1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,760 It was almost two years ago that we shot a video about a stunning ASUS laptop display. 2 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:13,680 It used glasses-free 3D technology that was so cutting-edge that ASUS had to custom-build it into older machines 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:18,240 so that we could see it without them revealing the other hardware that powered it. 4 00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:25,680 But you never saw that video. Long story short, NVIDIA decided that you guys wouldn't be able to tell the difference between gameplay, 5 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:30,640 even gameplay footage, and benchmarks of an unreleased GPU. 6 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:36,560 A GPU we weren't even using, so yada yada yada, video dead. 7 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,720 But I'm still excited about glasses-free 3D technology, 8 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:45,280 so we're finally taking a look at something very similar, but from Acer this time. 9 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:51,600 Spatial Lab's view technology is just about everything we ever dreamed that a giant 3DS 10 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:57,280 display could be. We did find some, let's call them, interesting decisions that we need to talk about later, 11 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:00,400 but the effect is just straight up awesome. 12 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:05,760 I mean, look at the way this segue pops out to our sponsor. 13 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,840 Wow! Yo, that's so sick. Is that cool or what? 14 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,560 Oh god, wow, it really makes you want to throw up when it's getting this stuff together. 15 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,040 That's actually the first line after the intro that I was about to read. 16 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:33,360 But it looks great. Once it kicks in, the effect is shocking. 17 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,400 And we didn't script this. Jake just wandered on set and was like, oh, I'm going to try a thing because I'm a magpie. 18 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:39,920 Yeah. It's pretty cool, right? 19 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,680 While the pair of 27-inch displays that we're looking at today have only been available for a 20 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:51,920 few months, the fundamentals behind this and older glasses-free 3D is pretty similar. 21 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:57,200 First thing you need to do is sacrifice half of your resolution to produce the 3D effect. 22 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:02,160 Though when you're starting with a 4K display, the result is a lot prettier than it would have 23 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:10,960 been on your old Nintendo handheld. Also, unlike the 3DS, which used a parallax barrier technique and then later added camera-based 24 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:16,480 eye tracking to improve the 3D effect on the new 3DS, these spatial Labs displays utilize 25 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:23,760 a lenticular layer over the screen. You could think of it kind of like an array of cylindrical lenses that are all standing 26 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:32,160 up in front of the screen. That, combined with camera-based eye tracking, lets the monitor adjust what each eye sees 27 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:40,400 to give the best possible results. And I can even move around as fast as this without breaking the 3D effect. 28 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,440 Starting to glitch a little bit. There. 29 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,640 That's fine. And it handles even pretty extreme angles out there. 30 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:51,840 It cut out still pretty darn good. 31 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:56,400 Oh, I just realized we haven't told you what these are. 32 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,920 We're using the Predator PSV27-2 gaming monitor. 33 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:03,600 And then over on the other side is its twin brother who went to business school, 34 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:06,640 the ASV27-2P Pro 27. 35 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:14,000 Between them, I'm just going to rip this band-aid off. You're looking at about $5,000, which, for those of you counting at home, 36 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,840 would buy you an RTX 4090 gaming PC, a Valve Index VR kit, and an iPhone 16 Pro. 37 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:23,600 And, making matters worse, unlike the demo I saw two years ago, 38 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:28,960 these are LCD displays rather than OLED, meaning that especially in fast-moving scenes, 39 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:33,440 you're going to get a significant amount of crosstalk. But let's say you're still interested. 40 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:40,160 Which one should you be looking at? To answer that, we could look at the spec sheets, except they're basically the same. 41 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:44,000 We could tear them apart with the precision screwdriver kit from LTTstore.com, 42 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,560 except they're loaners. And in fact, even the warranty is the same. 43 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,800 So it turns out that most of the $1,000 difference is in the accessories, 44 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,840 the software, and the gamery paint job. 45 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,680 Despite their similarities, though, their capabilities are quite different. 