When Avatar arrived on cinema screens last year, film producers and media pundits alike proclaimed that 3D was a game changer, that entertainment would never be the same again. Since then, the number of films being produced in 3D or converted to the format has exploded as Hollywood looked with hungry eyes at the mountain of money that James Cameron’s sci-fi epic took at the box office.
The merits of the technology continues to be a topic of furious debate with critics calling it irrelevant and a cash-grabbing exercise, while proponents of 3D shout back that the format creates more immersive and involving experiences.
As the movie debate rolls on, the videogame industry has been quietly embracing the third dimension with millions of dollars being poured into research and development in order to add more depth to an already immersive medium. This month the first fruit of this labour will be tested as the Playstation goes 3D.
For those of you fearing another expensive hardware upgrade, you can rest easy because everything that is needed for 3D gaming already exist in the Playstation 3, with only a firmware update of the console necessary to run the feature.
Producing a 3D image is pretty straightforward and is based on how we see the world. Most of us are lucky enough to be blessed with binocular vision that comes from having two forward facing eyes separated by about 3 inches. Each eye takes a pictures from a slightly different angle, these images are then sent to the brain which combines them to give us depth perception or a three dimensional image.
An easy way to illustrate this is to hold up a finger in front of your face and then alternately close each eye. As each eye opens and closes you will notice that your finger will seem to jump from one spot to another showing you the two different angles from which each eye sees your finger.
The Playstation 3 will generate a 3D image in much the same way and instead of one image being rendered by the machine; two slightly different images will be generated and then combined to form a stereoscopic image. This image will then be pumped out to your brand-new 3DTV and when you put on the glasses which came with your telly each eye will see a different image and your brain will do the rest just like nature intended.
Despite the simplicity of the concept on paper, there are significant hurdles that go beyond the expense of buying that new 3D telly. The first is the cost, in raw computing power, of rendering two separate, detailed and high definition images. The second is being able to blend the images at an acceptable frame rate that won’t seem as if objects are jerking across the screen. Lastly there is the comfort factor, which for those who sat through the two and a half hours of Avatar and experienced mild eye strain and discomfort from the weight of the glasses, might not be appealing over longer periods.
3D solutions
Sony’s solution for the first two problems is to reduce the quality of the images to allow the processing to be done on its current technology. Two less detailed or lower definition images will be used to ease the burden on the Playstation and to produce a working and acceptable 3D image. Frame rates will also have to be scaled back to a maximum of 30 frames per second and given that some 2D games struggle to hit this standard, developers will have to pull out all the stops.
The trade off here is a 3D image in exchange for a higher quality image in 2D and early tests have been suitably impressive, particularly with WipEout HD. The game has always been the pinnacle of what the Playstation 3 can achieve with its 1080p resolution running at 60 frames per second.
The 3D version of the game comes in at 720p at 30fps and as good as it is, the real revolution for this technology might not arrive until the next generation of games consoles, when the demands of processing 3D images won’t require every ounce of a console’s power.
If you own a 3DTV, a PS3 and live in Japan then you will be able to see for yourself, as the first wave of 3D titles for the machine will be launched on June 10. WipEout HD, Pain, Super Stardust HD and a demo of a 3D-enhanced Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, will be available exclusively from the online Playstation Store.These games will be free to anyone who purchaces Sony’s latest Bravia 3DTVs which have just gone on sale and a European roll-out should be announced shortly.
With Sony leading a bold charge for 3D gaming, where does this leave its rivals?
Nintendo have announced that they will be bringing 3D to handheld devices this year with the release of the Nintendo 3DS.The machine will have similar features to the wildly successful DS lite with the addition of advanced graphics and a screen that can produce 3D images without the need for glasses. A new version of the Wii has been rumoured for a year and the latest whispers have put the new machine firmly in the 3D camp.
Microsoft have been pretty tight lipped on the subject of 3D but a recent partnership with LG for their soon-to-be-launched 3DTVs points to something similar to Sony’s offering and may also be tied in to whatever Project Natal has to offer when it launches in October.
Whatever the big three have planned, it won’t stay secret for long because the biggest gaming event of the calendar is about to kick off in Los Angeles: the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Last year saw the unveiling of Project Natal for the Xbox and Playstation Move for PS3 so the big question this year is; will 2010 be the year of 3D?
Leo Stiles
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