James Cameron's Avatar - The Game in 3D is pretty freaking trippy!

[WCP]

I was at my friends house this weekend, and he told me that he had something that I absolutely had to check out first hand. So he sits me down on his sofa, and hands me these 3D shutterglasses. He puts Avatar into his Xbox 360 and turns on the 3D mode in his HDTV.

I must say, it was pretty freaking impressive. This isn't your grandma's red and blue 3D glasses from the 1950's, this shit was legit. In the game, I was one of the marine/soldier guys, and I was running around in this jungle. Seeing the jungle in 3D was pretty trippy to say the least. Especially if you look down at the ground (in the game), while your guy is walking forward. It literally seems like you are looking thru a window at a real 3D scene taking place in front of you. The effect is even more pronounced when you are driving a vehicle. The game allows you to drive a dune buggy type thing, and also some speedboat type thing. The 3D is very convincing during these scenes.

I didn't get to play the game very long as I had to get back home, but I definitely left his house thinking that 3D might actually be the future of gaming. I asked him if the actual game itself was any good, and he thought the game was pretty substandard, but he bought it just to test out the 3D goggles that he had.

Anybody else try out this game in 3D?

[TonyTheTiger]

Not that game in particular but I have seen 3D games. Overall, while the effect works, it isn't something I'd want to use for an extended period of time. It's still too much of a novelty for me because not only is it annoying to have to wear special glasses, it doesn't always look right. Avatar in IMAX did it the best I've seen up to this point (Pixar's Up gave me a headache) but once in a while things still got blurry, as in the "shadows" were visible, and it still took a minute or two before my eyes adjusted back to normal. So while 3D can be neat, they'll have to figure out a much better way to do it. I don't know how they can do it without freaky glasses but unless they get to that point, then 3D won't be something I'm going to get fully on board with outside the occasional indulgence.

[jb143]

The reason it doesn't look right is because there's no head tracking. The game would have to know the exact position of the glasses to render the correct view otherwise it will be distorted and cause some people headaches. If your in exactly the right spot or have a big enough screen though, it's pretty immersive.

And they can do it without the glasses but it takes a special monitor. It works about like those groved plastic 3D images on DVD covers and the like only much finer grooves and much much more expensive.

[garagesaleking!!]

Wow I had no idea that the game was in 3d. I would have to imagine the market for the 3d gaming would be small since you need a 3d capable hdtv.

[WCP]

Wow I had no idea that the game was in 3d. I would have to imagine the market for the 3d gaming would be small since you need a 3d capable hdtv.

The market is very small, and there are only so many 3D ready TV's that are actually in homes right now. The only people that have 3D ready TV's for the most part are people who bought Samsung or Mitsubishi rear projection DLP HDTV's. Not all of the rear-projection DLP's that Mitsubishi and Samsung sold are 3D ready, but quite a few of them are. The TV my buddy has is actually a Samsung plasma, but apparently it is one of the few plasma displays that are 3D ready.

As for the developers making a game with a 3D option that so few people will actually get to experience, I guess it's one of those things where somebody has to start somewhere. I remember back in the days of the Xbox 1, there was a NBA2K game that featured 720p output. It was one of only a handful of Xbox 1 games that had a native resolution of 720p. Back then, everybody was wondering why the developers would even bother, when so few people would ever be able to play the game in 720p, but I just think it's one of those situations where somebody has to start somewhere, to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

[jb143]

I don't know about consoles, but in the PC world it's easy to add 3D to a game. In many cases the developer doesn't even have to do anything. I'm a little fuzzy on the details but I think the way it works is that the software for the glasses basically hack the DirectX Z-buffer and renders another view for the other eye.

Adding support directly by the developers isn't tricky either, You just render 2 side by side camera views instead of 1. The difference is going to be in specifically designing a game to make the best use of the 3D effect from a gameplay perspective.

[PapaStu]

G-Force has it (well at least the 360 version does) and the only time I was really able to notice it was when I was using the energy whip or coming back towards the camera. Then things had the ability to 'pop' off the screen a bit. Having to play the game in the Red/blue glasses was a tad bit silly and I only handled about 30 minutes of it before it bothered my eyes, but it was a novel thing.

[WCP]

G-Force has it (well at least the 360 version does) and the only time I was really able to notice it was when I was using the energy whip or coming back towards the camera. Then things had the ability to 'pop' off the screen a bit. Having to play the game in the Red/blue glasses was a tad bit silly and I only handled about 30 minutes of it before it bothered my eyes, but it was a novel thing.

When I'm talking about 3D, I'm talking about legit, real-deal 3D. Digital 3D. Anaglyph (the blue/red glasses from the 50's), is hardly anything to get excited about. Digital Stereoscopic 3D, either with shutterglasses or polarized glasses is a whole nuther ball of wax.

I remember playing 3D World Runner back on the NES. It was an anaglyph game. Talk about a gimmick. You gotta see the real-deal 3D before you can make a judgment on the future of 3D and video games. There are only two games on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 that support digital 3D. Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tau (available via PSN and XBLM), and James Cameron's Avatar the game (for both 360 and PS3). These are the only two games so far.

[s1lence]

When I'm talking about 3D, I'm talking about legit, real-deal 3D. Digital 3D. Anaglyph (the blue/red glasses from the 50's), is hardly anything to get excited about. Digital Stereoscopic 3D, either with shutterglasses or polarized glasses is a whole nuther ball of wax.

I remember playing 3D World Runner back on the NES. It was an anaglyph game. Talk about a gimmick. You gotta see the real-deal 3D before you can make a judgment on the future of 3D and video games. There are only two games on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 that support digital 3D. Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tau (available via PSN and XBLM), and James Cameron's Avatar the game (for both 360 and PS3). These are the only two games so far.

Well I've seen enough 3d things at various amusement parks and movies and all I can think is gimmick. I don't really want to have to wear glasses to watch my tv or play a game. I know its coming though.

[WCP]

Well I've seen enough 3d things at various amusement parks and movies and all I can think is gimmick. I don't really want to have to wear glasses to watch my tv or play a game. I know its coming though.

The good news is that it will be totally optional. They aren't going to force anybody to play the games with the 3D mode turned on. In fact, if 3D gaming really takes off, it will actually benefit the people that want to play it regular style, because they will end up with faster frame rates as a side benefit.

The only real downside with the whole 3D thing, is if 3D became the defacto standard, and then developers designed their games specifically for 3D. Under this scenario, I'm sure the game would still run with the 3D mode turned off, but if the game was designed to be played in 3D, then it could have some play mechanic issues that wouldn't work well unless you're playing it in 3D. Of course, this scenario would be a huge longshot, because I really doubt that 3D will ever become the defacto standard.