It was almost two years ago that we shot a video about a stunning ASUS laptop display.
It used glasses-free 3D technology that was so cutting-edge that ASUS had to custom-build it into older machines
so that we could see it without them revealing the other hardware that powered it.
But you never saw that video. Long story short, NVIDIA decided that you guys wouldn't be able to tell the difference between gameplay,
even gameplay footage, and benchmarks of an unreleased GPU.
A GPU we weren't even using, so yada yada yada, video dead.
But I'm still excited about glasses-free 3D technology,
so we're finally taking a look at something very similar, but from Acer this time.
Spatial Lab's view technology is just about everything we ever dreamed that a giant 3DS
display could be. We did find some, let's call them, interesting decisions that we need to talk about later,
but the effect is just straight up awesome.
I mean, look at the way this segue pops out to our sponsor.
Wow! Yo, that's so sick. Is that cool or what?
Oh god, wow, it really makes you want to throw up when it's getting this stuff together.
That's actually the first line after the intro that I was about to read.
But it looks great. Once it kicks in, the effect is shocking.
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.
Yeah. It's pretty cool, right?
While the pair of 27-inch displays that we're looking at today have only been available for a
few months, the fundamentals behind this and older glasses-free 3D is pretty similar.
First thing you need to do is sacrifice half of your resolution to produce the 3D effect.
Though when you're starting with a 4K display, the result is a lot prettier than it would have
been on your old Nintendo handheld. Also, unlike the 3DS, which used a parallax barrier technique and then later added camera-based
eye tracking to improve the 3D effect on the new 3DS, these spatial Labs displays utilize
a lenticular layer over the screen. You could think of it kind of like an array of cylindrical lenses that are all standing
up in front of the screen. That, combined with camera-based eye tracking, lets the monitor adjust what each eye sees
to give the best possible results. And I can even move around as fast as this without breaking the 3D effect.
Starting to glitch a little bit. There.
That's fine. And it handles even pretty extreme angles out there.
It cut out still pretty darn good.
Oh, I just realized we haven't told you what these are.
We're using the Predator PSV27-2 gaming monitor.
And then over on the other side is its twin brother who went to business school,
the ASV27-2P Pro 27.
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,
would buy you an RTX 4090 gaming PC, a Valve Index VR kit, and an iPhone 16 Pro.
And, making matters worse, unlike the demo I saw two years ago,
these are LCD displays rather than OLED, meaning that especially in fast-moving scenes,
you're going to get a significant amount of crosstalk. But let's say you're still interested.
Which one should you be looking at? To answer that, we could look at the spec sheets, except they're basically the same.
We could tear them apart with the precision screwdriver kit from LTTstore.com,
except they're loaners. And in fact, even the warranty is the same.
So it turns out that most of the $1,000 difference is in the accessories,
the software, and the gamery paint job.
Despite their similarities, though, their capabilities are quite different.
Here, let me show you. I'm going to load up the Spatial Labs Experience Center
that comes with the Predator version of the monitor. We've got a model viewer, a video player, their true game,
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
and side-by-side stereo content in 3D. Spoiler alert, that's going to save the day in a little while.
First, let's try out the model viewer.
This is out to hear from me. Which seems like a pretty average size.
And then in terms of depth, I'd say it feels like it's about back to here,
through the back of the monitor. And it's kicked back into 3D.
Now, there's a menu, right, Jordan? Where you can adjust the depth.
Yep. Whoa, here we go. Crank it up.
Okay, max depth, 50. Not to 50!
Oh, well, with the size of our model, it just doesn't really need any more depth.
But potentially I could, oh, I could zoom.
Whoa, buddy. That is hilarious.
Okay, it looks like it's right here. It looks like I'm touching the end cap of this screwdriver.
Right here. Oh, that is brain-breaking when it touches the edge of the frame,
though, and completely breaks the effect. Also, there's a bit of a vignette effect in this software.
So that just, oh, that really messes with my eyes.
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.
That is sick. It looks like it's coming a solid 18 inches out of the frame.
There's no way you'd want to operate it like this day to day, though.
I'm telling Jordan about this, but he can't actually experience it.
Because it uses cameras for eye tracking, well, it can only track one pair of eyes at a time, right?
So if you were, you know, looking at this with your design lead or something like that,
you'd basically have to have them come over and then I'd go, okay, okay, you look.
It doesn't look very 3D right now. You done looking at it? Yep.
Is it not working? I left. You left.
No, no, come see how long the changeover is. I want to see how long the changeover is.
Okay, that's 3D. 3D? Okay, my turn. Okay.
Oh, yeah. There we go. Not bad.
Check out the player next. Does this come up every single time?
Every time. UAC doesn't every time, but the explanation does.
Okay, brilliant. Okay, what should we do with this one? Load up a video.
Okay. Browse or pick one of the two at the bottom there. Yeah, sure.
As far as the actual stereo separation goes and the cleanness of the image goes,
this is great. Like it's not good.
It's great. I don't know that I would trade this for HDR because these are not HDR capable displays,
but it's fun. I guess you got a little bit of this 3D effect if I'm like right behind you.
No way. Get as close as you can. Get as close as you can.
Oh, I lost it now. Dan, hang on. Hold on. What if you're right above me?
Like does it align vertically? Like if I'm down here?
Oh, yeah, that's pretty good. Really? Oh, I lost it. No, no, it was gone.
Oh, I got it. 3D, okay, yeah. Yeah, I got it too.
No way. Okay, so we can watch together as long as we're like this. Let me in your hair.
Enough of this. Let's talk about True Game. Effectively, this is a wrapper around your other game launchers, Steam, Epic,
GOG, Xbox Live, and it automatically applies a custom 3D profile when you use it to launch
supported games. At the time of filming, that's just over 150 games and at least one of its two different 3D
modes that boil down to that totally looks 3D and that kind of looks like a pop-up book.
