LittleBigPlanet Goes 3D

Sony really are pushing 3D, aren't they?

Published 19/01/2010 at 13:06.
By Alex C [nofi].

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Is 3D Already Dying? [57]
PS3′s 3D Capped At 720p? [75]
3D Not Suitable For Children? [31]
6 Million Brits Can’t Use 3D [82]

Most people, when tasked on thinking about 3D games, want cars and rockets coming out of the screen at them, not burlap. Thankfully Sony have all three of the above in their arsenal of 3D powered gaming, because in addition to Gran Turismo 5 and WipEout HD getting the 3D treatment, the publisher is also working on LittleBigPlanet 3D.

At the home of Evolution Studios yesterday lucky attendees got the chance to sample not only Motorstorm: Pacific Rift in eye-tearingly awesome 3D, but also the adventures of Sackboy, which, when you think about it, actually starts to make a great deal of sense, what with the game’s pre-built three levels of depth seemingly purpose built for the technology in question.

The demo was non-playable, mind, but Eurogamer’s Rich Leadbetter described the difference as giving the landscape a “phenomenal sense of depth” with the Stereoscopic 3D putting an end to the ambiguity that some gamers faced with the different levels of parallax. Apparently there’s also a new intro sequence to the game, which may well see the light of day on store shelves soon, with Sackboy changing from a 2D flat figure to a fully 3D one before your eyes.

In addition, word on the street is that the firmware updates to enable the PS3 to work with 3D (one for games, one for movies) will hit this Summer.

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cc_star | 19/01/2010 13:09
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Wow…. come-on Lottery

I really want/need a new 3DTV in time for Crimbo… preferably the World Cup
- MUKARKAR | 19/01/2010 13:42
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  LOL, me toooo. if i win, i am going to buy you 1.
  :)
  - cam the man | 19/01/2010 18:10
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    If you win, why stick at one?
kevatron400 | 19/01/2010 13:11
Don't call him Kevatron400.
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Oh my wow. This is exciting to me.
Pesico | 19/01/2010 13:12
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I think LBP in 3D would be pretty sweet actually.
mads2194 | 19/01/2010 13:15
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3D doesn`t seem such a big thing to me. I think it`s overhyped.
- cc_star | 19/01/2010 13:17
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  I thought that, but I’m a convert
  
  3D with headtracking and precision motion controls… the possibilities are mind-bogglingly amazing.
  - mads2194 | 19/01/2010 14:09
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    That might be true. I also thought that motion controls are bullcrap until I saw the “wand”. It totally blew me away.
  - hazelam | 19/01/2010 15:00
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    i don’t think head tracking is going to be much use while the screen is still stationary in front of you, not for anything more than leaning from side to side or ducking anyway.
    and i thought the same thing when i first saw the wii controls, “this could be amazing” i thought, but ultimately it failed to live up to it’s potential, maybe the motion plus will allow that but i’ve never tried it, maybe the true 1 to 1 tracking of the arc, as it seems to be called this week, will also live up to that potential.
  - 3shirts | 19/01/2010 18:12
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    Have you seen the headtracking VR demo on YouTube of the guy using a wiimote and controller bar? It makes the software move the objects to simulate 3D without glasses or a special telly. It’s amazing and apparently Nintendo have now hired him:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
    
    Skip to 2:30 if you just want your mind blown!
  - hazelam | 19/01/2010 20:03
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    damn, i remember that video, looks amazing even on a 2d display.
    this could actually be a good stopgap technique for those who can’t upgrade to full 3d tv.
    moving you head and seeing the viewpoint change does give a pretty good 3d effect even though the image is only on 2d, they do seem to be floating in front of the tv.
    becuase in real life the 3d you see is never as pronounced as it is in the 3d films, because most things you look at are far enough away so that the small distance between each eye isn’t enough to see anything other than in essentially 2d, look at 3d film.
    look at some of the old 3d images of cityscapes, you would in reality be too far away to see any 3d effect, it’s always exaggerated for 3d images.
    don’t know about you but the only time i really get a 3d effect in the real world looking at stuff far away is when i move my head.
    and the best part about that kind of system is it could be enjoyed by anybody no matter what tv they have, the wii could use a wiimote, a stand and a special pair of glasses with the infrared led glasses, and the ps3 or 360 could use their cameras, possibly with some sort of head mounted tracking object, couple of little versions of those balls from the arc mounted on a pair of glasses for the ps3 version.
    
