It almost seems like a joke when you first hear about it. The only bit of "hardware" needed besides an NVIDIA graphics card GeForce 8 series or better is a pair of red/blue anaglyph glasses. Yes, these are the same cardboard and plastic glasses given away at 3D movies or come free with some comic books. Do-it-yourself types might find a way to build a fancy pair of homemade glasses. NVIDIA gives away a branded pair bundled with some video card offers, but they're no better quality than the ones you'd find anywhere else. However, the cheap glasses make up the low-tech end of a pretty sophisticated software remedy to bring 3D graphics to the average gamer.

The most recent set of NVIDIA graphics drivers (v186.18 or higher) has 3D Vision software built-in, but it's only accessible through Windows Vista/7. Those still using XP will not be able to make use of the feature. Otherwise, turning on the 3D capabilities is as easy as clicking "Enable 3D Discover" from the Start menu. Afterwards, players can use hotkeys to turn the 3D effects on or off from in-game. The software automatically works with DirectX games (especially the ones sporting the "Way It's Meant to Be Played" logo) and treats the graphics with the red and blue effects. The NVIDIA 3D Vision site offers a list of games and rates them according to how well the software works, but let's be clear: this is a quick and dirty low cost solution. If you want truly spectacular 3D effects, then you'll need to spend the money on the shutter glasses and monitor. However, the 3D Vision Discover solution is still very impressive for something that's practically free.

It probably goes without saying that you'll throw away any chance of gaming looking cool by putting these cheesy glasses on. In testing, we found that dark conditions work best, as taking the glasses on and off in a sunlit room soon made us feel a little queasy and gave us a headache. So, for the best experience, you'd be in alone in a darkened room wearing a pair of 3D glasses, but the experience is really worth it. The software works in real-time to modify the game so that it looks like the world stretches outward into the screen, providing the illusion of depth. What we didn't experience were objects actually popping out from the screen like you would see at a 3D movie, since most games aren't designed to support that feature. The NVIDIA 3D diagnostic tools include a short demo where the logo actually comes out at you, so perhaps we'll see more games take advantage of 3D graphics in the future. As of right now, we saw a small bit of a dust trail come out as character ran in Prince of Persia and more prominent 3D in the Resident Evil 5 benchmark demo, which is designed to support NVIDIA 3D. Unfortunately, we're unable to take screenshots with the 3D color treatment, so you'll either have to take or word for it or go try for yourself.