Lingolu: Real Stereoscopic Arcade Game

[fuleshu]

In Lingolu you have to steer a space ship through rings floating in space. But besides the rings there are enemies and obstacles that interfere. Furthermore there is a time limit for each level. Lingolu is a true stereoscopic game. Anaglyph stereo glasses (red/cyan) are mandatory because a real 3D space perception is required to play.
Lingolu is originally developed for XBOX Live indie games and is currently in peer review. So expect it to be available on the XBOX Live market place in 1-2 weeks.
A demo version for PC is available on my webpage:
http://www.vrhome.de/xna-games" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The PC version will can also be run in NVidia3D or on Zalman monitors. Please use the included settings application to change stereo settings. However, the PC version is still in beta and pictures will always appear in anaglyph mode.

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69BOrJD7z7k[/youtube-hd]

Video is in YouTube3D, so please watch it on YoutTube with 3D set to "Optimzed anaglyph" mode.

I hope you enjoy the game!

[crim3]

This game needs a really fine depth perception

[cybereality]

Wow, this game looks really hard. If it weren't for the 3D it might be impossible. Also, on the YouTube page it claims to be the first stereoscopic game on Xbox. This is not true at all. I believe Invincible Tiger was the first true stereoscopic game on Xbox, and of course the Avatar game.

[fuleshu]

Wow, this game looks really hard. If it weren't for the 3D it might be impossible. Also, on the YouTube page it claims to be the first stereoscopic game on Xbox. This is not true at all. I believe Invincible Tiger was the first true stereoscopic game on Xbox, and of course the Avatar game.

Yes, it is impossible to play without a stereoscopic view. My goal was to create a game, where 3D perception is mandatory. This is what I mean by first "real" stereoscopic game on Xbox. In Invincible Tiger stereo is only an option but not mandatory.

[BlackShark]

It's a nice proof of concept but from the video, the gameplay looks difficult and not very fun.

Also the fact that the game relies solely on stereopsis makes the picture very difficult to watch and depth hard to gauge.
It it's current state this game looks like an exercise to sharpen your 3D perception, it does not look like a fun game at all.

A few suggestions to improve the thing a bit :
-> Watch out for ghosting : bright objects on dark background = ghosting, try to brighten up the background.
->Do not use a solid colour background ! Use something with patterns that the eye can grab on to find the horizon (use a sky picture or stars with a nebula, maybe some picture from the Hubble telescope in the public picture library of Nasa for example).

It won't make the game any more "fun", as it is the gameplay looks still like if it were designed to be a 3D training exercise but I believe it should make the game easier on the eye.
You can also add side by side output to Xbox 360, it will make the game compatible with 3DTVs (although the user needs to manually activate the 3D mode in the TV 3D settings)


I tried to install the demo but the game refuses to start :
"No suitable graphics card found.
The device creation parameters contain invalid configuration options.
This program requires pixel shader 2.0 and vertex shader 2.0"

[Fredz]

You could also choose different colors for displaying the text and the objects. Blue and green are not a really good choice for anaglyph since they are barely visible with the red eye.

[fuleshu]

Actually it is designed to be a game and should be fun to play. If people playing it feel like it is just an exercise and don't enjoy it, then... well, let's say then I failed as a game designer

I choose the colors and the arrangement to work especially well with red/cyan glasses. My Acer 3D monitor has some problem with the hard contrast in real 3D mode but with anaglyph it works really nice on my setup.

It is a pity that it doesn't run on your computer. I would like to have some feedback on the game play. I wonder why because your PC for sure has more than shader model 2.0. Did you install the XNA runtime and DirectX that come with the installer?

I didn't know that on the XBOX I just need to use side by side for real 3D TVs. I might add this in a later release.

[fuleshu]

You could also choose different colors for displaying the text and the objects. Blue and green are not a really good choice for anaglyph since they are barely visible with the red eye.

I use an optimized algorithm for creating the anaglyph image, like YouTube does, when you choose the red/cyan optimized mode. In this optimized mode the red channel is ignored completely. This is also the reason why it won't work playing it in YoutTube 3D with the default anaglyph settings.

Therefore I put a message at the beginning of the video to change the anaglyph mode, but I wonder if anybody notice

Anyhow, besides that, yes, the blue on black contrast is difficult to read for text. Inside the game it is fine as long as you have a good display. In the video it is difficult though...

[Fredz]

Therefore I put a message at the beginning of the video to change the anaglyph mode, but I wonder if anybody notice

The only message I saw was to use the optimized anaglyph output (ie. Dubois) and that's what I did, using ProAna glasses. But even with such an algorithm, using blue or green is a very bad idea since the image will be visible only for one eye.

Anyhow, besides that, yes, the blue on black contrast is difficult to read for text. Inside the game it is fine as long as you have a good display. In the video it is difficult though...

You should change the background as has already been said, a black background will produce a lot of ghosting whatever the stereoscopic technique you use. You should also add textures and more lighting and shading to the rendering of text and objects because it gives very hepful hints for depth perception.

See these links for useful depth cues that you could use to enhance depth perception in your game :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/KallDepth.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://ahsmail.uwaterloo.ca/kin356/cues/mcues.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;