[Philip Lelyveld comment: excellent, lengthy history and update on in-home and out-of-home 3D gaming]
[by KEVIN WILLIAMS, Vending Times]
Today, 3D is enjoying multiple boomlets across various sectors of the entertainment industry. From movie theaters and theme parks to TV sets and home videogames, 3D is drawing huge crowds and generating tens of billions of dollars in sales worldwide. Although U.S. sales of 3D televisions have been disappointing to manufacturers, the product is enjoying higher-than-expected sales in other large markets such as Germany and China.
In the amusements industry, pay-for-play videogames and attractions are also beginning to find solid success with 3D presentation. Popular 3D formats include large simulators from companies like Triotech and SimuLine. There are also a handful of promising 3D sitdown drivers or sports novelty games from leading manufacturers such as Sega, Konami and others. So far, these largely have been confined to Asian distribution. Even pinball is getting into the 3D act with Stern’s Avatar.
If the amusements industry is a tad skeptical about 3D, it’s understandable. During the past 25 years or so, amusement operators, distributors and manufacturers have seen many promising new technologies that were touted as the “next big thing,” then watched them fade even faster than they had arrived.
Industry members with long memories can recall the excitement and hope that surrounded the laserdisc games of the early 1980s and the virtual reality videogames of the early 1990s. There was even a brief flirtation with holographic videogames. Unfortunately, all three technologies quickly became expensive flops.
Today, then, it’s perfectly reasonable and prudent for amusement professionals to ask: “Is this return of 3D just another flash in the pan? Is 3D one more sad case of ‘here today — gone tomorrow?'”
THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT
From our perspective, the answer appears to be that this time it will be different — for the same basic reason that digital jukeboxes have become standard in the music business. As Rock-Ola president Glenn Streeter used to say, the jukebox sector follows the larger music industry in its technology. More than a decade ago, he confidently forecast that if the music industry shifted from CDs to downloading, so would jukeboxes.
Streeter was 100% right about jukeboxes — and the same principle applies to videogames. As the broader economy goes, so goes the amusements industry.
As of 2011, it appears that 3D is moving gradually but steadily toward becoming a new standard for movies, TV, home video and eventually for any medium that uses a monitor to present digital images; for example, 3D Android smartphones debuted at a trade show in Barcelona on Feb. 14.
What we are seeing, then, is a fundamental transformation in how digital images are presented. Soon a flat, two-dimensional digital image will seem as outdated as a rotary dial telephone in a world where stereographic 3D representation is the norm. Almost certainly, that means 3D will eventually become the standard for amusement video, as well.
To fully understand just how inevitable the dominance of 3D really is, it helps to recap briefly the history of this technology. The better we understand where 3D came from and where it has been, so far, the better we can forecast where it is going tomorrow.
VIEW-MASTER AND BWANA DEVIL
Like most “overnight successes” in showbiz, the current 3D technology boom was a long time coming. Believe it or not, stereoscopic photography dates back to at least the era of the American Civil War.
By the early 1900s, stereoscopic viewers for still photos were upscale popular novelties. Public fascination with 3D viewers led to a mass-market hit product called ViewMaster beginning in 1939. Fisher-Price is still making View-Master today.
Three-dimensional cinema in major theaters dates back to one-shot presentations in New York City in the 1920s. However, the first real effort to standardize the format came in the early 1950s with major Hollywood features like “Bwana Devil” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder.” These novelties required patrons to wear polarized red and green glasses, usually with cheap cardboard frames. 3D comic books also enjoyed a brief fad at this time.
However, 1950s 3D movie technology was primitive and expensive, requiring not just those cardboard glasses, but also two cameras, two projectors and twice as much film. After seeing a few spears and monsters coming at them in 3D, audiences quickly lost interest and Hollywood scrapped the technology.
Fast-forward five decades and the high-resolution, large-format film stock of the IMAX system, combined with mobile cameras and 3D computer graphics, was able to reignite the imaginative possibilities of 3D as a medium to experience motion pictures. IMAX 3D theaters gained public popularity using the IMAX company’s LCD shutter glasses.
Around the same time, the theme park industry worldwide embraced what are now called 4D attractions — a way to show large audiences attraction films that incorporate both 3D imagery and on-site physical effects such as moving seats, leg ticklers, smoke and lighting effects synchronized with the action on screen.
IMAX and 4D were basically exhibition novelties, but 3D began sneaking back into the mainstream cinematic arsenal with children’s CGi movies. A landmark early success was the 2003 feature “Spy Kids 3D.” The next major milestone came in 2009 with James Cameron’s “Avatar,” a film that has defined the big spectacular experience for record numbers of grownup moviegoers.