By the way, did you catch the glaring issue with that last sentence?
150 games. Now, Acer says they're always adding more, but they are reliant on game developers
approaching them to collaborate with them to create that custom 3D profile,
which as you guys can probably imagine, doesn't happen that much.
With that said, there's some really solid games on here.
LEGO Star Wars? Let's go.
Dude, Star Wars scrolling text is going to be sick. Oh god, that's awful.
When it's cut off by the frame.
Oh, okay. Yeah, we can skip this.
Man, there is a really nasty shadow on some stuff.
And some of the reflections from the floor seem just completely wrong.
It is safe to say from my experience in this game that the fact that it's supported by True Game
is no guarantee that it's going to be a quality 3D experience because
I can see ghosts on both sides of objects and there are situations where
their reflection in the shiny floor, I don't know how to describe it other than that.
It's weird. Oh, okay.
I figured it out. When you jump, your upside down reflection comes out of where your character model is.
So it's above the floor. Oh, that is weird.
Did you notice that? Yeah. I don't know if that happens in this game in 2D, but if it does, that's terrible.
Let's try another game. Trying 2. That seems like a prime candidate.
Trying was a big 3D vision game back in the day.
The 3D works quite well in it. Oh yeah, the 3D looks freaking awesome in this game.
And what's interesting is I'm not getting any of that weird cross talk.
I think that may have just been down to that previous game.
Like you're still going to get a little bit of motion blur compared to if you had an OLED,
but the cross talk seems like it was just an issue with that last game
and the way that it was handling something. I wish you guys were experiencing this with me.
Like this is the kind of thing a friend comes over and you show them your like cool monitor
that can switch into 3D mode and they're like, no way.
And then you tell them how much you spent on it and they're like, don't worry.
The eye fatigue is way less in this game, way less.
This is so cool. It brings me back to the first time that I saw World of Warcraft in 3D vision.
Like it blew my mind. But something I don't miss about that era was the limited game compatibility.
Fortunately, Acer has a solution and it's Spatial Labs Go,
which is an alternate mode to get unsupported games working.
This works in any app or even game that supports side-by-side stereo rendering on its own.
And on r slash stereo 3D gaming, we learned that you can even inject alternate shaders into some games that don't support it
like SuperDepth 3D and get it freaking working.
That really expands the library of games. So why don't we try Risk of Rain 2 here?
I can already tell there's one weird thing about it. The menu is just behind the screen for no apparent reason
and that unpleasant doubling of everything effect is...
Oh, well, it was a thing in the menu.
This seems totally okay. It's not the strongest stereo effect,
but it definitely adds an element of depth to it.
Like I can really feel the ground coming out toward me, even if I have no front projection, right?
All I really have is depth into the screen. Tearing looks absolutely nasty in stereo 3D and that was always the case.
It is one of the few situations where I would argue that
pretty much everybody should be using v-sync. This is kind of awesome.
Not going to lie, man. Like I... There's no way I'd spend too grand on it.
But if I had it in front of me, I'd be like, oh, I'm enjoying playing this game right now.
I would like to continue playing this game. You know what I'm saying?
There are problems that come with using custom shaders, though.
Not all games are going to support it. Anti-cheat does not like it.
Yeah, that makes sense. As cool as it is to play like this, though,
I have to wonder if the money would be better spent on a VR headset.
Let's not think about that for now, though. First, let's take a look at the Pro display.
Starting with the physical differences. On top of the beefier base,
the bundle includes a mini PC mount and this very nice shroud that really is very nice.
Like it attaches magnetically. It's got this nice little velvet in here
that not only helps with glare, but also made a significant difference
to the effectiveness of the various sensors on the top bezel, especially in a bright environment.
But the big difference is not in the hardware. It's in the software.
What can we do thanks to that extra thousand dollars?
Well, for starters, as you can see, we cannot play games with True Game.
Full disclosure here, guys. We actually got the Pro display first
because we figured, well, of course, the Pro version will do everything
that the consumer version will do and more, but the software detects which display you've got
and insists on only installing the correct version
before it will let you see a single pixel in 3D.
Voxel? We were confused, so we reached out to Acer
who confirmed that True Game is strictly consumer-facing.
I think it's Acer who's confused, because only the Pro model supports
Spatial Labs Experience Center Pro, giving access to things like developer support,
plugins for Unity Unreal, game engines,
plus Acer's own OpenXR and SteamVR bridge packages.
But as useful as this might seem for game development, no.
Acer intends this version for only big important tasks
like medical imaging, education, GIS, showroom displays,
pretty much anything but childish video games. The good news is you can still hack it with Spatial Labs Go.
It's just that your mileage may vary thanks to its unofficial support.
So let's give it a shot, shall we? How do I Spatial Labs Go it?
Alt-G. Alt-G. Alt-G-B. Oh, God.
Yeah, yeah. You don't want to see that. You don't want to see that.
Give me a second to kick in. Don't. No, I want things to happen now.
I guess your mileage may vary a part. Launch app.
It's there. Yeah, I see it. Well, I don't know.
It works sometimes, basically. Yeah, we had this working before.
It's basically the same display other than an arbitrary function lock
thanks to manufacturer boneheadedness. So bottom line, overall, this is still a category of products
that I would be excited to see make a comeback, but it's one that I am starting to lose hope for.
In the face of competition from VR headsets, usability, price, and convenience all need to take some major steps forward,
none of which seem to have happened in the last two years. But hey, at least trying to looks great.
So great that it makes me want to keep rooting for this technology.
The way that I root for our sponsor. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out
all that wild VR treadmill that we tried recently.
That was quite a sweaty experience.
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