Thứ Bảy, 2 tháng 8, 2014

Siliconmicrodisplay ST1080 review part XVII : with 720p to 1080pscaling the ST1080 just became THE gaming hmd





Awesome news, in the midst of conducting my own Tridef 3D festival of games purchased on the ongoing Steam sale , I got the news that smd had just released their promised 720 to 1080p scaling firmware update. 

This update makes the ST1080 a MUST have device for any serious gamer. 


For with this update ( and the ability to update even more later) the ST1080 is the coolest device bar none that you can purchase for your now ageing consoles or your soon to be quad gpud PC or even your integrated gpu ultrabook or Mac Air. I have covered some of the PC gaming potential in previous posts and will continue to do so  in upcoming posts but today, today was a classic console gaming fest in 100 inch 3D and 2D with razor sharp text and colours .


I am enjoying playing games in none cross talk 3D on a device that I can actually do so on without having to reposition or readjust or take a welding torch too. 


Simply put I have been having one of those in the zone gaming experiences for the last two days and that is thanks to the ST1080. 


In summary ALL games now scale to the full 1080p  100 inch screen of the hmd !


In short smd delivered ! 


So what about actual games then ...


First let us play many PS3 games :

720p to 1080p  2D : I threw in Dragons Dogma and it is magic at 100 inches , as is Dark Souls , Starhawk , basically everything 720p scales to 100 inches and the detail is razor sharp. No pixelation that I can see and I can read text from one edge to the other , even move my eyes along that text without the optics messing up as they do with the HMZT1. 


720p to 1080 3D :


Setup  your PS3 display settings with the ST1080 connected and you will see 720 1080i 1080p 3D supported.  From there on it is just a matter of sliding that blu ray disc in and if the game supports 3D you will see a splash screen with the obligatory health warning for playing too long! This is a good sign your 3D adventures are about to begin. Otherwise look for the stereoscopic 3D options in your 3D enabled games display settings menu. 

Crysis  : The Cryengine 3 updated DLC release of the bane of the l33t (still trying to get 200fps?) , now scales to full 100 inches of 3D, this is the finest you have seen or played Crysis. Blades of grass stick out at you foliage moves behind other foliage ... welcome to the jungle ..cloak engaged only in 100 inch of cross talk free 3D ...


Crysis 2 : It takes a hefty PC to play Crysis 2 in 3D at speed, but here on PS3 we can have an awesome game of Crysis 2 in cross talk free 3D with the ST1080 and at speed too. Why play Crysis 2 on console? Well you should own every version going to honour Crytek , but honestly the console versions just worked from day 1, over on PC we do have higher res texture packs etc , but it has had problems deciding over which gpu to work on without fault;


Just like with PC 3D games, the ST1080 gives you a hud you can read, using the tactical zoom you can read all the numbers on the hud using the ST1080 which also gives you  a screen you can move your eyes around without losing the illusion of 3D unlike it's nearest rival. The picture is razor sharp and levels of depth and pop out are sufficient to keep you happy through your 1000th replay of these sandbox FPS classics. Rock on Crytek!  

Then we come to the trip that is Wipeout HD: You bought your PS3 for exclusives like this . Scaled to 100 inches the first thing that will floor you is the games attract screen. Getting into the game the 3D with clear separation of your antigrav racer from the track which really stretches off into the distance combined with your 100 inch field of view  makes this a must have game . All the weapon effects missiles ,neon trails are all in 3D separate in depth from the background . Pause the game and use the photo option to rotate your racer to see the detail that Studio Liverpool crafted into each of these lethal racing craft. Or just spin around and you will see neon missile vapour trails coming out of the screen. The 3D is astonishing and that is just standing still . On a 100 inch display  you feel the width of the tracks , play a detonator level and this already perfect zone game will take you higher !


If only the in game photo option took photos in 3D ..


And as your head is likely to move to the music, the ST1080 with its 180g weight will move with you.... without the 3D image breaking up 


Next all the 3s ...


Uncharted 3 , Killzone 3 , Resistance 3 


These three show that when playing a 3D game the 3D is only as good as the coding behind it, you can have markedly different experiences using the same 3D hmd. . 


Of the three threes I tested Killzone 3 has the most amazing 3D, cut scenes have 3D effects , wait till you see the Helghan horde and as you will recall when starting the game you are wearing a Helghan disguise , you finally get to see through the bad guys HUD lit helmet, you know the one with the orange eyes and too much rubber tubing... And this is where the ST1080 comes into its own , it throws up a 100 inch 3D image, so what? So can others right ? But the ST1080 has the clearest text and HUD I have seen, so when you are walking round in that Helghan helmet you can see every line of orange text, ever animated bar and vector and triangle, and with the image clarity maintained across the 100 inches you can literally look around the hud of your helmet without any sweet spot issues that plague other hmds. Look through the helmet and the world is in 3d behind it ...


