Installation
While not quite a USB Plug N’ Play device, installation of the Z800 3DVisor is pretty straight forward. Being the tech-savvy machomen that we are, we decided to see if we could install the device without the help of the manual. Two minutes later, it seemed to be operational but all we saw through the goggles was a sea of grey screen instead of a desktop. After trying again, this time with the manual, we got the thing to work but not without a fair share of problems.


The first problem we noticed during installation was the length of the included cables. The VGA cable that eMagin includes with the device is a meager 12” long. Due to the relatively stiff nature of VGA cables, or thick cables in general, we weren’t able to put the device where we wanted, which was on top of the computer case, or curled around nicely on the side. Instead, we had little option but to have the controller sticking out the back of the computer and facing the wall. This poses a problem to a first-time installer, as the LED light on the controller is needed for progress checking throughout the installation process, and cannot be seen when it is facing the wall behind your computer. The other big problem we noticed was that the included USB cable was also short, which can cause all kinds of problems on certain computers. An example of this problem came to fruition when we attempted to install the 3DVisor on our Shuttle XPC computer. The 2 USB ports on the back of the Shuttle were in use from the mouse and wireless internet adapter, so the only available USB ports were in the front of the shuttle. Because the VGA cable is so short, we had an interesting time trying to connect both of them at the same time, and certainly didn’t feel very comfortable with the strain that was being put on the cables and the sockets they were plugged in to.


On the software side however, the installation was considerably less troublesome. The drivers that are necessary for correct operation were very easy to install, and the graphical interface, while kind of ugly looking, was very simple and user friendly. An important thing to note about the 3DVisor is that it won’t work at all unless the resolution for your monitor or secondary monitor, depending on how you set it up, is set to 800x600.