Blast Processing: Every Generation

[Neon Ignition]

Over the course of five years I posted 100 PTE poll threads, often fairly cyclical on subject and tongue in cheek. A short time after the threads came to an end they were relaunched as the similar BPX threads, another 100 poll threads that aimed to be less cyclical and steer more often into proper subjects. The threads ran over the course of eight years and came to an end just shy of a year ago. As the later threads came together I wanted to steer away from essentially steadily flooding the forum with polls for every subject that came up. After a cleansing run of time without a general gaming discussion thread of that nature, we're here...

Firing up the synapses of our gaming minds, electrifying the neurons to spark that good old blue skies thinking - exploring varying gaming topics of discussion we'll be crunching the data and discussing the past, present and future of gaming. You could call this mental approach...





Working in a similar way to the various news threads, I'll occassionally post with a new subject and update the title to reflect the current topic of discussion. This time there won't be polls, or hundreds of threads - just one home to a deeper dive exploration of various corners of this hobby, the broader impacts and events it experiences and our collective experiences and opinions.

Though new subjects will be posted on an irregular basis, it's an open forum for anyone to also post areas of gaming discussion or debate they want to also and the first subject will be arriving shortly.

[Asura]

Over the course of five years I posted 100 PTE poll threads, often fairly cyclical on subject and tongue in cheek. A short time after the threads came to an end they were relaunched as the similar BPX threads, another 100 poll threads that aimed to be less cyclical and steer more often into proper subjects. The threads ran over the course of eight years and came to an end just shy of a year ago. As the later threads came together I wanted to steer away from essentially steadily flooding the forum with polls for every subject that came up. After a cleansing run of time without a general gaming discussion thread of that nature, we're here...

Firing up the synapses of our gaming minds, electrifying the neurons to spark that good old blue skies thinking - exploring varying gaming topics of discussion we'll be crunching the data and discussing the past, present and future of gaming. You could call this mental approach...





Working in a similar way to the various news threads, I'll occassionally post with a new subject and update the title to reflect the current topic of discussion. This time there won't be polls, or hundreds of threads - just one home to a deeper dive exploration of various corners of this hobby, the broader impacts and events it experiences and our collective experiences and opinions.

Though new subjects will be posted on an irregular basis, it's an open forum for anyone to also post areas of gaming discussion or debate they want to also and the first subject will be arriving shortly.

I think that logo needs to be on a shirt.

[wakka]

Great idea, I like the idea of discussion of interesting and curious corners or aspects of gaming.

[Neon Ignition]

Stereoscopic 3D
With a multiple ways of displaying a 3D depth of image to the user, stereoscopic 3D has existed for decades in gaming with one of the earliest consumer efforts being the Sega arcade game SubRoc-3D which released in 1982 and used active shutter lenses. In the years that followed the tech popped up a couple of times via several other devices and companies including unsuccessful arcade titles from Irem and Taito. Eventually both Sega and Nintendo would attempt to bring the effect to homes via the SegaScope 3D Glasses and Famicom 3D System, only to once again be met with a weak response.

Sega would continue to to look into the potential of 3D, soon after leaning into the ill-fated Sega VR headset project but for Nintendo it would remain off the cards until the GameCube entered development. Initially planned to make use of sterescopic 3D, the initial testing with titles like Luigi's Mansion was abandoned when it was deemed that the cost of the required lenses would be too expensive to be viable. Elsewhere companies like NVidia and Sony skirted with the idea, the former releasing driver support that would go unused whilst the latter released the Glasstron headset which would only see a single title released for it. As the 2000's continued, the effect remained only in the form of the occasional minimal effort using disposable red/blue lens pack-in glasses or via poorly supported novelty third party peripherals such as the EyeFX 3D for the PlayStation 2.





Following the huge global success of Avatar, sterescopic 3D once again became a major focus with many films being converted to support the tech. With that push came the hand-in-hand drive to have consumers be able to watch those films in the comfort of their own homes with companies releasing multiple 3DTV's. With gaming bound to follow, Sony released a software update in 2010 which activated stereoscopic 3D support in the PlayStation 3. Games began to be released or updated to support the tech and the system became the main port of play for those with a 3DTV.

