3D Gaming

3D Success Still Coming Into Focus

As we move further past the one-year anniversary of the first 3D TV sets launched in the U.S., it’s clear 3D hasn’t leapt to the forefront of consumer technology market. But it hasn’t fallen completely into the background, either.

The recent announcement by Nintendo that it would dramatically cut the price of the Nintendo 3DS could be seen as another tough break for 3D products. In fact, Nintendo’s newest handheld gaming system overcame two of the most commonly cited objections for 3D–high prices for hardware and the need to wear glasses. Read more…

PlayStation Branded 3D TV Bundle Announced

At Sony’s press conference in Los Angeles, SCEA announced a PlayStation branded 3D TV with a few impressive features. Read more…

Sony To Give First Year Post Mortem on PS3 3D Gaming

Per IGN:

Sony Computer Entertainment’s Vice President Mick Hocking will reveal whether it’s a happy first birthday for 3D gaming on PlayStation 3 during a keynote presentation at the Develop Conference in Brighton. Hocking’s address – The Stereoscopic 3D Experience: The First Year of 3D on PlayStation 3 – will take place at the Odeon Brighton cinema in full HD stereoscopic 3D and open the third day of the conference on Thursday 21 July.

Develop delegates will hear about the transition from promoting 3D gaming to actually delivering the experience into people’s homes, as well as tales about what can go wrong with 3D content and a glimpse into the future to see how new technologies may shape the 3D gaming experience in coming years. Read more…

Start Saving For Samsung’s $13K, 75-Inch 3D HDTV

Got $13K to spare and a TV stand big enough to sleep on? If so, Samsung’s got a huge 3D TV to sell you.

The Samsung D9500 is a 75-inch, LED-backlit 3D LCD TV. It goes on pre-sale in Korea later this month, but Engadget reports that it’ll hit U.S. shores in August for a mere $13,000. Read more…

3D Gaming Leaders Gather At OCE’s Discovery 11

Featuring top representation from Sony, AMD, Nvidia, Dynamic Digital Depth, Autodesk, Big Blue Bubble and more, The S-3D Gaming Alliance is pleased to announce the 3D gaming panel and presentations taking place at the upcoming Discovery 11 conference. Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center on May 18th and 19th, OCE’s Discovery was named as Canada’s Best Trade Show and is the country’s leading innovation-to-commercialization conference. Hosted by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Discovery 11 brings together key players from industry, academia, government, the investment community as well as entrepreneurs and students to pursue collaboration opportunities. Read more…

Global Spending On Blu-ray 3D Booming Thanks To PlayStation 3

PS3

One of the reasons 3D TV sales got off to a slow start was because of lack of content. Those gamers and early adopters who picked up a new 3D TV to try out their PlayStation 3 stereoscopic upgrade had very little to watch on it, or play. But with Hollywood now starting to release some of its biggest 3D movies on Blu-ray 3D, IHS Screen Digest research predicts that Blu-ray 3D (BD3D) sales will explode in the U.S. and major European economies this year.

“We certainly view gaming and video content as equal drivers of the 3D experience, and we know that the PlayStation 3 is the device that most people are choosing as their 3D player for the living room because it plays such a variety of 3D content,” said John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America. Read more…

Nvidia Releases Web-Streaming 3D Vision Video Player Technology

Last month, Nvidia announced major changes to its consumer 3D Vision kit for adding stereoscopic 3D capabilities to home PCs, including a lower price and longer battery life. But 3D Vision owners may soon have even more content to sample, as Nvidia announced today that it is making its 3D Vision video player technology freely available to Web developers, with the intention of simplifying the process of creating Web sites that stream 3D content to 3D Vision–equipped PCs.

The technology comes by way of a special plug-in Nvidia has developed for the open-source Microsoft Media Platform Player (MPP) Framework v2.5 (formerly known as the Silverlight Media Framework). The plug-in supports active-shutter 3D glasses, and is based on the same technology used on Nvidia’s 3DVisionLive.com 3D Web community. The framework includes full support for both IIS Smooth Streaming and Microsoft Playready DRM.

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iPad 2 Goes 3D And Glasses-Free

3D iPad 2

With 3D HDTVs rising in popularity, many people are intrigued about owning a 3D device, but some just don’t want to pay the extra $150 per pair of 3D glasses. Owners of the iPad 2, however, may be happy to know that glasses-free 3D capabilities may be on the way for the new tablet, thanks to the addition of a front-facing camera in the second generation iPad.

Researchers in France’s Engineering Human-Computer Interaction Research Group have developed a hack for the iPad 2 that they call Head-Coupling Perspective, which can track the position and movements of a person’s head in 3D. But the 3D image the user sees doesn’t actually come out of the screen like most 3D images seem to do. Instead, it stretches back into the screen.

Working in a similar way to the Nintendo 3DS, but reminding us more of the DS game Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda, it’s basically a 3D representation on a 2D screen that follows you as you move. According to the EHCI site, researches used “off-axis projection to adapt the perspective of the 3D scene.”

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Sony dual-view TV for 3D gaming demoed

Sony plans to release a dual-view 3D mode for its PlayStation 3 gaming console.

Dual-mode 3D will in future enable two people to play 3D games on the same screen such that neither will be able to view what the other player is doing. This function will replace the split screen view in PlayStation.

It works like a hologram that appears to be two different images when viewed from two angles. Player 1 will see his game on the whole screen, while Player 2, sitting at the same, but negative angle to the TV as the first player, will see nothing of the first player’s game, and instead all of his own.

The only problem with the technology is that it will require people to use headphones. If Sony makes non-intrusive, small, wireless headphones, people will be able to watch two programmes simultaneously as well.

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3DS might permanently damage children’s eyes

Following news last month that Nintendo warned its forthcoming new 3DS handheld is unsuitable for young children, a British eye specialist claims the latest gaming tech could permanently damage children’s eyes.

Nintendo recently issued health and safety warnings on its own website that the forthcoming auto-stereoscopic (glasses-free) 3DS is unsuitable for under-sixes.

Permanent eye damage?

“There is a grey area surrounding the potential eye health issues caused by 3D, this is concerning ALL age groups, not just under 6 year olds,” British eye expert and optician, Richard Pakey from The Eyewear Centre told TechRadar, when asked about the potential dangers of the Nintendo 3DS.

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