While cleaning my desk, I found some old 3D glasses and decided to test the PAL Stereo 3D Mod. Here are the first results. The screenshots are from my Solomon Islands DGen campaign project. You will need 3D glasses to see them correctly. It's best to look at the screenshots in full view.

For me the 3D effect works quite well, especially in the first three pics. What is your opinion, does it work for you?

what is needed for this mod, only 3D glasses or has the gfx card or the flatscreen to have some special abilities?

I am only using 3D glasses and my card is a normal Radeon 5850. I don't know what happens when a 3D monitor is used.
The mod is really amazing. I highly recommend to take a look at it.

I'll share my post from the old A&A forum (below, w/o italics). I think it illustrates the difference that can be achieved through manipulation of the config ini settings to suit the individual characteristics of our vision. I also believe that the red and cyan color values of the glasses also have a considerable impact on the effectiveness of this mod. I think that's why I had to go with a much narrower setting. As you will see, I took the frugal approach and made my own glasses out of some old CD covers.. although I doubt the manufacturer gave any consideration to optical applications. But they did seem to do the trick, at least enough to readily try things without having to place an order for 3D glasses.

That said, I have since given up on the mod, as it was starting to mess with my eyes (CD covers perhaps?), and keeping up with the changes and swithching it on and off all the time, was just one more thing to deal with; I'm only running one IL2 installation for simplicity's sake, and I didn't like having to switch the mod/settings whenever I wanted to skin something. If not for that, I might have sacrificed my eyes (twitching, spasms) for the cool effects it rendered.

Also, I'm now running the Nvidia 275.33 drivers (IIRC) on a 560ti, as they seem to be the best for FSX and everything else, given my current hardware. I tried the current drivers, the ones that include the FPS limiter and FXAA anti-aliasing, and even though I didn't use either, it really screwed up my FSX IQ.. texture spikes, flashing, missing textures, stuttering, a virtual acid trip. Even Nvidia Inspector couldn't fix it. So once again, "if it ain't broke.." So I went back to the old 275.33's and all is well; smooth frames, beautiful textures, visual bliss, etc. ..although I am still using the latest version of Nvidia Inspector. FWIW, I'm running a Dynex 37" 1920x1080p LCD TV.. no fancy 3D stuff.

Anyway, here's the original post (please keep in mind, that I posted this on 2-DEC-2011, so there's likely been a few developments/improvements since then)...









The shots above were taken in DBW using Benitomuso's 00_PAL-Stero3D v4 Final stereoscopic mod. You'll need a pair of red/cyan 3D glasses to see these properly, although any red & cyan transparent material will work; red for the left eye, cyan for the right. I did not re-size any of the screenshots, as I found that doing so, will also re-size the separation required to achieve the stereoscopic effect. So I simply pasted the raw screens into a 1024x600 frame, and shifted left-right, up-down, for best composition. I applied the following 3D Separation Setting adjustments to the IL2 config.ini:

[Mods]
PAL3DStart=1
PAL3DSeparation=0.2
PAL3DSeparationExt=3.0
PAL3DScrShtDir=MyScreenShots/
PAL3DScrShtExt=jpg

I found the default entries too far apart for my eyes, so I had to narrow the 3D separation considerably to achieve the clearest image. I believe the separation settings are the key to achieving optimal image quality, based upon each user's unique 'visuality'. So someone who prefers a wider separation, may see little, or no, stereoscopic effect in my screenshots; although the shots in Benitomuso's thread I linked to, might display a better 3D effect, as their separation is much wider. Those with a more narrow preference, might want to try my settings as a basis for fine-tuning to their own eyes. There's also some effect in adjusting the red/cyan values in the gfx card settings, to better match the values of the glasses, but I have not tried it yet... at some point I've got to go back to skinning, and I don't want to risk messing up my calibration.

Btw; I did have to disable 6DoF and ercan-wide with this version, to make the cockpit display in 3D; so although I'm still running in 1920x1080 while inflight.. menu screens remain 'boxed'.

I'm also running perfect mode, using a MSI 560ti Twin Frozr, with the following Nvidia Inspector settings..





I fabricated some 3D glasses, by knocking the lenses out of an old pair of 'dollar store' reading glasses, and replaced them with a set cut from a pair of CD jewel cases. I simply traced the frame pattern onto the jewel case plastic, then used the tip of a hobby knife to alternately score each side of the plastic, until I could snap off the outer portions without cracking the inner 'lenses'. Too much pressure with the knife, or not scoring deeply enough, usually results in cracking the plastic into the intended 'lens' area. Took me about a half hour to carefully score the lenses without cracking them. The lenses were then glued to the outer portion of the empty frames using a tube of 'Shoe Goo', although any sort of flexible adhesive or sealant should work equally as well. The only disadvantage to the product I used, were some rather noxious fumes; I had to allow them to dry overnight in the garage, but they were still a bit 'loud' after 24 hours. So please take the 'fume factor' into consideration if you decide to 'do-it-yourself'. You certainly don't want a stinky pair of glasses resting directly above your nostrils; unless they smell like aviation fuel and gunsmoke of course

Lastly, this is a really cool mod; it was well worth installing, just for the 'Wow!' factor alone. I don't think I've ever had as much fun smoking a bandit and watching the parts fall off, as I have with this mod. Thanks to Pablo (Benitomuso), for bringing the '3rd dimension' to our IL2 world.

Rudi, when I look at your screenshots I can only get a very minor 3D effect compared to my own screenshots. I guess the separation is much to narrow for my eyes. I am using version 5 of the PAL Stereo 3D Mod, without editing the mods default settings.
3D view is a complicated matter, I think I read somewhere that up to 10 percent of the population are completely unable to see such 3D images.

My only problem with the mod is, that I get "seasick" after some time when playing the game in 3D mode, but I have to admit, that I am exceptionally sensitive in this regard. I have similar problems when playing fast first-person shooters, that's why I was never able to play games like Counter-Strike, Battlefield or Call of Duty.

Hi Juri,

The "seasickness" sounds familiar, as my wife has the same problem. I put her in a Stearman with a Track IR, and she became nausious whenever she looked down.. plus she has a phobia about heights, so that cancels any hope of getting her addicted to flight sims.

Yes, I think I might be an 'odd-ball' when it comes to using the narrow 3D settings. And it's not like my eyes are mounted atop antennae growing out of my head or anything .. but with the wider settings, I was still seeing two distinct images from the red and cyan. Sometimes, it was only in the cockpit, sometimes distant objects as well. This 'ghosting' effect would diminish as I narrowed the settings.

Although the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that it must be the shade of lenses I was using. I'm fairly certain, that if I would have used a 'real' pair of 3D glasses, with proper lenses, that the wider settings would have been more effective.

So my initial conclusions may have been more of a placebo effect than anything else. But I still found myself ducking a few tracers occasionally, so there must be something to it. I'll be interested to see if anyone else is as narrow-viewed as I am.. hmmm, that didn't sound quite right :nea:

Cheers mate!