G4TV: Gears Of War 2 Hands-On...In 3D

G4tv: "It doesn't take long to become numb while walking around CES. The sheer number of electronics dying for your attention quickly turns your brain to mush. But I quickly snapped to attention when roaming the Samsung booth and noticed Gears of War 2 running...in 3D.

Of course, it's not the first game I've seen in 3D, nor was the Gears of War 2 demo specifically engineered to be presented in 3D. Samsung was showing off an internal HDTV technology that can automatically take any picture and create a basic sense of 3D from it. It'd technically work on any Xbox 360 game they popped in, but Gears of War 2 made for a pretty showcase."

[Sonyslave3]

But i thought 3d was only possible on ps3 :)

[PirateThom]

The 360 isn't doing anything, it's the TV.

But good try.

[Nitrowolf2]

lol the TV is doing it, meaning that the game itself isn't 3D, and that probaly means you are not getting true 3D from it. It give a 3D effect but the game isn't optimized with 3D itself. idk but i would expect if the game was equiped to be in 3D then it would give a better effect then this. Ive seen this on TV before, and althought the TV is producing the 3D its quite impressive but doesn't beat soemthing that was made for 3D

[Wrathman]

so you dont need need a ps3 for 3d?just a 3dtv?

im confused now.are we all goin to argue about TRUE3D now?

cause i could care less.lol

[maniacmayhem]

You know what's so funny about that is YES people on N4G will now start arguing "TRU" 3D.

@ PirateThom:
I think he's referring to another article here on N4G where the Sony brigade wrote multiple posts of 3D being the future and only possible on PS3.

[PirateThom]

Well, put it like this, it's going to be like native HD and upscaled.

One is going to "do the job", one will be significantly better as it's native.

[maniacmayhem]

I seriously don't think it's difficult to incorporate and develop a game in 3D for any system whether it's 360 or the Wii.

By the way...here's that article....
http://www.n4g.com/tech/New...

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

5 people in the world can afford 3D TV's and somehow all droids on this site have them or will have. You droids live the lie to much, stop sniffing pixie dust and take a reality pill.

[-MD-]

They're already starting with the "true 3-D" crap.

PS3 IS TRUE HD
PS3 IS TRUE 3-D
PLAY B3YOND!!!11!!!

Idiots.

[evilmonkey501]

you can get the same exact tv that I have for less than 2 grand. It does 3d. I don't know about you, but More than 5 people in the world can afford to buy this television.

http://www.google.com/produ...

[SilentNegotiator]

Oh, yeah, the 360 REALLY got 3D. Take THAT, PS3.
/s

[Trebius]

Nice try though...gives the 360 community false hope in a land with no games.

There there Rocco...

You'll see games again someday...

Maybe Reach will be as great as it's being hyped to be, with that FANTASTIC trailer they showed that the fanboys are jumping up and down about...

[Bodyboarder_VGamer]

I just love the way the bots try to evade the facts. So, so, so... Desperate? lol

Then they are the first saying how much superior the X360 version of certain multiplatform games are compared to the PS3 version just because of some color differences.

[avengers1978]

Sure go out and buy a what 5K to 6K dollar Tv so you can get kind of 3d. Well if your lucky and the don't cost alot more.
Oh the first 3d tv's well be crap and the pricey glasses make it kind of impossible for most people to own one any way.

[mrv321]

It's the TV doing it not the 360, the TV and this is just a guess, recording the last 2 or 3 frames and overlaying them ontop of the current frame. This basically means that you are seeing 3 frames of a character in movement played at the same. This is what I imagine is going on.

This is not the 360, the 360 HDMi is 1.2 and cannot output 3D. HDMi 1.3 can output it in 3D but limited to 1080i and HDMi 1.4 is full 3D1080p

I think.

[GameOn]

But hasn't there already been 3D games on 360? Or are they different?

[DelbertGrady]

As far as I know Avatar: The Game is available for the 360 and has 3D support.

[GameOn]

Yeah, there's also a game called G-Force That I've seen on Amazon but only parts of it are in 3D.

[Anon1974]

Soda is right (odd...that was hard to type for some reason) Avatar is 3D as long as you have a 3D capable set to take advantage of it. I don't really know how this is any different then what's been shown off by Sony.

