After all the talk, after all the debate, after all complaints, Wednesday was finally the day. One might suggest that I enjoy talking about stereoscopy. I’ve learned to appreciate it in the cinema (sometimes), but the home theater 3D experience was something I had yet to try. The technology is only now beginning to emerge, and everyone is talking about it. On the showfloor at E3 2010, stereoscopic games had a commanding presence. I decided it was time to give the technology a go.
Sony wouldn’t miss the opportunity to demo their new 3D-capable TVs at the conference. They had stations lined up one after another to demo their latest PS3 titles, and each station was adorned with four pairs of active shutter glasses. As I approached the Motorstorm: Apocalypse station, I realized very quickly that watching people playing stereoscopic games while not wearing the glasses totally sucks. So I picked up a pair and put them on and was immediately transported to the world of OMG HOLY CRAP THE FUTURE 3D.
Look how comfortable he looks in those glasses.
A quick note on the technology at work at the booth—the glasses were wireless active shutter glasses. They synced with the fantastic looking HDTVs via Bluetooth. There was a small receiver at the bottom of the television, about five inches in length, that connected the glasses to the TV. One really cool feature of this receiver setup is that the glasses know what TV you’re looking at, and in a quick instant, they sync up. When I wore the glasses and looked at one of the 3D TVs behind me, i would see flickering and blurriness. After a few seconds though, the glasses and 3D TV realized that they needed to be coupled, and synced up to allow stereo viewing. It was fascinating to see as I looked around the room and the glasses did their sync business.
Unfortunately for the tech, that is where my positive statements end.
The 3D gods blessed me with a headache almost as soon as I put the glasses on and looked at the display. With 3D cinema, the advice given to those who get headaches is to let the film direct your eye. Don’t try to look at distant or out-of-focus objects, as the illusion will cause your brain to hurt as it tries to do something it cannot. Film has the advantage of cinematography and solid direction to help guide your eye. Cues like depth of field and leading lines tell you, subconsciously, where to look. Unless you are constantly looking at everything but the film’s subject, you can prevent most 3D migraines.
3D video games do not have those kind of advantages. A player’s eyes dance all over the screen. It’s a giant canvas of activity, and there is always something else to look at. Depth of field is used for eye candy, but rarely can the effect achieve direction in the way it does with film. The result of these many issues is constant eye movement and refocusing. It was the cause of my insta-headache, and quickly became my biggest problem with the technology. In the case of Motorstorm, I was looking ahead of me to see what was coming up in the circuit. Dealing with that depth was terribly unpleasant, and it pushed me to the point where I would have preferred to play the game without glasses on at all and just dealing with looking at polarized images. That, or shove a knife in my eyeballs—anything to get rid of the pain.
Stereoscopic game, or drinking and driving simulator? You decide.
In the production of stereoscopy, a point is established that becomes the “normal plane”. Everything between this plane and the camera appears to jump towards the viewer, and everything beyond it appears behind the screen. This point is referred to as the convergence plane. A typical technique in the gimmicky use of stereoscopy is to put objects well ahead of the convergence plane so that it protrudes out into the viewers face. This is the point where the uninitiated exclaim “wow!”, and the rest of us shout “again?”
A problem that arises from shooting objects toward the viewer is edge crop. The objects appear closer to us thanks to the illusion of stereoscopy, but in reality, that object is eventually going to hit the edge of the film’s frame. When this happens, the 3D object will suddenly appear cropped as it floats in front of your face. Edge crop is happening constantly during a film, but thanks to the massive size of the screen, you hardly notice unless you are explicitly looking for it.
In a game like Motorstorm: Apocalypse, there are tons of explosions and wrecked cars. Debris is flying everywhere. Naturally, you find a large amount of said debris flying far beyond the convergence plane and flying towards the player. Edge crop becomes very noticeable thanks to the smaller screen real estate and the sheer numbers of objects flying out. Beyond that, all of the game’s HUD is nestled near all edges of the screen, and as a player looks out to look at lap times and position, the edge crop becomes glaringly evident. It not only breaks the illusion, but for me, it became totally distracting.
Finally, the glasses themselves were terribly designed. The frames look sleek, but they lenses are designed wide to accommodate all face shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, the back side of the glasses are not shielded off. For a guy like me with a taller, slim head, there was a good amount of lens pushing past my temples on both sides, and thanks to the lack of shielding, there were reflections from the copious screens and lights on the inside of the lenses. It became very distracting for me, as my peripheral vision was ruined by excess light bounce. If it wasn’t in the center of the screen, I struggled to see it.
I walked away very disappointed. Stereoscopic gaming is a technology that I wanted to be impressed with. It took me months to finally get a chance to try it, but only five seconds to realize that I absolutely hated it.
Stereoscopic gaming final verdict—don’t need it!
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