The 2010 releases of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Clash of the Titans,” both of which did most of their box office in 3D, confirmed that the new 3D technology was here to stay. (It didn’t hurt that “Alice” was Hollywood’s top moneymaker of the year, in fact.)
TODAY’S 3D MOVIE TECH
Hollywood has made 3D affordable and reliable with passive stereographic glasses using polarizing filters. “Avatar” generated millions of glasses sales — the leading provider of these to the theater sector being RealD with its 3D Specs. These polarized 3D glasses are lightweight and resemble ordinary sunglasses. While they are not as stylish as Ray Bans by any means, at least they are infinitely better than the silly-looking cardboard 3D glasses of the 1950s or the heavy, somewhat clunky 3D glasses of the early IMAX stereoscopic systems.
Not every problem has been solved just yet. The so-called “Avatar Headache” has afflicted a growing percentage of the viewing audience that is able to perceive stereographic 3D at all. Many viewers have reported suffering from headaches, ocular conditions, queasiness and disorientation. In addition, all of the popular manufacturers of 3D glasses say using their products may not be beneficial to young viewers whose eyes are still developing.
Sharing 3D glasses in public venues brings with it the need to clean and supply thousands of glasses at each venue. Intense research is being carried out by the leading studios towards creating non-encumbered (glasses-free) displays. Reports state that James Cameron’s team is working hard to perfect this technology in time to boost ticket sales for “Avatar 2” in 2014.
3D AT HOME: MIXED RESULTS
As with the cinema, the consumer electronics market has toyed with 3D for decades as a means to generate new revenues. The consumer videogame industry’s love affair with 3D has seen major failures to launch, including the infamous 1988 Sega Master System with its 3D Goggles (SEGAScope) and the catastrophic 1995 Nintendo VirtualBoy. However, with the International Consumer Electronics Show at the beginning of this year, efforts have increased to pull the home audience into the possibilities of 3D.
Last year saw the launch of 3D TV sets from major manufacturers like Samsung and Panasonic. By late 2010, Toshiba had come out with the world’s first non-glasses 3D TV set. While some markets saw booming sales, especially around the time of the 2010 World Cup, the overall adoption rate for 3D TV did not set the world on fire during 2010.
Consumers in the U.S. who did buy 3D TVs were disappointed to learn that not one major channel is broadcasting 100% in 3D as of early 2011 (if you’ve heard about that ESPN channel, look again; they’re mostly hype with very little 3D content). Consumers who have 3D TV sets at home can mainly use their 3D glasses to watch the same movies on DVD that they saw in 3D at the movie theater just a few months earlier. As a result, retail prices for many 3D sets in many markets were slashed by more than 50% by year’s end.
But 3D is here to stay, and consumer videogames are no exception. At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, the big news was the appearance of the Nintendo 3DS, the first consumer game device to be fielded with non-glasses 3D viewing. This system is based on “Barrier Screens” technology that simulates the depth of display.
Other developers presenting non-glasses 3D technology are emerging. Examples include Hungarian based start-up iPONT International, which showed glasses-free systems developed by German based Tridelity, at the CES exhibit. Consumer videogame makers are keenly interested in glasses-free TV because of parents’ concerns about children spending seven to eight hours at a time playing games — and possibly getting eyestrain or worse from viewing all those hours of action through 3D glasses.
3D USE IN PUBLIC SPACES
Building on the success of 4D for theme parks, the amusement industry has embraced 3D for some of its leading simulators. Canada’s Triotech Amusement Inc. has led the charge, building a compact and effective platform that can be placed in a multitude of locations. Their XD Theater offers what the company calls a “6D experience” to hungry audiences, blending 3D visuals with a motion seat and physical effects in a compact, standalone package. This is a passive ride system. So is Simuline’s four-seat or eight-seat enclosure called X-Rider, which combines a motion system and 4D effects.
Passive rides are fine for theme parks, but the amusement sector knows its customers really like to play, not just ride. This means interactive gameplay in 3D is the real test. Triotech met that test at IAAPA 2010 with its brand-new XD Dark Ride, announced as the “world’s first 7Di attraction,” which offers an immersive experience through 3D visuals, 4D motion, 5D wind effect and 6D lighting effect. The 7D combination of curved screen and real-time 3D technology allows players to blast opponents on the screen. The player’s score is recorded and presented.
3D gameplay is also on tap from Russian developer Trans-Force, which has created a unique interactive platform to suit the widest possible variety of venues. Its 5D Interactive Attraction offers a five-seat motion cabin in which the glasses-wearing audience uses special controls to take an active part in game experiences that also have an educational aspect. It is designed for museum as well as mall applications.
Taking their 4D passive experience into the game scene, Korea’s Simuline showed its new Power Boat: Extreme 3D at IAAPA 2010. This motion-based, two-player futuristic motorboat racing game has been “souped up” with the inclusion of 3D glasses as well as 4D spritzer water effects.
