3D Stereo Display Capabilities
A separate display for each eye makes 3D stereovision not only possible, but ideal. Other ways of simulating 3D vision, like eDimentional's LCD shutter glasses, involve covering up one eye during alternate frames of video in order to show a unique perspective for each eye. The VR920's dedicated display for each eye means that there doesn't have to be any fancy trickery involved; the drivers just have to display the appropriate perspective for each eye.
Yet, there is still a major stumbling block to overcome before 3D can be easily used by everybody: stereoscopic video card drivers. To date, ATI has never supported stereoscopic 3D in their drivers, and Nvidia has not supported stereoscopic 3D since the GeForce 7x00 series. While the GeForce 8x00 series has been available for over a year, Nvidia offers no stereoscopic driver for these newest cards. This means that, if you want to view things in 3D, you need a GeForce 7x00 or 6x00 card.
The GeForce 7x00 series limits stereoscopic 3D to DirectX 9, but more importantly it limits it to older hardware that isn't capable of the highest frame rates. On the positive side of things, the maximum resolution of the VR920 is 1024x768, so even a midrange card like the 7600 GT (or even an old 6800 GT) will be right at home at this resolution.
For testing, we used a reference 7600 GT. To drive it, we used the same beta 93.71 stereoscopic driver tested in our wall-sized 3D review. For the stereoscopic driver to work, you first have to install the regular 93.71 driver, and then add the stereoscopic companion driver for that specific driver revision after a reboot.
How did the 3D effect work? Although it was nice to avoid the flickering and dimness associated with eDimensional's LCD shutter glasses, the low resolution of the VR920's displays was not flattered by the 3D effect. It was also a hit and miss proposition. Portal and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch played nice with the stereoscopic driver and demonstrated the 3D effect, but newer titles like Unreal Tournament 3 or Crysis would crash, probably because the old stereoscopic driver was released long before these games were available to the public.
If we had to choose between the VR920's 3D effect and the eDimensional LCD shutter glasses, it's a toss-up. The eDimensional glasses are definitely more of a pain to set up and get working, and definitely show a loss of visual brightness and quality because they block each eye alternatively. On the other hand, LCD shutter glasses can handle much higher resolutions than the VR920, and support the full color depth of the monitor.
One final note about the VR920's stereo capabilities: there is a "stereoscopic mode" setting that can be accessed through the on-screen display. While this setting is included to adjust stereoscopic 3D input, I found that using this setting produced a pseudo-3D effect. It shouldn't do anything, but when I turned this setting on there was a notable difference in the apparent depth, even without any stereoscopic driver and on any video card. I have no idea why this produced an illusion of 3D depth, but it was nifty enough that I usually chose to play with it enabled.
Audio Hardware: Headphones and Microphone
The VR920 comes with built-in headphones that can be detached if desired. They did the job, and are a really nice addition if you're playing a game in a public place and don't want to disturb others. The user has the option of detaching the headphones so that they can use their own headphones or perhaps an external speaker system, so if you're happy with your current sound equipment, there's no need to abandon it just to use the VR920.
The VR920's removable earphone.
The sound quality of these earphones isn't the best - it's a bit tinny - but these speakers are definitely usable and are certainly nice to have included. That pretty much sums it up.
