- Sep 28, 2001
- 8,464
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Ever since my first IMAX experience many years back I am hooked about the idea of 3D "in your home", this was at a time where it was pure fantasy to ever have something like an IMAX/3D experience at home.
(Of course, this now has all changed with large 3D screens and projectors and the recent renaissance 3D has seen in the mainstream).
Some years ago I was one of the first in my country who got a (now pretty outdated) 3D Plasma TV which I experimented with..and also of course the occasional 3D experiments on my much smaller monitor. (Since the Plasma had turned out rather poor with 3D due to ghosting, rather low resolution and the fact that this thing weighs a lot so I cannot simply always put in in front of me on my desk for a good FOV).
VR visors were always a dream for me but I was put off by the insane prices and rather subpar technology - of course, UNTIL I HEARD ABOUT THE OCULUS RIFT.
Needless to say, the Rift now is all on top of my list and I can't wait 'til the consumer version will be out. $300 seems insanely cheap compared to the VR visors available only a few years ago.
Anyway, in this early experimental phase with 3D I tested around, and this was at a time where we HEAVILY played WoW.
What I found (aside from technicalities like annoying ghosting) was that there is much more to 3D gaming than simply turning an existing game via display hardware "into 3D". This was in particular the case with WoW.
Wow has/had a comparatively aged game engine with "not so great" textures and pretty "polygony" models, so in other words the graphics are "meh".
But if you play it traditionally on a normal monitor, this doesn't seem a problem. Because you can nevertheless "immerse" yourself in the game, even if the game itself is only 2D and even if the graphics is sub-par.
But playing it in 3D made the flaws of bad textures etc. much more apparent so the game appeared "less natural" and actually decreased the immersion experience.
But the WORST was the "aquarium effect" or "dollhouse effect" especially on normal sized monitors playing with Nvidia 3Dvision and similar....the reason the LACK OF A Wide FOV (field of view) since even a nice 24" or something monitor will only have a very limited FOV and often game's 3D settings are not "true to life" as well, rather some "fake" 3D which is tuned to normal monitors and doesn't really reflect "real" 3D like what some would see in real life.
The result was that everything did look 3D, allright, but in a way as if your game turned into a miniature doll-house or aquarium where you "look into" your monitor.
Your player character in WoW, for example appeared to be a 10 inch tiny "doll" which you interact with in a doll-house. This entirely killed immersion for me. It's like...say....there is a real life "WoW" doll-house you can play with, but obviously this does NOT make the game more "real" in the slightest.
Now..I have reason to believe that the "doll-house effect" might be gone with a real VR visor like the rift since it will allow to simulate a REAL field of view and real 3D view. At least I think that this will be the case.
Remains the question whether the rift, nevertheless, will have the same problems with games with sub-par graphics where a 3D environment will, instead of being more "real" appear "more fake" due to bad graphics,low polygons etc. The problem is really that 3D can bring out and amplify a lot of flaws....or other issues could be hindering the experience, such as screen-door effect/large pixels etc. which I also hope won't be that big of s problem.
(Of course, this now has all changed with large 3D screens and projectors and the recent renaissance 3D has seen in the mainstream).
Some years ago I was one of the first in my country who got a (now pretty outdated) 3D Plasma TV which I experimented with..and also of course the occasional 3D experiments on my much smaller monitor. (Since the Plasma had turned out rather poor with 3D due to ghosting, rather low resolution and the fact that this thing weighs a lot so I cannot simply always put in in front of me on my desk for a good FOV).
VR visors were always a dream for me but I was put off by the insane prices and rather subpar technology - of course, UNTIL I HEARD ABOUT THE OCULUS RIFT.
Needless to say, the Rift now is all on top of my list and I can't wait 'til the consumer version will be out. $300 seems insanely cheap compared to the VR visors available only a few years ago.
Anyway, in this early experimental phase with 3D I tested around, and this was at a time where we HEAVILY played WoW.
What I found (aside from technicalities like annoying ghosting) was that there is much more to 3D gaming than simply turning an existing game via display hardware "into 3D". This was in particular the case with WoW.
Wow has/had a comparatively aged game engine with "not so great" textures and pretty "polygony" models, so in other words the graphics are "meh".
But if you play it traditionally on a normal monitor, this doesn't seem a problem. Because you can nevertheless "immerse" yourself in the game, even if the game itself is only 2D and even if the graphics is sub-par.
But playing it in 3D made the flaws of bad textures etc. much more apparent so the game appeared "less natural" and actually decreased the immersion experience.
But the WORST was the "aquarium effect" or "dollhouse effect" especially on normal sized monitors playing with Nvidia 3Dvision and similar....the reason the LACK OF A Wide FOV (field of view) since even a nice 24" or something monitor will only have a very limited FOV and often game's 3D settings are not "true to life" as well, rather some "fake" 3D which is tuned to normal monitors and doesn't really reflect "real" 3D like what some would see in real life.
The result was that everything did look 3D, allright, but in a way as if your game turned into a miniature doll-house or aquarium where you "look into" your monitor.
Your player character in WoW, for example appeared to be a 10 inch tiny "doll" which you interact with in a doll-house. This entirely killed immersion for me. It's like...say....there is a real life "WoW" doll-house you can play with, but obviously this does NOT make the game more "real" in the slightest.
Now..I have reason to believe that the "doll-house effect" might be gone with a real VR visor like the rift since it will allow to simulate a REAL field of view and real 3D view. At least I think that this will be the case.
Remains the question whether the rift, nevertheless, will have the same problems with games with sub-par graphics where a 3D environment will, instead of being more "real" appear "more fake" due to bad graphics,low polygons etc. The problem is really that 3D can bring out and amplify a lot of flaws....or other issues could be hindering the experience, such as screen-door effect/large pixels etc. which I also hope won't be that big of s problem.
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