WEBVTT 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. 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 00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:18.240 so that we could see it without them revealing the other hardware that powered it. 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, 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:30.640 even gameplay footage, and benchmarks of an unreleased GPU. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:36.560 A GPU we weren't even using, so yada yada yada, video dead. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.720 But I'm still excited about glasses-free 3D technology, 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:45.280 so we're finally taking a look at something very similar, but from Acer this time. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:51.600 Spatial Lab's view technology is just about everything we ever dreamed that a giant 3DS 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, 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.400 but the effect is just straight up awesome. 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:05.760 I mean, look at the way this segue pops out to our sponsor. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.840 Wow! Yo, that's so sick. Is that cool or what? 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. 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:29.040 That's actually the first line after the intro that I was about to read. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:33.360 But it looks great. Once it kicks in, the effect is shocking. 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. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:39.920 Yeah. It's pretty cool, right? 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 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:51.920 few months, the fundamentals behind this and older glasses-free 3D is pretty similar. 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. 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 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 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:16.480 eye tracking to improve the 3D effect on the new 3DS, these spatial Labs displays utilize 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 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 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. 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:43.440 Starting to glitch a little bit. There. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:48.640 That's fine. And it handles even pretty extreme angles out there. 00:02:48.640 --> 00:02:51.840 It cut out still pretty darn good. 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:56.400 Oh, I just realized we haven't told you what these are. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.920 We're using the Predator PSV27-2 gaming monitor. 00:02:59.920 --> 00:03:03.600 And then over on the other side is its twin brother who went to business school, 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:06.640 the ASV27-2P Pro 27. 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, 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. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:23.600 And, making matters worse, unlike the demo I saw two years ago, 00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:28.960 these are LCD displays rather than OLED, meaning that especially in fast-moving scenes, 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. 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. 00:03:40.160 --> 00:03:44.000 We could tear them apart with the precision screwdriver kit from LTTstore.com, 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.560 except they're loaners. And in fact, even the warranty is the same. 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:52.800 So it turns out that most of the $1,000 difference is in the accessories, 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.840 the software, and the gamery paint job. 00:03:57.920 --> 00:04:01.680 Despite their similarities, though, their capabilities are quite different. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:05.600 Here, let me show you. I'm going to load up the Spatial Labs Experience Center 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, 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 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. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:24.800 First, let's try out the model viewer. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:32.160 This is out to hear from me. Which seems like a pretty average size. 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, 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:43.520 through the back of the monitor. And it's kicked back into 3D. 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:46.960 Now, there's a menu, right, Jordan? Where you can adjust the depth. 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.560 Yep. Whoa, here we go. Crank it up. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:54.320 Okay, max depth, 50. Not to 50! 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. 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:03.520 But potentially I could, oh, I could zoom. 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:08.240 Whoa, buddy. That is hilarious. 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. 00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:19.520 Right here. Oh, that is brain-breaking when it touches the edge of the frame, 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. 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:28.640 So that just, oh, that really messes with my eyes. 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. 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. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:45.600 There's no way you'd want to operate it like this day to day, though. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.680 I'm telling Jordan about this, but he can't actually experience it. 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? 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, 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. 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:08.560 It doesn't look very 3D right now. You done looking at it? Yep. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:12.000 Is it not working? I left. You left. 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. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.220 Okay, that's 3D. 3D? Okay, my turn. Okay. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:22.560 Oh, yeah. There we go. Not bad. 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:27.680 Check out the player next. Does this come up every single time? 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:33.520 Every time. UAC doesn't every time, but the explanation does. 00:06:33.520 --> 00:06:37.120 Okay, brilliant. Okay, what should we do with this one? Load up a video. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:40.480 Okay. Browse or pick one of the two at the bottom there. Yeah, sure. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:45.440 As far as the actual stereo separation goes and the cleanness of the image goes, 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.920 this is great. Like it's not good. 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, 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. 00:07:02.320 --> 00:07:06.000 No way. Get as close as you can. Get as close as you can. 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? 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:14.800 Like does it align vertically? Like if I'm down here? 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.320 Oh, yeah, that's pretty good. Really? Oh, I lost it. No, no, it was gone. 00:07:18.320 --> 00:07:21.680 Oh, I got it. 3D, okay, yeah. Yeah, I got it too. 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. 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, 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 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 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. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.400 By the way, did you catch the glaring issue with that last sentence? 