3D Gaming*

[patsu]

Purchase Intent for 3DTV Varies Around the Globe:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/purchase-intent-for-3dtv-varies-around-the-globe/

In a survey of approximately 27,000 online consumers conducted in September across 53 countries, 13 percent of respondents said they already own or ‘definitely will’ purchase a 3DTV set in the next 12 months. An additional 15 percent of global online consumers said they ‘probably will’ purchase a 3DTV.

Not surprisingly, interest and intent to purchase is highest amongst consumers ages 21-34, and strongest in Asia Pacific, Latin America and MEAP (Middle East, Africa, Pakistan) markets. Consumer interest in Europe and the U.S. still trails the rest of the world.

…


“Our research shows that, despite positive perceptions towards 3DTV programming, consumers are still hesitant to invest in 3DTV sets – opting to take a ‘wait and see’ approach,” said Frank Stagliano, EVP/GM of TV Primary Research for Nielsen. “Recent technology battles between plasma and LCD or blu-ray and HD DVDs have trained consumers to wait until widespread adoption is more likely. This drives down cost, making technology more affordable.”

Stagliano said some consumers are also deterred by the usability of the set and required glasses, fearing that 3D technology may inhibit TV as a relaxing medium. An all-3D network launching in early 2011 may make the “wow” factor more evident, and draw in more consumers.

For the technology to gain widespread adoption in the U.S. and abroad, marketers need to emphasize 3DTV viewing as complementary to the 2D experience. David Poltrack, Chief Research Officer of CBS Corporation and President of CBS Vision, said he is confident 3DTV is “just going to be a part of television” like cable and high definition. “No one has taken the really powerful TV dramas and made them with the eye toward 3D,” said Poltrack. “I think once that happens, you’re going to see regular television programming capturing [and] being enhanced by 3D, and people are going to watch special episodes of their favorite programs in 3D.”

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Ummm...17% of Latin Americans will definitely be buying a 3DTV next year? Either there are some amazing deals in typically less CE strong markets, or these results are useless bunkum. Look at the results for the EU and NA, 6% and 3% definite purchase intent - that's the real immediate future for 3D TV and console gaming.

 

[patsu]

Yeap , consumers will hesitate when it comes to pulling out the wallet. This sort of survey is only a rough gauge of interests.

If the vendors truly believe that 3D is here to stay (assuming it's cheap to make 3DTV vis-a-vis mid-end HDTV), it's important to invest in development and integration at the backend, plus content authoring. It will take a few years of hard work to work out the kinks. e.g., I think in one of the 3D sports events, the organizer complained that the system integrator business model doesn't work. They want a fully-automated pipeline (e.g., pay for products vs professional services).

 

[patsu]

Toshiba glasses-free 3D Cell TV going on sale this week in Japan:
http://www.explore3dtv.com/blog/entry/15317/Toshiba-to-Launch-Glasses-Free-3D-TV-Wednesday/

Back in October, we reported that Toshiba was planning to deliver glasses-free 3D before the end of the year. Now it looks like they will deliver on that promise.

CNET says that Toshiba's 12-inch glasses-free 3D TV will make its big debut on Wednesday, December 22. Don't get too giddy; it will only be available in Japan. The company says that a 20-inch version of the set will start selling on Saturday.

…

If you're looking for something slightly larger (still in Japan), Toshiba will launch a 40-inch glasses-free 3D TV next year. The rumor is that the set will be available overseas sometime in April.

The 20GL1 will have a 1280 x 720 resolution, as well as Toshiba's Cell processor and LED backlight technology. There will also be ports for HDMI, USB, LAN and Toshiba's own REGZA Link. The 12-inch 12GL1 (pictured) has a resolution of 466 x 350, and keeps the HDMI, USB, LAN and REGZA Link ports. This model drops the CELL engine, but gains an SD card slot.

 

[patsu]

January 3DS Demo Events Detailed:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/12/28/3ds_demo_events_detailed/

Nintendo gave a rough outline of its Nintendo World 2011 3DS demo event last month. Today, it at long last shared final details on the event, complete with a list of playable titles and a stage shows, and also detailed additional demo opportunities for the system.

