M17x R3/R4 - 3D Discussion, Questions and Tips Thread

One extra thought- the 120hz display disables the iGPU, reducing battery life- but also removing all of the problems associated with Optimus. Win some, lose some.

 

i have it. i love it. get it and so will you

 

I need a good 3D movie. Any suggestions?

So far I've been contemplating Harold and Kumar's 3D Christmas. I like bad humor.

 

I would recommend this movie. I found it much funnier than the last one and I didn't even watch it in 3D. I have heard that the 3D effects in it are great though.

On a separate subject, has anyone been able to get Tridef 3D to work with their M17x R4? When I run the software, it doesn't detect the 3D display or glasses and doesn't have Alienware or Dell in the manual settings page.

I know my Dad can use Tridef on his Asus monitor with the 3D Vision 2 kit. I use it on my 3D projector with my desktop PC and like it because sometimes it works better on certain games compared to Nvidia 3D Vision and vice versa.

 

I bought the Hugo 3D Blu ray on eBay to test out the 3D movie capabilities on the laptop.

I imagine I will try it on the PS3 & Playstation 3D display as well. Hoping I can watch a whole movie with the glasses on.

 

Hi guys, I got a quick question for you.
This morning, my Dell technician turned up to replace my 60Hz screen LCD in my M17xR3/580M by a 120Hz LCD display - I thought it would be compatible as I won't use the 3D but the 120Hz capability.
However, once fitted, I had the 8 beeps and obviously no display at all - tried on the IGP and with an ATI gpu (i sold my 580M nvidia and awaiting my 680M). Could it be because I don't have the 580M ?
Should it work with the Dell 680M you reckon ?

Thanks for your inputs!

 

It should work fine (minus 3D) with the 680m. Are you saying you have no NV card in the machine? If you have no NV card in the machine then the 120 display will cause it to fail post. The IGP is not connected when using the 120 display connector and is not supported with AMD cards.

 

Hello

Ok

Thx

 

Hello everyone,

two weeks ago my M17xR4 finally arrived and so far I'm very happy with it. But there's something that's bothering me... otherwise I wouldn't be registering and posting here

1. I love the 3D but when playing or watching movies in 3D I notice a lot of ghosting/crosstalk. Is this normal in that configuration? I read that 3DV2 should be better and have a lot less of these issues. If what I'm experiencing is "a lot less" then 3DV1 must have been ugly as hell...

2. I know Dell is quite behind on recent drivers, but new games (like Sleeping Dogs) have their own 3D profiles in newer drivers that the Dell drivers for the GTX680M lack. How could one obtain up to date 3D profiles from those Nvidia drivers or are there other sources for those profiles?

Thanks for your help.

Edit: Thought my notebook info would display as signature here... so here it is: Alienware M17xR4 Nebula Red - i7-3610QM - 8GB RAM - GTX680M - 3D Display

 

Hi.
Havn't tried 3d movies so can't comment but what games look bad? I've been very impressed with the lack of ghosting and any other 'artifacts' on most of the recent titles I've tried.

For the drivers I use LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

Read the instructions, disclaimers, etc., and save the inf file to copy over the expanded file.
HTH

 

Pretty much every game I tried until now (Sleeping Dogs, Assassins Creed Revelations, Skyrim, Mirror's Edge). Even the test application from the Nvidia control panel (Nvidia logo and letters moving) shows crosstalk.

 

You have something wrong then. That test has people trying to grab the logo as it flys out of the screen on mine. AC revelations is one of my favourites in 3D along with both portals and Batman AC. Mirrors edge is not perfect for me but good enough not to notice much.

Stupid question but the driver does show 'alienware 3D vision notebook and not 'discover'?

 

Don't get me wrong, the 3D is there, and it's amazing. Running and jumping on the roofs in ACR really blew me away. I tried to grab that logo in the test too It's just that e.g. to the left and right of that logo is a "shadow" of some sort coming from crosstalk.

The settings in the driver do show "Alienware 3D..." I left them untouched except for some depth adjustment I do in the games with CTRL-F3 and -F4.

Only thing I did was adjusting the color calibration of the display because the color temp was too cold for my liking, but even reverting these changes to defaults didn't remove the crosstalk.

 

I'm at a loss then since it is working - I was thinking that it was not 'triggering' correctly. I can get the shadowing you describe if I increase the depth too much, default is fine for me.

Have you asked anyone else if they see it on your system? Could it be just your eyes

 

Judge for yourself if you can see it:

Taken from the drivers setup wizard through the left glass

Spoiler

Taken from this test through the left glass, same with the black test, but I can't make a proper photo of that...

