3D Gaming, your opinion?

[Kaylia]

as long as there's still room for games like Odin Sphere and Muramasa, I'm fine. those two games are examples that prove we haven't pushed the limits of 2D graphics nearly far enough to justify leaving it behind completely. although you could probably work games like that into a 3D environment, it's not going to work as well as games like Mario 64 obviously, and that's what I worry about... I love me some beautiful 2D graphics.

These 2d side scroller would probably benefit more (graphically) from 3d effect than many other game. Could make it look like a pop up book or something, or do other interesting visual trick with different the layer. Realistic 3d is probably going to feel more gimmicky, since you probably wont get a realistic 3d feel in the first place.



On topic, what 3d technologies is there so far?

1- Old red/blue glass
2- 2 glasses with different polarisation (one filter one type of light, the other filter the other type) like in theater

[Seanr]

3. active shutter
and many more

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy

[Shojin]

Going to copy-pasta some user reviews for some games from NeoGAF for nVidia's 3D vision.

World of Warcraft:
Decided that my first game would be a Blizzard title. They're listed by Nvidia as one of the main collaborators (as recently as their 3D vision presentation at Siggraph) and the game is usually listed as one of the top if not the very best stereoscopic 3D game. When you launch it (with stereo 3D enabled) you will notice in game that a new graphics section for Stereoscopic 3D have appeared ('Stereo').
There you can adjust depth amount (how long a fps rifle looks for example) to screen depth (how far the 3D should count. For example, a mountain is 2D in human eyes but the neighbor house is viewed stereoscopically. Screen depth determines how far the 3D stereoscopic area should go, how spread our eyes, before the background turns 2D).
The last option is hardware cursor which is pretty nice (and the only game I've seen it in so far) as it gives the mouse pointer a 3D depth. With it ticked on it's in the front like the rest of the interface. This makes it harder to point and click at enemies that may be far back (aim at distant objects with your finger, same thing). Tick hardware cursor off and the mouse gets 3D depth presence which means that the cursor looks as far away as whatever it's pointing at. This makes it as easy to point at something as in normal 2D gameplay (note: the size of the cursor never changes, it's the separation of the left/right image version of it that changes making it feel like it goes further away or closer).
Another Blizzard exclusive (until Resident Evil 5 launches) is out of screen effects. Unlike inwards depth (which no one has to program for as the Nvidia drivers handles automatically for you) out of screen effects have to be designed that way (I think this has to do with the image/object meant for the right eye having to be on the left of the left eye image while inwards depth just has right image/object for right eye). When something comes really close to the camera it seems to come out between you and the screen. I had a night-elf look around my room. At one point I held out my hand and from the camp-fire I covered I had glowing embers flying out from between my fingers. Looked downright amazing.

4/4.

Crysis (original):
I don't recommend playing this in stereo 3D. It's listed as Good by Nvidia (which makes me wonder) but it has a pretty significant problem which lies in sprites. Muzzle fire from your gun looks like it's closer to you than the actual weapon which is all wrong. When you fight the aliens the heat (cold?) waves looks like they're right in front of you while the creature is 30meters away. It looks like Crysis renders sprite effects on a really close layer which doesn't work in 3D. One effect that look great is the frost effect which covers your visor (having the sprites rendered close obviously doesn't affect this one effect) which highlighted the distance between you and your weapon. The aliens up close can be pretty cool with their tentacles wrapping around the screen frame. The plenty sprite effects totally hamper the game in the end though.

1/4.

Resident Evil 5 (dx10 benchmark):
This game has really great inwards depth separation. Every person and every object has a really nice pop to them. Things like in the intro screen when Chris and sidekick look out the window at an execution you notice stuff like the glass texture in front of them and how good it looks. A minor negative for me is how the game doesn't have any proper physics which gives combat often a slight arcade look (enemies dying in the same repeating ways..etc) but that's irrelevant to the 3D. The game looks crisp and runs really smooth. An interesting thing to note is that the full game will have out-of-screen 3D effects (the first game to do so since WoW) but sadly the benchmark area don't contain these (it has been said that bosses and some other situations/weapons have them). Resident Evil 5 looks really great in 3D and with future promises of out-of-screen stuff I wouldn't be surprised if this became the Nvidia 3D Vision demo of choice for many.

4/4.

Batman Arkham Asylum (demo):
This game is all Nvidia with PhysX and Geforce 3D Vision Ready supposedly going to be stamped on it. The 3D effect is good but never more than good. The environments themselves don't take much use of the effect as they are mostly boxy but all in all it's a 3D game (demo) that's clean, without any problems and with good inwards depth.

3/4.