Over a hundred games would release with 3D support, titles such as: Puppeteer, Gran Turismo 6, Crysis 2 & 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Ico, Deadly Premonition, Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Killzone 3, Ridge Racer 7, Silent Hill: Downpour, Shadow of the Colossus, Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3. Investing heavily in their Bravia TV line, they also poured money into the HMZ headset line as well as launching the PlayStation Stereoscopic 3D TV.





Launched in 2011, the intention was to make a twin OLED lens personal viewer that could connect to any 3D output device. Essentially a way to bypass the need for a full 3DTV purchase - however the issue here would be cost, launching for $799. Sony quickly iterated on the device with the T2 the following year but with it the price rose to $999. The same happened the following year with the wireless supporting T3 model weighing in at around $1,500 - Nearly £2000 in todays money.

2013 would be a key year for stereoscopic 3D gaming. By this point the cinema and home movie market was cooling off quickly and the last of the notable game releases would take place as the market prepared to welcome in the next generation of consoles with the PS4 not supporting the tech. The HMZ headset line was discontinued and all of its development rolled into what would emerge three years later as the PlayStation VR headset.





The presence of sterescopic 3D would then be best represented by the Nintendo 3DS which had launched two years earlier, in 2011, and offered the still unique experience of not requiring glasses to be worn to see the effect. Even within this sphere we would see the company release a 2D only version of the system and as the later years set in, even the 3DS itself would see games released that no longer offered 3D effect support. At the same time VR would begin to make its effort to take the market by storm, sacrificing passiveness for immersion and cementing the end of the sterescopic age.





The last major sterescopic game release was Shadow of the Tomb Raider on PC in 2018 which offered side-by-side 3D support but broadly the 3DS and PS3 closed the door on the effect.


What memories of Stereoscopic 3D gaming do you have and outside of the release of new Avatar movies, is there any way back for the effect?

[Asura]

[COLOR=#003399]What memories of Stereoscopic 3D gaming do you have and outside of the release of new Avatar movies, is there any way back for the effect?

I first got to try stereoscopic 3D in gaming in around 2009, when I got to try an early hardware sample that used a regular monitor and shutter-glasses to play Left4Dead, and frankly it was kinda amazing. I remember it feeling very cool seeing the zombies rush towards you and the effect as you moved around.

And although I never got to try it, I've heard it was pretty amazing with the PS3 WipeoutHD if you had the hardware.

The 3DS was something I was never so fussed about. I remember getting Ridge Racer 3D and it had quite a lot of "crosstalk", though the XL and New-3DS did improve the technology a bit. I liked the 3DS platform but played more of the games in 2D than 3D.

for me, the real promise of stereoscopic comes with VR, because people who haven't used it often don't even know that VR is inherently stereoscopic 3D. This is one of the reasons VR games have such a great sense of scale, or why they sometimes give people vertigo in high places who otherwise wouldn't have an issue with heights in games.

[Dogg Thang]

I see in 3D. I like that.

So I also like seeing games in 3D.

I miss the 3DS. I miss having a 3D television. I just miss 3D generally.

[wakka]

That's very interesting regarding the Cube. I didn't know that at one point Nintendo considered making stereoscopic 3D a pack-in component.

I toyed around with 3DTV quite a bit in the early 2010s. I had a Panasonic plasma with active shutter glasses, and tried out quite a few of the PS3 games that offered compatibility.

There were several problems with it. The first was framerate. I'm far, far from a framerate snob. Like, I'm basically happy with 30, see 60 as a nice-to-have, and the endless discussion of it these days in gaming about sends me to sleep. But it really was quite problematic with 3D. Something about the combination of the glasses flickering on and off and the jerky on-screen action was really quite headache inducing after a while.

Another problem was the glasses. They weren't all that uncomfortable, but it was a lot less comfortable than just, ya know, not wearing them. Especially over longer gaming sessions.

They also darkened the screen. This was particularly a problem for me as plasmas didn't really get all that bright, so it was hard at times to see what the bloody hell was going on in moodily lit games like Puppeteer. The particularly shadowy Arkham City was an absolute non-starter in 3D for me for this reason.

