08 March 2011

Nintendo 3DS and the useless/useful 3D view

I was reading this article on Gizmodo and had an epiphany: third dimension "revolution" is or it's not comparable to the color vs B&W revolution in visual arts?
If we consider gaming part of visual art, i think it is. But i don't think 3D is such a big deal as it stands for movies and photography.
But thinking about gaming industry and as a gamer, i think it will provide much more involvment (as if it was required!) when playing a game and if really used well it could potentially even add much more gameplay (think about Ecochrome played in 3D!). But the problem is that i recogn today the usage of 3d in gaming is comparable to the usage of 3d in movies: it's a useless eye-candy that soon we'll get tired of.  What do i mean with "more gameplay"? check this video and figure out yourselves! :-) When last year they have announced Nintendo 3DS i was hoping that it would be ike this:




the amazing thing of the above game it that it simply uses head tracking technology (using the DS front cam) to locate user's head and therefore render the 3d scene accordingly...like watching a landscape from a window where the window is the actual screen. It's just like the "head tracking" prototype that Johnny Chung Lee developed a couple of years ago using a wii sensor bar:




Furthermore, look at what it can be done with the sole use of a Gyroscope, without any head tracking front-facing camera:


Bottom line is: the technology is out there. We just need to hope someone brings it all together and mass-produces it. A portable device with front camera and GPS. Wait a minute... that's the iPhone4!! And that's the Ninendo 3DS, too (even with 3D screen switched off!). So, dear APP developers, why don't you do yourself a favor and start creating REAL 3d applications???

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