The unofficial ASUS VR100 page

This page was innitially released on September 4, 1999
Last update: June 25, 2000

Quick info (updated):

ASUS VR100 is a wired 3D-shutterglasses system for newer ASUS-graphics-boards (V3400, V3800, V6600). The ASUS-drivers feature universal stereoscopic support for Direct3D and OpenGL-games.
ASUS utilizes interlace and page-flipping modes. On the windows desktop the interlace mode can be used to watch 3D-images, -animations and -videos. Even more important: this feature enables lots of native stereo-applications and -games, such as Stereo Image Factory, 3DEM and H3D-Winquake.

The ASUS V3800 and V6600 TVR/TVR Deluxe boards with TNT2- and GeForce-chipsets feature a dedicated 3.5 mm stereo output for the glasses. On the V3800 Pure and on all V3400 boards the connector is missing. These boards require the VR100 Stereoscope Upgrade Kit which contains a VGA-pass-through controller.

The on-board controller of the ASUS V3800/V6600 TVR/Deluxe/Ultra boards is real fun. No additional cables, no power-adaptor, no VGA-dongle - ahhhhh what a relief. If only every board had such a connector! Since ASUS uses passive synchronization for the glasses there's less overhead. ASUS doesn't suffer from IRQ-problems and slip-ups as ELSA Revelator.

The glasses are identical to the classic APEC products and have large and clear LCD-panels. They fit over any prescribed glasses. The ASUS glasses come at an incredible low price of about $30 (without controller). They're also available as a bundle with the deluxe-version ASUS-V3800/V6600 boards at almost no extra cost.

The big drawback of the ASUS solution is the early development status of the Direct3D-stereo-drivers. There is potential and there's a new beta-release every now and then. Nevertheless at this point (early September 99) they are just not as good and compatible as the Revelator and eyeSCREAM drivers !

The ASUS-combo (at least my V3800 TVR sample) does work with the ELSA-Revelator drivers though, but the stereo-orientation has to be set manually. It's somewhat tricky, but possible. This isn't nice against ELSA of course, but I've told them long ago that their drivers will work with many 3rd party glasses. I was surprised when ELSA de-protected their drivers recently. As long as their glasses dominate the market it's fine, but when low-cost glasses, like ASUS take over ELSA may run into problems.
BTW, the famous eyeSCREAM drivers will not work with the ASUS-glasses, since they require a sync-doubler!

Nevertheless, the ASUS-solution with on-board-glasses-controller and desktop-interlace-capabilities is the right choice for many stereo-addicts.
 

Update (Dec. 30, 1999)

ASUS released the V6600 TVR/TVR deluxe boards which have similar features as the V3800 line, but with GeForce chip and a huge software package, including Ulead Video Studio SE.
The latest driver 3.62 beta 5 provides native stereo support for OpenGL too and it works quite well. Stereo effect in GL is good, while there's still much room for improvement in D3D, at least under DX6. According to ASUS the driver is optimized for DX7. Further improvements, like better quality under DX6, are underway.
A nice feature in the driver package is a stereo video player which allows watching of 3D-video-tapes flicker-free on the PC using the ASUS glasses. (Important update: The player is no longer available, ASUS has removed it from the driver package)

Update (June. 25, 2000)

Direct3D driver 5.16 released. Very good quality. Read review.
 
 

This review isn't intended for beginners.  Please consult the Basics and FAQ pages if questions arise.

Content:

Pro & Con

The Controller

Flicker

The Glasses

Native Stereo-Software support

The universal Direct3D stereo driver

ASUS Stereo Video Player

ASUS Hardware and ELSA Revelator drivers

How to use other boards, glasses & even HMDs with
the ASUS drivers

H3D/eyeSCREAM and ASUS boards
- does it work?

Related Links:

ASUS-Germany
ASUS-Taiwan
ASUS-USA
ASUS-FTP-Germany (latest beta)

ELSA Revelator review
Wicked3D review
H3D review
 

 

 Test configuration:

VR100G The on-board solution
(V3800 TVR/Deluxe/Ultra - not available for V3400 and V3800 Pure)

The VR100G package contains glasses only,
no controllers, no additional cables, no software;

it requires an ASUS V3800 TVR/Deluxe/Ultra graphics board with 3.5 mm VR-Glasses-Out connector

The new ASUS TNT2 boards V3800 TVR, Deluxe and Ultra feature a standard 3.5 mm stereo connector. The glasses are directly connected, triggered and powered by the graphics board. No additional controllers/wires required. The connector is triggered passively by the Vertical Sync of the VGA-signal. Currently there is no VESA DIN-3 connector on the ASUS-boards.

Due to the low price and high availability the VR100G glasses are the No. 1 choice for controller-homebrewers!!!
 
 

VR100 Stereoscope Upgrade Kit
(for V3400 and V3800 pure)

ASUS VR100 Stereoscope Upgrade Kit
Internal VGA-pass-through shutterglasses controller
with 3.5 mm and VESA DIN-3 glasses outputs

The upgrade kit consists of the glasses and an internal controller which doesn't requrire an expansion slot. The power comes from the PC via internal connection. There's a T-power cable in the box. The controller comes on a slot-sheet. There is one 3.5 mm and one VESA DIN-3 connector which can be used simultaneously.

ASUS upgrade kit VGA-pass-through cable and power supply - floppy style

The controller is a plain autosync VGA-pass-through device which syncs to any interlace or page-flipping signal. Unfortunately there are no control buttons. It's always active and there's no reverse.
The upgrade kit works on any graphics board with standard VGA-connector.