Left4Dead:
Like Batman this one is very clean. Left4Dead doesn't take much to run so when you render in Stereo (which usually divides your real framerate performance by 2) you're still able to keep this one running very smoothly (TTP: I guess Standardized 60fps in 2D could be getting closer if stereoscopic catches on..). The gun models and such aren't the most detailed but what I really liked was the gun smoke as it truly curls around the air. Looked superb, same with the smoke rising from the army veterans cigar. Another thing I liked is how the bullets seem to trail with great velocity inwards in the screen. Transparent hud also looks good. Game gave my buddy quite a few scares with a 3D Hunter leaping towards the screen. Good all rounder and good inwards depth.

3.5/4.

Far Cry 2:
This game absolutely rocks in 3D. It looked great initially but I got a bit of eyestrain but I noticed I had forgotten to turn on 120hertz mode inside the game (*always* remember to do this in all games) and things became totally smooth and pleasant again.
Sidenote: When booting up any game you will automatically get a Nvidia message post on top of the game with detailed info of how the game is rated for 3D vision and which effects you need to adjust for best Stereo effect. The info is usually a paragraph long and should come up for over 300 games (and increasing). Really great and helpful effort by Nvidia here, thumbs up. You hide/show the message by pressing ctrl+alt+insert.
What you will notice first and foremost in Far Cry 2 is the weapons. ohmygawd! Probably the best looking weapons in gaming just thanks to Stereo. Normally in 2D the guns in this game would rate good to great but when you see the backend shaft of a Uzi close to your 'shoulder' while the real gun rattles as mad further ahead.. so great. The AG3 has a bolt that goes back and forth with each shot, small things like that really popping out. The sniper rifle bolt animation, the depth of the scope, smoke trails from the bazooka...etc. Awesome weapons and makes you wonder if the guns in KZ2 would look photorealistic if rendered in Stereo.
FarCry 2 also comes abundant with grass and jungles. Fat pregnant leaves, wines everywhere and sunlight creeping through. Looks really great in 3D. While World of Warcraft seems more tailored to Stereo 3D with out of screen effects (the only released game with that effect so far) and whatnot I'm deeming Far Cry 2 my number one demo game. It looks really good and imo it's the best looking game on the PC right now if you play with Stereo.

4/4

I've played a few new pc games since my last review, so I'll give my impression on those. Since my last review, I moved from an 8800GT to a 275GTX. I'll post some performance info where applicable. Just for reference, my system:
C2D E8400
4GB Ram
EVGA 275GTX
I'm running all of my games at 1680x1050 @ 120hz. If I don't mention system settings, assume max settings.

Dragon Age
Fantastic. Haven't found a single issue with this game in 3d. Most games that play well with 3d still have a few minor issues. I haven't found any with Dragon Age. When you pan the camera all the way out to the overhead view, it feels like you're looking at a bunch of miniatures on a board. Which is awesome. I only play this game using the glasses now.

Red Faction Guerrilla
This one is good with 3d Vision, but not perfect. The biggest issue is the main character. Most games I have played where the player's avatar is really close to the camera tend to look a little jittery, just the character, not the entire scene. Red Faction has this problem. However, compared to most games with this issue, Red Faction is still totally playable in 3d. I got used to the jittery effect pretty quickly. Shadows also look a little odd, but I can't really put my finger on exactly what is wrong with them. I almost always use the glasses with this game now, but from time to time I need a break. With my 8800GT, this game was unplayable with 3d Vision. With the 275GTX, everything is maxed out with 4xAA and it runs perfectly smooth.

L4D2
Not a single issue. I'll reiterate what I said about L4D1 in my last impressions post: zombie games are made for 3d. When you've got a zombie charging you down and it looks like they are going to jump out of your monitor at you, it brings a new sense of urgency to loading up their skull with buckshot. In L4D1, I would occasionally get weird display issues when objects were highlighted (items you can pick up, team members in another room). I haven't had that problem yet in L4D2. I play this game full time with the glasses now.

Fallout 3
I've had this game since it first came out, but I just never bothered to try it with 3d Vision. My system had a tough time running it at mid-high settings without the glasses. I really didn't want to see how it would play with 3d Vision enabled. Since I got the 275GTX, I gave it a shot. I can now max everything out and it plays just fine with the glasses. The game looks great. This is another of the small handful of games that I have encountered no problems with in 3d. I'm playing this full time with the glasses now.

