Vuzix Forums / VR920 / Technical Support / Different color depth per eye?!? / Latest Posts

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Vic-Viper — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:54:56 GMT

I am getting this issue too. This is NOT alignment from the eye to the screen. The left screen is not displaying colors as well as the right screen. There is major color banding caused by dithering in the image. I have 2 VR 920s in the house and will compare both. I hope this is fixed soon as this is a big problem in 3D modeling. Dithering shows up badly on color gradients on models without textures.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

kodaigo — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:07:16 GMT

I have the same problem with the left side but I have how find solve it of the moin for videos, if have PB of brightness with one of two ecran tipping up spectacles of is enough to you to quote the darkest to retort brightness. for me his step I lean and hop that right

sorry for my english =) if they can help :o

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

wuhlei — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:15:48 GMT

my goggles have more then 256 but its less than 16bit colors

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Feilen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:04:44 GMT

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem ... Any fix yet?

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Lawrence — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:34:03 GMT

I got my VR920 earlier this week and am experiencing the same troubles -- only the left eye. I've tested a bunch of programs, both 2D and 3D and the problem is present for eveything. As others have said, it is particulaly noticeable in transitions of colours. In particular it often makes skin tones look bad.

Has any kind of solution been reached, yet?

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

zzzap — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:18:07 GMT

I'll jump on this train as well to report that this problem is annoying while playing games and movies.

So, my right eye is normal, 32 bit color display, while my left eye shows....less, it seems like 16 bit color display, like others have shown in screen dumps before me. But it's not only green and blue, its where ever there are a (normally) smooth transition between 2 colors, from lighter to darker (shades of colors). I can't recall if I ever noticed it when I first got the unit, but right now it's very visible, especially when compared to the right eye simultaneously!

I'd like some application to get more control over what's happening inside my unit :)

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:29:41 GMT

As far as I can tell this is a flaw in the design rather than a bug with a few units. My guess is that it is a very common problem but people don't seem to notice it or mind it. Unless a new firmware is given to us, I don't expect this to get resolved.

That's the way I see it. Hopefully I'm wrong and this can somehow be fixed.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Boyington — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:06:33 GMT

Hello,

I've just bought a new pair of vr920 with latest softwares and that presents the same problems. (especially visible when watching movies)

Did you succeed to resolve it, or did it go under warranty ?

Thanks a lot for your answer.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

sketchystories — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:00:50 GMT

I've noticed a similar problem with my glasses but it seems to come and go on its own. Most of the time they are fine, and I figure the screens just need to "warm up" a little because after longer use it appears to fix itself.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

MWorks — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:16:50 GMT

I have the same problem with my VR920... but I'm not sure what firmware do I have... how can I check it?.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I can. :)

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

TitanKvad — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:56:32 GMT

Not to revive an old thread, but I am glad to see that I am not the only one experiencing this. :)
I find it to be most noticable when viewing stereoscopic content.
I havent attempted to do a firmware update though, but my unit isnt that old (bought it this fall). I have installed the latest drivers though.
My GPU is a GF8800GTS.
I guess I should try to do a firmware update. Sad to see that there doesnt seem to be a foolproof fix though...

EDIT:
Seems I already have the latest firmware version (1.110.104:13)...

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

gwn — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:41:10 GMT

Hi,

On vista background picture, the 'dithering' appears between green and blue. maybe there is only a problem of depth in one of these colors.

In fsx, it's specialy between cloud and sky (white and blue). (blue again)

In other games it's noticable on the smoke (between smoke and sky). (blue again)

I have the same pb on xp 32 bits sp2 + 7800gs (and like i said before, on vista 64 +8800gs).

my vr920 came with the firmware 1.110.104.13 installed.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

co-pilot — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:03:40 GMT

Hi, guys!

This is really an annoying problem.

In order to distinguish a potential hardware problem from a sofware one, it could be useful to know if the left and right LCD matrices are manufactured separately or they are interchangeable.
If they are interchangeable so the color resolution's difference between the left and right eyes can not be caused by a hardware problem (nobody has problem with the right eye's display).