At any rate, I've been waiting for real 3D gaming my entire life. Bring it on!

[ShinRyuHadoken]

Yep, it's the TV that does 3D. So every game is going to be 3D not only gears off war.

If the TV from samsung can do this I wonder how it will look like with God Of War 3 and PS3 3D update. Are we now get better 3D then ever?

[WildArmed]

Awesome.
Now to play my N64 games in 3D with this badass t.v.!

[beans]

Do any of you guys remember that hologram arcade game by sega (I believe) 15 or 20 years ago?

edit: Nevermind I found it. This was the direction I was hoping for many years ago. It's called time traveler and this video looks better than anything I've seen today. http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[ArmrdChaos]

If the TV does it WITHOUT glasses then I want to see/know more.

[PotNoodle]

3D is possible on the Xbox 360, just not the standard that was approved by the BDA, which will be used on blu-ray's and PS3 games.

[SilentNegotiator]

"Did it add anything to the experience? Not really. Because the 3D wasn't tailored to Gears of War 2, whenever my character hunched down to start running, my world blurred and nausea started to set in"

But reading most of the comments, no one read the article anyway.

[NeoBasch]

I'm confused as to how they can do this. It sounds like a software related coding procedure. Not hardware. How can the TV do it alone? Something needs to differentiate the axes. I highly doubt the HDMI cord can do it either. The game/movie should be the one telling the TV to output various graphics to certain axes. For example, the horizontal points along an image should be outputted in parallel on the X-Axis, the vertical Y, and span Z. The program should be telling which points to output. How can the TV interpret this without the needed filtering. I'm interested in finding out. Maybe firmware? Anybody know? The TV needs the proper setup in terms of gear to output the executable correctly. The HDMI streams data corresponding to the format which is entirely dependent on filters, but is useless unless the TV has the proper gear. What's more is the question as to what could possibly be packaging the data according to these terms. I'd think it need to be specific.

[PS360PCROCKS]

@Basch and everyone else any Samsung, Toshiba and Sony (maybe Vizio) TV announced this week that does 3D will take 2D feeds and make them 3D. They have all stated this already this week and it applies to games as well. They have a CHIP that scales it, not a software code. Panasonic is the only brand not doing the 2D upscaling.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

This is a much more primitive version of 3D. Fail.

[vhero]

Basic 3D is all that can be done on 360 though with the red and blue glasses thanks to HDMI 1.2... MS could update future 360s to 1.3 but that means cutting off previously sold 360s from new 3D games and that wouldn't go down well.. Still puzzles me why the 360 launched with 1.2 as 1.3 was the latest HDMI at 360 launch.

[darthv72]

if you check out http://www.next3d.com you will see they can make the 360 do 3d. It isnt really an issue of the hdmi version it is a matter of the right software to make it work.

They have an app that will take any 2d movie and make it 3d but you need an hdmi 360 and 3d tv (obviously).

3d on 360 is possible but it is up to the tv mfgs and software devs to make it work. MS really isnt pushing for 3d because they dont have any vested interest unlike sony.

Sony IS hardware (tv's), sony IS movie studios, sony IS bluray makers. So you can see it is obvious that the trifecta for sony is to push 3d based on what they do. MS doesnt make tv's nor do they make movies.

[gintoki777]

It will not be long before microsoft jumps on the 3d wagon

[fr0sty]

HDMI 1.3 can output at 1080p in 3d as well, but the issue is the consoles can't render 2 1080p frames at once, so you won't get above 720p in 3d. When the 3d blu-rays start launching, they are encoded at 1080p in full 3d.

Xbox 360's HDMI 1.2 port is not compatible with 3D. An HDMI 1.4 compatible port is required to transmit 3d images to a TV. PS3's HDMI 1.3 can be upgraded to 1.4 (only the 3d aspects of 1.4 though, other features are not upgraded so it isn't a full hdmi 1.4 port after the update). So, the best you'll get on 360 is pseudo-3D generated by the TV looking at objects on screen and deciding which ones to make appear like they've been offset a bit for the other eye, generating a 3d effect. a character standing in the center of the screen will appear to slightly be in front of the background behind them, but you won't get a full 3d effect on every object on the scene unless you're using a PS3. HDMI 1.2 just doesn't have the bandwidth to spare for 3D, and as such isn't upgradable. 1.3 actually is capable of carrying resolutions above 1080p because even at 1080p it still has spare bandwidth.

