VOGONS


First post, by Maraakate

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This is somewhat of a crosspost from my 3D Glasses w/ 3DFX thread. Someone mentioned that the Glasses themselves (but not the box!) will work with H3D and other protocols.

In any event, I got a pair of SimulEyes CIB and here's my findings:

The SimulEyes uses a VGA passthrough to a break out box. It's supposed to take 4 AA batteries, but I was able to use the box just fine without them. The manual states some monitors may be able to power the device without the need of batteries. However, I did notice if there are batteries inserted and they are turned on the shutters dim a bit. My guess is to help alleviate ghosting effects which appear to be about on par with Sega Master System 3D Glasses. In other words, it's acceptable.

The pack-in comes with Descent II: Test Flight, Slipstream 5000, Whiplash, In Pursuit of Greed and Rise of the Triad: Dark War. I have only tested Descent 1 and ROTT so far. Descent 1 requires the v1.5 and a copy of LCDBIOS (linked at the end of this thread) and the parameters lcbdios /hrefresh /lcdrun:descentr -LCDBios -SimulEyes to start the game. They ignore -640x480 and other high res forcing commands.

ROTT works fine, but requires a special version of the game binary included with CD. I will try to see if I can make a binary patch for those interested. It's biggest gripe is there is no music if the glasses are enabled. This is also outlined in the manual!

Quake 1 is apparently supported, see http://www.mindflux.com.au/news/quake3d_lcd.html. I was unable to get it to work under DOS. I noticed there was some new slightly odd modes available (320x238, 640x398, etc) in the video menu and if they are chosen the white sync lines appear but they never alternate. I viewed the source code to the qlcd utility and you have to run profile.exe to get the video mode. No matter what I tried it never works.

Here are some files I have found:
LCDBios v1.21x
SIMBios v1.27
SGToggle 32 for Windows
QLCD (for use with Quake 1)
MPM3DB (Older version of QLCD according to source code review)

Last edited by Maraakate on 2015-10-13, 18:27. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 5, by Maraakate

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Here are pictures of the PCB:

The attachment PCB_Front.jpg is no longer available
The attachment PCB_Back.jpg is no longer available

The IC appears to be a small custom SGC0502 IC. Complete Markings: SGC0502 K04A-7A 9643

R1: Brown-Black-Brown-Gold
R2: Brown-Black-Brown-Gold
R3: Brown-Black-Brown-Gold
R4: (Hard to make out looks like Yellow-Brown-Red-Gold)
R5: Brown-Black-Red-Gold

C1: 638 RAX
C2: 640 RJJ
C3: 104 E5M (ESM?)
C4: 1uF 50v

If anyone needs more pictures of it and want to attempt making one let me know.

Reply 2 of 5, by creepingnet

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Cool, I just found one of those myself not too long ago - missing the VGA passthrough. I wish I know what the cable was wired to for the passthrough so I could build my own.

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Reply 3 of 5, by Maraakate

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Ah yes, I'll see if I can crack open the VGA passthrough and get some pictures for you.

Reply 4 of 5, by Maraakate

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creepingnet wrote:

Cool, I just found one of those myself not too long ago - missing the VGA passthrough. I wish I know what the cable was wired to for the passthrough so I could build my own.

I haven't cracked it open yet, but here is something you can build that is compatible with it's standard (and apparently other stuff, I should probably build one!):

http://stereo3d.com/vgapt.htm

Reply 5 of 5, by Maraakate

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It looks like you're just tapping off v-sync and sync ground for the passthrough. I can't get mine open as it's using some sort of weird molded rubber. I tried going around it with a pick tool but I couldn't get it open.