CES 2008: IZ3D gaming monitor pwns 3D plasmas
Tucked away in the Microsoft stand at CES, a company called IZ3D is showing off the world’s first 3D gaming monitor. There’s been a lot of 3D news floating around the show this year thanks to the Texas Instruments DLP announcement and the compatible Samsung plasma screens that will be debuting the technology later in the year. IZ3D’s screens are way better though and here’s why:
First off, TI 3D DLP has a fundamental problem on its hands – games have to be specially made to support it. Although that presumably isn’t too difficult (the DLP booth was showing off a fully 3D version of Madden NFL), it’ll still be a tough sell to coax developers to dedicate more development budget to a game just to cater to one tiny niche audience. The IZ3D monitor simply doesn’t have that problem. As long as you have a graphics card with a dual output – as most proper cards do – then the screen drivers will sort out the rest. That means any game running on DirectX 8 or higher is capable of turning 3D.
I watched a demo of an ordinary game of World of Warcraft and it look great, exhibiting a really engaging depth to the screen so you actually felt like you were looking through a window on to another world.
The IZ3D rep also explained that their screen technology used a more passive form of 3D, which is less of a strain on the eyes. I popped over to the 3D DLP immediately afterwards and have to agree that I’d be a lot happier watching their screen for a few hours than the DLP ones. On the other hand, DLP clearly has the advantage in that it displays a considerably deeper view – although it did make my eyes feel like they were spasming at points. Maybe you’d get used to it though.
Finally, IZ3D has some really cool looking 3D glasses that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be caught wearing. The DLP ones obviously weren’t the final product, but daaaaamn, they were hideous – As Susi’s video admirably demonstrates.
CES 2008 Special
Read all our coverage from the show in our CES 2008 category