[darthv72]

What you say is correct as it pertains to conventional players with hdmi 1.2. However the 360 is not a conventional player. It has sufficient power to accommodate the rendering needed and make up for any bandwidth limitations. It has been done already.

[fr0sty]

It has nothing to do with whether 360 is powerful enough to render in 3D, it's that 3DTV's only accept a 3D signal over a HDMI 1.4 connection, or a HDMI 1.3 connection that has had it's firmware updated to allow for 3D transfer. Because Xbox 360 only has a HDMI 1.2 port, it cannot be upgraded. The only reason PS3's 1.3 can, is because the HDMI 1.3 standard actually has more bandwidth than PS3 is currently using even at 1080p, so it can send out higher frame rates without running out of bandwidth.

It has nothing at all to do with the power of either system, it's all in the HDMI port. If you do not comply to the HDMI 1.4 standard for 3D (which is backwards compatible with 1.3 for 3D), your system will not be able to send out 3D images.

It's called a bottleneck. Even though one area of a system may be able to perform lightning fast, you're only as fast as your slowest component. if your video output can only send out 60 frames per second at 1080p max, that's as much as you're going to get even if your video card can render ten times that resolution at 240 frames per second.

HDMI 1.2 (as found in 360) maxes out at 1920×1200p at 60fps
just not enough bandwidth for 3D at HD resolutions, no matter how you cut it. It also is not upgradable to 1.4, which is required for 3d.

HDMI 1.3 (PS3) is 2560×1600p at 75fps... way above 1080p, at more than 60fps. Plenty of bandwidth to spare for 120fps 720p. Upgradable to HDMI 1.4 as well.

For more info, look here. http://www.highdefdigest.co...

Even with enough bandwidth to support resolutions and frame rates above 1080p, 1.3 still can't do 3d 1080p. 1.2 has HALF the bandwidth as 1.3, so it's impossible to do 3D on 1.2 (at any HD resolution).

[darthv72]

then I guess samsung lied to me when it says my tv can do 3d. Mine is a plasma pn42b450 and the ssg1000 3d kit is designed for mine, the pn52b450, and some of their lcd panels. Not all of their sets are 3d ready. Plus it only has 1.3 hdmi and my 360 being connected to it outputs the 3d sync needed for the kit to respond correctly.

Go check out http://www.next3d.com for more info on3d enabled player for 360 and ps3.

I'd take their word on it working seeing as they developed the app and have tested it on 360's and 3d tv's already.

[fr0sty]

all that is talking about is a compression technology that is used to reduce the file size of 3D video by only storing the parts of the image on the right eye that have changed from the left (much like how 2d video encoding does that between frames). It is a 3D HD VIDEO content delivery system, it doesn't do any good if you can't send it 3D video to begin with.

Samsung also kinda did lie to you... it isn't real 3D. it will work on any image, as it's simulated 3D (the same thing that is coming built in to many upcoming 3dtv's). It isn't native 3D though. the image starts 2D, and is "upscaled" so to speak to 3D. For more info, look here. http://www.popularmechanics...

HDMI 1.4 allows the actual system, the PS3 or BD player, to send it 2 frames per eye, so it is actual native 3d.

[THE MAX SPEED 21]

There's a Wii Game in full 3D. with Robots.

[A Cupcake for Gabe]

The Toy Story game on Wii is a full 3D game. But everything you see on TV and in games today, isn't as good as Real 3D technology. It's what the movies, rides, disney parks, etc use. And it's coming to PS3

[fr0sty]

technically, there were NES games in 3D as well (there was a racing game with a 3D mode, forgot the name). But as the above poster said, it's about how good of a 3D effect you get. With previous 3D games, you either had the red-blue glasses which sucked and allowed for little to no color on the image, or you had shutter glasses that worked like crap with older tv's outputting at 60fps. I played ace combat on ps2 in 3d back at e3 2006, and the lcd shutter glasses didn't take long to give me a headache because they were synced to the TV which was running at 60fps. the flicker was terrible, and the 3d effect (because it was simulated - like with what is happening with this 360 game in the article) wasn't very well pronounced. the plane appeared in front of the background, but only by a little. the image lacked any real depth.

with ps3's 3d setup, it'll be sending at least 120fps to the glasses (the 3dtv's IIRC are 240hz). That produces a much smoother image that doesn't give you a headache, that is in full color, and also is in full 3D from the source of the image all the way to the TV. REAL 3D.

edit: oops, responded to the wrong post. this was meant as a response to godmars' post below.