In order to help the technical support to manage to reproduce this trouble, a maximum of sofware and hardware configuration parameters from the persons encountering this problem seems to be necessary.

Thank you, in advance, for your contribution.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Mnemonic — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:52:28 GMT

It's seems to be common for VR920, but it not so noticable for myself.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

gwn — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:58:18 GMT

Hi,

Maybe it would be interesting to know the conf of those who have the pb.

I start for mine:

vista 64 sp1(the only update i have), 8800gts(640Mo), q6600, MB Asus p5kse, Dx10 and last Dx9

for me, the problem is clearly visible on the default vista bakground, as Tril shown.

Thanks and good Luck Tod

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

TechSupport — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:49:16 GMT

This is a very strange problem, and to be honest, I don't have a clear answer. We had (I believe) Tril's unit in for repair, and we were completely unable to replicate the issue on our systems, so it points to a software issue, or perhaps hardware conflict. Of course, we would be happy to bring in any unit for evaluation/repairs; if you think that you're experience something that needs to be looked at, just let me know in an email, and we can get you set up.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

gwn — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:12:04 GMT

exactly the same pb as Tril. different color depth left/right.

not a pb of IPD: if you ROLL the glasses 180° the problem go

to the other eye clearly. Nothing to do with shifting the glasses a few millimeter left or right. Maybe a software pb (my conf:vista 64 +8800gts) or a alignment pb between the lcd and the lens.

I wonder what Todd think about this.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Phearbot — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:51:06 GMT

I agree with you that it is all how the eye aligns with the lenses. My concern was more that the lens shape creates two different edges (one that fades to black the other that just loses focus) and that they are installed identically as opposed to one being flipped.

Experiment: Pull up an image (preferably darker then lighter). Now close your right eye and move the glasses slowly to the right, you should notice that the image becomes darker and darker as the alignment of the lens and eye change. Go back to center, now slowly move the glasses to the left, you should notice that the image gets blurrier but there is no loss of color.

Now try the same thing on the right eye, the results should be idential. However, intuitively shouldn't the results be opposite? That way the colors would align.

Just something interesting I noticed, it doesn't bother me enough to not use the glasses or try and send them in for inspection/repair.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:01:22 GMT

I'm experiencing the same thing and I think it's related to the fact that your eyes are wider or narrower than the lenses are. Or in more scientific terms your IPD (Inter pupillary distance) is not the same as the IPD for which the vr920 has been designed. Unfortunately this model does not allow this adjustement and this is a real bummer. If you play with the nosepiece a bit you will be able to adjust the distance between your eyes and the lenses which can help somewhat. You can also try the tilt adjustment.

I stopped using this device because of all these issues, not counting the fact that there are not many good drivers for an 8800 card.

Hope this helps.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Phearbot — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:22:25 GMT

Hey all,

I have been noticing the same color disparity between the screens as well. I found that it is especially apparent in low light scenes (those were there are lots of shadows). I have noticed that it feels like the lenses are shaped and that each side of the lens produces a different effect as you approach it. On my left lens the left side darkens the image as you approach it, while the right side (closest to the nose) maintains the color but becomes blurry. The right lens darkens on the left side (closest to the nose) and maintains color but blurs as you approach the right side. I wonder if this is intentional, since I would think that one of the lenses should be reversed (for example, as you look toward the nose both lenses become blurry but maintain color since that is the area of overlap), or if they forgot to flip one around during manufacturing of some batches.

Do everyone else’s lenses react the same way?

*sorry for the white background...apparently the forum doesn't like copy paste (even out of notepad).

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Spedley — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:42:23 GMT

I have the same/similar problem playing Call of Duty 2.

When the scene was outdoors, I adjusted the brightness of each eye perfectly (using the HUD) but when the scene was indoors, the left eye was significantly darker than the right eye.

It wouldn't be too bad except that the brighter eye takes over and spoils the 3d effect.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:10:28 GMT

Glad to see I'm not the only one exhibiting the problem. This is exactly what I'm experiencing. Although it seems a bit intermittent it might just be depending on which color is displayed. I have seen it really bad and other times really no issue at all.

