3D Vision Blog

I’m sure that there are quite a lot of people that are eagerly anticipating the release of the Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) driving simulator for the PlayStation 3 console and are having very high expectations from the game. And with the release date tomorrow, 24th of November for Europe and North America and 25th for Japan and Australia that waiting is almost over, but the big question is if the game will really live up to all the expectations. And while I’m not much of a console gamer, but having played earlier games from the series at some point in time, am wondering more about something else that comes with the new GT5 and that is the stereo 3D support that the game will offer as an additional feature. However it is not very encouraging that Sony is not talking a lot about the stereo 3D support in the game before its release, it is just mentioned as some additional feature present in the game and that is it. But since Sony still doesn’t have a lot of games that support stereo 3D mode and the already available ones are far from being a top titles that can drive people to buy a 3D HDTV, because they want to get the best possible experience, I’m still having high hopes for the GT5…

Now, I still haven’t seen the game or tried the stereo 3D mode in it, but I’ll try it out after the official launch, however I already have a few reports from people that were able to get an early feel of the game and the 3D support. And their comments were not very positive, raging from the more moderate that the game is not impressive at all in stereo 3D mode, to the fact that the game is not working properly in S3D and not very well designed to take advantage of the stereo 3D mode. These things of course need to be verified and you are welcome to share your own experience with the game in 3D mode below, but I’m starting to get the feeling that Sony has rushed the game and the developers did not have enough time to fully implement the stereo 3D support and make the game look and feel great when played on a 3D HDTV. So I suppose that GT5 will not be a reason enough for me to actually buy a PS3 console just yet, to be able to play and test games in stereo 3D on it too and I’ll continue waiting for the killer 3D game for the PS3 to be released, but lets wait a bit more and see for sure.

If I’m getting the right premonition here it would mean that the PC will still remain the best platform to play games in stereo 3D for a quite a while which is a good news for all PC gamers out there that are going to upgrade to stereoscopic 3D capable hardware. The not so good thing here is that without having “the Avatar” of 3D gaming available yet, things with the adoption of 3D HDTVs are a general technology will not pick up the pace due to the general lack of 3D content, besides games of course. And another thing that I’m not too happy about is the fact that game developers are developing games for consoles and then just do a quick and crappy port of the game for PC users. And these ports don’t take advantage of the latest generation of graphic capabilities available on the PC, are not optimized for best performance, come with maximum frame limits, lack important features and good enough user control in terms of the settings, don’t have properly implemented controls and so on and so on. Two recent examples are the Call of Duty: Black Ops and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010 that could’ve been much better from the start if they were optimized and properly ported to PC, instead of us having to wait for patches and updates that might not even come out.

Today is an interesting “updates day” for everyone into stereo 3D as Sony has officially released a new version 3.50 firmware for all PlayStation 3 users that brings the much anticipated Blu-ray 3D support to the game console. This is actually the second 3D related firmware update that Sony is releasing after the addition of stereoscopic 3D gaming support in firmware 3.30, so the PS3 is now more functional and can not only be used to play games in stereo 3D mode (still just a few titles), but can also replace the need for a standalone Blu-ray 3D player. So go and update your console to firmware 3.50 if you still haven’t done so, you should however be aware that there are some limitations to what features the PS3 supports in terms of Blu-ray 3D movies…

Limitations on Blu-ray 3D disc playback

- The 3D display of some elements such as menus and subtitles may be different on the PS3 system than on other 3D playback devices (appear in 2D instead of 3D).
- Depending on the content, some BD-J (Blu-ray Disc Java) features such as BONUSVIEW and BD-Live may not play in 3D or may not function properly on the PS3 system.
- When Dolby TrueHD is selected as the audio format, audio will be output in Dolby Digital during playback of Blu-ray 3D content.
- When DTS-HD is selected as the audio format, audio will be output in DTS during playback of Blu-ray 3D content.

On a side note, as I get a lot of questions if any of the 3D DLP projectors can be used together with a PS3 console to output games or movies in stereo 3D, the answer to this question is NO. The reason for that is due to the fact that the PS3′s S3D support relies on the stereoscopic 3D specifications defined in the HDMI 1.4 standard, so the output from the console is based on the frame packing format at 60Hz defined in that standard and on the other hand the format used by 3D DLP projectors is frame sequential at 120Hz. So unless somebody releases an adapter box that converts from one to the other format or builds a 3D DLP projector with such capabilities you will not be able to use your PlayStation 3 for stereoscopic 3D output. This means that you will be either sticking to Sony’s 3D Bravia HDTVs or actually any other brand that has 3D-capable HDTVs using HDMI 1.4(a) as input format for 3D video content input. An alternative would be a 3D DLP HDTV from Mitsubishi and/or maybe Samsung along with a special adapters that are already available that will convert the frame packed content coming from the PS3 to the DLP checkerboard format used by these TVs. So PS3 in stereo 3D and a 3D projectors are still a no go!

By now you should know that the PS3 console already got its firmware update (3.30) that dded support for 3D output to the console (for gaming in stereo 3D) and not so long time ago even a few “3D demo” games appeared for people that already have a 3D HDTV to connect their PlayStation 3 console to. But Sony’s plans do not end with providing 3D gaming support for the console, they seem to have plans to further extend the stereo 3D capabilities of the console a lot in the next 12 months with the help of more firmware updates…

Later this year we are expecting the second in line firmware upgrade for the console that should add the anticipated support for playing back Blu-ray 3D movies on the PS3 (available as early as September), so if you already have the console and a 3D HDTV then you might skip the purchase of a dedicated Blu-ray 3D player and wait for the new firmware. There are still not a lot of Blu-ray 3D movies available, so purchasing a dedicated hardware player can be easily postponed for a few months anyway, and if you’ve got the PS3 you can even skip that purchase.

It seems that Sony is already planning to have 3D content broadcasted through its PlayTV service as well. And support for the 3D Sweep Panorama pictures taken with some of the Sony digital cameras (MPO files) is also coming, as well as support for user created stereoscopic 3D photos and videos apparently. YouTube 3D content playback in stereo 3D on the PlayStation 3 is another feature that is expected to be available.

So things sure seem to be moving the right way in terms of S3D support for Sony and the PS3, but you should be aware that most of these features are already available for almost any PC equipped with some sort of stereo 3D setup able to play 3D content. And the best of all is that on the PC you can go with a much cheaper 3D-capable monitor as compared to the 3D HDTVs currently available on the market… ;)