Here is something interesting coming your way if you are living in Canada – it is almost time for the Fan Expo Canada to begin, an event that is often referred to as the Canadian “Comic Con” and is currently the third largest pop culture event in North America. The Fan Expo Canada will be held on August 23-26, 2012 and is expected to showcases over 700 exhibitors to over 80,000 fans, spanning on over 400,000 square feet of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto. The program of the event covers topics such as comics, sci-fi, horror, anime and of course gaming, so there will be quite a few interesting things to see there.
One of the things that you should do if visiting the event is to go over the iGO3D booth #1251 to participate in the Battlefield 3 competition that will be organized in stereo 3D. The Battlefield 3 competition at Fan Expo is unique because in addition to being designed for research purposes, it has never been played like this in tournament form before. While the game already includes stereoscopic 3D support, it has been further enhanced by Dynamic Digital Depth to offer unmatched 3D flexibility and gaming experiences. If gamers think they have played in a 3D Battlefield 3 tournament before, they need to give it another go at Fan Expo. All computers are backed by AMD GPU technology, and feature 3D displays like the Zalman 24″ polarized 3D monitor, and Samsung’s latest 27″ 3D panels based on LCD shutter glasses. Prizes up for grabs include copies of Battlefield 3, Audiofly headphones, DDD TriDef license keys so gamers can play in 3D at home, and more. No special skill is required to participate, and everyone will have a reasonable opportunity to win prizes.
“Among other things, this specially designed gaming tournament will tell us if people can effectively compete in stereoscopic 3D and what factors impact this if any. This invaluable information will help shape future stereoscopic 3D titles so game developers can deliver what customers really want,” said Neil Schneider, Project Director of the iGO3D initiative.
iGO3D was first initiated by The S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA), the official voice and standards body for stereoscopic 3D gaming. Turning ideas into action, iGO3D blossomed into a powerhouse of 3D credibility with partners including the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), York University, University of Western Ontario, University of Waterloo, and OCADU. Industry partners include Electronic Arts, Big Blue Bubble, Bitheads, JunctionVFX, Digital Extremes, and S3DGA. Competition sponsors also include AMD, Dynamic Digital Depth, and Audiofly. iGO3D is funded in part by The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and The Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE).
Another interesting thing you might want to drop by at the Fan Expo is the LG Gaming Championship, though there LG will not be using their Cinema 3D HDTVs for stereo 3D gaming, but will instead focus on another interesting feature that their television sets support – Dual Play. Dual Play allows two different gamers to view two different images on the same TV at the same time, and this is achieved the same way as 3D is being shown, however a different pair of glasses is being used – instead of wearing glasses with two different polarizing filters for each eye, one of the players uses a pair of glasses with both lenses using the left eye polarizing filters and the other one for the right eye from a pair of 3D glasses. And you can of course use the right combination of lenses with normal 3D glasses to see in stereo 3D, so Dual Play is just a nice extra feature for two player multiplayer gaming on a single TV set without having to resort to split screen.
- If you are interested to learn more about the iGo3D initiative…
- For more information about the Fan Expo Canada that is about to start…