I'll be honest although the product is great the fact that I am having this problem and the fact that my eyes are wider that the glass lenses rendered the device not so attractive to me anymore and stopped using it. If vuzix ever releases a patch to this, I might consider picking it up again.

Thanks for the posts!

Nic

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Snack — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:52:43 GMT

I purchased my vr920 recently and I'm also having problems with color in the left LCD. It's very noticeable with gradients and gives the combined right eye + left eye image a grainy appearance.

The left LCD looks kind of like it has a transparent topographical map overlayed on it. :)

I can reduce the distortion by significantly lowering the blue brightness in my Nvidia control panel but the cure seems to be worse than the disease. :) I wasn't able to do any better with the onboard brightness, balance, backlight, and contrast controls. The firmware has been updated to 1.110.104:13.

The right LCD is perfect. If I put on the HMD upside down, the left LCD still looks distorted when viewed from the right eye.

Below are a couple of links to pictures of my left and right LCDs. The pictures didn't come out very well so the problem is actually about two three times as visible. When viewing them on the laptop I'm typing this on, I have to look at the left picture at an oblique angle to see the problem clearly. It looks like a bunch of concurrent circles radiating out from the brightest point on the leg of a quake3 character model (skin tones seem to be strongly effected).

http://home.comcast.net/~liam.busey/left.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~liam.busey/right.jpg

Is this normal? Is there anyway to fix this? The stereoscopic aspect of the vr920 has really blown me away. It's just a shame to have the eye drawn to such things when I'm just now seeing things in 3d. :)

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Tril — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:45:40 GMT

I get the same problem. It's very visible when there are color gradients. I took a picture from the two displays of the VR920. I chose to show a Vista background picture on which the problem is visible. I had difficulty with taking a clear picture showing the problem. The problem is actually a bit more visible to the eye than the pictures show.

The left picture shows up brighter than the right one but both displays are actually showing the same brightness to the eyes. I must have taken the pictures at slightly different angles, thus causing the difference in brightness.

This is with firmware version 1.110.104:13. The resolution was set to 640x480 in the pictures. I've tried 800x600 and 1024x768 and they produce the same problem.

Look at the top left, where there are color gradients. They are not smooth on the left picture while they show properly on the right one.

Left eye picture :

[URL=http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vr920leftcy1.jpg][IMG]http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/453/vr920leftcy1.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Right eye picture :

[URL=http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vr920rightpb3.jpg][IMG]http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/7872/vr920rightpb3.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I noticed that if I manually set the glasses in stereo while looking at this Vista background picture, it freezes the pictures on both displays and the problem is even more noticeable. The region where the colors gradients appear produce small dots on the left eye (a bit like dithering). When the picture is frozen, you clearly see these dithering dots and when you don't freeze it, the dots are less visible because they are quickly changing and blured together.

This problem is annoying me to the point that I don't want to use my VR920. It's too disturbing when colors that should be the same appear differently in each eye. It's very noticeable when watching movies. I hope that it can be fixed by Vuzix.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Centurion — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:08:23 GMT

When i sit looking lcd monitor with 640x480 i can see each pixel clearly. When i wear VR920 i can't ). It taked me around month for my eyes to focus good enough, to see clear in center, but i still can't read text on edges. So i guess you have to play some time and you'll soon "feel" that you need put glasses a bit left, or a bit right etc.

Difference of screenshots probably because you allready adjusted right-left balance. Set it to middle and make screenshots again.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:02:43 GMT

I've played a lot with the position of the glasses on my eyes and can never get a clear images across the screen. I think my eyes are wider than the two viewers on the VR920. Not too bad still, I can manage with that problem. It does affect the brightness of each screen which I can correct a bit with the options.

I finally took some time to take pictures of my test app for the VR920, it shows the differences between the left and right displays. The left suffers from streaking in some of the colors, it is more or less visible depending on what I am displaying. The right screen is very smooth with no issues.

