I thought glasses-free 3D gaming was a gimmick, but this monitor may change my mind
Specifically, I was wrong about Acer's Predator SpatialLabs View 27 glasses-free 3D gaming monitor when I wrote about how it felt gimmicky at times.
If you read that article you might recall me reporting that while the monitor's setup process is fairly straightforward, I ran into some hiccups along the way that made it take longer than I expected to get working as intended.
And once I did have it properly connected to my PC and correctly running my supported games in glasses-free 3D via Acer's SpatialLabs TrueGame app, I found the experience itself to be horribly headache-inducing because the 3D image kept flickering every minute or so.
At the time I wrote about how it felt like the eye-tracking cameras in the top bezel of the View 27 weren't actually tracking my eyes, so I had to keep my head in a rigid position or else lose the 3D effect and instead see a nauseating double image.
I reached out to Acer representatives with questions, because I was afraid the unit might have been damaged or have defective cameras. Thanks to the kind assistance of Acer's technical experts I was able to sort out the ways in which I was getting in my own way (more on that shortly), but even after I had double-checked and tried to correct all my mistakes (using the wrong USB cable, not having enough light in the room, etc) I was still having a hard time reliably getting the 3D effect to work.
I had to stop futzing with the monitor for a month or so due to some other projects and travel, including popping up to Seattle to cover Microsoft Build 2025. When I got home I fired up the View 27 again to see if I could get to the bottom of why the glasses-free 3D effect wasn't reliably working, but suddenly it was working — and working well.
Since then I've spent a week or so testing it at different times of day and with different games, and I've barely noticed any flickering or failing of the glasses-free 3D effect. It does sometime occasionally flicker for a moment, but the display's cameras seem to quickly correct themselves and pull the glasses-free 3D effect back into place within seconds.
In fact, now that it seems to be working as intended I've noticed how the glasses-free 3D image will adjust itself in real time as you move your head around in front of the display. It's a really neat effect that causes the game world to sort of stretch and warp subtly in front of your eyes, in a way that wasn't nauseating to me but was kind of cool. It's almost like I can feel the monitor's cameras tracking my eyes and adjusting the image in real time, and it feels like the future.
So what changed?
I can't tell you yet. As far as I can tell, the glasses-free 3D effect wasn't working well on the Predator SpatialLabs View 27 loaner Acer sent us for weeks, and then suddenly it started working pretty much perfectly. According to an Acer representative the company is regularly updating both the SpatialLab Experience Center software and the profiles for playing games in 3D via the TrueGame app, so it's possible that a recent update fixed whatever issue I was experiencing.
In an RPG like Baldur's Gate 3 it fosters the illusion that there's a whole little world inside your monitor."
It's also possible I'm just an idiot, and I failed to perfectly set up the monitor or calibrate the lighting.
I had a lot of issues with setup in general, because getting the correct software, getting it to recognize the monitor as a 3D display and then ensuring the monitor works seamlessly with the SpatialLabs software was pretty tricky. For example, I spent a few days wondering why the 3D effect wasn't working, only for Acer to remind me to make sure and use the specific USB-C cable that comes with the display — you can't just use any ol' USB-C cable to connect it to your PC and expect it to work.
Even when I did have the correct cables connected and all the software updated, I typically get a "cable not plugged in" error when launching games in 3D and have to re-plug either the USB-C cable or the HDMI cable (both need to be connected between monitor and PC for the 3D software to launch) in a few times in order to get the error to go away.
But go away it does, and when I actually get into a game and start experiencing the glasses-free 3D it's always a fun gimmick. And in certain games it transcends the gimmick and makes the game more enjoyable in a meaningful way.
The Acer Predator SpatialLabs View 27 monitor is a 27" 4K (3840 x 2160) 160 Hz Stereoscopic 3D Display. When you're not using the 3D effect it's a functional 4K 160Hz gaming monitor with a pair of built-in speakers. It also supports Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium.
For example, playing Skyrim in 3D on the View 27 is neat but not a huge improvement because the glasses-free 3D effect extends "into" the monitor.
That is, when the 3D effect is working well objects don't appear to jump out at you—instead, the objects closest to you in 3D appear to be on the surface of the monitor, and objects farther away appear to be "inside" the monitor as though it were a diorama.
This diorama effect isn't amazing in first-person games, but in an RPG like Baldur's Gate 3 it fosters the illusion that there's a whole little world inside your monitor that you can explore. And I bet if I played something like The Sims, the glasses-free 3D effect would reinforce the illusion that there really is a little neighborhood inside your PC full of digital people living out their own lives.
That's a big deal for me because until now I've always felt like glasses-free 3D is kind of a gimmick. And I still think it is, for the most part — but the Acer Predator SpatialLabs View 27 has shaken my faith and made me wonder whether there really is some additive value to glasses-free 3D gaming after all.
Now that the display is working well I'm hoping to have a full review published soon, so stay tuned!
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