Monday, December 22, 2008

3-D News and Notes

Pete Thistle e-mailed me last week and let me know that the BCS National Championship game (Florida vs. Oklahoma, January 8) is going to be shown in 3-D.

I knew that, but what I didn't know is that it's going to be showing at many, many more theaters than I thought, and there's a list here. There are around a hundred theaters listed nationwide, including the Galaxy 10 in Austin.

Yes, I already have tickets.

Sony recently brought to market an first ultra-high refresh rate LCD--240Hz (double the standard 120Hz refresh rate for home theater screens). In theory, it should help significantly with motion artifacts, which have generally been considered one of the limitations of LCD technology.

What would be more convincing with a refresh rate that high? Stereoscopic 3-D, certainly. So when I saw this item today, I was very interested:
Acording to Neil Schneider, President and CEO of Meant to be Seen (MTBS), Blitz Games Studios has confirmed that Sony “fully intends” to support stereoscopic 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D on PS3 in 2009 with their Blitz Tech engine. MTBS is a stereoscopic 3D certification and advocacy group.

Andrew Oliver, CTO of Blitz Games Studios says, “3D gaming on console is coming and we license the tech.”


“The best part is console support will only need a bios upgrade to work,” Schneider writes. “We are told that the ability to add this capability via bios may be unique to Sony PS3 versus the other console solutions.”

What are the chances that this is true? Certainly, in my mind, the chances are very, very low. It sounds like an entirely self-promotional statement from a company that desperately wants to draw attention to themselves.

However, and I think this is more important, someday we're going to be playing games in 3-D on consoles, and it's not that far away. This could be a stunning feature for the next generation of consoles. And that press release, however entirely delusional it might be, made me think about the day when it's all actually true.

Site Meter