46 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:05,600 Here, let me show you. I'm going to load up the Spatial Labs Experience Center 47 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:11,200 that comes with the Predator version of the monitor. We've got a model viewer, a video player, their true game, 48 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:17,040 which we'll be taking a closer look at in a minute, and also Spatial Labs Go, which allows you to view full-screen 2D 49 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:22,560 and side-by-side stereo content in 3D. Spoiler alert, that's going to save the day in a little while. 50 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,800 First, let's try out the model viewer. 51 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:32,160 This is out to hear from me. Which seems like a pretty average size. 52 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:38,560 And then in terms of depth, I'd say it feels like it's about back to here, 53 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:43,520 through the back of the monitor. And it's kicked back into 3D. 54 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:46,960 Now, there's a menu, right, Jordan? Where you can adjust the depth. 55 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:50,560 Yep. Whoa, here we go. Crank it up. 56 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:54,320 Okay, max depth, 50. Not to 50! 57 00:04:55,280 --> 00:05:00,400 Oh, well, with the size of our model, it just doesn't really need any more depth. 58 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,520 But potentially I could, oh, I could zoom. 59 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,240 Whoa, buddy. That is hilarious. 60 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:14,320 Okay, it looks like it's right here. It looks like I'm touching the end cap of this screwdriver. 61 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:19,520 Right here. Oh, that is brain-breaking when it touches the edge of the frame, 62 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:24,880 though, and completely breaks the effect. Also, there's a bit of a vignette effect in this software. 63 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,640 So that just, oh, that really messes with my eyes. 64 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:36,800 I'm going to have such a headache when we're done this video. I'm too close to focus on the object that's being spot out at me. 65 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:43,040 That is sick. It looks like it's coming a solid 18 inches out of the frame. 66 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:45,600 There's no way you'd want to operate it like this day to day, though. 67 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,680 I'm telling Jordan about this, but he can't actually experience it. 68 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:55,440 Because it uses cameras for eye tracking, well, it can only track one pair of eyes at a time, right? 69 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:59,600 So if you were, you know, looking at this with your design lead or something like that, 70 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:03,920 you'd basically have to have them come over and then I'd go, okay, okay, you look. 71 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:08,560 It doesn't look very 3D right now. You done looking at it? Yep. 72 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:12,000 Is it not working? I left. You left. 73 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,280 No, no, come see how long the changeover is. I want to see how long the changeover is. 74 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,220 Okay, that's 3D. 3D? Okay, my turn. Okay. 75 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:22,560 Oh, yeah. There we go. Not bad. 76 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:27,680 Check out the player next. Does this come up every single time? 77 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:33,520 Every time. UAC doesn't every time, but the explanation does. 78 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:37,120 Okay, brilliant. Okay, what should we do with this one? Load up a video. 79 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,480 Okay. Browse or pick one of the two at the bottom there. Yeah, sure. 80 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:45,440 As far as the actual stereo separation goes and the cleanness of the image goes, 81 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:49,920 this is great. Like it's not good. 82 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:58,320 It's great. I don't know that I would trade this for HDR because these are not HDR capable displays, 83 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:02,320 but it's fun. I guess you got a little bit of this 3D effect if I'm like right behind you. 84 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:06,000 No way. Get as close as you can. Get as close as you can. 85 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:10,000 Oh, I lost it now. Dan, hang on. Hold on. What if you're right above me? 86 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:14,800 Like does it align vertically? Like if I'm down here? 87 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:18,320 Oh, yeah, that's pretty good. Really? Oh, I lost it. No, no, it was gone. 88 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,680 Oh, I got it. 3D, okay, yeah. Yeah, I got it too. 89 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:25,520 No way. Okay, so we can watch together as long as we're like this. Let me in your hair. 90 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:34,320 Enough of this. Let's talk about True Game. Effectively, this is a wrapper around your other game launchers, Steam, Epic, 91 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:39,200 GOG, Xbox Live, and it automatically applies a custom 3D profile when you use it to launch 92 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:46,000 supported games. At the time of filming, that's just over 150 games and at least one of its two different 3D 93 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:51,920 modes that boil down to that totally looks 3D and that kind of looks like a pop-up book. 94 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:54,400 By the way, did you catch the glaring issue with that last sentence? 