Topic: Tech FYI: Using Simuleyes 3D shutter glasses with Descent

[PyroJockey]

I have a pair of Simuleyes LCD shutter glasses I bought through eBay a few years ago. I don't know how many of these glasses were sold and are still in working order today. They were the low end of the 90's VR market but at $175 were still an expensive option at the time. They do turn up on eBay but not very often (I paid $6).

Simuleyes uses a white line in the last scan line of the display. Descent/Descent 2 (DOS version only) would display a white line on the last scan line at the bottom of the screen. If that line is 33% white and 66% black it indicates a left image. If the line is 66% white and 33% black it indicates a right image.



The Simuleyes glasses intercepts the video signal using a pass through VGA dongle and sends it to a decoder that can then identify which is the left and right frame and then shutter the appropriated eye.




There was support built into Descent and Descent II for various VR devices including Simuleyes, there was an extra executable, LCDBIOS.EXE, required to make it all work. Looking through my notes I found the documentation including the README.TXT file that came with Simuleyes which says:

              Running Descent (TM) II with SimulEyes (R) VR
              ---------------------------------------------

1) Install Descent II per installation instructions, set up SimulEyes
   VR hardware per hardware instructions.

2) When running SETUP, select "SimulEyes" viewing option.

3) Copy LCDBIOS.EXE and STEREO.BAT to the same directory on your
   hard disk as the Descent II files.

   notes:

     * STEREO.BAT calls the command line LCDBIOS LCDRUN:D2 /HREFRESH

     * You may use this version (1.20x) of LCDBIOS.EXE, or the
       earlier version of LCDBIOS.EXE that was included with
       Descent:Destination Saturn.

4) Type STEREO at the command line to run Descent II with SimulEyes
   VR.

LCDBios is Copyright (c) Don Sawdai. This version of LCDBios is
licenced for use by users and developers of SimulEyes VR compatible
software.

Here are my personal notes on installing and using Simuleyes with Descent 1 if anyone is interested (this information was hard to find).

Descent 1 supported VR devices in "setup" and command line
VFX1 (optional head tracking)
CyberMaxx (optional head tracking)
Virtual I/O I-glasses! (optional head tracking)
Kasan's 3dMax <320x200, 320x400>
StereoGraphics Simuleyes (registered v1.5 only)

While I have heard that SimulEyes required no "driver" per say, there is a file that is required in order to operate the glasses, LCDBios.exe. This file is not included with Descent 1 or 2 but is included with the SimulEyes CD. The file LCDBios.exe must copied to the main Descent directory.

While Descent 1 allowed the selection of several supported VR devices in the SETUP.EXE program, SimulEyes was not one of them. Support for Simuleyes was added with the 1.5 patch for the registerd version but was not added to the setup program. Instead the selection of Simuleyes as the VR device is done via command line switches. For Descent 1 you need to use both the -LCDBios and -Simuleyes switches in the command line.

I set the command line switches in a batch file called STEREO.BAT that is then used to start Descent in stereo. I placed this batch file in the main Descent folder and the contents are as follows:

lcdbios /hrefresh /lcdrun:descent.bat -LCDBios -SimulEyes

The batch file starts the LCDBios with 2 command line switches selecting a highrefresh rate and to identify the program to be run as the Descent batch file normally used to start Descent. The name of the Descent batch file is followed by the command line switches for Descent.

There are several key combinations available in-game that allow you to adjust the 3D effect.

Shift+F1 - Sereoscopic balance decrease
Shift+F2 - Sereoscopic balance increase. This moves the 3d effect into or out of the screen.
Shift+F3 - Stereo separation decrease
Shift+F4 - Stereo separation increase. Changes the width of the eyes in 3d.  This can reduce or enhance the stereoscopic effect.
Shift+F5 - Stereo parameters reset
Shift+F6 - Resets display.
Shift+F7 - Toggles Left/Right eyes (? unverified).
Shift+F8 - Toggles VR sensitivity (? unverified).
Shift+Enter - Toggles the HUD ON/OFF.

Command line switches
    - -LcdBios switch that works with Don Sawdai's LCDBIOS. This should work with any generic LCD glasses.
    - -SimulEyes switch for StereoGraphics' LCD glasses.

Again, the Windows version of Descent II did not support any VR devices, only the DOS version.

I have run Descent/Descent ][ with Simuleyes successfully on a 233MHz Win 98 machine AND with DOSBox v0.73 on an XP machine. You need a display that supports a high refresh, 80Hz and up. A 60Hz LCD display is too slow and has a noticeable flicker, especially on DOSBox.