Is 3D Gaming a Gimmick? NVIDIA 3D Vision Review

Gamers Nexus writes, "3D technology has been around for a long time, but has grown significantly over the years - of late, "3D ready TVs" and "3D movies" have become the latest buzz words, and public opinion seems to slant toward gimmicky and borderline useless. We're here to analyze the uses and pitfalls of nVidia's gaming version of 3D technology, which they've named 3D Vision (we've spoken about it before).

This article is meant to be one of the most in-depth analyses of 3D technology currently available on the web, so that means it's going to be comprehensive and convey the positive and the oh-so-negatives. For your convenience, we've paginated the article into several sections. We've also summarized our opinions, so if you're short on time, start with that and go from there. There is also a TL;DR summary of each major paragraph at the end of the section, so check those out! Let's get to the question on everyone's mind..."

[Tanir]

it is a gimmick, look at the 3d as a prime example. almost no one plays in 3d because after long periods exposed to it, it hurts the eyes.

that and it barely adds anything to the gameplay.

3d in general is dumb.

[Ranshak]

Agreed man, and with some genres like FPS i think it would be a total pain in the ass to aim properly.

[evrfighter]

the next step in gaming is not 3d. It's higher resolution, and higher fps.

I'd take those over 3d any day of the week

[BrianG]

Quick question, have you ever played in 3D?

It doesn't make gameplay harder, just adds to the experience.

[cliffbo]

i disagree i have a 3D tv and i play in 3D all the time for hours and hours and it never bothers my eyes at all and i also wear glasses and it does add to the game play aswell maybe you should wear an eye patch over one of your eyes and walk around and see how the world is improved with 2D i think you will find it is much better seeing in 3D, the only reason there is allot of negativity to 3D is because of the anti 3D campaign that has been put around to try and stop the sale of mainly the PS3 by the industry and i wonder who has paid for that MS cough! cough!

anyway if you dont want 3D then dont have it but keep your opinion to yourself and stop trying to put others who want it off buying it or using it.

i suggest you actually have a go on some games in 3D i think it will change your opinion on it as it has with all my friends and family who were against it until they tried it for themselves.

[qwertyz]

consoles cannot do proper 3d. proper 3d requires the following:

1 framebuffer for each eye(2 framebuffers in total)
1 alpha buffer for each eye(2 alpha buffers in total)
1 DISTINCT frame rendered for each eye(2 frames in total)

now most console games only do the following

1 framebuffer for each eye(2 framebuffers in total)-
1 alpha buffer for each eye(2 alpha buffers in total)

games like kilzone 3, uncharted 3 and other 30fps games that support 3d never to the last and most important part which is rendering 1 frame for each eye because it cuts frame rate in HALF therefore killzone 3 in TRUE stereoscopic 3d will run at 15FPS which is UNPLAYABLE.

so consoles don't do true stereoscopic 3d as all 3 of the above are needed. now all console games look significantly WORSE when doing their usual half baked stereoscopic 3d. why ? because the frame and alpha buffer resolutions are cut in half(to accommodate a second frame and alpha buffers) this jaggies to be far more pronounced and the image to look far more washed out in the half baked 3d than in 2d this was the case in killzone 3

MS isn't anti 3d if they where why does crysis 2, black ops, avatar and some ther 360 games have 3d support ? and why does gears of war 3, halo ce:anniversary, batman arkham city which are alllcoming out later this year have 3d support ?

your argument fails. pc has had 3d support YEARS before consoles so no and the major 3d gaming players are on pc because pc can properly handle it and doesn't give you half baked results.

lol consoles aren't even as powerful as a dual gpu from 2005 and you are talking ? a 2006 single gpu high end pc is between 5-7 times more powerful than ps3/360 the 512mb ram consoles have has been outdated since 2004!

even bulletstorm on pc looks better than anything on consoles including uncharted 3, RAGE battlefied 3 and gears 3

[badz149]

now you're just talking CRAP!

[5yN4MWQU]

"3d in general is dumb" is not a strong argument for or against the 3D movement. You should read the article to educate yourself on how the technology works that way you can decide what -exactly- makes it dumb to you.

I commented on the 'eye sore' complaint within my article; I played for periods of 8 hours and experienced no eye pain. If you are competent (and your expert grip on the English language suggests that you are) in configuring your 3D products, you should not experience any pain. Set it up so that the convergence and depth are something your eyes can cope with; everyone is different.

Please let me know if you have any specific questions about the technology so that I can explain them to you :)

[NYC_Gamer]

I won't support 3d until it's glasses free

[bumnut]

You are missing out, i have an nvidia 3d setup and it is great.

[5yN4MWQU]

While I agree that the glasses can be expensive, the good news is that they have been plummeting in price. They've come down from $200 to $100, and since you'll have to buy a 3d-compatible monitor anyway, most of those come bundled with the glasses.

It takes much more to play than the glasses, of course, but they are certainly coming down in price and being made more available. Free, though? That won't happen other than in combo/bundle deals. It's not like your local retailer is going to have a bucket of them to just pick up and go home with.

[Drekken]

2 pairs of sony glasses and a 3d movie for $90 on amazon. They are affordable. These numbnuts stuck on repeat just keep saying the same things over and over and people believe them.

[Phantasm]

This is a start. A Toshiba 55" glasses free set will be out by Dec. in Europe.

http://www.highdefdigest.co...

[zero_cool]

I agree with you too cliffbo but it's not worth wasting your breath on neanderthals!

[blacktiger]

as a hardcore fan of movies, I thought 3D was gimmick until I watched Avatar.

Same goes for games, until they execute it right, instead of duplicating images, then 3D can revolutionize video games. Until then Nnintendo 3DS and PS3 3D are nothing but a cash grab.

Wait till the right game comes!

[5yN4MWQU]

Yes, exactly what I said in my several thousand words :) I agree, and you sum it up nicely: the technology is there, and while it will advance significantly as time progresses, it will come down to games and software vendors to produce games and products that utilize 3D tech.

In the same way that four core processors have been underutilized by games until recently (due to lack of full multithreading support), 3D tech will not be completely embraced until software houses begin supporting it properly.

[blackburn10]

@ qwertyz. How did you manage to make this into a 'PC is better then consoles' debate? We are talking about if 3D is a gimmick or not. Stay on topic and stop the wall of text.