95 00:07:55,760 --> 00:08:02,000 150 games. Now, Acer says they're always adding more, but they are reliant on game developers 96 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:06,080 approaching them to collaborate with them to create that custom 3D profile, 97 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:10,240 which as you guys can probably imagine, doesn't happen that much. 98 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:14,080 With that said, there's some really solid games on here. 99 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:16,000 LEGO Star Wars? Let's go. 100 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:21,760 Dude, Star Wars scrolling text is going to be sick. Oh god, that's awful. 101 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:24,160 When it's cut off by the frame. 102 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:28,640 Oh, okay. Yeah, we can skip this. 103 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:34,160 Man, there is a really nasty shadow on some stuff. 104 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:39,440 And some of the reflections from the floor seem just completely wrong. 105 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:44,400 It is safe to say from my experience in this game that the fact that it's supported by True Game 106 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,640 is no guarantee that it's going to be a quality 3D experience because 107 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:54,720 I can see ghosts on both sides of objects and there are situations where 108 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,880 their reflection in the shiny floor, I don't know how to describe it other than that. 109 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:01,920 It's weird. Oh, okay. 110 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:10,880 I figured it out. When you jump, your upside down reflection comes out of where your character model is. 111 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:14,080 So it's above the floor. Oh, that is weird. 112 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:19,440 Did you notice that? Yeah. I don't know if that happens in this game in 2D, but if it does, that's terrible. 113 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:24,560 Let's try another game. Trying 2. That seems like a prime candidate. 114 00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:27,280 Trying was a big 3D vision game back in the day. 115 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:35,600 The 3D works quite well in it. Oh yeah, the 3D looks freaking awesome in this game. 116 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:40,000 And what's interesting is I'm not getting any of that weird cross talk. 117 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,800 I think that may have just been down to that previous game. 118 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:47,520 Like you're still going to get a little bit of motion blur compared to if you had an OLED, 119 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:51,520 but the cross talk seems like it was just an issue with that last game 120 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:56,880 and the way that it was handling something. I wish you guys were experiencing this with me. 121 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:02,160 Like this is the kind of thing a friend comes over and you show them your like cool monitor 122 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:04,800 that can switch into 3D mode and they're like, no way. 123 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:08,480 And then you tell them how much you spent on it and they're like, don't worry. 124 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:13,520 The eye fatigue is way less in this game, way less. 125 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:19,040 This is so cool. It brings me back to the first time that I saw World of Warcraft in 3D vision. 126 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:26,080 Like it blew my mind. But something I don't miss about that era was the limited game compatibility. 127 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,960 Fortunately, Acer has a solution and it's Spatial Labs Go, 128 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:35,280 which is an alternate mode to get unsupported games working. 129 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:41,760 This works in any app or even game that supports side-by-side stereo rendering on its own. 130 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:49,600 And on r slash stereo 3D gaming, we learned that you can even inject alternate shaders into some games that don't support it 131 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,520 like SuperDepth 3D and get it freaking working. 132 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:57,920 That really expands the library of games. So why don't we try Risk of Rain 2 here? 133 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:04,320 I can already tell there's one weird thing about it. The menu is just behind the screen for no apparent reason 134 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:09,280 and that unpleasant doubling of everything effect is... 135 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:11,600 Oh, well, it was a thing in the menu. 136 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:16,960 This seems totally okay. It's not the strongest stereo effect, 137 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,080 but it definitely adds an element of depth to it. 138 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:26,960 Like I can really feel the ground coming out toward me, even if I have no front projection, right? 139 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:35,120 All I really have is depth into the screen. Tearing looks absolutely nasty in stereo 3D and that was always the case. 140 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:38,400 It is one of the few situations where I would argue that 141 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:42,000 pretty much everybody should be using v-sync. This is kind of awesome. 