Stereoscopic 3D Gaming is NOT Dumb According to Rein!

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Category: News

Published on Monday, 07 July 2008 19:00

Written by Neil Schneider

Message of the day: DON’T PANIC! Read this entire story!

Early this morning, Gameindustry.biz put an article online titled "Using 3D technology is dumb, says Rein". The article was a summary of a much longer interview with Mark Rein, Co-Founder of Epic Games. The original text was written as:

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Rein revealed that the Unreal Engine 3 already supported S-3D technology but that he didn’t expect it to gain widespread acceptance - saying the need to buy a new screen was too high a barrier to entry. When told about Ubisoft’s recent announcement to use S-3D, Rein commented: "That’s dumb."

"I have a 3D monitor sitting in my office and stereoscopic has worked on Unreal for a long time. In fact one of the guys pushing stereoscopic sent me the monitor, he said ’Your games are great on these monitors,’ so he sent me one."

"So Unreal works fine on stereoscopic, it’s just you’ve got to change out your screens to use it - that’s a big accessory," Rein explained.

Mark Rein has informed MTBS that he didn’t say that S-3D was dumb. He said his reaction of "that’s dumb" was to the interviewer’s suggestion that a publisher was somehow doing something new by supporting S-3D in an upcoming game. He pointed out that in the very next answer he gave in the same interview he explained that his company’s games and engines have worked stereoscopically for nearly ten years (with the assistance of stereoscopic 3D drivers).

"When you see games like ours running with proper stereoscopic equipment it is a fantastic experience," said Mark Rein, Co-Founder of Epic Games.

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NAW News, EA’s MySims, Unreal Engine 3 Licensing

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Category: News

Published on Sunday, 06 July 2008 19:00

Written by Neil Schneider

Meant to be Seen’s Massively Multiplayer Online Game, MTBS Nations at War (NAW), has undergone another upgrade. There has been a re-balancing of the unit capabilities and the computer’s players (the "bots") have undergone some AI improvements which make them even MORE dangerous!

For those unfamiliar, NAW is a customized MMOG that pits MTBS members against each other for world domination. It is played in real time, and involves the construction and destruction of cities and armies. Invite your friends to play and earn critical resources like extra spending money in the game!



Electronic Arts is also porting MySims from Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS to PC this coming October. MySims lets players create original characters who are customized from head to toe, build a town and community, and unlock items by befriending and joining their neighbors! It’s good to see more non-violent games out there, and MTBS has high hopes that this title will render well in stereoscopic 3D (S-3D).

The PC release of MySims will include features not available in console versions.

Finally, the popular Unreal Engine 3 is getting licensed by Ignition Entertainment Ltd. We have high hopes for this title in stereoscopic 3D because when games are rendered properly, Unreal Engine 3 tends to do well in S-3D.

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NVIDIA Losses & Gains, iZ3D Developments, Microsoft News

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Category: News

Published on Thursday, 03 July 2008 19:00

Written by Neil Schneider

First, it was a bitter sweet day for NVIDIA yesterday. In this article written by Tom’s Hardware, NVIDIA’s stock plunged (yes PLUNGED) by 21.94% or $3.95 to $14.08 a share on news that some of their notebook GPUs are failing because of "thermal issues". This is the biggest drop NVIDIA has experienced in the last four years.

These chip failures will cause NVIDIA to absorb a $150 to $200 million charge this quarter to cover warranty repair and return replacement. To add insult to injury, NVIDIA sales are a bit lower than analysts’ expectations this quarter.

However, also reported by Tom’s Hardware, is NVIDIA is expected to release DirectX 10.1 GPU support by first quarter 2009 for notebooks and potentially fourth quarter 2008 for desktops. Looks like the GPU market is going through some interesting times!

Now, enough with the boring stuff! Reliable sources have informed us that the next version of the iZ3D LLC drivers will not be coming out for at least another month to a month and a half. The reason is iZ3D has established new business relationships with multiple "large sized" industry players who need the drivers "modified" for their purposes. According to our sources, this deal will change the stereoscopic 3D gaming landscape as we know it.

Depending on progress, it is possible that an announcement will be made at this year’s SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles.

One more thing! Chris Satchel, General Manager for XNA shared a few words about stereoscopic 3D gaming at Gameindustry.biz. Read our response HERE.

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