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 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:06.080 approaching them to collaborate with them to create that custom 3D profile, 00:08:06.080 --> 00:08:10.240 which as you guys can probably imagine, doesn't happen that much. 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:14.080 With that said, there's some really solid games on here. 00:08:14.080 --> 00:08:16.000 LEGO Star Wars? Let's go. 00:08:17.200 --> 00:08:21.760 Dude, Star Wars scrolling text is going to be sick. Oh god, that's awful. 00:08:21.760 --> 00:08:24.160 When it's cut off by the frame. 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:28.640 Oh, okay. Yeah, we can skip this. 00:08:30.320 --> 00:08:34.160 Man, there is a really nasty shadow on some stuff. 00:08:34.160 --> 00:08:39.440 And some of the reflections from the floor seem just completely wrong. 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 00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:48.640 is no guarantee that it's going to be a quality 3D experience because 00:08:48.640 --> 00:08:54.720 I can see ghosts on both sides of objects and there are situations where 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. 00:08:58.880 --> 00:09:01.920 It's weird. Oh, okay. 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. 00:09:10.880 --> 00:09:14.080 So it's above the floor. Oh, that is weird. 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. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:24.560 Let's try another game. Trying 2. That seems like a prime candidate. 00:09:24.560 --> 00:09:27.280 Trying was a big 3D vision game back in the day. 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. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:40.000 And what's interesting is I'm not getting any of that weird cross talk. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.800 I think that may have just been down to that previous game. 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, 00:09:47.520 --> 00:09:51.520 but the cross talk seems like it was just an issue with that last game 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. 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 00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:04.800 that can switch into 3D mode and they're like, no way. 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. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:13.520 The eye fatigue is way less in this game, way less. 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. 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. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:30.960 Fortunately, Acer has a solution and it's Spatial Labs Go, 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.280 which is an alternate mode to get unsupported games working. 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. 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 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:53.520 like SuperDepth 3D and get it freaking working. 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? 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 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:09.280 and that unpleasant doubling of everything effect is... 00:11:09.280 --> 00:11:11.600 Oh, well, it was a thing in the menu. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:16.960 This seems totally okay. It's not the strongest stereo effect, 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.080 but it definitely adds an element of depth to it. 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? 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. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:38.400 It is one of the few situations where I would argue that 00:11:38.400 --> 00:11:42.000 pretty much everybody should be using v-sync. This is kind of awesome. 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. 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. 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:56.480 I would like to continue playing this game. You know what I'm saying? 00:11:56.560 --> 00:11:58.960 There are problems that come with using custom shaders, though. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.600 Not all games are going to support it. Anti-cheat does not like it. 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:08.160 Yeah, that makes sense. As cool as it is to play like this, though, 00:12:08.160 --> 00:12:12.400 I have to wonder if the money would be better spent on a VR headset. 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. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:21.440 Starting with the physical differences. On top of the beefier base, 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. 00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:32.400 Like it attaches magnetically. It's got this nice little velvet in here 00:12:32.400 --> 00:12:36.480 that not only helps with glare, but also made a significant difference 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:40.720 to the effectiveness of the various sensors on the top bezel, especially in a bright environment. 00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:45.360 But the big difference is not in the hardware. It's in the software. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:48.160 What can we do thanks to that extra thousand dollars? 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:54.400 Well, for starters, as you can see, we cannot play games with True Game. 00:12:54.400 --> 00:12:58.160 Full disclosure here, guys. We actually got the Pro display first 00:12:58.160 --> 00:13:02.400 because we figured, well, of course, the Pro version will do everything 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 00:13:07.920 --> 00:13:11.440 and insists on only installing the correct version 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:13.760 before it will let you see a single pixel in 3D. 00:13:14.800 --> 00:13:19.200 Voxel? We were confused, so we reached out to Acer 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:23.520 who confirmed that True Game is strictly consumer-facing. 00:13:23.520 --> 00:13:27.680 I think it's Acer who's confused, because only the Pro model supports 00:13:27.680 --> 00:13:32.560 Spatial Labs Experience Center Pro, giving access to things like developer support, 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:35.920 plugins for Unity Unreal, game engines, 00:13:35.920 --> 00:13:39.520 plus Acer's own OpenXR and SteamVR bridge packages. 00:13:39.520 --> 00:13:44.000 But as useful as this might seem for game development, no. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.440 Acer intends this version for only big important tasks 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.040 like medical imaging, education, GIS, showroom displays, 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. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:00.560 It's just that your mileage may vary thanks to its unofficial support. 00:14:00.560 --> 00:14:04.880 So let's give it a shot, shall we? How do I Spatial Labs Go it? 00:14:04.880 --> 00:14:08.320 Alt-G. Alt-G. Alt-G-B. Oh, God. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:11.360 Yeah, yeah. You don't want to see that. You don't want to see that. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:17.280 Give me a second to kick in. Don't. No, I want things to happen now. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:20.800 I guess your mileage may vary a part. Launch app. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:25.440 It's there. Yeah, I see it. Well, I don't know. 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:28.000 It works sometimes, basically. Yeah, we had this working before. 00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:32.640 It's basically the same display other than an arbitrary function lock 00:14:32.640 --> 00:14:39.360 thanks to manufacturer boneheadedness. So bottom line, overall, this is still a category of products 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. 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, 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. 00:14:59.040 --> 00:15:02.720 So great that it makes me want to keep rooting for this technology. 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 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:11.120 all that wild VR treadmill that we tried recently. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:14.000 That was quite a sweaty experience. 00:15:14.640 --> 00:15:15.860 You