3D Television

[biosylum]

In the process of trying to create a working business model for digital three-dimensional television

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So dave, are you into stereoscopy? I imagine so, but you did not provide much detail. I dabble with 3D stereo gaming - shutter glasses, HMD's, and dual monitor setups. I am already polishing ideas where these two fields criss-cross. I also feel that my experiences in stereo gaming have developed skills that may benefit future research in AVS. I have seen rumor of promising 3D displays types. Check this out (and scroll down, do not miss the video) -- http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/02/c...video-is-here/ --

[Dave]

In the process of trying to create a working business model for digital three-dimensional television

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So dave, are you into stereoscopy? I imagine so, but you did not provide much detail. I dabble with 3D stereo gaming - shutter glasses, HMD's, and dual monitor setups. I am already polishing ideas where these two fields criss-cross. I also feel that my experiences in stereo gaming have developed skills that may benefit future research in AVS. I have seen rumor of promising 3D displays types. Check this out (and scroll down, do not miss the video) -- http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/02/c...video-is-here/ --

Yes I found the four projector set-up interesting. I have auto-stereoscopic monitors (3-D without glasses) and stereoscopic digital video cameras. My problem is capitalization and finding a standard market for stereo based products. The market does not exist, and at a national convention, I had several conversations that for 3-D to become a mass market item, it would need a game company to create an HMD, LCS game attachment that could also play stereoscopic videos.

Once you view stereo videos, you never want to go back to flat 3d. The problem is, stereoscopic video production is a different medium, and restrictive compaired to 2-d. I have a system and business plan to produce 50 3-D videos a year, and it could even ramp up production if there is demand. The problem is the hardware and software is not standardized, and HMD is not in many homes. There is a great market for this, but, I think it would take a games company or an electronics manufacturer to make a low cost HMD and then use the games software model to sell titles. For example, every 3-D imax title can be converted to HMD.

My background is in industrial/broadcast media production and I would love to see HMD or LCS take off as a compelling medium. The problem is you have to sell in great volume, and without the backing of a games company, I think it would be difficult to reach the medium, unless you partnered with a low cost manufacturer of HMD and had a proprietary format for 3-D video and 3-D games. The best of all worlds would be a games system/wearable computer that could play games, play 2-d and 3-d video as well as wearable computing.

I first person to come out with licensed content for an HMD display, could make millions, especially if the price point was 50% less existing game machines, and 50% less than game machine software.

I think stereoscopy is great. The world has had over 100 years of stereo 3-d photography, and will become the dominate medium of the future.

Hopefully this post helped.

[rupert]

A very interesting thread guys! I hadn't seen that particular 3D technology before. Very star wars. I actually work in the computer games industry and you did get me thinking "what if" but as you rightly point out - for any of this to tech to become mass market it probably requires either a major player in the games industry such as Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony or a large electronics manufacturer to invest their time and resources in the technology. I am assuming current 3d technology (I am not upto date with the tech you are talking about) would need a lot of refinements to get something that is both cheap to produce, consumer friendly (i.e. size, practical to use etc), and affordable to develop for. This kind of tech is quite some way off from entering the video games market but perhaps the next generation of consoles (or generation after that!) might start to dabble with this idea. Certainly Nintendo’s latest offerings (DS and Wii) are redefining how players interface with technology. This is a trend that looks set to continue. So far the onus is on player movements. It seems logical to assume that it's only a matter of time before attention will turn to how we perceive in-game visuals. Let's hope some bright spark (with a big pocket/backer) realises this sooner rather than later! Anyway - your posts have made me intrigued to learn more about the latest tech for HMDS etc. If you have any good tips for places to find out more about all this... would appreciate any links. Thanks for your informative posts.

[biosylum]

Actually Rupert, though the following is rather small by investment standards, the 3D gaming crowd has been established, and grows as we speak. Nvidia is really the focal push at the moment, as they are the only one's who keep us alive. Their graphics cards, and specifically their support for 3D drivers, lead the ... well I guess they are the pack. Getting into stereoscopic gaming is relatively inexpensive, because the working harware is generally 6-9 months behind the surge of new hardware. The point being, it makes no sense to live as a first adopter, when it comes to the newest, fastest hardware, since only Nvidia caters to 3D, and new drivers are always slow to show - hence, by the time Nvidia figures out how to implement 3D with the newest version of DirectX/newest graphics abilities... well the price has dropped, since even newer hardware is beginning to hit the market. (did that run on sentence make sense?). Not that we 3D gamers do not buy the newest stuff anyway (we can't help it either), but we all know it will be months before we can use it.... and why do we do this??? Because once you really see what 3D gaming is about..... you can not go back!!! I was in tears when I finally figured out how to make all my hardware play nice, literally, tears of joy. Every guy who gets it working (it is much easier these days, it used to be rather daunting) has this story of finally basking in the glory. Playing games in regular 2D is like using cardboard for a monitor. It is the same thing as buying a bigger monitor - you just cannot go back to a 14" monitor.

Developing games for 3D is absolutely no different than regular game development - though we all wish that developers knew more about stereo gaming period. Kinda like how movies are made for 3D... they add certain scenes to show off the 3D aspect. The movie would still work in 2D, but if you had the right equipment..TADA!!! Almost every game out there today works in 3D right now. The newer games suffer somewhat, because they utilize graphic aspects that the driver have yet to capitalize upon. Usually the user can turn these options off - like, the HUD, or crosshairs, or lighting effects. It is always a juggling act, trying to play the newest games, but 6-8 months away, the games usually work great (usually). Some of the best equipment on the market is also quite affordable, especially for the tech savvy.

Come by Stereovision.net, and skip around in the forum there. The site is on the verge of moving, as the owner went to war, and now the place is falling apart - but there is much info to be had there. As someone in the game development field, there would be plenty of people happy to talk shop with you.

Lastly, that imaging system, that I linked to above, was really star wars'ish, as you stated, and was not really true 3D. Neat though - later

[rupert]

Hi Biosylum,

I'll be sure to have a little look at your forum (though prob later this week). As I said - I am genuinely intrigued by stereo optics and more. My understanding of them - is pretty poor to be honest. Most the work I'm involved with these days is for games consoles. I'm wondering what my current favourite game (Rome Medieval War 2) might look like in stereo optics. Prob too new to check... but still - I will pop by and learn more from the pros at your forum. Thanks for invite. Cheers

Rupert

ps despite working in games - I actually get less and less time to play them these days because most of my time gets eaten up with the financial aspects of games development (I used to actually be an hands on developer)!! Not quite as fun but it pays my bills!