3D Vision Blog

According to the U-DECIDE Initiative, a well received study of modern gamers, 93% of survey respondents want to see game developers support stereoscopic 3D technology. The industry answered by starting development of The S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA), a non-profit corporation that is 100% focused on making stereoscopic 3D gaming possible through standards, education, and product adoption.

“We need an industry-wide standard for S-3D gaming, and S3DGA has the drive and experience to push this forward. All developers and manufacturers should participate,” said Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director for Electronic Arts Inc.

“S-3D gaming content is available on PC and console, gamers are great viral marketers, and our industry needs to reach out to the early adopters first. Our industry needed a qualified voice, so S3DGA was formed to properly leverage and develop this market,” said Neil Schneider, S3DGA’s Executive Director and Spokesperson.

S3DGA’s current members include LG Electronics, Blitz Games Studios, RealD, Next3D, DDD, Jon Peddie Research, Sensio, TDVision Corp, iZ3D, and more.

Advisory board members include Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director for Electronic Arts, Andrew Oliver, CTO and Co-Founder of Blitz Games Studios, and Neil Trevett, President of the Khronos Group & VP of NVIDIA Mobile Content.

S3DGA wanted its first board to be comprised of people without vested interests until there is a member driven nomination or election process. The initial Board of Directors includes:

- Syd Bolton, Interim S3DGA President, is also the Curator of the Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Ontario. A seasoned expert in gaming and gaming history, Mr. Bolton has been featured on The Space Channel, MuchMusic, Custom PC, Games Magazine, and more.

- Mark Fihn, S3DGA Vice-President, is the publisher of Veritus et Visus. A top analyst and consultant, his company publishes a well respected 3D newsletter that features columns written by top industry executives and pioneers.

- John Merritt, S3DGA Treasurer, is the founder of the Stereoscopic Displays & Applications Conference, the oldest stereoscopic 3D conference in the world. Mr. Merritt is a leading consultant on matters of S-3D quality and immersive experience.

“I really believe that 2010 is the year that 3D will hit at home with consumers more than ever, and having this alliance is more critical than ever to ensure everyone is on the same page,” said Syd Bolton, S3DGA’s President.

The interim Standards Division Chair is Keith Elliott.

“When we are talking about standards in gaming, it’s not just about passing a left and right image to the display — that’s easy. Game developers also need to speak the same language, quality and compliance expectations need to be set, and lots of compatibility politics are going to surface very quickly I’m sure. We wanted a strong people person to head this up, and this individual’s previous work had to be well known. We found that person in Keith Elliott,” Schneider explained.

Keith Elliott is one of the key inventors of the low-cost stereoscopic display architecture used in over two million 3D DLP high-definition (HD) televisions. This high-speed “checkerboard” layout grew popular by offering high-quality 3D HD video at the lowest cost possible. In gaming, it is already supported by DDD, iZ3D, NVIDIA, and multiple game engines. As Director of New Business Technology for the HDTV group at Texas Instruments (TI), Keith was involved in the development of the infrastructure needed to support a wide roll-out of 3D content to the home consumer. He also directed TI’s systems engineering team that delivered DLP technology to HDTV manufacturers around the world. He is currently a founder and technology consultant for Screen’s Edge, LLC.

- To the official S-3D Gaming Alliance website for more information…

There is a very interesting interview that Neil Schneider from MTBS and S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) did with Frank Vitz, Senior Art Director and CG Supervisor at Electronic Arts. Before joining EA Frank Vitz has worked on the first Tron movie, on the special effects for the first two X-Men movies and also on Spider-Man ride in stereoscopic 3D at Universal Studios in Orlando. Frank shares a lot of information about some of his old and new projects and his perspective about the stereoscopic 3D. The whole interview is something you should not miss, so head out to MTBS and take a look…

- Read the interview with Frank Vitz @ MTBS.com

Great news for the S3D community as the S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) gains more and more members and attention not only from the gaming industry, and this is happening unexpectedly fast. It seems what began as a surprise announcement at SIGGRAPH 2009 has quickly become an industry-wide movement to ensure the adoption of stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) gaming in consumer homes around the world.

The association is very honored to announce that Habib Zargarpour, as a representative of Electronic Arts (EA), has joined S3DGA’s advisory board. As demonstrated at SIGGRAPH, game developers want to see industry-wide support for stereoscopic 3D gaming, and this is the first of many steps towards this goal.

As a Senior Art Director for “Need for Speed,” Habib Zargarpour’s game development credits also include “Need for Speed: Most Wanted,” “James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing,” and “Need for Speed Underground.” His diverse film background includes work with IMAX 3D, and a whole range of visual effects work for projects such as “Star Wars: Phantom Menace,” “The Perfect Storm,” “Twister,” “Star Trek: First Contact,” “The Mask,” and several more memorable films.

“When I saw ‘Need for Speed SHIFT’ in stereoscopic 3D at SIGGRAPH, I was impressed. The audience was blown away by how well ‘SHIFT’s’ immersive cockpit was represented by the 3D tech, and we see a great future for S-3D in games. We need an industry-wide standard for S-3D gaming, and S3DGA has the drive and experience to push this forward. All developers and manufacturers should participate,” said Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director for Electronic Arts Inc.

We, the S3D enthusiasts all hope that other big gaming and hardware companies will also join the alliance and start paying more and more attention to the S3D community, finally delivering we’ve all been waiting for in years – a true and as realistic as possible Stereoscopic 3D Experience … ;)