In game Anaglyph mode on Trackmania Nations Forever ! (free)

[akwaba]

The french nadeo-team deliver their latest version of Trackmania. If unitedforever is payable, nationforever is totally free. you can download it at http://www.focus-home.fr/trackmania/ind ... ub=nations

Trackmania include for the first time an anaglyph option at the start of game or directly "in game switch" (move you mouse on the upper right).
You can even modifiy the intensity of relief : from 100% to none or 200%.

I test it, very nice as this type of option are so rare, but still anaglyph...with all problems of it.


ps sorry for english and asking you if it exist other game with a similar include option ?

[Neil]

That's awesome! I'll try to get in touch with them.

Regards,
Neil

[nubie]

Wow, now just to convince them of the viability of Planar, Dual VGA, iZ3D, and Zalman rigs

I am downloading now, I loved TMN:Sunrise eXtreme, I think it worked on the Planar setup. IIRC the "speed" effect is very good in 3D.

That game is just a trip, air brakes, puzzle levels, it is nuts.

[akwaba]

in my opinion, if they put anaglyph mode in ther game, it's to take some knowledge and test about relief vision in order to be the first game's developpers on real 3D vision with or without glasses...

united forever offers 7 environnments (including nation), so with many more landscape to discovers in relief.

[kapi]

Work with native drivers from Vuzix Vr920 HMD too, just copy vuzix d3d9.dll into install drawer and tweak IWEARvr920.cfg 8)

[nubie]

I have it running on a planar setup, does anyone know how to get the tail-lights and the sun (skybox??) to draw correctly? It is incredibly immersive when either of these isn't on the screen.

So far I unchecked post-process effects, and I checked advanced stereoscopy, turned shaders to PC0, no difference in the sun or the tail-lights. Also gave Disable Z-buffer range, sun is still messing up the effect.

Great game, really really fun, still don't understand why it isn't a more popular game.

Edit:

Still no luck on fixing that tail-light sky problem, although I did find a left-right mode and an internal 3D setup menu, too bad I can't use the planar rig natively in-game, I wish they would mirror the left screen, because then I could

[nubie]

Just a quick how-to on getting the advanced stereo menu (when you press ESC key during gameplay), go to Configure, then Advanced, then Compatibility, and there will be an option called "advanced stereoscopy".

If anyone has a Dual solution (projectors or HMD, or the uncanny ability to diverge their eyballs), please let us know how well it works

If I had a pair of CRTs I could swap the polarity on the yoke of one and use it in a mirror viewing fashion http://www.crystalcanyons.net/pages/Tec ... ewing.shtm

You need to set your rig to Horizontal span, and then in game press esc and choose left/right as your solution instead of anaglyph. I can't believe they have this support in a free game of such high caliber.

[nubie]

I am not sure what has changed, but I uninstalled all drivers and got 171.23 forceware with stereo 162.50 installed. It seems a huge amount better, the shaders are drawn at screen depth still, but now they are "transparent" so that they don't intrude as much on the immersion.

Bonus, the control of convergence is back (169.21 didn't have this), the classic control panel look is updated quite a bit (ironically, it still isn't available without the sedonadisable trick).

Only problem? Using shader quality PC3 High I got a message about low framerates, can't wait for my 8800GTS 320mb to get here . Interesting fact, if you enable the in game "left-right" 3D with full-screen effects on it doesn't work! Only the right half of the screen is displayed, the left is entirely black.

I tried it before installing the Stereo drivers, I can play cross-eyed, but it isn't the best for my eyes. Perhaps I should make a video of it playing across two monitors in Horizontal Span mode and post it (fraps). In fact I can use the stereo player to see their in-game dual mode on my rig

[kapi]

Great game, really really fun, still don't understand why it isn't a more popular game.

This game is very popular, before, free version was named Trackmania Nation, a lot of players on (a sort of counter strike for cars), they made a lot versions too (commercials) Trackmania United sold on Steam. I play since it start (Trackmania Original 2003) Nadeo also made popular Virtual Skipper . Tm is not a car simulator, cars can be controlled in the air, you can brake, change direction and accelerate when you fly. This version support very well G25 logitech, before it was unplayable with (fun with a paddle too).

