So, what the heck happened to 3D?

[Zappykins]

richardhutnik said:

If I recall correctly, even on here, the talk was about how 3D is the future... NOW.  And some attempts to hype the PS3 having it best was made out.  Even the 3DS was made out to be exciting because of it.  Now, both Sony and Nintendo downplay it?   What the heck happened?

http://www.destructoid.com/iwata-3d-not-quite-as-popular-as-it-once-was-231211.phtml

And I lost track of the Sony article.  Sorry.

Edit: And I found the Sony article:

http://www.destructoid.com/sony-consumers-decided-3d-is-not-important-now-235926.phtml

I think the sad truth is today's consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) aren't really powerful enough to pull off good 3D.   Sure, they both try, and the PS3 a little more than the Xbox 360, but, as I understand, going 3D requires an instant 50% more graphics power.  That's quite significant.  And 3D seems to highlight little problems and make sparkles where Anti-Aliasing isn't so good.  So you lose a rather significant amount of graphic fidelity just to go 3D.

A gaming PC, with their more powerful hardware, can pull it off better.  But even the newest Intel Ivory Bridge CPU/GPU combo can just barely pull of 3D at 1080P in DirectX 11 at 30fps (a dedicated high end GPU should be able to get 60 frames per second.)  So we are really just now at the beginning to where the 3D generating hardware needs to be.

As far as display, glasses free will be great, but we aren’t there yet.  I personally don’t like the shutter form of 3D as I see the flicker (if you want to see what I am talking about look at the power like on your Xbox 360 – if you see it blinking really fast, then you know what I am talking about.)  I like the ‘passive’ TV from LG and Vizeo, as you can also enjoy 24P, skip the judder and 2:3 pull down, but they cut the 1080p in half, so you get 540/540 per eye.  Again you get a better picture or 3D, but not both. I hope this problem is solved with the introduction of 4K 3D Tv’s.

To sum up my answer, is neither the hardware or display tech is quite where it needs to be to pull it off well.  We are just at the beginning.