Friday, June 19, 2009

3D RESIDENT EVIL 5 COMING TO PC

Visit us online @ http://www.mcvuk.com

3D RESIDENT EVIL 5 COMING TO PC

Friday, 1st May 2009 at 5:46 pm

Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando all confirmed for PC release

EA Sports may be turning its back on boxed PC releases, but rival publisher Capcom has announced that it will be releasing both boxed and digital versions of some of its biggest titles on PC this year.

The headline title is next-gen hit Resident Evil 5, which will be released on the platform 'later in the year'. First, however, will come the releases of Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando this July.

All three titles will be fully optimised for the PC and include additional content not included in the console releases.

Street Fighter IV, for instance, will boast a higher screen resolution than the console versions as well as some new shading techniques ('watercolour,' 'poster' and 'sumi-e ink') giving the game a graphical feel similar to the artistic trailers that were knocking about last year.

Perhaps more surprising is the news that Resident Evil 5 will be enhanced with support for Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision technology, which will require the use of 3D glasses.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34165/3D-Resident-Evil-5-coming-to-PC

© MCV 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted by at No comments:

NOW DISNEY EYES UP 3D GAMING


Visit us online @ http://www.mcvuk.com

NOW DISNEY EYES UP 3D GAMING

June 18, 2009 at 12:22 pm

Upcoming Wii, PS3 and 360 titles include special glasses and could change perception of games, says firm

Disney will beat Ubisoft to the punch with its release of the first major game supporting 3D this summer.

But games boss Graham Hopper says the jury's still out on how quickly consumers will embrace such releases.

At E3, Ubisoft unveiled its 3D game Avatar, made with Hollywood legend James Cameron – but Disney was also demonstrating its Toy Story and G-Force movie spin-off 3D games on the stand next door.

G-Force, based on a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, is released in July. Toy Story Mania hits in the autumn.

Disney Interactive Studios' sister companies Disney Animation and Pixar have been part of a major drive behind 3D in cinemas as a way to excite audiences about the silver screen. Hopper says it could help consumers see games in a new light, too.

He told MCV: "G-Force is in 3D on next-gen consoles – PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions come with the glasses included. Most important is that you can turn it off, so players have the option either way or if they lose the glasses.

"I'm very interested to see what the consumer reaction will be. So far the reaction from everyone who has played it has been very, very positive," he said of the response from the E3 showfloor.

"3D's not easy to do – but there's a huge amount of expertise at Disney when it comes to 3D given the way it has been used in our movies. 

"We were able to call on that for the development of G-Force. I see 3D becoming part of what people do in gaming as it evolves. But we'll listen to gamers very carefully – and if they say they want more, we'll deliver more."

The industry's move towards 3D gaming is a part of the overall trend towards new interfaces, as demonstrated by the Wii, plus Microsoft's Natal and Sony's Motion Senor controllers, said Hopper.

"There is no doubt in my mind that long-term 3D and natural interfaces will be a big part of the industry's future, but these changes don't happen over night."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34793/65279Now-Disney-eyes-up-3D-gaming

© MCV 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted by at No comments:

LA Times - Fox to buy 3-D glasses for 'Ice Age' . . . (.... (3D) can easily add $10M to a successful film's release)


latimes.com




From the Los Angeles Times

Fox to buy 3-D glasses for 'Ice Age'


The studio had threatened to make theater chains pay the costs, which can easily add $10 million to a successful film's release.

By Ben Fritz and Richard Verrier

June 19, 2009

20th Century Fox's high-profile stare-down with exhibitors over who would pay for digital 3-D glasses to go with "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" has been settled. But the issues underlying the dispute will almost certainly flare up again.

Fox, which had initially threatened to make theater owners bear the costs, has agreed to pick up the tab, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The glasses are supplied by RealD, a Beverly Hills company that provides 3-D technology to theaters.

In the past, studios have paid 75 cents to $1 per moviegoer for the glasses. That can easily add as much as $10 million to the cost of a successful film's release.

It's a sore point for studios, which complain that they shouldn't have to pay that fee, particularly because theaters can reuse glasses. The studios are already incurring additional costs of about $15 million a picture to make a movie in 3-D. Tickets for 3-D movies come with a $2 to $3 surcharge, which is split between theater owners and studios.

