You may not even remember this technology and surely you have never tried it. It’s normal, it was an extremely expensive technology, which required special glasses and a specific gaming monitor. Only the glasses and the monitor were around 800 euros, to which you had to add a computer to move it. Although it may not seem like much, today the monitor would cost more than 1000 euros and the glasses 300 euros, quietly.
What was NVIDIA 3D Vision?
We talk about one technology similar to 3D cinema, but taken to the world of video game. NVIDIA 3D Vision technology was launched in 2008, which sought to bring the immersive effect of 3D to the world of video games. This technology required special glasses developed by NVIDIA and monitors compatible with certain features.
The first thing that was needed to use the 3D Vision glasses was a display with 1080p resolution and one 120Hz refresh rate. Although today these things are as common as going to buy bread, back then it was something new. We must bear in mind that this technology was compatible with CRT monitor (those that had ass) as long as they had a 1024 × 768 resolution and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. It was also compatible with certain projects.
In addition to the monitor, a Intel Core 2 Duo processor or an AMD Athlon X2 or better. Come on, with a dual core processor you had enough for this technology. Also required a total of 2GB DDR2
One of the most problematic points was the graphics card, since it required a certain amount of power. At a minimum, NVIDIA recommended a GTX 260 or higher. It wasn’t a particularly high requirement, but if you wanted good performance, you really had to go to a GTX 280.
Lack of interest by manufacturers, developers and users
NVIDIA 3D Vision had all the ballots to be a dismal failure, as it was. Only the glasses with their necessary accessories cost about 200 euros. This made it a really uninteresting product in itself.
But, in addition, you needed a special monitor that supported said technology. They came to launch only 7 monitors supported and they cost 500 euros or more, something that was a lot of money.
Yes, there were quite a few compatible games, up to 38 were released with compatibility. They weren’t bad games, as we had, between them, The Witcher 2, Mafia 2, Just Cause 2, Civilization V, several Battlefields, and the first three Batman Arkham games.
I remember having tried this technology with Resident Evil 5, something that was quite interesting, but little else. It was at a Lan Party, so maybe the experience wasn’t as good as it should have been, but anyway, It wasn’t a “how the game changes” feel either. It was just flashy and different, you had more depth, although there was no reason to spend on that.
Most supported games were released between 2010 and 2012. After 2012 no supported games were released as it was more expensive to develop for this technology than the number of users who would use it.
Despite everything, NVIDIA continued to offer support by drivers to this technology until April 11, 2019. As of that date, support for NVIDIA 3D Vision was completely withdrawn.
If I wanted to make you with some, as a souvenir, they are currently sold in Wallapop for about 30 euros.
