VP 10 Update: Nowadays, only the points/hints 2,3 and 7 below are really important, you can ignore most of the other text then! 
Also VPX adds an additional parameter to the 3D stereo settings (Offset) to 'move' the whole table in depth-only.
VP 9.1.X Update: If you use the DX9 versions of VP, note that the stereo settings (ZPD, Separation) are slightly different from the DX7 versions, due to technical reasons.
The good thing is that now most tables should be able to reuse the same settings. Also note that enabling Stereo AA is more or less for free, also there is no need anymore for 16bit rendering. In addition it shouldn't be necessary to tweak flashers or alpha ramps most of the time.
Now that the feature is officially out, it would be nice to get some feedback on it (performance, tables that show problems, hints on settings for tables, etc) and collect some user experiences in a new thread (old one for reference: http://www.vpforums....?showtopic=6278)..
One hint already: If a table crashes on you when using 3D output, try re-assuring that the full table is inside the rendering area, cause sometimes (very rarely) there is still a problem when a part of the table overlaps one of the screen borders, and then it either just falls back to 2D rendering (mostly) or crashes VP (rarely)..
Second hint: If you use the 3D in standard 4:3 (16:9) mode, one should change the default rendering settings in the table options (Backdrop->Options->Colors&Formatting-> at the very end there are two new options (Separation and ZPD)), as the default was optimized for cab use with 'layback' settings (see http://www.vpforums....showtopic=15071).. Same goes if you do not use layback settings, but 'standard' fullscreen rendering on cab..
As a quick explanation and very simplified: ZPD is between 0..1 and kinda tells the algorithm where you want the 3D "to happen" (small value for FS tables, bigger balue for 4:3 tables), whereas separation kinda sets the "scale" of the 3D effect (0..1 again)..
Third hint: Use 'F10' to turn 3D stereo on/off (of course only if the switch in the video settings was on) during gameplay.. (can be used for cab setups if you don't wanna play always in 3D and don't wanna mess with video settings all the time)
Fourth hint: If your CPU/GPU is up to it, enable the anti-alias setting in the 3D section of the VP video settings, the impact should be around 10%-20% or so, depending on your machine.. (unfortunately this is exclusive for the 3D mode, as it was a few-liner to make this work, and the result is worth the performance hit)
Fifth hint: Don't be disappointed when your framerate suddenly drops from 3000fps to 60fps, as this is perfectly valid.. It shouldn't really impact gameplay (as long as it's in 50-60fps range most of the time)..
Sixth hint: 16bit rendering (instead of 32bit) can help tremendously on some systems (on my cab it doubles performance), although i still had to use 32bit for windows and 16bit only in VP to not affect rendering (parts missing/looking strange).. Also the other common tricks (reduce texture resolution, reduce alpha ramp accuracy) still apply..
Seventh hint: Try the 3D code in standard 4:3 (16:9) mode first to make sure it works on your TV in general, then continue to test in rotated 9:16/FS/cab mode (and tweak your glasses if necessary, i.e. mostly you should need to rotate the foil if you don't have shutter/active or circular polarized glasses/TV) -> use Y Axis setting in VP video settings..
In general the easiness of getting a certain 3D TV type to work is like this: Circular polarized TVs should work out of the box in rotated mode (although i could never test this myself yet, but pocketpal did and said it worked for him). Linear polarized TVs require the rotation of the foils of the 3D glasses (i.e. cut out both foils (or buy separate polarized foil), rotate same way as TV, glue back onto glasses), although there is a workaround in the form of using circular polarized 3D glasses instead (f.e. real3D cinema glasses use this), at the price of getting slight ghosting effects. For active/shutter based TVs, in theory there is also no need to rotate the glasses, in practice though it seems like these also feature polarization to aid the shutter process, which makes rotation very difficult due to the electronics built into the glasses (i.e. cutting stuff there will destroy the functionality completely). There is a workaround for active/shutter based TVs in the form of using 2 shutterglasses: http://www.vpforums....e=2#entry197519
In general there is no golden rule found yet which TVs work best or even which ones work at all, although from what i've heard and experienced myself using a LG is the most reliable solution so far, but there is no way around testing VP-3D on the specific TV!!
Eighth hint: Some tables that use a lot of 2.5D magic (like T2 chrome) will unfortunately look mostly like crap in 3D mode, and there is no way of fixing this from within the rendering code..
Also all tables that use a lot of 'fake' flasher or GI bitmaps (the glowing around enabled flash lamps, like f.e. on Indy500 or Scared Stiff or White Water or Sopranos or Cirqus Voltaire, etc) or other 2.5D tricks (stuff that is added via the backdrop and not via the table itself) will look weird.. Again this cannot be fixed automatically but has to be retweaked.. One thing that can help: If the fake flasher is built with a ramp, VP9.1.5 has a new flag ('Normal 3D Stereo') in the options of each ramp that can be disabled in this case..
All tables that use more or less full 3D all of the time (all hail JP, as a prominent example 
) should work out of the box..
Ninth hint: The apron can look weird on some tables (strange distortion left vs right eye).. This i could actually fix, but would have to pay with a lot of performance as currently the code uses a lot of weird tricks to make it as fast as possible (it's all written in ASM-like intrinsic SSE2 code) and unfortunately this shows sometimes for stuff that is very close to the 'virtual playfield glass'.. One workaround is to add walls on the side of the table, with basically the height of a real pinball machine (as if you were buidling a cabinet around the virtual table).. This way the apron cannot 'touch' the virtual playfield glass anymore and so have less distortion..
Tenth hint: Some alpha ramps and other transparent stuff can look stupid if the 3D effect is extreme on them, due to the way the 3D code has to work (thanx DX7 ), and unfortunately here there is no workaround i know of.. One thing that can maybe help though: VP9.1.5 has a new flag ('Normal 3D Stereo') in the options of each ramp that can be disabled in this case.. Sometimes it can look good (No Fear, etc), sometimes not (Star Wars Trilogy, etc)..
And finally some exemplary table settings for VP9.2.1 that i use on my own cab (it is built with the TV being aligned with the playfield glass, or to be precise: It -is- the playfield glass ) to demonstrate how stuff can be setup to look reasonably realistic:
(1: Inclination, 2: FOV, 3: Layback, 4: 3D Stereo Separation, 5: 3D Stereo ZPD)
mm: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.1333
afm: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.2
tspp: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.12
ij: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.0175, 0.1
cv: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.0175, 0.1666
cftbl: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.0175, 0.1666
totan: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.2
sopranos: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.2
lotr: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.2
ss: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.02, 0.1666
tom: 10.5, 65, 90, 0.0175, 0.125
Edited by toxie, 24 December 2015 - 11:17 AM.
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