[Mel]

I tried running it on my iZ3d yesterday with limited success. Here's what happened:

- Set stereo for 'HotKey' activation in iZ3D control panel.
- Start TmNationsForever. In the game's initial startup dialog, selected 'Configuration' and chose 1680x1050rez (iZ3D native).
- Continue with starting game. The next dialog to show up asks you to login under a specific user, and this is where the problems begin. Mouse clicks are NOT recognized on any part of the login dialog.
- I Alt-Tabbed back to the iZ3D control panel and selected 'Enable Stereo', clicked 'Apply', then Alt-Tabbed back to the game. Mouse clicks started working, and I'm able to I was able to start a race.
- At 1680x1050, in stereo, the frame rate is for all intents and purposes, reduced to a slide show. After a short while, the game recognizes the abysmal frame rate and asks if you'd like to auto-adjust the game settings to speed it up. When I selected yes, it switched the rez to 640x480, *windowed* mode, and the frame rate became playable, and stereo was still turned on.

I played around with the game's configuration to see if I could get it to start full-screen at a lower resolution...no joy. And no mater what I did, the only way to get stereo working was to use the Alt-Tab procedure used above...just the act of changing the iZ3D settings at the game's login screen enables stereo.

It's a pretty fun game, and the stereo effect is pretty good, so it's too bad the iZ3D drivers don't play nice with it.

[akwaba]

You have to know that trackmania nations have been developped very closer with Nvidia (major partner at ESWC). NOt for the stereoscopy but for give the best results in term of quality and frames rate.
For example, somes players who have minors screen bug are very often with an ATI card.

as the IZ3D is a different driver approach than nvidia, may be explain your bad frame rates.

[mastRmind]

I tried running it on my iZ3d yesterday with limited success. Here's what happened:

- Set stereo for 'HotKey' activation in iZ3D control panel.
- Start TmNationsForever. In the game's initial startup dialog, selected 'Configuration' and chose 1680x1050rez (iZ3D native).
- Continue with starting game. The next dialog to show up asks you to login under a specific user, and this is where the problems begin. Mouse clicks are NOT recognized on any part of the login dialog.
- I Alt-Tabbed back to the iZ3D control panel and selected 'Enable Stereo', clicked 'Apply', then Alt-Tabbed back to the game. Mouse clicks started working, and I'm able to I was able to start a race.
- At 1680x1050, in stereo, the frame rate is for all intents and purposes, reduced to a slide show. After a short while, the game recognizes the abysmal frame rate and asks if you'd like to auto-adjust the game settings to speed it up. When I selected yes, it switched the rez to 640x480, *windowed* mode, and the frame rate became playable, and stereo was still turned on.

I played around with the game's configuration to see if I could get it to start full-screen at a lower resolution...no joy. And no mater what I did, the only way to get stereo working was to use the Alt-Tab procedure used above...just the act of changing the iZ3D settings at the game's login screen enables stereo.

It's a pretty fun game, and the stereo effect is pretty good, so it's too bad the iZ3D drivers don't play nice with it.

I have the same problem. (I have an ATI 9800 pro video card)

I am really hoping IZ3D and Nadeo will get together and Nadeo add native IZ3D support to trackmania. It shouldn't be to hard as they already have native anaglyph.

[Mel]

I now have it working in stereo at 1680x1050 on my iZ3D. Here's what I did, and I don't know if it'll work for anyone else:

1. Completely disable stereo in iZ3D control panel.
2. Start TM, and config for 1680x1050. I didn't mess with any other settings.
3. Proceed to the game's profile selection screen. Mouse clicks are not recognized on this dialog (as mentioned in my original post).
4. Alt-Tab to iZ3D control, and select 'Enable Stereo", then click 'Apply'.
5. Alt-Tab back to game, and now mouse clicks work. Start game, and it runs in 1680x1050, stereo, decent frame rate.

The only thing I can think of that I did differently this time is ensure that stereo was completely disabled before starting the game, and then once running I permanently enabled stereo (as opposed to selecting 'Enable via Hotkey'.

Hope this helps.

[edited to improve clarity of instructions].

[BlackShark]

Hi,
i've been working on TM forever beta tests, but i'm not part of NADEO game studio, i was just an external beta tester who was in charge of testing the stereo features of the game.
I can give you my feedback on the stereo feature.

I used to had 3d revelator shutter glasses which i loved but which i wasn't able to use anymore since i switched to an LCD monitor 3 years ago.... it was the good old days when nvidia drivers were working and up to date... so i already had some experience with S-3D.