[fr0sty]

Microsoft didn't bash 3D, they said they weren't doing it... because they can't. HDMI 1.4 is required for 3D (like I explained in my post above), and only 1.3 is capable of being upgraded to carry a 3D signal to a TV with a 1.4 jack on it. 360's HDMI 1.2 cannot be upgraded, so it's 2D only for 360 (or unless you use fake 3D from one of these TV sets, but as I also explained, don't expect to be blown away. not worth buying a new TV just for simulated 3D via a 360).

Edit: oops, replied to wrong post. was meant as a response to godmars' post below.

[Godmars290]

Odd the hear MS dismissing 3D then seeing a 360 game in 3D.

Would say MS should have a better about what its doing, but then Epic made it.

[maniacmayhem]

But the TV itself is doing the 3D not the game. So the TV can turn any game into 3D.

[WildArmed]

Aye. Epic/MS had nothing to do with it.
It's just the T.V. doing it's magic.

It converts everything to 3D . (AWESOME)

[Godmars290]

Its still odd, but not surprising, to see MS contradicted.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Microsoft is not being contradicted they stated they "weren't bringing 3D to xbox 360" all 3D TVs from Sony, Toshiba and Samsung announced to do 3D will upscaled 2D to 3D.

[DelbertGrady]

What's not odd at all is seeing you trying to bash MS in any possible way.

[Godmars290]

What's also not odd is seeing you defend MS in all things.

[YoungKingDoran]

come on the master system did 3d games. did anyone play space harrier 3d when they were kids? :P

[young juice]

nobody liked red & blue glasses. it made it hard to focus on the 3d. for me anyways

[Myze]

Rad Racer and 3-D Worldrunner on the NES came with a 3D mode and 3D glasses (the cheesy blue/red lense ones), and unless you already knew, you would never guess, it came from Squaresoft. It was their first two games ever released in North America.

[mephixto]

Uhmmm... maybe it's running on PC and using Nvidia's 3D Vision

[Natsu89]

there is no gears 2 on pc
and it's not nvidia it's the tv!

[mephixto]

I said "maybe"

[Aquarius]

Imagine seeing this in 3D.

http://farm4.static.flickr....

yeeeeeesh!!!!!!!!

[FantasyStar]

Can someone explain this "3D" to me? My knowledge of this 3D-hype is as dated as the last Spy Kids movie. If my childhood memories serve me right, I got a headache from seeing too much blue.

[Double Toasted]

actually the ability to have Marcus Fenix pop out of your tv screen and b*tch slap and choke you!

[qwerty-1]

I just lol'ed hard.

[Bigpappy]

Very funny

[GrandDragon]

Jason there was a time when only 5 people in the world could afford HDTV's so what's your point? and sine the TV is doing the 3D for the dam console the picture quality will look like crap and you'll see a lot of flickering.

[maniacmayhem]

Oh yea, you made the TV yourself? You already own one and playing games on it?

How did you get one already?

[Udidntlistenpunk]

"Did it add anything to the experience? Not really. Because the 3D wasn't tailored to Gears of War 2, whenever my character hunched down to start running, my world blurred and nausea started to set in"

So next time you open your dumb bot mouth again, at least read the fkin shiat first.

360 cant do 3D as it is not equipped to do so. Plain and simple. For true 3d you need TV, HDMI version 3 and console to be 3d ready. THATS ALL THREE.

Sure you can run it without HDMI 3 like you can run a HDTV with component cables but the effect wont be the same. It wont be as sharp, as good as true HD with HDMI cable.

So to sum it up, for true HD and 3D, you need:
- PS3
- TV
- HDMI

Everything else put in place, is a substitute and wont be the same.

[Blu Ray3]

3-D glasses back in the late 80s.
I remember they had a shudder effect when you wore them.
I would get stoned and wear them even when I wasn't playing a game.
Fun stuff.

