Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Native AMD HD3D Support:
Good 3D result on the HUD, but no apparent depth in the game world. Could not capture stereoscopic image
This is one of the two games that offers native AMD HD3D support. Stereoscopic mode works fine (except for some subtle lighting artifacts) and is enabled through the in-game settings. But we noticed that the 3D effect is muted, and even when the game’s depth control is maxed out, the output appears flat.
Though we were unable to capture a screenshot in HD3D mode, we used a micrometer to measure the separation of objects in the scene directly on the monitor. This rudimentary test indicates that, regardless of the distance to the player's view, the image for each eye is separated by the same amount. If this is the case, the resulting image isn't truly in stereo. It's simply a flat image that appears to be farther from the viewer. The only part of the game that obviously appears in 3D is the HUD, but the actual game world doesn't appear to have any depth.
We asked the developers for feedback regarding this problem, and received the following response from Eidos Montreal:
"The game is fully 3D in that it renders two eyes separately, using adjusted projection matrices for each eye. However, we have chosen to not have ‘out-of-screen’ effects, and the standard game settings do not have a lot visible in the area close to the player where you can best distinguish near from far.
We have not had a lot of consumer feedback based on this, but we are looking at adding some additional user settings to allow players to customize the 3D experience a bit more in a future patch."
Now, regardless of whether or not a stereoscopic 3D game features "out-of-screen" effects, depth should be easily perceivable behind the screen. We should see a difference in separation between objects that are very close compared to objects that are far away.
If the game is using adjusted projection matrices, perhaps they're simply subtler than we're used to. Nevertheless, we don't understand why we're unable to measure a difference in separation. In any case, additional 3D controls that address this issue would be absolutely fantastic, and we certainly hope that Eidos decides to include them in a patch.
AMD HD3D and the TriDef Ignition Driver:
Not recommended; does not work
TriDef ignition will not launch this game in DirectX 11 mode. It did work in DirectX 9 with Virtual 3D mode when we tried the review copy of the game (screenshot above), but we haven't had any luck with the public release.
When it did work, the result seemed flat, just as it does when using the game’s native HD3D support.
Nvidia 3D Vision:
Not recommended; does not work, no image to show
This game is unplayable with 3D Vision because lighting effects do not line up with the objects casting light in one eye. Turning off post-processing effects does not fix this problem, and the game is so peppered with light glows that it’s impossible to enjoy with Nvidia's solution.
