Posted Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:55 PM
After finding out that passive 3D exists (couldn't see paying out the ass for shutter glasses, after paying out the ass for a 120-240hz TV) I'll probably pick one up, as soon as one becomes available here (after christmas) probably if they drop to the $500 or sub range.
I've actually seen one, Vizio, and it had the BD player and some stuff with it, but I dont need the stuff, and they have a TV right next to it for $300 cheaper, exact same set as near as I can tell, but it doesn't claim 3D so I don't know.
I'll wait.
As for 3D....the Blue/red glasses (and to a lesser extent, the purple green ones of the more modern era) have never really impressed me, first, the color goes out, so basically it looks better as a B/W image (which to me destroys part of the 3D experience) or you get fuggly colors, and usually, as most people don't know how to properly adjust their TV's (comeon, it's a $5 disc from amazon, not hard) you often ended up with a ghosted image in one, or both eyes, further destroying the illusion.
Go to shutter glasses, we had some for the PC soetime in the 90's, and I remember one for the SMS back in the 80's, both had the same problem...The hz rating of your TV means the fastest the image could refresh was the equivalent of 30 hz (thoug some computers got better in the late 90's) so you had a migraine inducing flickering headache before to long (your brain is NOT designed to process images that way) Only in recent years with 120hz (60hz3d) and 240hz (120hz3D) have shutter glasses even become a useful option, as you get to the speed your brain no longer "sees" the individual frames flickering in each eye.
Virtual boy did it right....in about two games that really showcased good 3D....the problem in this systems case was two fold, (and I'm not going to even go into the incompetent people who simply couldn't follow simple directions and adjust the thing right) One, it was monochrome, which I've already said, takes a LOT away from the 3D experience,and 2 the games were largely 2D games. You can fancy them up, but the 2D pinball table still looks like an illusion of 3D rather than a proper one. Like I said, a couple did it good. Wario was purely 2D, but had a nice background/foreground effect, which worked great. Mario Tennis worked awesomly, and Red alert was simi 3D actually. But I think the hardware just wasn't quiet there yet...and most games took little advantage of it, and the 3D was more eye candy than anything.
Fast forward to today, get something like a Toshiba 3D laptop, that's awesome, almost wish it had an input just so I could use it with my Xbox (supposedly supported) 3D games. And it's a great effect....though it has a limited viewing range, not just side to side, but near to far. Same with 3DS. Great effect, just no Input (though if 3DS follows suit, they will get a video tuner just like the other nintendo handhelds did, so we'll see) But...for the first time tht I can recall, games are actually being made where depth comes into play, literally. Yeah, you got some games like Ghost Recon Shadow Wars, which is 2D styled with 3D visuals....but you got the racing games, Pilot wings, and Super Mario 3D land which actually make use of the fact that you are seeing a 3D image and the better games take advantage of that and actually reward you for paying attention to how near or far you are to objects, the edge of a level, or enemies.
Dont get me wrong, 2D wont go anywhere, untill 3D becomes so prominent and cheap, that it makes no sense to go with 2D (kind of like how B/W TV's were common up till the mid 80's, despite all tv programs being made in color from the mid 70's on up) But, 3D is definitely here to stay. The low relative cost will probably cause linticular screens (toshiba, and a similar effecdt on 3DS) and the polarized screens (passive 3D vizio) will probably kill the shutter glasses...but those have a good place too (showing 2 video images at once on one screen, though I suppose with proper glasses you could do that with passive 3D also. So it's going to stick around, besides, people are designed to see 3D, despite some arguing that "not everybody does" so eventually it will win out regardless.