The Playstation 3 in 3D = "All that and a bag of Chips!"

[Anthony1]

Ok, I think I've just witnessed the future. 20 minutes I ago I just finished experiencing the PS3 in 3D for the first time on a beautiful Panasonic TC-P50VT20 50-inch plasma. The game was Wipeout HD, and my jaw.... well, that was laying on the floor! The 3D was a visual tour-de-force, and a powerful statement for the future of 3D gaming on consoles. People that see this game running on a high-quality 3D display are going to be very hard pressed to come away from the experience anything other than amazed. I know the game isn't running in it's native 1080p, and had to be scaled back to 720p, but the visual fidelity in 3D makes up for any shortcomings in resolution. There are so many details in the world of Wipeout, and when you're playing the game in 3D, it's like you are stepping into that world. It's like you're inside the actual game, closely following the hovercraft you're controlling. Sensory overload are the two words that really come to mind while playing it. After the race is a replay of the race, and during the replay the 3D effect is even more impressive. You can see so many little details around the tracks.

I was also able to play MLB '10: The Show in 3D. It's a demo for Sony's flagship baseball game. This game was also outstanding in 3D. Even though the 3D was retrofitted later, it seemed like the game was designed with 3D in mind. The quality of the 3D was present throughout the game. Again, it's like you enter the actual vitual wold of baseball that Sony San Diego has created. Your viewpoint is like that of a spectator that is actually at the game, live and in-person. Normally when you're playing a baseball game, you feel removed from the event, and you feel like you're watching it from a distance, but in 3D, it's like your inside the virtual stadium.

So far, these are the only 2 games that I've experienced, but I can already tell that 3D is the real deal, and it's here to stay! I hope to try out some Super Stardust HD and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift very soon.

[tritosine5G]

1080p is so overrated.

Also , contrast is soooooo overrated:

A higher contrast ratio implies a device has greater ability to display black as 'a deeper black' instead of dark gray with respect to its brightest whites. A home theater projector with a contrast ratio rating of 8,000:1 is more capable of showing a dark subject than one with an 800:1 contrast ratio. But the difference in performance between the two would only become apparent if projection takes place in a completely dark room, one in which is there no light other than that of the projected image.

Equally important is that the eye would not detect a 10 times improvement in contrast performance between these two projectors. Rather, the perceived difference in image performance between these two devices would be just marginal and detectable only if the room is in total darkness.

Marginal because the eye contrast sensitivity is not linear. While a difference in a contrast ratio of between 10:1 and 20:1 will be definitely distinguishable and a difference between 100:1 and 200:1 as clearly visible, the eye would see the difference between say 400:1 and 800:1 as a minor change. And anything above 1000:1 may not be visible at all.

And it is detectable only in the total absences of ambient light because as we will see further in this article, complete absence of stray light in a room is critical when it comes to contrast performance. This is a rather rare situation in everyday life unless viewing takes place under a controlled environment, such as that of a dedicated home theater with black painted walls.

This absence of light in contrast performance is important as the brightness level of what the eye perceives as black in comparison to the brightest parts of the image, can only be as low as the light reflected by the darkest parts of the image. This applies irrespective of whether the image is being displayed on a projection screen or a direct-view display such as that of an LCD or plasma TV.

Any ambient light will be reflected by the projection screen surface, or the glass surface and the internal display structure in the case of a direct-view display, thus turning black into what may appear as some shade of gray. This lowers image contrast considerably.

Direct-view systems however have the advantage that their contrast performance is significantly less affected by the presences of light in the room. This is mainly thanks to the optical coatings on the display screen surface that help block external light from entering the display panel, and the use of a black surface structure inside the display between adjacent pixels to block more of the ambient light from entering the display.