There isn’t much time left before the first developer kits of the Oculus Rift VR HMD with stereo 3D support finally start to ship and there is already a stereoscopic 3D driver available that supports the device by providing the specially distorted output that the Rift requires as well as supporting the HMD’s built-in head tracking. This stereoscopic driver is called Vireio Perception and has been developed by Andres Hernandez (Cybereality) who has provided it free of charge and has even published the source code so that the stereoscopic 3D community can help in further developing and testing the software. The open source stereoscopic 3D driver can work on both AMD and Nvidia-based graphics cards and aside from the Oculus Rift support, the software can also output in Side by Side, Over/Under, Row Interlaced, DLP Checkerboard and various Anaglyph output modes (all outputs are based on shaders that you can modify or extend).
The only drawback of this solution is that currently it supports only very few games, here is a list of what is currently supported with profiles (also easily accessible in XML format). Also it is not as polished and optimized for performance as other similar solutions such as Nvidia’s 3D Vision or DDD’s TriDef, but it is a good first step having something as an alternative and being an open source, especially after iZ3D has dropped their project and has decided not to publicly released the source code of their stereoscopic 3D software.
Vireio Perception Supported Games:
- AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
- Dear Esther
- DiRT 2
- Left 4 Dead
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Half Life 2
- Portal 2
- Mirror’s Edge
- Unreal Tournament 3
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
If you still have not tried the Vireio Perception, then you might give it a try, also if you are planning on adding support for the Oculus Rift or stereoscopic 3D support in a project of yours you might also want to take a look at the source as it can help you with some ideas. Everyone willing to play with this and try it out is welcome to share his feedback in the official project forum at MTBS3D, everyone’s help is welcome.
- To download the latest version of the Vireio Perception software…
- To download the full source code of the Vireio Perception software…