I reduced the depth to the default value of 15% now and it's a lot less noticable in games and movies but still in those photos. I guess my sense of depth (40%+- depending on game) is not compatible with the display.

 

Nah, doesn't show up for me. Have you tried the advanced 'tweaking' to see if that improves it for you?

 

I already tried changing those settings, but there was no noticable effect at all.

 

Can you turn off the 3d to get better FPS?

 

Yes and no, the overall FPS is probably the same if 3D is turned off, but it will look smoother since the performance is no longer split to render/display two images anymore.

 

@defengar I see around 30% to 50% FPS drop in 3D but it does not actually look as bad as it sounds. Since it is split to each eye i'm not sure if the figure is accurate. Slightly less 'smooth' for sure. Worst case for me is in assassins creed Revelations, which drops by 50%. Ctrl T to turn it off if that is what you are asking

 

Hi guys!, i have one question about the panel in the M17x R3 and R4 with 3D option....and it´s simple...is the same panel??...the same part number??...



I know with the R4 the glasses are the nvidia vision2...but i dont know if the panel include the lightboost of this tecnology.

Any web with the parts numbers of both panels?


Thanks!

 

Nope, they have 2 different part numbers.
R3- XM2J5
R4- DHCG2

Hope that helps you.

 

ok, but this is strange...i have received my r4, Dell changes my old r3 by problems with the gtx580m.
And now i have the two laptops with me...and the screen of the r4 has less bright...how it´s possible?

 

It can be due to many reasons:

Different resolution.
Different power config. (check the dim screen option)
Different video card config. (check video card config. for brightness)

 

Ok I've owned both before and both screens function differently.

In the R4, right click on the desktop and go to the nvidia Control Panel. Got to Set Up Stereoscopic 3D and under "Select when display is in 3D mode" change that to "Only when 3D programs run". Now the screen should flash to full brightness. The R4 display is different because it uses LightBoost which actually dims when the 3D is activated but through the glasses, is much brighter than the R3 screen. The problem is if "Always" is selected then it will run dim for the whole time.

The R3 uses over brightness to compensate for the really dim glasses which is why it is bright all the time.

 

Great Stuff. +1Rep. Thanks for the input!

 

That makes sense, I also was concerned why the r4 was much dimmer but... would that apply to the bios screen (i.e. it's in hardware)?

I had both machines also and next to each other the R4 alienhead POST was much dimmer.

 

Is it possible to use 120Hz refresh rate all the time apart from playing games in 3D? Also I want to know how bright the display is in R4 comparing to L702x 3D? Thank you very much!

 

Some games do not offer 120hz when selecting the resolution and some do (nothing to do with using 3D).

In windows it's 120Hz always unless you tell it different.

 

Yes, 3D can be completely turned off but 120Hz is part of the resolution options and therefore you can always have 1920x1080 @120Hz.

 

Excellent, thank you.

 

I'm having problems viewing videos in HTML5 stereo 3D- anyone else encountered this problem with isolated storage in silverlight?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Is compatible the 3D with windows8?

Enviado desde mi S2! ^^

 

Which software does everyone use for watching 3D movies?
PowerDVD shipped with the Laptop but I find it difficult as the application is too heavy. Any light alternatives is very much appreciated.

 

yeah, stereoscopic player is a good alternative

3dtv.at - Stereoscopic Player Overview

just set the 3D viewing method to Nvidia 3D vision

 

Hi guys. Am I right to say that 3D does not work with the GTX 680M and M17x R3 combo? I can't seem to enable it after replacing my burnt out GTX 580M with the 680M.

 

Afraid you're correct.

I was told that it can be made to work but you'd need the desktop emitter and then re-install the NV driver. Some sort of licensing issue and NV are paid for the bios certification.

Did your upgrade go smoothly?

 

Thank you for your reply. That's unfortunate, but thankfully I'm not a 3D user, only tried it out when I first had the laptop 3 years ago and then someone asked me about just yesterday on YouTube. It sounds a little fiddly and doesn't sound like a sure thing.

The replacement upgrade was pretty straightforward since I am handy with a screwdriver, straight swap. But I have been relying constantly on the kindness of J95 for the .inf patch files to install up-to-date drivers.

It's rather unfortunate that Alienware hasn't provided support for the mighty GTX 680M.

 

That's good to hear, an easy upgrade .

The problem with the drivers is because the notebook drivers are an opt-in program. The OEM supplies the card and machine config to NV and they add it. If dell do not approve a combination you are left to modding the inf to force it.

Have you tried laptopvideo2go? Worked for me in the past: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers You can drill down to just the inf for the version you want.

J95's heroic posts are great but nice to have a backup route....