Finally, you basically had to use them in a darkened room. In a brightly lit room it was possible to see the very rapid flickering the glasses were doing up against the white wall surrounding my TV.

Now, passive glasses would have solved this last problem at least - but the problem with passive glasses, at least at the time, was that they couldn't support 1080p. So active shutter was seen as the preferred, premium choice, despite its drawbacks.

The effect could be quite cool. But there were so many drawbacks, it really just didn't remotely feel worth bothering with beyond a quick go for five or ten minutes to see what it was like.

Of the games I did try (and I really did try quite a few) I remember Trine and Puppeteer were probably the most impressive - in part because 2.5D games like these lent themselves particularly well to the rigidly layered look of stereoscopic 3D.

The roughest games were probably Arkham City and honestly I'm afraid to say Asura that as I recall 3D sent Wipeout HD's framerate spiralling.

I remember getting Ridge Racer 3D and it had quite a lot of "crosstalk

Oh god I forgot about this as well. Yeah some PS3 games were really bad for this. The image would get really blurry. Quite headache inducing. Really giving Arkham City's 3D a kicking here but, yeah, that was a game that had that badly.

[QualityChimp]

I love 3D and feel it adds extra, ahem, depth to games.
Fave 3D game was Trine 1 & 2. A lovely puzzler anyway but made more memorable with the 3D effect.

It feels like we're talking about Stereoscopic games specifically, rather than VR.

I believe at some point, they'll invent a 3D telly with no glasses or needing 3D cameras and it'll end up being the norm like colour TV.
Games will be 3D from this new feature and we won't look back.

[wakka]

The thing about 3D is that when it’s good it’s really cool. But it was often so badly done. For every Gravity or Jurassic Park (both banger 3D blus) there were a zillion with terrible cross talk.

It would be cool if it was reinvented in the future like you say. A glasses free version that eliminated the blurring and other issues, and maybe offered a greater range of depth, would be awesome.

[Golgo]

I've only ever experienced this with the 3DS but I think it's a great technology and I'm sad to see it left behind. When done in a rather controlled way it was amazing. I re-played Ocarina of Time 3D last year and peering into those dungeons and shops was magical. Same for Luigi's Mansion 2. In faster moving games with quick-moving camera, though, it could be a right dog's dinner, e.g. Kid Icarus.

[Neon Ignition]

In a way, though I expect timing was the issue, I'm surprised more effort wasn't put into trying to sell glassesless TV's.


Using the HMZ-T2 is a weird experience and one that is so Sony because you can't quite work out where they thought the market existed for it. As is common, it looks very nice - weirdly advanced, like how you would expect PSVR3 to look as an evolution of the current one thanks to its single blue light and slimline design. It's a step back from PSVR1 in a few ways though, the headstraps are very thin and you have to push down two awkwardly placed buttons to adjust them. Once it's in place though it's fine enough, there are wheels for each eye lens but only four notches on how you can position each one to get a clear image. I imagine this is where it commonly went wrong as it means it's quite dependent on the users eye spacing as to whether there is a positioning that cleans up cross talk in the image.

The rubber inserts are very PSVR1 and do a decent job of keeping light out, but they can fall off easily if you're not careful. The actual lenses have a similarly small sweet spot to the PSVR1 but there's a lot less screendoor effect and the actually image once a game is booted up is very surprising in how sharp and smooth it is.

The image is described as being similar to viewing a 70ft cinema screen from the middle of the auditorium. This reminds me of the XReal Air's which describe their image as being like looking at an 80 inch screen - both work very good but never for a second are you going to fall for that claim, the optical illusion isn't that good. They look like reasonably sized screens near to your eye, exactly what they are. Playing Puppeteer it gives quite a diorama style effect though I'm not sure it's the best game to project the 3D effect as being a 2D platformer means things are fairly fixed a lot of the time, sometimes something will move into the foreground and the effect will stand out more.

It's utter madness to me that it went to market. It cost me the 2012 equivalent of £90 which felt like a bit of a chance (bought because we still have a working 3DTV but it's in the kids room and lacks the space for the rest of the set up) but it launched for the 2025 equivalent of £1,500. I'm amazed there's even any to buy second hand.

