Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead simply has to be one of the test cases for a wall-sized stereo 3D experience. And I'm not talking about Left 4 Dead 2 (the sequel with its bright outdoor environments). I'm talking about the original, with its dark, claustrophobic corridors and rainy nights. This game is very well suited for 3D play and brings the experience to life in a way that's hard to describe, but awesome to behold.
We use the following settings for our tests: 1280x720 (native projector resolution), highest details, and 4x multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA).
Game Experience using 3D Vision:
Nvidia considers this game worthy of the “Excellent” rating, and we certainly agree. Left 4 Dead delivers a very smooth 3D experience with no visual anomalies to note.
The specific info delivered in the 3D Vision game rating overlay is "Rating: Excellent, Clouds at wrong depth, Setting film grain to off provides better stereo effect." Strangely enough, I don't notice anything in the way of cloud-oriented anomalies.
The only thing we can complain about is that the maximum depth allowed by the 3D Vision driver seems slightly shallower than what we would like, as we've mentioned previously. However, this can be improved with convergence controls.
Comparing with the Polarized Dual-Projector Drivers:
The TriDef drivers perform just as well as the 3D Vision solution in Left 4 Dead, but the iZ3D drivers are lacking in that there are a number of text overlay and skybox anomalies.
TriDef Ignition Driver Screenshots:
iZ3D Driver Screenshots:
Left 4 Dead 3D Stereo Performance:
The 3D Vision driver delivers much better performance than the iZ3D driver can muster on the GeForce GTX 260. From a raw performance standpoint, the iZ3D and TriDef drivers deliver almost identical performance compared to the Radeon HD 4890. Note that the TriDef drivers do not work on the GeForce card in this game.