As previously detailed, Nintendo World will be held from 1/8 to 1/10 at the Makuhari Messe convention center just outside of Tokyo. It will mark the first time the 3DS has gone playable for the general public.

Playable titles include:

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D The Naked Sample (auto demo)
Winning Eleven 3D Soccer
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
Resident Evil Revelations
Samurai Warriors Chronicle
Dead or Alive Dimensions
Ridge Racer 3D
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Nintendogs + Cats
Kid Icarus
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D
Steel Diver
Pilot Wings Resort
AR Games
Nintendo 3DS Camera

[... more info on schedule, trailers, etc.]

 

[DeadlyNinja]

Ok so I was at BestBuy over Christmas and saw a laptop with Nvidia 3D vision demo. I put on the 3D glasses... and it looks like crap. Most of the stuff isn't 3D at all. I can see 3D perfectly fine too. Some of the 3D box art on DVDs looked better than the demo.

Is that really all they can do with 3D, or is it just a crappy demo?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Did you notice no difference at all? If it's just 2D, it can't be set up right. If it's 3D but broken, you'd see...I dunno, but something to show the stereoscopic separation is being applied on screen. What did it look like without galsees? Whould see both left and right fields at the same time.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

I don't know, I've seen some images that were 3D, while footage of games running just didn't really have that 3D pop. It was barely noticeable.

As for what it looked like without 3D glasses, I think it was blurry with 2 images. I only took a glance at it without glasses since my first reaction was, "oh, 3D, better give it a try to see what all the fuss is about," so my memory might not be entirely accurate. Maybe it wasn't set up right, I don't know.

 

[patsu]

What games did they show ?

Samsung just showed off the world lightest 3D glasses:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/samsung-crafts-worlds-lightest-3d-glasses-in-partnership-with/

Sammy has partnered up with Austrian design firm Silhouette to deliver what it claims are the world's lightest 3D glasses, weighing a measly 28g. The design is such that all the electronics are housed in two compartments at the rear of the specs, permitting for a perfect weight balance between the front and back. They'll supposedly fit on adults and children alike, will recharge wirelessly, and will also detect when 3D content is being beamed at them and automatically switch on and off.

Hands on for Toshiba's "4K" and glasses-less 3DTV:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/hands-on-with-toshibas-4k-glasses-free-3dtv-prototype/

The set can only display 4K in 2D mode, which is a-ok with us, and the only demo content was a 3D render of Final Fantasy that was impressive from its three viewing positions. Of course three viewing positions isn't exactly what we'd call practical for our home theater, and the 3D quality wasn't on par with what we've seen from active shutter 3D but it does show solid evidence that Toshiba is making some advancements towards the inevitable.

EDIT: One more from Toshiba...

Toshiba shows off glasses-free 3D Qosmio:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/...could-h?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_engadget

according to Toshiba's director of product marketing Phil Osako, the company could be ready to bring a 3D laptop sans spectacles to market by the end of the year. Sounds good to us, but it's a pretty ambitious claim, considering the demo unit Toshiba's bringing to CES, which we got to see a few weeks ago, is very rough around the edges.
...

 

[Simon F]

What games did they show ?

Samsung just showed off the world lightest 3D glasses:

Sammy has partnered up with Austrian design firm Silhouette to deliver what it claims are the world's lightest 3D glasses

Well, that quote confused me. Sammy is a Japanese games company and associating them with Samsung is simply wrong.

 

[patsu]

Can I call you... Simmy ?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't know, I've seen some images that were 3D, while footage of games running just didn't really have that 3D pop. It was barely noticeable.

The amount of 3D in a game can be adjusted, and needs to be depedning on screen size. Too much sterescopic separation can't be focussed on. It could be they had a demo set up for showing on a big screen and then showed in on a small screen with very little stereoscopy.

Most likely something like that. 3D should look like it does at the cinema, and there's nothing about nVidia's tech or rendering games that limit 3Dness.

