EnSight supports active stereo display on workstations with quad-buffered OpenGL stereo capability, in addition to passive (polarized) stereo support for detached displays (see Setup For Parallel Rendering). Active stereo works by rapidly displaying alternating left and right eye views on the screen. An emitter (which sits on top of your display monitor) sends an infrared signal to special glasses worn by the viewer(s). The glasses contain liquid crystal shutters that alternately open and close the left and right eye lenses in response to the signal from the emitter in sync with the monitor display. The update frequency is such that the viewer effectively fuses the left and right views into a single stereo image.

Stereo is useful for viewing any type of visually complex geometry. It is especially helpful for visualizing amorphous objects such as animating particle traces, trace ribbons, or discrete particles. It has also been noted that management and customers are typically quite impressed by stereo display.