CoD World at War (revisited)
I talked about this one in my last impressions post, so I won't spend too much time on it. I'd just like to add that since moving to the 275GTX, the game went from barely playable at mid settings to totally playable with everything maxed out, except for AA. I still have to keep AA turned off to get a smooth frame rate in 3d. Like I said last time, this game plays great in 3d, except for aiming. 3d Vision replaces the in game cross hair with its own, it is not dead on. If you're in a tough fire fight where every shot counts, you're best bet is to turn off 3d Vision.

A certain sense of depth is added to the monitor, creating the illusion that you could look behind objects in the game simply by turning your head. Rather than being pasted over your game, HUD objects seem as if they are floating in front of your face as part of an actual heads-up display.

According to nVidia, the 3D vision supports currently around 300 games and each are rated by the nVidia application (Not recommended, fair, good, excellent).

[Kaylia]

^
Reading this made me want to try it for gaming, even if the review might be biased.

[miokomioko]

3D at home would be lame, just like it's lame in the theatre. Any time I've watched a film in 3D, I would forget I it was 3D within 5 minutes. It's a gimmick and will always be a gimmick until you can do something with it that can't be done in non-3D, whether that be depth-of-field, or other complex VR shit, who knows.

Also, I will not even bother until the technology doesn't require wearing glasses.

[Correction]

I can't help but think this would be very very bad for my eyes given a multi-monitor setup where one screen has a game running and the other does not.

[Celeras]

Id love to try it if it could be used on my monitor, but you need like 120mhz or something nuts and there are very few of them. +Expensive.

[Shojin]

Id love to try it if it could be used on my monitor, but you need like 120mhz or something nuts and there are very few of them. +Expensive.

You just need a true 120hz monitor that accepts 120hz input as well as output (or so I've read). It certainly is not something nuts seeing as there are already 240+hz LCD TV and monitors on the market. Not MHz.

And they aren't THAT expensive. Granted there are only a few of them on the market at the moment though.

[Shojin]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/11/ho...r-stardust-hd/

3D gaming isn't entirely new, but will be a big focal point for Sony this year -- and what better way to show that than by turning one of 2007's bright spots into a full 3D experience. Super Stardust HD is undergoing a HD facelift right now and during an interview with Digital Foundry (via Eurogamer), engine lead Seppo Halonen and creative director Harri Tikkanen talked about adapting the game to 3D and some of the technological leaps and bounds made by Housemarque Games.

What makes SSHD different than other 3D experiences -- specifically, Avatar and other 3D games like Invincible Tiger -- is that it'll be running at a native resolution of 720p at 120 frames per second, 60 frames per each eye, and doesn't use low-res buffers to create the effect. Housemarque accomplished this by having the engine render everything twice, added stereoscopic cameras and moved the vertex processing from the GPU to the SPU. This took up about 50 percent of the SPU's resources, leaving them with enough to pre-process a lot of the game, allowing things to render much faster than before.

As for future Housemarque games on PS3, don't necessarily expect those titles to be in 3D. Tikkanen says that because some titles "lend themselves better to 3D than others," all future 3D compatibility will be decided "on a game by game basis."

Explains how SSD:HD will be implementing 3D. Also Housemarque explains that only games suited to 3D will actually be using the tech.

[Kaisha]

Watch as every publisher makes '3-D' the new requirement 6 months from now, just like most were forcing devs to include some means of multiplayer even when it wasn't needed.

[Shojin]

Watch as every publisher makes '3-D' the new requirement 6 months from now, just like most were forcing devs to include some means of multiplayer even when it wasn't needed.

Either way it would be an option you could turn on or off.

I'm hoping this will make devs focus more on keeping a stable frame-rate. Whether you do the game at 60fps with 30 frames for each eye or 120fps and 60 frames per eye, I hear the illusion gets ruined with fluctuating frame rates and screen tearing.

[Kaisha]

That's wishful thinking.

What's going to happen for multi-plat games is -

Normally
360 has stabel'ish 30fps
PS3 has shaky 15-20fps

3-D
360 has 3-D via software means akin to Avatar (the game) and has a stable'ish 25-30ish framerate
PS3 has its native 3-D solution and runs like shit


I'm only expecting decent 3-D performance on platform exclusive games, particular in the case of the PS3 with its different cpu architecture. You know, exclusive games where the devs have more time to devote to 'optimizing' (if they even bother) to the given platform.

[Shojin]

I think you are being pessimistic.

And I also think you should listen to me and stop playing those shitty games for the trophies. They have corrupted your view.

[Kaisha]

Which shitty games? Only two shitty ones I got recently was Alone in the Dark & Bionic Commando for $9 each. Sometimes I need something to play when I'm bored in the offshoot that I need a break from my main games. The purchase intention wasn't trophies also, it's just a bonus.
(just a shame GRIN screwed up Bionic Commando given Rearmed was fantastic)