TriDef 3D Ignition has two 3D rendering modes. The standard 3D mode operates in the traditional manner by rendering two views from within the game environment. This approach produces high quality 3D but performance can be reduced as it is necessary to render the DirectX scene twice, once for the left eye and once for the right eye.

Power 3D is a method of improving performance by using information from the Z-buffer in the DirectX graphics pipeline. The Z-buffer measures the distance to objects in the scene. This information can be used to synthesise virtual stereoscopic 3D views. As it is only necessary to render the DirectX scene once Power 3D runs significantly faster than the traditional stereo 3D mode. Frame rates can be increased by as much 50%. The trade-off for this performance boost is that quality of the 3D can be lower. In particular, Power 3D mode cannot see behind objects which can lead to some distortions around edges.

Performance Menu

Power 3D is another innovative feature of TriDef 3D Ignition that is not available in other commercial stereoscopic game drivers. By default TriDef 3D Ignition is configured to render the same scene twice, with a small viewpoint shift (in the same way most other drivers operate). This produces the best quality results but is very resource intensive and quite inefficient.

The Power 3D mode is a faster method of approximating a viewpoint shift based on the principles of image based rendering. There is a trade-off in terms of 3D image quality, which may be noticable at the edges of objects but it is likely that you will get a significant increase in frame rate if you switch to Power 3D mode.

In normal 3D mode, the frame rates of most games will decrease by 50% compared to 2D mode. With Power 3D turned on, the performance will often be much closer to the 2D game performance.

The Quality parameter is also designed as a means of trading image quality for speed. By reducing the quality the frame rate can be increased.

The performance of TriDef 3D Ignition is dependent on factors such as the graphics card and graphics drivers. 3D Texture Copy allows the user to switch between different methods of passing 3D textures around the system to assess the impact on performance. The Auto setting attempts to find the best setting for your system automatically.

Please refer to General Performance Tips on our Online Forum (English only).