Sony ‘Prototypes’ Stereo 3D for Gaming

Tue, Jan 13, 2009

Sony may adamantly insist they have no stereo 3D hardware products in development; but at CES 2009, there were plenty shown off to enthusiastic attendees. How do Sony's premiere racing titles "Gran Turismo" and "Motorstorm: Pacific Rift" look in three dimensions? Read on to find out.

No new games were shown during the Sony keynote at CES 2009; the PlayStation division, headed by Kaz Hirai, merely trotted out some statistics. But if there wasn't excitement to be had in stats, there surely was in specs -- and by specs, I mean the RealD polarized glasses every attendee found on their seats, and the stereo 3D, picture-in-picture television spectacles you see Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer modeling above. "These are very special glasses," said Stringer, doing a bang-up impression of Montgomery Burns. "They're a prototype of what we're developing in our labs."

While that prototype apparently supports gaming, I sadly didn't get to try them for myself. But at the Sony booth later that afternoon, I did see a rather curious set of Bravia HDTVs...

...and found myself glued to the spot for a solid five minutes as I breathlessly watched detailed "Gran Turismo" automobiles and "Motorstorm: Pacific Rift" rock formations vault right out of the screen.

The S-3D effect wasn't perfect: during a spectated race in "Gran Turismo," there was noticeable ghosting around the edges of the moving automobile -- and whatever software conversion was at work did little to reduce the significant billboarding in that game. But watching reels of the 60-frames-per-second "Wipeout HD," and even the 30 FPS "MotorStorm: Pacific Rift," I'd be hard-pressed to say I've ever seen a more vivid, entrancing S-3D image.

"This is not available for consumers," I heard an announcer say, trying to disperse the questioning throng gathered around the beautiful Bravia displays, each wearing polarized black plastic glasses. "This is what it might look like in your living one day if we decide to pursue that avenue." Some stayed rooted exactly where they were. Others fell back, disappointed. I pressed forward -- and found ourselves face to face with product manager John Wyckoff.

Wyckoff wouldn't tell me anything about the inner workings. In fact, he said he hardly knew any more about the three prototype polarized S-3D sets than I did.

"There are so many different technologies that are capable of bringing 3D to the home," he said. "We're being very careful about evaluating as many as we can to see which ones make sense."

But though the audience seemed floored by this particular demo, Wyckoff wouldn't admit that Sony had any plans to actually implement the technology. When I asked whether the decision to adopt some sort of S-3D had been made (and thus now, it was merely a matter of selecting which), the answer was "absolutely not."

They're keeping a tight lid on things, to be sure -- but S-3D was the talk of the show at CES, and Sony's polarized solution was by far the best I saw on the expo floor.

Certain gearheads may be interested to hear that the prototype screens were sitting inside Sony Bravia KDL-46F1 cabinets rated at 213 kWh, one with a serial number of 7512815 -- and that the one playing Gran Turismo was connected to a PS3 with an HDMI cable. RealD polarized plastic glasses were used for the demonstration.