    wallotext tm :)
shields_t | 19/01/2010 13:16
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Just as long as they fix the controls a little to make swapping between 3d plains a little easier, the 2 plains in the PSP version seemed to be much easier to navigate.
Snebjnr | 19/01/2010 13:19
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Sounds good :)
I’d defo like one a them 3D tv’s :D
Apnomis | 19/01/2010 13:20
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Cool, it’s a very good point though – when people think of 3D they think of things flying out of the screen and don’t appreciate the huge advantage given to you by the sense of depth perception…

I’m worried when you say ‘see the light of day on store shelves’ though, surely any 3D features added to a game would be patched in, or at the very less a low-priced DLC purchase? They aren’t seriously expecting us to go out and buy the same game with a 3D on the end are they? That would cripple the feature before it even starts! It’s one thing having the functionalty built into the programming (like rumble – you can play it with the SIXAXIS without, but when you get a DualShock 3 suddenly all you games support it), it’s something else entirely to say you can either buy a copy of ‘LittleBIGPlanet’ or buy a copy of ‘LittleBIGPlanet 3D’, that makes no commercial sense to me…
- cc_star | 19/01/2010 13:24
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  The Avatar movie, should have taught people that 3D gimmicks like things flying out the screen aren’t needed, and if anything get in the way of things
  
  A sense of depth perception, placing you further into the action is all thats needed.
  - BrendanCalls | 19/01/2010 15:21
    Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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    I could agree more if I tried with this comment. Avatar was ruined for me by the gimmicky 3d that just made the CGI look even more like CGI than usual, everything looked like an effect even though millions were spent to not make it like an effect.
    I honestly think that 3Dtv would work incredibly well with LBP, more than it would with any other game. Infact, MM could be on to a winner and so could Sony, this could be the break it needs in the market to boost sales
  - cc_star | 19/01/2010 15:39
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    Personally I thought that Avatar was most gimmick free piece of 3D I’ve ever seen, no gimmicks just depth, placing the viewer further into the action. Every other 3D movie has something pointing out the screen out you, like something from a Disney world ride.
    
    Shame the story didn’t equal the world
  - BrendanCalls | 19/01/2010 16:21
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    Ahhh, so we actually disagree with each other, I think all the 3d stuff, including the glasses destroys the atmosphere for me, would prefer to have seen it in 2d. However I do think that gaming could be a different experience due the increased level of involvement in the story
- shields_t | 19/01/2010 13:26
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  I would expect the early titles will be patched before developers begin to develop specifically for a 3d platform if it proves commercially viable.
  
  Think about it though, while they are created for a 2d screen, the vast majority of games these days are in 3d.
  - cc_star | 19/01/2010 13:32
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    There has been rumours that the FW patch will 3D-ify the whole back catalogue, of course it wouldn’t be anywhere near the standard of something purposefully developed for the medium.
    
    I’m interested in MS’s plans for 3D, because if they’re not going to do it then it will really limit the development money put in to 3D from a cross platform blockbuster point of view
  - jimmy-google | 19/01/2010 13:57
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    From what I’ve read about MS doing 3D they seem happy enough they have some 3D games using the old red-blue glasses but Natal is their focus. They say they can update the 360 to support 3D if they wanted.
    
    3D Natal could be amazing but 2D Natal and a 3D PS Arc could leave them lagging well behind.
  - hazelam | 19/01/2010 15:05
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    enabling 3d for all the ps3 back catalogue doesn’t seem feasible to me cc, would be great but i imagine it would need to be coded into the games as the engine in essence has to draw each frame twice, maybe if all the games used a standard engine it might be possible but as we know they don’t.
  - Apnomis | 19/01/2010 15:34
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    I read Aaron Greenburg’s comments about 3D and personally I don’t but any weight on them – the guy is a one-man Xbox hype machine and I take anything he says with a lorry-load of salt!
    
