Well, so many years have passed since I started toying with the old nvidia s3d drivers but I still learn something once in a while. So, sorry this is so late in coming, but on the off-chance it might help someone, I thought I'd post what I've learned. Plus, I think there's a good chance that you can use some info here and apply it to new-school nvidia 3d-vision so w/o further ado, let's get started.
Making ".reg" files for your games:
Much of what I have to say involves editing the registry and you should know how to share s3d game profiles from this other thread:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=5944" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
For newbies:
Basically you want to make a ".reg" file for each game you want to play and edit it with Wordpad to include any extra settings that don't automatically get included when you use the registry's export function. Then name that file something appropriate, put it in a convenient place and double-click it whenever you want to change your settings to that game. An illustration follows.
Start with a simple registry export:
Let's take "Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000" for example ($5 on Steam). This gets saved in the registry under AvP_Classic and if you find good s3d settings for the Alien for example, you can use nvidia's "save settings" hotkey, exit the game, start regedit, export the "AvP_Classic" entry and save it to a file called "AvP-2K-Alien.reg" and it should look something like this: (shortened for clarity, StereoConvergence is the most important entry)
Code: Select all
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D\GameConfigs\AvP_Classic]
"StereoConvergence"=dword:449bf631
Now include the game's preferred separation value:
There's something missing from the above. It saves your convergence setting but not your separation setting. Unfortunately, separation is a global variable and not a per-game settable thing so how can you make it so that your reg file changes it to what you want for that game since some games need different separation values? You have to edit your reg file to change the global separation value like this:
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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]
"StereoSeparation"=dword:00000030
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D\GameConfigs\AvP_Classic]
"StereoConvergence"=dword:449bf631
Include more settings if you want:
"AvP Classic 2000" is a great example for me since there's so much it illustrates. For example, I like the marine to have a high Gamma to brighten things up since it's often uncomfortably dark for him so I include the StereoGamma entry in my reg file:
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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]
"StereoSeparation"=dword:00000003
"StereoGamma"=dword:3fd9999b
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D\GameConfigs\AvP_Classic]
"StereoConvergence"=dword:463e15a4
You can even include per-game hotkey settings:
One of the nice things about the nvidia s3d driver is that you have gamma control hotkeys so I decided to keep the default gamma at 1.0 (3f800000) and give the user handy gamma hotkey controls: "Z" (5a) for darker and "C" (43) for brighter since it's hard to find one good gamma value for all situations. Good values for the dark makes the light places too bright and good "light" values make the dark too dark. You can think of these controls as intensity controls on a marine's night-vision goggles. It works pretty good.
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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]
"StereoSeparation"=dword:00000003
"StereoGamma"=dword:3f800000
"GammaAdjustLess"=dword:0000005a
"GammaAdjustMore"=dword:00000043
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D\GameConfigs\AvP_Classic]
"StereoConvergence"=dword:463e15a4
How to get the right keycodes for hotkeys:
Once again, these are global values so they may need resetting later which means you should make a "reset-settings.reg" file. More on that later. The way to get these numbers (5a for Z and 43 for C) is to google keycodes or just use the nvidia desktop control panel and set those things to the keys you want, hit "apply" and then look in the registry for those values.
Multiple reg files for the same game:
You may have guessed by now that this game may need multiple reg files if the marine needs different s3d settings from the alien or the predator. Well, you guessed right and it's no problem. Just do each creature one at a time and save settings in a differently-named reg file. In this case it's AvP-2K-Alien.reg, AvP-2K-Marine.reg, and AvP-2K-Predator.reg for the three different races you can be in this game. Just double-click the right one before you start playing as that race. It seems complicated and alot of trouble but most games are not like this and it's worth it anyway in my opinion. I've also encountered games where certain levels need different settings than other levels. Just make extra reg files for those odd levels. I really wish I could have written this 10 years ago if only nvidia had helped us more with this stuff.
Registry settings info:
Obviously, you need to know more about the registry entries in order to include them in your reg files and there're threads about them that I'll link to later. Often you can guess at the meaning of the setting but there are many that are non-obvious.
The links:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=95306" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(I basically never visit nvidia's forums anymore)
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3355" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(locked)
Resetting your settings:
So after you're done with the marine using "Z" and "C" for gamma controls, you probably want to reset them so make a "reset-settings.reg" file and double-click it. This example file resets separation to 50%, gamma to 1.0, "increase-gamma" to Control-G, and "decrease-gamma" to Alt-G. Just add whatever you need and set it to whatever is appropriate for you. Also, you could just go to the nvidia desktop control panel and hit the "restore defaults" button on the hotkey configuration pane.
Code: Select all
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]
"StereoSeparation"=dword:00000032
"StereoGamma"=dword:3f800000
"GammaAdjustLess"=dword:00000447
"GammaAdjustMore"=dword:00000247
For a fuller discussion on "AvP Classic 2000", see the game profile for it that I haven't made yet. I'll link to it once it's done.
Comments in your reg files:
Just recently I've decided to (and learned how to) include comments in my reg files. Just start a line with the semi-colon and put your comments there and it will help you and others understand things that you've put there.
Whew, I think that's it for this post.
Happy profiling,
--- iondrive ---
PS: please say "thanks" if you found this useful so I know I didn't waste my time.