3D Vision Blog

Ok, we all know and have heard a lot how great the upcoming James Cameron’s Avatar movie will be, be we have to wait until 16th-18th December before we can actually see the movie in 3D, but a little bit before that will come a game based on the movie. Now James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is supposed to be also Stereo 3D compatible and playable on S3D capable hardware like Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision (at least for the PC version), but probably the top two consoles – Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will also have some sort of 3D mode. Now what puzzles me a lot is that there is a complete lack of information on what to expect from the game, but there is a lot of information about the movie… hell the game is supposed to be out before the movie and to serve as to some sort of good promotion for it, but that is only if you know that there is going to be a game based on the movie. The game is supposed to come out on 24th of November for all of the following consoles: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and on 1st of December the PC version should come out. Actually the PC version is the most interesting one, because we all hope and expect that it will be 3D Vision compatible, meaning it will not only work in Stereo 3D, but will also look great out of the box. Unfortunately there is still no information coming from either Nvidia or Ubisoft on Stereo 3D support like there is already a lot of talk about the upcoming Resident Evil 5 game for PC, which will be the first 3D Vision optimized title. The official website of the game not only lacks updates, but there is even not enough of the essential information about the game that everyone is looking for and there are just a little more than 3 months left before the game actually comes out on the market. The guys making the game are keeping everything a total secret and nothing more that just some talk on what to generally expect and some game art are circling around. There is no official trailer or anything that even seems to be like gameplay footage available so you don’t actually know what to expect and this at the end may turn to have more negative that the probably expected positive effect. After all nowadays most of the people expect to have at least some general idea on what are they giving their money for before doing so, in order to not be completely disappointed afterwards that they were totally mislead… ;)

- To the not very regularly updated official website of the game…
- If you want to get the full game James Cameron’s: Avatar the Game…

Finally Nvidia has raised the curtain and the 3D Vision Discover anaglyph glasses are a “secret” no more as you can see on the picture above of the real thing. They do not seem much different than normal paper anaglyph glasses, although the color filters do seem to be quite bigger, which should be a nice thing. Also maybe there is some improvement in the two color filters for better results or at least Nvidia states so, but still somebody has to confirm this by comparing both type of glasses. Also there is a page with more information on how, when and where you can get a pair of the 3D Vision Discover Glasses that you can use to experience games in Stereo 3D without having to invest too much into hardware. In general there are two way you can get the anaglyph glasses: either bundled with NVIDIA GeForce GPUs from participating etailers and authorized board partners or from upcoming trade shows and events where Nvidia will be present and handing out the glasses (only in the States so far). All that you need to try 3D Vision Discover in anaglyph stereo 3d is an Nvidia-based video card (GeForce 8 or later), 3D Vision drivers and of course the 3D Vision Discover glasses. This will give you a good idea of what you can expect from the much better 3D Vision shutter glasses that do require a big investment in specialized shutter glasses and display or projector that is 3D Ready. Of course anaglyph is still nice, but you don’t get good results in color reproduction and this is something that messes quite a lot with the actual fun you get playing in Stereo 3D mode…

- To learn where and how you can get a pair of 3D Vision Discover glasses…

Here are the slides of an interesting presentation Nvidia had on Siggraph 2009 about 3D Stereo implementation and usage in games and other 3D applications. Some interesting things about S3D in general and of course a little bit about 3D Vision and 3D Vision Discover. The presentation covers more the technical part of how things work and are being designed with an emphasis on some key technology challenges and how many of them are easily addressed by some basic implementation patterns. The presentation also includes some good anaglyph Stereo 3D screenshots so if you have a pair of anaglyph glasses lying around you can try to see them with the intended depth perception. Still a good read if you were unable to be attending Siggraph 2009, but you are interested in the technology and how things work. The presentation was made by Samuel Gateau from Nvidia and there seems to be something from Capcom about their upcoming Resident Evil 5 that is supposed to be optimized for Nvidia’s 3D Vision hardware. Unfortunately the slides from Capcom’s presentation are still missing.

- To download the 3D Vision Technology presentation in PDF format…