This is what smd have nailed , a clear and constant image across 100 inches. You just don't get that with the HMZT1 , and if you almost do the slightest movement on your part will break the illusion .So people you may think that the best hmd is the one with the largest fov , in reality you are only going to see a clear image in whatever your eyes limit as a sweetspot. On the Sony HMD this is simply too small , and with a lower resolution huds, text and therefore the illusion in this case of your being inside a Helghan helmet is broken. 


The ST1080 has just the right screen distance from you and fov to maintain a constant clear image, which millions of dollars and man hours of research lets me feel like I am wearing a Helghan helmet in Guerilla's classic PS3 FPS Killzone 3..... 


Insomniac's Resistance 3, my favourite game of browns and yellows, in 3D on the ST1080 is also astonishing, there is a field of golden corn stretching out in front of me with aliens popping up and blasting, your weapon is on another layer to the background and again the game screen maintains its integrity across the 100 inch display.


Child Of Eden 3D : it looked amazing even non scaled , but now with 100 inches of display filled with all things Lumi and it is as they say in  Bollywood mind blowing ... The 3D experience is even more impressive than Wipeout HD, take the moment where on the first stage you are looking at a closing rotating mass of cubes, still with me ? In 2D you just see a mass of cubes with things shooting out at you which you auto target. In 3D on the ST1080 , you feel the distance and depth , that mass of cubes is miles away, deep below you  and all the life forms that were just skating over its surface in 2d are now flying out at you and they are miles away from the mass of cubes . Colour on the PS3 version is far superior to the 360 version , probably because it came out so much later,but makes Child of Eden another Mizuguchi san classic  and one you are going to need to try with your ST1080. 


Oh and since I play without the light blocker all this can be superimposed on your background, do no try playing Child of Eden whilst DJing at some rave, you have been warned ...


Next Tron, which autodetects the ST1080 as a 3D display and well what can you say , the 3D definitely works, shines in 100 inches of the ST1080 display and at least the game is better than the film...


And now lets jump out of 3D gaming for a moment to look at some more 2D 720p to 1080p scaling classics. 


Metal Gear Solid HD Collection .. Boot this up and you will be astonished by the clarity of the text on the ST1080, chose one the 3 classic adventures and you are Snake, wow that Otacon goes on and on ....


Battlefield 3 : On consoles this is locked to non 3D. But FPS games simply shine on a hmd, last time I played Battlefield 3 was with the HMZT1, I was stuck in that shopping mall in downtown Tehran planning to ambush my ambushers ...This is my favourite level of the game , why ? Because there is no one way of completing it, and you use darkness to your advantage , taking out all the light sources first whilst taking out the first two waves of bad guys , moving to a high sniping point to take down a third wave before being engaged in an all out fire fight to escape with your vip. It was amazing on the HMZT1, but I could never really play long enough to form the strategy I just explained,  which I worked out whilst wearing the ST1080 to play the same game. This is an example of how the ST1080s light weight and usability trump the HMZT1. With ST1080 I simply forgot I was wearing it and in 20 minutes finished a level I had left , after the pain of wearing the HMZT1. So if you have any gaming skills so to speak of, the ST1080 can help , this is not just a cinema display that can play some games too, this is a fully fledged versatile hmd that just helped me finish a level I had been stuck on for ages.


This is not bias, it is practicality, can you actually put to use the device you just purchased , with the HMZT1 long term use is so uncomfortable you will quickly mothball it , with the ST1080 things just work, it lets you work and play . 


Is it perfect? No but it is the first wearable hi res display that can actually be used...


OK time to switch to the Xbox 360 : We already know that games like Gears of War 3 scale to the full 100 inch screen 


720p to 1080p 3D :


 Halo Combat Evolved it looked good letter boxed but at 100 inches it looks jaw dropping. This is the first frame packed scaled game I am playing and you can feel the depth of each corridor , the hud is crystal clear end to end and Cortana pops out at you like never before. Set the game to legendary and enjoy.... oh and the 3D is automatically detected no need to set it through options 


even more impressive though is :


Ghost Recon Future Solider : which now gives you 100 inches of kinect controlled Minority Report glove less Gunsmith action. And as for the game itself , if you want to see just how clear blacks are on the ST1080 this is the game for you.  Re the 3D effect cuteness are also 3D and one of the most impressive effects is when the Ghosts first throw up the UAV , it actually pops out at you and there is nothing like the completely cross talk free 100 inch 3D screen you are playing this game on. And as usual the screen is amazingly flat maintains image clarity from end to end and the hud is crystal clear.





All in all the new update from smd really cements the ST1080 as THE hmd of choice for gamers everywhere. 


I would have posted this earlier but thanks to a Steam Summer sale that has kept me busy , a near death allergy experience and ok too much fun finally playing all these games .. hmmh there's the thing about the ST1080 ... other HMDS are a chore to use , there are forms of torture more pleasant than using the Sony HMZT1 for prolonged periods ... the ST1080 is something you use as normally as you use your mouse or keyboard, within a short space of time it is part of your deck, your rig or gaming equipment. It is not the thing you pack away in a box and try to forget you spent £800 on


And what that means is if your reviewing it you can have too much fun ...


All the games tested were played with the light blocker off...









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