Predator Helios 300 Spatial Labs: Tested Acer’s glasses-free stereoscopic 3D

We told you about Acer’s glasses-free stereoscopic 3D technology last year, after only meeting it in passing during an event. It is an idea that is not new but fascinating, both from a strictly technological point of view and because it promises (and allows) to have a different visual experience than usual.

In the past few days we were able to spend a couple of hours in the company of the Predator Helios 300 Spatial Labs Editiona gaming laptop arriving in the coming months that unites the somewhat exotic taste of stereoscopy without glasseswith a series of hardware and software features designed for gamers, in order to create a product that is not for everyone but still appealing to an audience that includes more than just designers and creatives.

Central to the experience is the lenticular liquid crystal panel chosen for this Predator Helios 300 Spatial Labs Edition: a 4K which, by activating the 3D mode, drops to a resolution of 2K per eye, offering two slightly different versions of the same image so as to create the depth effect. Cameras mounted on the bezel of the screen instead track the movement of the eyes in order to constantly adjust the image.

As mentioned, it is not an absolute innovation but Acer has developed a suite of software that allows you to make media that otherwise would not be usable in 3D. TrueGame, in particular, is the application within which it will be possible to launch the supported games (at the moment there are about fifty but the idea is to expand the list and keep it up to date with the latest releases) in this specific mode.

We got to try Forza Horizon 5 and the result was quite surprising. After a few moments needed to correctly detect the eyes of whoever is in front of the PC, the stereoscopic 3D images were decidedly more defined than in other similar experiments of the past, such as the Nintendo 3DS, while the adjustment of the images to the position of the head responded always correctly.

Some limits remain for which certain elements in the background, for example trees, which are detached from the seabed but do not enjoy depth and have an effect similar to that of old video games with parallax scrolling. In general, all those elements that do not have a particularly high polygonal calculation but rely on textures to have a more satisfying look show the side of some problems.

Despite this, and taking into account some inevitable eye strain, it is undeniable that playing in this way makes the games more immersive overcoming some limitations of the past, such as the use of glasses and, at least in part, rather dark images. Among other things, it is even more surprising if you think that it is not content natively designed to be enjoyed in this way. I must say that I enjoyed it and, once the little time available to test it was over, I would have continued to play a few more games.

The suite developed by Acer also allows, through SpatialLabs Go, to do similar work on videos. Launched the appropriate mode it is therefore possible to go for example to YouTube and see any video reconverted to stereoscopic mode. The results, compared to the games, are less impressive and the quality of the recognition of the position of the elements on the screen is not so precise. Not that it’s unusable, mind you, but it’s hard to think that it could be chosen as the main way of using it, rather resulting in a sort of extra.

More interesting instead SpatialLabs View Pro which is the software developed for those who design in 3D, in order to be able to work on what has been created by observing it from multiple points of view, perhaps even showing it to colleagues or customers in a more complete way than that guaranteed by normal monitors . It supports the common files used for this kind of work, including Datasmith, and therefore also lends itself to being integrated with various modeling software.

The tested version of the Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition was equipped, in addition to the 15.6 inch we have talked about, a twelfth generation Intel Core i9, an NVIDIA RTX 3080 and 32GB of DDR5-4800: a top-of-the-range configuration essential to guarantee adequate gaming performance even with stereoscopic 3D mode. As mentioned, we have not been able to test it for a long time and for a complete judgment we will have to wait when we have it in our hands for a few days, however at first glance there was no lack of respectable connectivity, including HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4 and two USB 3.2 Gen2.

At the moment the Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition is not yet available for sale but, when it will be, the price of this configuration should exceed 4,000 euros. It is clearly a solution for the moment designed for very few and which will also return later with new models, different hardware features and, over time, we also imagine lower prices. Until then it remains an interesting novelty, certainly curious to try and which we will gladly test in detail as soon as we have the opportunity.