[GrandDragon]

Some 3DTV's at the CES2010 were able to turn anything running on them in to a 3D image but it isn't as good as the hardware (console) outputting the 3D video to "True" 3D HDTV.

In other words some 3D HDTV's will be able to create the illusion of 3D while others will produce "True" 3D images.

The best combo is to have a True 3D HDTV (e.g Samsung's & Sony's line) and a console that can actually output 3D images to the TV (PS3). The picture wont appear to be flickering and you'll get the "True" crisp HD 3D experience.

[Golfcoachh]

Just wondering. The hype machine is on with this 3d stuff, but nobody knows how it will turn out when you try and play for 5 hours straight. It will be cool, but almost 3 hrs of avatar and I was getting a headache, so we will see if the masses really jump on this or it ends up being an overated experience.

[GrandDragon]

Saw it at CES 2010 idiot.

[jack who]

lmao TRUE 3-D

[ApexHell]

samsung showed there 3d tv's with processors in them to output dvd players bluray players etc which i would also guess gaming to out put in 3d.

[sak500]

It's BS... Try this http://www.3dtv.at/Index_en... trial steroscopic player and it turns every video into 3D. All you need are the glasses from Nvidia or 3rd party. Sam and LG and Sony are hyping these things to keep selling newer HDTVs since in the current times they already are making lower and lower profits.

The 3D gaming had been on the pc for last 4-5 years with nvidia's vga cards.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Cool thanks dude. I guess those Nvidia cards were also playing PS3 games, Blu Ray's and ESPN, Disney, Discovery and DirecTV as well Amiright?

[PS360PCROCKS]

Cooool! I can't WAIT to get my Samsung C9000 and play Bioshock, Gears of War, God Of War, dead space etc and anything other game in 3D. Who cares if it's tailored for it, I just wanna try it.

[PS360PCROCKS]

I will repeat this one last time to make it clear to EVERYONE. Samsung, Toshiba and Sony 3D TV's have 2D to 3D scaling chips built into them. This is merely the TV converting the image hence why the guy said it wasn't that great. The game (GEARS 2) WAS NOT BUILT FOR 3D

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

Thanks for reminding us how f'ing ugly Gears of War looks. Absolutely no variety in color on top with the most flattest textures. And to think that this is the best the 360 has to offer up till now? Embarrassing.

[Tainted Gene]

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[she00win99]

360 has no games. :)

[level 360]

I still think it's more practical and effective to have a game that is developed for 3D and sold on a disc with 3D glasses included.

[Gamer luv]

if the game being played was not built for 3D but the tv can out put the game at some rate of 3D i think thats pretty impressive.

[divideby0]

"SENSE of 3d" is not true 3D.

sorry just as Sony school MS with FULL HD..they will School MS with REAL 3D..natively put out from my PS3 WITHOUT any additional cost to me.

no fret..cause MS will come up with a software solution for 3d and overtax the 360 CPU just as they are doing with Natal...
MS is the best software company and they will do this, but in the long run it will NOT be good as hardware with native 3d output

[AEtherbane]

The TV makes all forms of media 3d. including Television and Movies. Read about it. Its pretty awesome.

[GrandDragon]

From what I can remember only Toshiba, Samsung and Sony are offering the true experience but I could be wrong.

[Gamer luv]

As far as im concerned 3D is a cool feature, but thats all it is and i doubt (as cool as 3D is) that it will be as big as its potential.

[TANUKI]

So... now the Xbox fans are praising this (3D television) to no end?

Oh.. the hypocrisy.

Well, this confirms one thing, at least Sony fans can standby what they support.

[Major Kanimo]

now if only you sony fan boys stood by your games you wouldnt have such low game sales..just saying :P

[BubbleSystemSuck]

The 3D planned by Sony are different... are more... 3d..
This 3D is more like Hannah Montana 3D concert..

[GrandDragon]

Uncharted 2 has sold over 2 million copies, has made up for ND's production costs for the game and it has met ND's sales target which means it was a success and it also means UC3 will be coming in near future.

You dumb 360 fanboys never use logic in any of your arguments hence why you get schooled so badly nearly every day.

[Double Toasted]

Yeah...school is in session...

[ForROME]

Sounds like Golden EYE 3D TIME TO ME!