142 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:48,240 Not going to lie, man. Like I... There's no way I'd spend too grand on it. 143 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:53,280 But if I had it in front of me, I'd be like, oh, I'm enjoying playing this game right now. 144 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,480 I would like to continue playing this game. You know what I'm saying? 145 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:58,960 There are problems that come with using custom shaders, though. 146 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,600 Not all games are going to support it. Anti-cheat does not like it. 147 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,160 Yeah, that makes sense. As cool as it is to play like this, though, 148 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:12,400 I have to wonder if the money would be better spent on a VR headset. 149 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:16,720 Let's not think about that for now, though. First, let's take a look at the Pro display. 150 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:21,440 Starting with the physical differences. On top of the beefier base, 151 00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:28,880 the bundle includes a mini PC mount and this very nice shroud that really is very nice. 152 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:32,400 Like it attaches magnetically. It's got this nice little velvet in here 153 00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:36,480 that not only helps with glare, but also made a significant difference 154 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,720 to the effectiveness of the various sensors on the top bezel, especially in a bright environment. 155 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:45,360 But the big difference is not in the hardware. It's in the software. 156 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,160 What can we do thanks to that extra thousand dollars? 157 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:54,400 Well, for starters, as you can see, we cannot play games with True Game. 158 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:58,160 Full disclosure here, guys. We actually got the Pro display first 159 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:02,400 because we figured, well, of course, the Pro version will do everything 160 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:07,920 that the consumer version will do and more, but the software detects which display you've got 161 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:11,440 and insists on only installing the correct version 162 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:13,760 before it will let you see a single pixel in 3D. 163 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:19,200 Voxel? We were confused, so we reached out to Acer 164 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:23,520 who confirmed that True Game is strictly consumer-facing. 165 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,680 I think it's Acer who's confused, because only the Pro model supports 166 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:32,560 Spatial Labs Experience Center Pro, giving access to things like developer support, 167 00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:35,920 plugins for Unity Unreal, game engines, 168 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,520 plus Acer's own OpenXR and SteamVR bridge packages. 169 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,000 But as useful as this might seem for game development, no. 170 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,440 Acer intends this version for only big important tasks 171 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:51,040 like medical imaging, education, GIS, showroom displays, 172 00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:56,960 pretty much anything but childish video games. The good news is you can still hack it with Spatial Labs Go. 173 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:00,560 It's just that your mileage may vary thanks to its unofficial support. 174 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:04,880 So let's give it a shot, shall we? How do I Spatial Labs Go it? 175 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,320 Alt-G. Alt-G. Alt-G-B. Oh, God. 176 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:11,360 Yeah, yeah. You don't want to see that. You don't want to see that. 177 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:17,280 Give me a second to kick in. Don't. No, I want things to happen now. 178 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:20,800 I guess your mileage may vary a part. Launch app. 179 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:25,440 It's there. Yeah, I see it. Well, I don't know. 180 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,000 It works sometimes, basically. Yeah, we had this working before. 181 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:32,640 It's basically the same display other than an arbitrary function lock 182 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:39,360 thanks to manufacturer boneheadedness. So bottom line, overall, this is still a category of products 183 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:44,640 that I would be excited to see make a comeback, but it's one that I am starting to lose hope for. 184 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:53,280 In the face of competition from VR headsets, usability, price, and convenience all need to take some major steps forward, 185 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:58,320 none of which seem to have happened in the last two years. But hey, at least trying to looks great. 186 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,720 So great that it makes me want to keep rooting for this technology. 187 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:07,600 The way that I root for our sponsor. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out 188 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:11,120 all that wild VR treadmill that we tried recently. 189 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,000 That was quite a sweaty experience. 190 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:15,860 You