Theater owners note that they already are investing heavily in the new format. They typically pay RealD a one-time upfront licensing fee of $5,000 to $10,000 a screen to use its equipment, plus a royalty of about 50 cents a ticket.

Fox was the first studio whose concerns became public, when word got out during the ShoWest film industry trade show in March that it was pressuring exhibitors to pay for the glasses to go with "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which comes out July 1 and is the studio's first 3-D movie. Theater chains balked, with Regal, the nation's biggest, threatening to play the movie in 2-D only.

With nearly 50 3-D movies due out in the next two years, the issue of who will pay for 3-D glasses is hardly settled. 

Fox is expected to keep pressuring theaters to pick up the tab and push for them to reuse the glasses. The studio has ample incentive: In December it will release James Cameron's 3-D sci-fi action movie "Avatar," the director's first major film since 1997's "Titanic."

ben.fritz@latimes.com

richard.verrier@latimes.com
Posted by at No comments:

PC MAG.com - The Three Kinds of 3D Displays 18-June-2009

PC MAG.com

Thursday June 18, 2009
The Three Kinds of 3D Displays
Categories:  
Displays
Tags:  
3D, LCD, LG Display
Lately I have been thinking a lot about 3D displays.  Many people in the display world think that 3D is the next big thing, but there are lots of choices.   I saw a number of these displays at Computex recently, and talked to a number of the panel makers about such displays on a recent trip to Asia.

One thing to understand is that there are three different kinds of 3D displays that are getting attention these days, and their uses are very different.  It's always hard to show these displays with 2D pictures, but here's a shot of the three kinds I saw recently atLG Display's factory in Paju, South Korea:

LGD Paju complex_3D_3.jpg


In some respects, the easiest kind of display is one that uses polarized glasses. (This is similar to the glasses with red and blue lenses that were behind the first wave of 3D, but without the color distortions.) In this case, you typically have a 120Hz display that uses polarizing filters both on the display and on the glasses, and the result is an image that gives the appearance of 3D.  Typically such images aren't as bright as normal images, because of the filters, but they can look pretty good and this is improving.  This involves a change to the display manufacturing process by inserting the different polarization, but the personal glasses are inexpensive.  (Essentially the same type of glasses are used in 3D theaters today, but on images produced dual digital projectors.) This can result in large 3D TVs; however, they aren't as good at producing 2D images as a normal similar TV.  Typically, these have had lower resolution, but that seems to be changing.  

An alternative is to take a normal 120Hz display monitor and then use "active shutter" glasses.  The advantage here is that existing TVs and monitors can work, and they can switch between 2D and 3D very easily.  The glasses are more expensive, but pretty much all you need is a modern graphics card and the right drivers. This is what we see most often in the gaming area, and Nvidia has been pushing it very hard, especially at Computex.  There are a number of 20 to 23 inch wide monitors currently being marketed with these features, and I believe we'll see this in a lot, especially in gaming applications but also for 3D movies. This could be a very interesting part of the gaming sector in the near future.

Finally, there are "autostereoscopic" displays aimed the digital signage market that require no special glasses at all: they use lenticular lenses built into the front panel of the display, similar in concept to those "3D postcards" you probably remember.  The idea is that the images move to different facets of the glass. It's quite interesting, but at least for now, it seems to have lower resolution than normal displays, and the viewing area is somewhat limited.  While the demos are interesting, these just don't seem ready for broader adoption quite yet.

Part of the problem with bringing TV to the home, of course, is content.  Animated movies account for a lot of the content today, although there are some other movies out now, and a number of new professional cameras that will capture 3D video.  One good sign is that the Blu-Ray Disc Association recently set up a task force to create a standard for 3D content, something that will be needed if 3D movies are ever to be really delivered to the home.  

I'm also a bit concerned that I've found the 3D glasses to be inconvenient, and sometimes tiring on the eyes.   

My guess is that 3D in the home starts with gaming, and then gradually becomes important to animation and other kinds of content.  But whether it will ever be a mainstream use is a big question.   
Posted by at No comments:

3D: News - Leading 3D Consortiums Team to Advance 3D in the Home


Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)