3D PAY-FOR-PLAY VIDEOS AND PINS
Applying a 3D specification to a conventional amusement game is not as easy as it might seem, but other developers are experimenting with the concept. Universal Space is selling Forest Guardian, a unique 3D shooting game with 46″ display and two-player alien blasting action. Golden Dragon Amusement has developed a two-player theater cabinet enclosure with 3D glasses called Star Predator; the players use large, vibrating machine guns to hold back hordes of enemy targets.
Leading Japanese amusement manufacturers experimented with 3D technology in the early 1990s, but at present, they are proving more cautious about joining the 3D revolution. Today’s Japanese R&D teams believe that 3D technology should be “unencumbered” (glasses-free). The reasons for this belief are obvious: not just concerns about viewer comfort, but also hygiene, expense and vulnerability to theft or damage whenever the public has access to any small device attached to a videogame cabinet.
As a compromise, some contemporary Japanese manufacturers favor the viewing “visor” solution: a mechanical arm that holds a single set of 3D goggles, rather than independent, free-floating glasses. In theory, it’s a bit like a common, fixed periscope viewer for a submarine game (interestingly, some of the virtual reality game manufacturers came to the same conclusion over a decade ago).
Though only seen in Japan, to date, one of the first products to demonstrate this application was the 2010 street racer Road Fighters from Konami Digital Entertainment. Another game using the same basic visor concept was Maximum Heat 3D by Bandai Namco Games; these driving cockpits are available in Japan in a special 3D deluxe version.
Adding 3D as a variant to existing amusement releases has gained momentum this year. Sega Japan plans to launch Let’s Go Island: 3D for Japan only; here again the favored solution is not independent 3D glasses but the fixed visor-type 3D system. Sega has reverted to a theater cabinet treatment for this game, similar to the cabinet enclosure used with the first in the series.
Beyond Japan, the Chinese developer 3D Gaming became one of the first amusement manufacturers to present a non-glasses pay-for-play videogame system to the modern market with its Disney 3D Ping Pong. The platform uses a Barrier Screen display to produce the three-dimensional representation. [Players have about one-third of a real ping pong table with attached paddle; over the net is a large 3D wide screen monitor with big Mickey Mouse graphics treatment].
For amusement operators, the largest representation of 3D from an American manufacturer has — perhaps surprisingly — come from Stern Pinball. The company’s Avatar pinball game uses a radical non-glasses lenticular 3D backglass. (By the way, this same lenticular technology has proved a major success in promoting slot machines in the casino industry.)
OUT-OF-HOME 3D’S FUTURE
It’s one thing to create the illusion of 3D on a flat monitor in front of the viewer’s face. It’s another thing to appear to surround the viewer with a 3D image, no matter where he turns his head. The next step beyond 3D is, of course, virtual reality. The very words “virtual reality” leave a bad taste in the mouth of many operators, due to their getting burned by it some 20 years ago.
But the simple facts are that perfecting 3D also paves the way for the (more successful) return of VR to the amusements scene, or at least in public spaces as an attraction. The same high-speed computing power that makes it possible to create the 3D “world” that appears on a flat monitor, can also take the viewer into that “world” simply by using a different presentation technology.
Products that are proposed for the future of the public-space experience will offer CAVE (Computer Augmented Virtual Environments) — multiple screens surrounding users, occupying their complete field of vision and drawing them into the action like never before. Although not exactly like the “Holodeck” from the sci-fi TV program “Star Trek Next Generation,” this technology could become an important part of public-space entertainment by creating a experience that is “unachievable at home.” If nothing else, 21st-century VR may be applied to attention-grabbing advertising, theme park exhibitions and other promotions.
One of the biggest lessons that the industry learned from the failure of VR back in the 1990s is still applicable today. Hi-tech is wonderful, but it cannot make up for weak gameplay. As industry pros like to say, “The name of the game is the game” — not the presentation.
The next generation of 3D technology has become viable, affordable, practical and durable enough for pay-for-play videogames. Will it be an economic success? As always, that’s up to the game creators … and the players, who are the ultimate judges.
Eventually, however, 3D appears poised to become the standard technology of our time. That means both the hits and the flops of the movies, TV and the amusement videogame world will all be presented in three dimensions.
KEVIN WILLIAMS is founder and director of the out-of-home leisure entertainment consultancy KWP Ltd. His nearly 20 years of experience in global video amusements and high-tech attractions includes top management and design posts, with a focus on new technology development and applications. He is a well-known speaker on the industry lecture circuit, and has authored numerous articles. Williams is also editor and publisher of The Stinger Report, a leading industry e-newsletter and Web-based information service. Go to thestingerreport.com to sign up for a free subscription.
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