Glasses Still Issue

Growing Number of Game Developers Expressing Interest in 3D—Intel

March 16, 2010 by Jeff Berman|Top News

After working with DreamWorks Animation on stereoscopic 3D for its movies, Intel is seeing “a lot of developers” express interest in using the technology for games, Roger Chandler, director of marketing for Intel’s Visual Computing Software Division, told us Friday at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

Intel and DreamWorks Animation said in 2008 that they formed "a strategic alliance aimed at revolutionizing 3-D filmmaking technology,” starting with Monsters vs. Aliens, released in theaters last year. DreamWorks, which is producing all its feature films in stereoscopic 3D, is using Intel’s visual computing products and tools to incorporate the technology into its movies.

Intel demonstrated the racing game Colin McRae: Dirt 2 in stereoscopic 3D at one of its GDC booths. The Codemasters game was released for the PC in 2D. Bill Krause, an Intel technical marketing engineer, said the 3D effect was achieved using an unspecified intermediary driver. Drivers of this kind can apply 3D to any title released in 2D but set in a 3D-rendered world, Krause said. Nvidia uses its own drivers to achieve 3D effects with its 3D Vision kit.

The Dirt 2 demonstration was done on a Hyundai TV using passive circular polarized glasses much like RealD 3D glasses, Krause said. But the glasses at the Intel booth were made of paper instead of plastic and can be bought for a few cents each, Krause said, saying his company had bought them “by the thousands.” Users who turn their heads in circular polarized glasses don’t lose the 3D image they way they do with linear polarized glasses, he said. And the glasses that Intel uses, supplied by American Paper Optics, don’t produce eye strain even with extended use, he said.

Intel helped Codemasters “optimize the title to make sure” the game takes full advantage of the processing power of Intel’s chips, Chandler said.

But Chandler said he isn’t sure how quickly consumers will embrace stereoscopic 3D at home. Viewers accept it “when you have a more controlled environment,” such as in a movie theater, he said. “For me it comes down to the glasses,” Chandler said, expressing concern that they “are always going to get broken or lost” when used in a setting like the home that isn’t controlled. That might not make much of a difference if consumers are using inexpensive passive glasses like the ones shown at the Intel booth. But at least some manufacturers, including Sony -- amply demonstrated at Sony Computer Entertainment’s GDC booth last week (CED March 15 p7) -- will be requiring consumers who use Sony 3D TVs to use more expensive active-shutter glasses. Glasses-less 3D technology is “cool,” Chandler said, but companies using stereophonic 3D are “capturing the imagination” of consumers with 3D and it’s “only a matter if time” before many people will be enjoying the technology in their homes, with or without the glasses.

Intel is also “seeing a huge growth in digital distribution” and subscription-based gaming, Chandler said. The computer, rather than the console, is the “ideal platform for all of those types of things,” he said. PCs are “where most of the innovation occurs” now, not consoles, Chandler said, also pointing to huge growth in netbook sales. The PC platform has “evolved past” consoles, he said. But he stopped short of predicting, as some industry observers have, that the current console cycle will be the last. Intel supplied chips for the first Xbox but has sat out the past two console cycles.

Game Developers Conference Notebook…

GDC attendance grew to “an all-time record of 18,250,” conference producer United Business Media TechWeb Game Network said Monday. About 17,000 went last year, it said.

Qualcomm’s new open Brew Mobile Platform (Brew MP) operating system will be backed by “dozens of devices this year” from carriers including AT&T and manufacturers including HTC, Jason Kenagy, vice president of product management, told us at GDC. This year’s market launch of Brew MP is being accompanied by various new and revamped support offerings for OEMs and developers, the company said. Brew MP “delivers high-end features across all 3G technologies and virtually all market tiers of mobile devices, including the emerging low-cost smartphone category and other data-rich feature phones, including AT&T’s quick messaging devices,” it said. Commercial Brew MP-based devices will be available in the U.S. and key international markets “by the late summer of 2010, with volume availability in the fall prior to the holiday buying season,” Qualcomm said in January. Qualcomm is “not marketing” the new OS “to the consumer,” said Kenagy, telling us consumers don’t “need another brand on the device.” But he said the new OS will be an improvement for consumers because it offers improved support for Flash and Java.