I’ve never been interested in the glasses-free 3D craze that’s carried on for years, but Samsung finally sold me. It showed off a new concept for a glasses-free 3D monitor at CES 2024, and I had a chance to try it out. And I’m probably just as shocked as you are that it actually works.
This isn’t a product — not yet, at least — but a bit of technology that Samsung is showing off early. It’s the aptly-named Samsung 2D/3D monitor right now. The monitor works with eye tracking. Two cameras at the top of the display track your eyes, and they can transform any game from a flat 2D image into 3D.
I had a chance to try out the monitor with Lies of P, and at some point, I forgot I was in a CES demo. Playing one of my favorite games from last year, bolstered with a proper 3D image, I was content to sit and play for as long as Samsung would let me. That’s more than I can say for other glasses-free 3D displays I’ve tried in the past, where there’s a very narrow sweet spot that constantly breaks your immersion (and hurts your neck).
That’s not the case here. Once I sat down at the monitor and the illusion kicked in, the monitor never broke it. I was living in the world with embers circulating the air in front of the display and decapitated puppet parts shooting out the side of the screen. It worked excellently.
This is a 2D/3D monitor, however, and Samsung says you’ll be able to switch to a 2D mode instantly. It’s recognizing that you probably don’t want to use 3D all the time, which is a big deal. You can use 3D all the time if you wish, though. The monitor transforms 2D games into 3D, so you don’t need any specific software support to get a game working with the display.
Although this is the most convincing glasses-free 3D display I’ve seen, it’s not perfect. I noticed a lot of screen tearing on background elements when panning the camera in Lies of P, and it looks like that’s due to the faux 3D (Samsung wouldn’t say for sure). It’s not enough to kill the experience, but it’s noticeable.
Still, I’m excited to see where Samsung takes this. The company tells me it will have more details later this year, but for now, this remains an interesting bit of CES tech that may turn into a proper product in the future.
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