    His comments about 3D were classic smoke and mirrors misdirection – it sounded like MS had it covered and indeed already had 3D games up and running (apparently hoping people don’t realise the difference between ‘proper’ 3D and the red-cyan anaglyph 3D) and that actually it doesn’t matter either way as they have Natal. The guy is a like a used-car saleman, diverting you away from the defects and onto the positives – “3D? Oh yeah I’m sure we can sort that out, anyway look at this, this is Natal, no one has this!”.
    
    Microsoft have always been the same – focus you on the pros, get you to ignore the cons – they did it with the HDD, they did it with Blu-ray, they did it with HDMI (until they added), they did it with Mii’s (until they added Avatars), they did it with the XMB (until they launched the NXE), they did it with Home (until they launched GameRoom), they did it with SingStar (until they launched Lips), the list goes on and on…
    
    Best advice is to just ignore any article that starts “Microsoft have been in touch” or “According to sources at Microsoft” or any article that is based on a quote from Aaron Greenburg – or at the very least read it as you would an advertisement…
  - Raen | 19/01/2010 16:41
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    @hazelam Toshiba are bringing out their Cell powered TV that can convert all 2D content to 3D, hence it’s certainly possible. It’s just a case of quality.
    
    @Apnomis Of course he highlights the positives and ignores the negatives when talking in public, that’s the job of company representatives. When developers say an exclusive is “only possible” on one platform (aside from motion controls) do you think that’s really true? Maybe in some cases, but certainly not in every case. I doubt you’d here Tretton saying something outright negative about the PS3.
  - hazelam | 19/01/2010 22:22
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    now i’d like to see how that toshiba 3dtv actually turns out, what kind of results it can actually produce, i really can’t imagine how it’s going to work but i can guess that however it does it it’s going to be hideously complicated, from a coding standpoint i mean, for the user you probably just have to press a button marked 3d.
    what kind of results would it produce?
  - Raen | 20/01/2010 09:23
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    I haven’t read a huge amount about it yet, and I’m not sure if Toshiba have demonstrated it running, but I’ve heard of similar tech before so it *should* be possible. I think how it works is it interprets things like depth of field through image recognition.
    
    Here is a big list of ones that work currently under nVidia’s tech and by the way that it runs from perfect to not recommended I would guess that it is just interpreting. The games don’t require patches as well.
  - hazelam | 20/01/2010 11:59
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    i read a review of wow running in 3d and it sounded pretty cool, you get a real sense of depth apparently and the icons and interface seem to float in front on the 3d.
    i’ve played tracknations in 3d, the old anaglyph technique, worked really well, but gave you a bloody headache
Bilbo_bobbins | 19/01/2010 13:43
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still not impressed by 3d gaming. I still stand by it until I see something thats worthy of paying loads of money for. Avatar and all the other 3d films have not been impressive at all, I hope the games are alot better, they have the opportunity to be, especially LBP.
- zillah | 19/01/2010 14:49
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  i totally agree with your comment on 3D gaming, but to say that avatar was not impressive makes me think that you either haven’t seen it. the visuals in that movie were a completely unexpected treat for me and i am still blown away by the level of realism and emersion, but i suppose it is opinion based and every one is entitled to their own. so no harm no foul.
  - zillah | 19/01/2010 14:50
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    crap! no edit function. i wrote something in their that may have been considered nobish, but i didn’t delete it all.
Agony is my name | 19/01/2010 14:01
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commencing plans to sell alot of stuff and save money!!!!
- Agony is my name | 19/01/2010 14:02
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  In second thought I don’t see the need?
Andrew Wright | 19/01/2010 14:42
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Everone who has seen of played these games thinks its the best thing ever, this is enough to convince me, i’m saving £100 a month from now to christmas for my ’3D TV’ fund.
- Agony is my name | 19/01/2010 22:31
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  I see it as a gimmick to sell stuff thats bad.
  Good if used greatly, but will occur rarely some companies just love to trash the Wii with so much bullshit