphics cards, so there is no reason to enable it.

Game Experience Using the iZ3D Driver:

Once again, the iZ3D driver provides good depth, but we experience shadow artifacts and glitches that spoil the experience. The road seems to splatter with shadows that shouldn't be there and these shadows move and shift constantly. Turning shadows to low would fix the issue, but losing the depth that shadows provide is too big of a trade-off to be acceptable.

Note the extra random shadows all over the road compared to the TriDef driver. These shadows crawled all over the place while driving

Burnout Paradise 3D Stereo Performance:

Performance is very similar with both graphics cards, except when it comes to the iZ3D driver, where the GeForce card supplies almost twice the frame rate for some reason. Given the shadowing problems, however, we wouldn't recommend using the iZ3D driver in this scenario, so this isn't that important. The TriDef driver supplies about 20 FPS, which is surprisingly smooth and doesn’t seem to hamper playability, although we do yearn for more. We suspect the minimum and average frame rates are very close in this game, and that would help account for the positive experience.

Don Woligroski
124 Comments Comment from the forums
  • MiamiU
    seems like being a hardcore gamer just keeps getting more and more expensive...
    Reply
  • Don't gives too big an image to try and see it 3d. A monitor can't handle: 800px \00d7 248px!!!! That's just crazy big!!!
    Reply
  • Icehearted
    As for poor folk like me, we'll just settle for those still images where we cross our eyes, and cry because $2,565 is far away from "comfortable".
    Reply
  • winner4455
    I can see this becoming main stream and the next few years... In 3d too.
    Reply
  • tigerwraith
    2.6k now but you know things like this keep getting cheaper and cheaper. Maybe by this time next year, the 1080p 2600 lumens will drop to 500, and the drivers will better support dual projector setups.
    Reply
  • tigerwraith
    But I do have a question would of mattered if you used LCD projectors?
    Reply
  • gti88
    Great article! Thanx a lot.
    But as I can see, 3D stereo is not there yet.
    Almost no movies are available at 3DS, and game developers don't focus on stereo optimisation. Thus, we have some glitches and inconveniences.
    Reply
  • pojih
    ahh, something else to cost an arm and a leg...

    not saying that many people here don't want the fastest and most expensive....

    but it was clearly shown that many people looking at this site want something that performs for what it costs, as seen by the fermi release and the comments .....
    Reply
  • skora
    Whats the next price bracket up for a projector with higher res?

    I like the idea of dual projectors better than the alt-image standard, but they didn't ask me.

    Here's a wild thought, soon, everyone will have their own glasses that not only do the shutter for 3D, but will also be able to be personal monitors. Connect to any computer/phone/TV with your glasses. Displays might even become unnecessary. That will be the next wireless mainstream device. The iShades. Phone, mobile pc and display, earbud is right there. Have pants that have built in keyboard. We'll all just be sitting there with our shades on and never see the person next to us as we get lost in the cloud. And it all starts with 3D glasses. :P
    Reply
  • djab
    IceheartedAs for poor folk like me, we'll just settle for those still images where we cross our eyes, and cry because $2,565 is far away from "comfortable".
    No, you can at least use red/cyan paper glasses with iz3d drivers and a normal display.
    That is not that bad!
    Reply