Barring Cameron who loves to lather himself up and make love to the tech with each Avatar release, it does feel like there's no way back for it. It's not in anyway essential but if TV's were glasses free and it was a standardised option I'd 100% use it all the time. The 3DS's effect has never felt like anything else but magic.

[Neon Ignition]

Nintendo Switch 2
We're only a week away from recieving more information on the launch of Nintendo's next console and the games that we can expect to arrive largely within its first year on the market. The arrival of the machine will set in motion potentially another eight to ten years of gaming in a market that has seen handhelds return to the fore of attention after the Vita and 3DS years saw interest fade away due to the illusionary devastation expected from mobile phone gaming.





The system is a rather conservative design, enlarging the size of the machine and adding mouse functionality to the joycons but otherwise being more of the same with more power. This is a notable factor if only because Nintendo is often known to take oddball approaches to their console designs in an effort to generate widespread appeal, however the huge success the existing console enjoyed has led to a much safer step forward with the biggest indicator of intention being the sheer size of the number 2 on the system logo, an eye catching statement for a company that has never numbered a successor system before.

For some fans the promise of new hardware has brought hopes of how much more powerful the system might be, often to dilusional levels which is no surprise given the years of clamouring for a non-existent Pro model amidst unfounded fears the original model would falter due to its modest and aging abilities. Nintendo is instead a company that commits to balancing price point and hardware power levels meaning that we are very unlikely to see high powered abilities beyond that seen in already existing handhelds.





More broadly however, new hardware from Nintendo heralds the hopes for new entries in all of their popular franchises. To some, the original Switch has provided one of Nintendo's greatest lineups so the hopes are high that the successor will enjoy further highs and also have the grunt to bring more third party titles across to the platform than its underpowered predecessor was able to in some high profile cases. With Mario Kart 9 being the only known first party title locked in for the system and onyl limited road remaining for notable releases on the original system, expectations are high that the long awaited new entries will be delivered.




What are your hopes and expectations for the Switch 2 and its games, not just at launch but across its lifespan?

[Golgo]

Although unlikely given success of the Switch open world Zeldas, I'd like a new Zelda like the pre-Switch Zeldas. That's literally all I want from the generation.

[beecee]

given the likelihood a handheld only version being released, why not a docked only (ie - no screen) version, should be much cheaper and give us non-handheld gamer's an option.

[Neon Ignition]

Though I appreciate the volume of games the Switch 1 received I'm quite hopeful that Switch 2 will be the better machine - kind of like a SNES situation. I don't broadly consider the Switch to have had the greatest line up of Nintendo titles.

I never recieved its own Mario Kart, TOTK I still haven't started because of how closely it alligns with its WiiU predecessor, Smash was effectively the WiiU entry with DLC, Animal Crossing wasn't my fave entry, Splatoon felt too iterative to the WiiU game and the system utilised rereleases quite a lot.

There have been strong games for it and for most of the time at a reasonable rate but as long as the quality level is strong the successor just needs to deliver a new 3D Mario, 2D Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Smash, Metroid, Star Fox etc and it'll likely pull ahead for me simply through them being new games.

I'm really hoping that Zelda sorts itself out. I know that that still sounds daft given the success the series has had but BOTW was such a flat experience. I don't really need it to go back to the old structure, I think the idea of an open world Zelda is quite good - I simply didn't like BOTW's approach where it's all bland nothingness. I'll never understand the praise, it's such a dull open world that doesn't reward your time. They're basically moving the series toward being a third person Skyrim and it needs to move much farther down that track so I'm hoping their ambition on the next incarnation has a lot of focus on world building standards.

I know it's sacriligious to fans but I'm on board with Smash Bros being rebooted and a new gameplay style introduced.

For the system itself though I'm fully expecting it to just be more of the same. The only real difference is the mouse function and beyond a launch day 1-2-Switch style title and Mario Party 14 it'll likely never be seen of again. It's not new as a saying but it really will come down to the exclusives, the last thing I need a Switch for is third party ports, so with much less back porting to rely on I'm hoping Switch 2 ends up enjoying a stronger focus on new entries