With the glasses, the opposite image is blocked out for each eye via polarizing lenses at a rate of up to 140Hz. According to Elsa, each eye sees a slightly offset picture from what the other sees, just like your eyes see in the real world. The effect is a sense of depth that games just cannot create alone no matter how great their graphics are. It should be noted that, if your monitor is not capable of running a 120Hz or higher refresh rate, you may get some serious eyestrain with the 3D Revelator since each eye sees half the refresh rate of what the monitor is running at and anything below 60Hz can be uncomfortable.
We feel our readers are the curious types who may be interested in how the technology works, so here is a quick and dirty explanation of polarization and how the Revelator uses it. Polarization is a technique by which light can be filtered through a translucent film. On a polarized film, fine, parallel and tightly packed opaque lines are laid out. These lines block about half of the visible light going through because the lines are close enough together to stop many visible light waves. Visible light can be entirely stopped by laying another polarized film flat against the first, but with its lines at a right angle. With the lines of each film at right angles to each other, a checkerboard is formed through which visible light cannot pass.
With the Revelator, there is one layer of permanently polarized film and separate layers for each eye that polarizes at a right angle to the first film only when current is applied. The glasses send current to, and thereby polarize the second layer of film in front of the first eye that is not supposed to see the screen, and thereby block its vision entirely while allowing the second eye to see the screen. Then the current is sent to the second film in front of the second eye, blocking the second eye's vision and letting the first see as the onscreen image as it is changed to the first eye's perspective. The glasses synch their switching with the displayed images via the previously mentioned IR emitter/receiver and can operate at up to 140Hz. A historical problem with 3D glasses of this type has been too low refresh rates causing terrible flickering. The ability to go up to 140Hz cuts the level of flickering but does not get rid of it.
The 3D effect is there, and depending on the program, can be anything from ok (Unreal Tournament), to pleasant (Re-Volt), to totally mind-bogglingly stunning (3DMark 2000). In every supported program we tested, there was at least a noticeable improvement in the 3D effect and overall looks. There is a long list of supported games because of the card's usage of D3D, including Half-Life, so you'll be able to use the Revelator on many of your games, past, present and future. Frankly, it's just pretty darn cool!