Here at GameCyte, we have a keen interest in watching games jump right out of our television screens and lodge themselves somewhere in our retina -- because if we're not incredibly mistaken, stereoscopic 3D is that next big thing gamers have been waiting for. But despite this, we weren't at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles this morning.
Why?
Because we forgot that amidst the many Hollywood production companies and tech firms, there would actually be one honest-to-goodness game developer present; and that he would be showing off something pretty cool -- S-3D running on a game console. Today, Blitz Games has announced, and demonstrated that their new BlitzTech engine is capable of creating true S-3D games that are playable on Xbox 360 and PS3.
While the system will still require 3D gear in the form of an existing 3D TV set (of which an estimated 2 million were sold into households this year) the engine will potentially allow licensees to not only build S-3D games from the ground up -- rather than rely on conversion -- but also market them to the huge console gaming audience.
Though the name Blitz Games may set off warning bells in the heads of some gamers who know them only for the painful memories of Sneak King, Spongebob Squarepants and Bratz, we wouldn't write them off entirely. Their Volatile Games division has some pretty decent looking tech demos... and again, the engine will be licensed out as middleware to other devs as well.
GameCyte has contacted Blitz Games for further information; your press release awaits below.
1st December 2008 - Leamington Spa, UK. Blitz Games Studios achieves a world-first with the public unveiling of its ground breaking, proprietary technology showing true stereoscopic 3D games running on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.
Andrew Oliver, co-founder and CTO of Blitz Games Studios, is the only game developer to be talking at the summit alongside movie industry luminaries from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Dolby Laboratories and Real-D at the prestigious event.
Blitz Games Studios' in-house technology demonstrates that current generation consoles can replicate the full HD 3D experience seen in 3D movie theatres with the 3D images 'popping' out of 3DTV screens and into living rooms for the first time.
Andrew Oliver, CTO of Blitz Games Studios said, "This is an incredibly exciting and huge step forward for videogames. Our BlitzTech technology will prove beyond all doubt that we are already doing what some industry experts have said is impossible on today's game consoles. Our highly tuned engine is capable of producing real-time interactive graphics that are close to offline rendered CG movie quality."
He continued, "Many TV manufacturers are already selling sets capable of displaying 3D imagery and we envisage that these sets will rapidly gain popularity as content in the form of movies and games becomes available. Our technology allows for our games to run in both 2D and 3D in one version - by simply flicking a 'switch' between them. It really has to be seen to be believed."
Oliver states that games are already arguably more immersive than films, but when created in true 3D will be even more immersive. Although accepts that the games industry still needs to understand design issues and learn lessons from Hollywood studios which are now producing 3D movies in volume for release in 2009 onwards.
The 3D Summit runs 1st - 2nd December, opening with a keynote from Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer and President of DreamWorks Animation Inc.
January 29th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I'm really looking forward to this. And I'm actually ready to buy a 3D TV and a pair of "sunglasses" (but not in any case like the blue&red ones) to get my PS3 games that "true" depth.