For these tests i only had anaglyph glasses. and it's been a real plesure to get the sense of depth (even in anaglyph) after so many years stuck in flattened 3D.
S-3D gaming is something very difficult to talk people about, when the people you are talking to have never experienced it or don't even know it exists.
I truely believe that having this game support S-3D natively will make lots of people aware S-3D exists. And anaglyph is the cheapest way to see the depth effect, allowing more people to take S-3D more seriously and maybe jump in.

The game graphics were working quite well for me (i have an nvidia 8800GTX, with current standard non-S3D drivers, on windows XP).
The following full screen FX don't work in S-3D :
-bloom
-dynamic colours
-motion blur
-advanced HQ-AA (advanced software antialiasing only available in replay editor shooting mode : up to 25x AA)
these FX can easily be disabled in the game launcher advanced configuration.

everything else was working perfectly (including Anti-Aliasing).

I also started the game once with IZ3D active in the background (in anaglyph mode). the depth effect was almost identical to the native one.
There was only one problem with IZ3D, the game produced wrong computation during the "prelight" of races in multiplayer (in the stadium environment). I don't know why i was doing this when the driver was in "activate by hotkey" mode (i had forgotten to switch it off after an UT3 game). I didn't take the time to troubleshoot this bug since i'm a total IZ3D noob and that since the game was in beta (and under NDA) i couldn't ask here about it.


But in the end, the most important S-3D feature of the game in my opinion is the ability to shoot replays (render a replay to .avi video) in side-by-side-dual-images.
With this feature, you can render true stereoscopic videos and then if you've got enough time and motivation, you can edit these videos and make you own clip or small movie : in true Stereoscopic HD format.

I tried this : i just took one of my previous edited clips (called Vertigo) and re-shot it in 720p HD Stereoscopic video.
I found out that it wasn't that hard to edit your clips in Stereo, even in a standard video editing software.
There are a few tricks, some parts of the workflow are a bit long and require a lot of caution, but it works. (of course it's not like having a dedicated Stereo editing software, but at least it's not impossible).

I'm showing you the result :
please note that it's still a "work-in-progress" version, (there is a little bug in the compositing of the main title, one of the images is offset a bit). Do not post the link on other forums (especially Trackmania forums) since i'm waiting until may when lots of players will have their glasses (there is a trackmania magazine coming out in may with anaglyph glasses included). I'm also out of internet at home because i'm currently moving to an other city : Once i get it back i'll also have to write a very long "howto" tutorial to explain the trackmania french gaming community how S3D works and how to play / edit 3D videos, because they're all completely new to S-3D, and i'm pretty sure that most of them didn't even know S-3D existed before Nadeo announced the native stereo feature. (and they're very bad at English)
here's the link :
http://starbuck.sk8network.fr/blackshar ... s-XviD.avi
open it with your favorite Stereo video player
image configuration : LEFT image on top, RIGHT image below.

I've seen lots of trackmania video makers very interested in the stereo feature. You can expect to see more and more Stereoscopic videos coming soon from the Trackmania video making community.

@ NEIL : i'm sending you a private message with how to get in touch with Forent Castelnerac (head of nadeo) i'm pretty sure he'll be happy to answer your questions.

[LukePC1]

WOW that's great news.
With other games it's nearly impossible to make good S-3D videos - except maybe anaglyph.
I think having some videos is very nice for
1) presenting them to people who can do crosseyed viwing
2) show them on every computer with stereoscopic player, but without the proper drivers - or without the power - to run 3D games by themself.
3) If 3D vidieos of every game existed, you could see the 3D compatibility best...

I hope they can add some more simple 3D displaying types like L/R dualoutput and maybe mirrored for planar systems...
If they don't want to do it in the game - so people don't get confused, it's perfectly ok. They could provide a menue uprgad - patch

[Mel]

Hi,
i've been working on TM forever beta tests, but i'm not part of NADEO game studio, i was just an external beta tester who was in charge of testing the stereo features of the game.
I can give you my feedback on the stereo feature.

I used to had 3d revelator shutter glasses which i loved but which i wasn't able to use anymore since i switched to an LCD monitor 3 years ago.... it was the good old days when nvidia drivers were working and up to date... so i already had some experience with S-3D.