 

[Simon F]

Can I call you... Simmy ?

Only if you want a week's ban

 

[tritosine5G]

...whoever wanted 30" ish screen, looks like your time has come.
http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en110106-10/en110106-10.html

Looks cool indeed, I can imagine picking one up to complement CRT/DLP.
LCD is polarized so brightness loss with glasses on is less apparent , and easily compensated for ,unless they cut down hold time a lot.

 

[Arwin]

Sony was all about 3D, lots of nice TVs, etc. ... So much about 3D TV in fact that the absent PSP Phone and PSP2 news (I personally would have expected those for GDC myself, but who knows if they show up at that mobile conference in madrid instead), perhaps is partly because they've decided to put in some 3D after all. Their concept with having the touch on the back of the screen could work really well with 3D.

3D Head Man
Struck me as the most interesting, simply because I actually didn't expect anyone to try and reintroduce something like this. But it is basically the full 3D video and audio experience back in one star-trek like visor. Still a prototype, will be interesting if/when it makes a product.

Sports Illustrated in 3D on PSN/PS3 :

http://kotaku.com/5725801/playstati...suit-issue-in-3d-in-february?skyline=true&s=i

Apparently you can even get a SI Dynamic Theme shortly ... if you dare. May tease the wife with it.

 

[tritosine5G]

3D Head Man

OLED Head mounted display... hmmm... Im not sure I want to look at subpixels that close. I think OLED and similar HMD will be entry/low-end , and subpixel-less HMD will be "good".

IMHO this also explains why there are no "decent" HMD-s on market yet.

 

[patsu]

...whoever wanted 30" ish screen, looks like your time has come.
http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en110106-10/en110106-10.html

Looks cool indeed, I can imagine picking one up to complement CRT/DLP.
LCD is polarized so brightness loss with glasses on is less apparent , and easily compensated for ,unless they cut down hold time a lot.

YES !

Only if you want a week's ban

YES !!

Sports Illustrated in 3D on PSN/PS3 :

http://kotaku.com/5725801/playstati...suit-issue-in-3d-in-february?skyline=true&s=i

Apparently you can even get a SI Dynamic Theme shortly ... if you dare. May tease the wife with it.

YES !!!

Ahem… I already bought the current SI dynamic theme. It's not so dynamic (like a slide show). They should make it 3D and video-like for their next project. I'll be their QA.

I already paid my dues the other day when my wife saw my dynamic theme.

EDIT: I forgot to say the SI videos on the PS Store is more worth it -- if you can appreciate bikinis.

 

[V3]

This been posted ? Sony 3D headset prototype using OLED. About damn time someone step up to the plate.

I wonder if they'll ever achieve IMAX like experience with one of this headset in the future. They need to get the wide aspect right not just 40" from 4 feet like headset of old.

http://www.gizmag.com/sony-prototype-3d-headset/17506/

A positive hands on:

http://boomnews.info/ces-2011-hands-on-sony-oled-3d-headset-review/

I want one.

 

[MfA]

This is interesting. Seefront combines tracking with lenticular. I don't see how they can guarantuee resolution only halving in the general case, maybe it has to do with slant angle of the lenticular.

Still single viewer (increasing the resolution ala toshiba won't help, because there is aliasing of viewing zones with lenticular) but simply having a freedom from a single sweetspot is a big improvement. AU optronics is promising something similar, and they bought the firm which allows the lenticular filter to be turned on and off ... which would really make for the ideal autostereoscopic laptop screen, no deadzone, full resolution in 2D.

PS. the resolution is probably reduced both on the horizontal and vertical axis (using a slanted lenticular) to give some room to manouvre in subpixel selection as your head moves around.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sounds ideal for PC gaming and applications. Liberating users from glasses and a fixed position, I imagine, if cheap enough, this could prove pretty popular. Then we'd just need someone to integrate Kinect with Move for a 3D avatar with pinpoint interaction, and access to a very natural 3D interface will be pretty much complete!