News - Nintendo 3DS handheld to bring 3D gaming to the masses

[HEXUS]

Successor to the hugely-popular Nintendo DS to usher in an age of 3D gaming without the need for 3D glasses.

Read more.

[kopite]

Sounds good

Although I cant help but remember Nintendo`s last 3d foray with the virtual boy...

[OilSheikh]

Aren't games already 3D?

[Salazaar]

Nintendo hasn't shed any details on how the handheld's 3D functionality will work

Hold a DS 6 inches from your nose.

Cross your eyes.

3Ds!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy

[jim]

Aren't games already 3D?

Don't say that, or they'll start calling it 4D.

[GheeTsar]

Anyone remember "Magic Carpet", a game by bullfrog in the days of the 486?

That had a "magic eye" mode to convert the whole game into 3D via a autostereogram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereogram). I could never see it though.

Maybe that's how the 3DS will work....

[Irien]

A week later and I'd have thought "april fools"...

[Stefan_C]

Anyone remember "Magic Carpet",

That had a "magic eye" mode to convert the whole game into 3D via a autostereogram

Which in turn reminds me of this: http://www.leweyg.com/download/SIRD/q2/index.html

I never got round to trying it but i'd always intended to.

[Jay]

it can be done with two overlapping screens. it means you can look around an object by moving your head.

[kalniel]

From 1up, but also many other places:

"I think we would have been embarrassed to do what our competitors are currently doing," Fils-Aime said to Kotaku, stressing that for Nintendo, it's of vital importance to innovate rather than follow. "So, all I can tell you is that we will innovate. We will provide something new. Something that the consumer and the industry will look at and say, 'Wow, I didn't see that coming.'"

[R3MF]

if it has a tegra2 in it then i'm interested.

[Fraz]

it can be done with two overlapping screens. it means you can look around an object by moving your head.

I'm don't think it'll work quite like that. My (admittedly limited) understanding is that moving your head around won't change what you see. It'll just appear to have perspective in much the same way as Avatar3D did... things appear outside the plane of the screen, but moving your head doesn't change the perspective (i.e. no parallax, etc).

I'm guessing it'll just use a screen with lenticular lenses/prisms to split the screen between your right and left eye. You might have seen a similar thing (although different use-case) in Top Gear recently... the Range Rover with a single centre console screen that appeared as a Satnav screen to the driver on the right, and as a DVD screen to the passenger on the left. It's also a similar principle to those crude stickers/rulers that "animate" when you move them... the plastic filter on top allows your eyes to see only a single one of the 3 or 4 images overlapped on the paper underneath.

[borandi]

I'm guessing it'll just use a screen with lenticular lenses/prisms to split the screen between your right and left eye. You might have seen a similar thing (although different use-case) in Top Gear recently... the Range Rover with a single centre console screen that appeared as a Satnav screen to the driver on the right, and as a DVD screen to the passenger on the left. It's also a similar principle to those crude stickers/rulers that "animate" when you move them... the plastic filter on top allows your eyes to see only a single one of the 3 or 4 images overlapped on the paper underneath.

I was about to say this is how I think it would be done. Anyone else trying to watch the game can't see a damn thing then, unless they design a wide angle version.