For these tests i only had anaglyph glasses. and it's been a real plesure to get the sense of depth (even in anaglyph) after so many years stuck in flattened 3D.
S-3D gaming is something very difficult to talk people about, when the people you are talking to have never experienced it or don't even know it exists.
I truely believe that having this game support S-3D natively will make lots of people aware S-3D exists. And anaglyph is the cheapest way to see the depth effect, allowing more people to take S-3D more seriously and maybe jump in.

The game graphics were working quite well for me (i have an nvidia 8800GTX, with current standard non-S3D drivers, on windows XP).
The following full screen FX don't work in S-3D :
-bloom
-dynamic colours
-motion blur
-advanced HQ-AA (advanced software antialiasing only available in replay editor shooting mode : up to 25x AA)
these FX can easily be disabled in the game launcher advanced configuration.

everything else was working perfectly (including Anti-Aliasing).

I also started the game once with IZ3D active in the background (in anaglyph mode). the depth effect was almost identical to the native one.
There was only one problem with IZ3D, the game produced wrong computation during the "prelight" of races in multiplayer (in the stadium environment). I don't know why i was doing this when the driver was in "activate by hotkey" mode (i had forgotten to switch it off after an UT3 game). I didn't take the time to troubleshoot this bug since i'm a total IZ3D noob and that since the game was in beta (and under NDA) i couldn't ask here about it.


But in the end, the most important S-3D feature of the game in my opinion is the ability to shoot replays (render a replay to .avi video) in side-by-side-dual-images.
With this feature, you can render true stereoscopic videos and then if you've got enough time and motivation, you can edit these videos and make you own clip or small movie : in true Stereoscopic HD format.

I tried this : i just took one of my previous edited clips (called Vertigo) and re-shot it in 720p HD Stereoscopic video.
I found out that it wasn't that hard to edit your clips in Stereo, even in a standard video editing software.
There are a few tricks, some parts of the workflow are a bit long and require a lot of caution, but it works. (of course it's not like having a dedicated Stereo editing software, but at least it's not impossible).

I'm showing you the result :
please note that it's still a "work-in-progress" version, (there is a little bug in the compositing of the main title, one of the images is offset a bit). Do not post the link on other forums (especially Trackmania forums) since i'm waiting until may when lots of players will have their glasses (there is a trackmania magazine coming out in may with anaglyph glasses included). I'm also out of internet at home because i'm currently moving to an other city : Once i get it back i'll also have to write a very long "howto" tutorial to explain the trackmania french gaming community how S3D works and how to play / edit 3D videos, because they're all completely new to S-3D, and i'm pretty sure that most of them didn't even know S-3D existed before Nadeo announced the native stereo feature. (and they're very bad at English)
here's the link :
http://starbuck.sk8network.fr/blackshar ... s-XviD.avi
open it with your favorite Stereo video player
image configuration : LEFT image on top, RIGHT image below.

I've seen lots of trackmania video makers very interested in the stereo feature. You can expect to see more and more Stereoscopic videos coming soon from the Trackmania video making community.

@ NEIL : i'm sending you a private message with how to get in touch with Forent Castelnerac (head of nadeo) i'm pretty sure he'll be happy to answer your questions.

Holy cow! Thanks for that video, BlackShark. Who did the driving? Pretty awesome.

The stereo effect was good enough in some places to give me a touch of vertigo. I actually got butterflies in my stomach at some points.

[On edit: sorry, didn't read the opening credits...it was you doing the driving).

[sharky]

same problem here with the iz3d drivers.. but they fixed the same problem on previous versions of TM, so they might fix it here too!

[Hugo]

It´s working very nice with xp & revelator (page flipping)...
... just the menu is out of order

[Likay]

Work really nice with nvidia 163.75+162.50stereo. Some objects are drawn at screendepth like some red lights and the "blue planet" on some lanes. Really great in s-3d though. Gives a nice stomachfeeling once and a while too.

cheers

[stee1hed]

same problem here with the iz3d drivers.. but they fixed the same problem on previous versions of TM, so they might fix it here too!

ditto here...

I tried what Mel suggested as well. It seemed like I could not get the game to go into 3d mode at all no matter the method I tried.

So, what's the controller of choice for the players out there?

[BlackShark]

gamecube controller has the best analog joystick out there but all available drivers lack rumble, so i have an x360 controller now.
rumble is good ,lots of buttons, but joysticks aren't as precise as the gamecube ones.

[akwaba]

See somes of my pics from trackmania UNITED FOREVER (non free) on the coast environment.