 
Flicker isn't an issue. The ASUS drivers don't support refresh rates lower than 100 Hz.
A monitor with 80+ kHz horizontal and 120+ Hz vertical range is recommended.

 
Please check the X-RAY Lab for a weight&size comparison of various shutterglasses.

The ASUS-drivers come with a windows-desktop stereo-image viewer. This viewer can be used as a switch to put Windows into interlace-mode. Now you can use any native stereo-software which runs on the Desktop. Check the applications-page for programs with interlace-output format.
You can also use games such as Winquake, H3D-Winquake or  Hexen2 in a Window.

 

 
The ASUS stereo-driver is an integral part of the ASUS VGA-board drivers. So whoever uses such a board and new drivers has the VR100 stuff in it.

These sections will be added later:

Game and Application Compatibility

under construction - more comments to be added later, check the pro-con table for now

Options & Features

under construction - more comments to be added later, check the pro-con table for now
 
 

ASUS Stereo Video Player

 

Dec. 18, 1999:  ASUS StereoMovie Player - 3D-Video with PC-shutterglasses
(Important update: The player is no longer available, ASUS has removed it from the driver package)

The video player can be found in V6600 driver V3.62 Beta 5.
Hopefully there will be soon a V3800 driver which contains the player also.
ASUS provided me with a stand-alone file and I tried the player on V3800.

Purpose:

- watching genuine field-sequential 3D-video-tapes (prerecorded or NuView) flicker-free on the PC using PC-shutterglasses

How to use:

1 - connect VCR or camcorder to ASUS board
2 - plug 3D-glasses into ASUS board
3 - start StereoMovie Player executable
4 - insert 3D-tape and press Play
5 - kiss your TV-shutterglasses good-bye

Features:

- works on all ASUS boards with video-in
- composite and S-Video input
- works in a window and full-screen
- 1x, 2x and full-screen zoom
- NTSC and PAL support
- full resolution, e.g. 720x288 per field in PAL-mode
- uses page-flipping, even on the desktop (amazing)
- perfectly stable, no problems/slip-ups with the flipping
- doesn't change current graphics mode
- works at current windows refresh rate
- doesn't require glasses driver
- no black interlace lines
- stereo reverse button (away-team to Capt'n - we finally found intelligent live down here!)
- stereo-/monoscopic button - allows watching 3D-tapes in half-res 2D

Problems:

- no digitizing/storing of 3D-videos
- aspect ratio in PAL not correct yet - image is too high

Test Configuration:

ASUS V3800 TVR, driver v2.25
ASUS V6600 TVR, driver v3.62 beta5
ASUS glasses
Win98
gfx modes tested:
1024*768 32bit 85 Hz
1024*768 32bit 100 Hz
800*600 32bit 120 Hz

Assessment:

I'll never watch a 3D-tape on the damn TV again - promise!

The ASUS TNT/TNT2 boards and glasses do work with the ELSA-Revelator drivers available for free from the ELSA website. Currently (August 99) the ELSA drivers deliver higher compatibility and quality for Direct3D games.
The ASUS-controllers can't distinguish between left and right when using the ELSA-drivers. The images may be stereo-reversed, i.e. the left eye sees the right image and vice versa. Avoid this inversion at any cost! Since the ASUS-controllers don't have a revese switch the only way to get it right is to hit the ELSA-stereo-on/off-hotkey until you 'catch' the right side.

ASUS drivers on other boards and glasses

 
Boards from other manufacturers:

Up to now the drivers should work on ASUS boards only.
 

Glasses from other manufacturers:

The ASUS boards and drivers deliver standard interlace and page-flipping stereo, also known as field-sequential format. There are many shutterglasses on the market which are checking the vertical sync signal on the VGA-output to synchronize the glasses. That's what ASUS own on-board controllers and upgrade-kits do.

ASUS-compatible systems:
 

VR-Joy

i-Art VirtualEyes

i-Art Eye3D

Tetratel EyeFX

Another I's (?)

NuVision 60GX-NSR

CyberStuff Cyber3DVisor (!?)

3DTV stereo driver model-3000 (among other 3DTV models)

APEC VR97

homebrew VGA-PT or SD

VRex VR-Surfer (Interlace mode only !?)

ASUS-incompatible systems:

ELSA Revelator (trigger missing)

H3D (color code missing)

eyeSCREAM (color code missing)

all parallel and serial port systems, e.g. 3D-SPEX, Cyberboy (port not triggered by ASUS drivers)

3D-Max and other ISA-board systems (board not triggered by ASUS drivers)

 

 

H3D/eyeSCREAM glasses and ASUS boards - does it work?

The H3D-Activator - a great tool - but not much help for the ASUS-drivers

Does it work? - Basically the answer is NO!

If you own some H3D/Wicked3D glasses you may wonder if they'll work on the ASUS boards using Ghazalis H3D-Activator.
Well they'll work using the Activator in Page-Flipping mode (also for ASUS interlace mode), but there are several problems:

- there must be no change in graphics mode after using the Activator or the glasses will drop out of
stereo-mode; many games use different modes for menues and game, so there's a big problem
- it's hard or even impossible to get the stereo-orientation right
- the original ASUS glasses work under way higher resolutions and refresh rates. I tried to put the
H3D/Wicked3D into page-flipping mode under 1024*768@hi-color@100 Hz - no use.
- what we need would be a stay-resident hot-key controlled version of the H3D-Activator which can be started from within the game
 

BTW the ASUS-controllers won't work on current Wicked3D boards and drivers, since they lack
the required sync-doubler circuitry!

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Special thanks to ASUS-Germany and ASUS-Taiwan for their support

 

Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
The author can not guarantee the accuracy or topicality of the information given on this page.
Christoph Bungert, Germany