A stereoscopic 3D videogame certification and advocacy group launched...

A stereoscopic 3D videogame certification and advocacy group launched Monday a user-driven PC videogame database designed to inform consumers about solutions available to let them play their favorite videogame titles in 3D. The Toronto-based advocacy group, Meant to be Seen (MTBS), launched the 3D Game Analyzer with 100 games tested in 3D and will submit the scoring and mechanism used to the S-3D Gaming Alliance. “Customers want marketing-free game testing,” and turning to the alliance “was the first logical step,” said Neil Schneider, president of MTBS and the alliance’s executive director. The group wants the videogame industry to use the information from the game analyzer and define quality expectations and ratify them for official use, it said. Gamers submit a title to the Web-based analyzer and share details about the hardware and software they use. They also answer a series of multiple-choice questions about a game and how it behaves in stereoscopic 3D. The analyzer compiles the information and creates a numeric score and a certification grade that becomes part of the database. The result, according to MTBS, will be a growing database of games tested on software drivers including DDD, iZ3D and Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision. The database will include recommended game settings, consistent rules and visual expectations and a customer-driven stamp of approval, the group said. The goal of the analyzer is to bring clarity to questions of compatibility between 3D games and driver solutions, the group said, adding that vendors have trumpeted compatibility statements as high as 400 games, but the claims are difficult to confirm and are not publicly defined. As a result, the group said, there’s little or no consistency between games and driver solutions.