On 3D in Games

Sparked by a student presentation today, I wanted to write about some reasons why 3D is not prevalent in the consumer sector, and much less the gaming sector today. Although 3D technology has been around for many years, ever since the cheesy red and blue glasses took advantage of an ingenious trick played on the brain, such technology is still not prevalent.

First of all, the hardware limitation of being forced to wear goggles while experiencing a movie or game is huge. For those that must wear glasses, many 3D vision goggles are cumbersome and uncomfortable. Many others find that extensive 3D movie watching causes nausea. The disconnect between vision and actual motion is only increased in the brain by 3D experiences. Furthermore, games that require 3D vision are extremely difficult to play with more than one person. As the game world continues to move further into the internet age, I am increasingly disappointed by the lack of ability to simply play games with friends in the same room.

Furthermore, the advantages gained by 3D are minimal compared to the cost of the hardware for the consumer. Many games and movies do not support 3D at this point in time as developers do not see it as economically viable to spend money and time developing 3D effects. As far as the effects that do exist, many of them are simply gimmicks. Even when watching a 3D movie in theaters, I usually forget that it’s 3D after about 20 minutes. By that time, the initial gimmicks have already been used and the movie generally continues to play as usual.

Regarding games, Nvidia has broken into the 3D market with the GeForce 3DVision. However, most of the games that “support” 3D vision don’t actually have 3D effects. Instead, these games simply have a 3D HUD. This is truly a gimmick, not something worth spending hundreds of dollars for a sufficient video card, monitor, and goggles. Ultimately, there is not much utility at this point for 3D beyond little gimmicks.