See the pictures I have taken, they are a bit out of focus but still display the issue.

http://pages.infinit.net/teknix1/Left.jpg

http://pages.infinit.net/teknix1/Right.jpg

Nic

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

Centurion — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:18:12 GMT

This all depends how you place glasses on nose. My left eye is bit lower that right, so i have to put glasses diagonally, or one of them don't get into focus so colors darker. If you can't do anything about it, use left-right balance correction.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:43:09 GMT

Thanks vic, I'll take a look at that setting tonight.

Nic

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

vic256 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:29:08 GMT

Normally, when using native stereo in a game, you dont need to adjust the stereo settings, the timing is controlled by the VR920 driver and the patch used on the game.... The stereo works by giving 2 different images on each eye, one being slightly different aligned than the other, giving you 'depth' in the game ... Things close by seems close, things far away seems far away. The icon with the glasses and a L in left side R in the other side controls the timing of these images but as stated above, you usually dont have to mess with these. When not in a stereoscopic game the display will just freeze while the stereoscopic option is enabled. The options in the OSD is decsribed on page 15 in the Vr920 manual found here: http://www.vuzix.com/site/_support/iWear%20VR920%20Manual%20v2.0.pdf

There's an option in the glasses that allows you to control the brightness for each LCD, it's shown as a pair of eyes with arrows above, brightness balanec, it contains a slider when selected, when the slider is in the middle both LCD's should have similar brightness, when adjusted to left, left gets more bright etc. I believe it's used if you got one eye that's you 'primary' eye like being left or right handed, I usually have to give left eye a bit more brightness than right.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:33:27 GMT

For some reason the issue is not as present today, it seems more like you were suggesting; a brightness or contrast issue. I did a test with my camera and I can capture the display very clearly. As soon as the problem shows up again, I will post screenshots. Can I control the brightness or contrast individually or is there only one setting for both? I've already upgraded the firmware to the latest available on the Vuzix website.

How does the Stereo icon work, what is it used for?

Thanks

Nic

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

vic256 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:23:40 GMT

Just a thought:
Maybe you could use a digital camera/phone to take a picture of each image (left and right) when the problem occurs and post it? Just put the cameralens to the VR920 lens nad perhaps play around a bit with macro, ISO and stuff on the camera to produce a a couple of pictures that shows your problem?

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

vic256 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:23:35 GMT

No, those are for stereoscopics and it's normal for the display to freeze when selected when not viewing stereoscopic enabled content... Perhaps the brightness balance for the individual LCD's set too far to one of the sides?

If you haven't already I think a firmware update is your best bet, remember to disable your USB sound device (the built in VR920 sond device) and read the install instructions on how to carefully before attempting this.

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:51:52 GMT

Thanks vic.

I've already tried to play with the OSD but no luck. I'm not quite sure I understand how the icon that selects stereo, left or right works. If I pick left or right it just freezes the image. Is this supposed to select for which display the options are?

Nic

RE: Different color depth per eye?!?

vic256 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:39:00 GMT

I havent noticed any problems with the colordepth, specially after the latest firmware updates .... The colordepth on my VR920 with the latest firmware is def. 16bit color and looks better to me when windows/games are set to 32bit color as the VR920 does a better job at scaling down to 16bit than my graphicscard...

So to sum up, the colordepth is fine, no issues in the latest firmware with my VR920 and def. no difference in the left and right LCD panel. If you've got the latest firmware, drivers and software installed and checked that windows/games are set to the correct colordepth, perhaps you need to play around with -or reset the OSD menuitems?

Get the latest software and firmware here:
http://www.vuzix.com/support/downloads_drivers.html

Different color depth per eye?!?

teknix1 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:38:52 GMT

I know there's currently issues with the color depth with the VR920 but is anybody else experiencing what seems to be different color depth per eye?

The right eye is correct but the left one seems to be displaying 256 colors or something like it. It's quite noticeable when playing movies. I haven't played many games on it so far, but in the demo game AirXonix it is quite visible in the water as your character is approaching the field.

Any ideas? Can this be fixed?

Thanks

Nic