So I was searching for a replacement touchscreen for a client's laptop and recalled that I had similarly not seen much from 3d displays or virtual reality companies of late. No new hardware, no games that percolated up into the public awareness (Resident Evil 7 was nearly two years ago at this point, stereoscopic games were never amazingly popular but seemed to fall off a cliff after 2012), no real buzz in any conventions or events, if I look today there are still some gaming focused vendors that list VR fairly prominently but I have to go out of my way to find 3d screens and films and so forth. Both of those technologies have been seen as fads in the past; things that rise up, only for the market, current technology or something similar to smack them back down. In this case 2012 saw a massively successful crowdfunding effort for the Oculus Rift, a couple of years later Facebook of all people purchased the company for some 2 billion, a month or two back though the second iteration of the device was cancelled, and nobody mentioned whatever the big tech company equivalent of creative differences is which leads one to wonder if it is more that it is not seen as a viable project any more. Throughout it all many other big tech firms released hardware and attached industry luminaries to it and have similarly gone somewhat quiet.

Ordinarily for a thread like this we might have a look at possible stats and some reasoning for things, however a discussion of the mindshare the likes of virtual reality and 3d displays occupy at present is what we shall seek to find and contemplate here.

While reasons are not going to be delved too deeply into did the rush to include DRM and proprietary connectors/software/features cause you concern? Did any content find itself massively improved by it? Did you invest into any VR or 3d setups, only for them to gather dust? Did you get the motion sickness some experience or were you spared that (or selectively spared that)? There are all sorts of cool things (6:45 if you want to skip) researchers are doing so is such tech likely to remain that? Is it just that it was an expensive peripheral that not everybody had? If it has failed again do you expect to see it back sooner than the usual 20 year cycle as tech just needs to get that little bit better?

This is part of series on GBAtemp where we have some discussion of aspects of the game industry, game design and related topics. Previously we discussed the last game skill you unlearned.

Spoiler: earlier editions

The game you invested the most money in, times where people said gameplay styles would not work for a platform, the value of online play, emulation vs hardware, a favoured game style that might have become less common in recent times, skills one might have learned or honed because of a game, games on the PS4 and Xbone that will stand the test of time, games that got better after launch, cancelled games and shuttered devs, and story canon in games.

You are then invited to talk some about the current state of VR as well as stereoscopic 3d in games.

 

[Localhorst86]

Can I put in a request to be woken up when we get to VR's Banjo Kazooie?

Lula 3D VR wen?

 

[eyeliner]

3D was never supposed to be mainstream. It couldn't, right from the start.

A 3D screen, like the 3DS is almost impossible to use except you are smack in the center position. The usage of glasses (to me) is the killing factor.

3D was mostly for the movies, but obviously, the gaming world went on and expanded the concept to VR, that, for some simulations, has never faded. Military and Scientific arms use it often.

The usage of cumbersome/impractical devices kills mass adoption by the market. But that was something everyone knew, except those who invested in it blindly. Also, in order to have a moderate experience in 3D you have to own a very decent (and expensive) rig.

Remember the red/green glasses we used to have as kids? Cheap as hell, but it still didn't lift off. The experience isn't there.

 

[smf]

A 3D screen, like the 3DS is almost impossible to use except you are smack in the center position. The usage of glasses (to me) is the killing factor.

Passive glasses like you get at the cinema would have been fine.

I hate 3d movies that go to great lengths to remind you that you're watching a 3d movie.

 

[spotanjo3]

Never liked 3D. Glad that it was vanished!! For VR.. I am not so sure about it. One thing I dislike is.. a huge VR headset like PS4, SMH.

 

[Deleted User]

The problem is that the only way 3d will ever truely take off is when we can figure out real, full fledged holograms. Everything else takes some bullshit peripheral or looks like ass. If you're like me, you cant use 3d in the cinemas because you need to wear your glasses. And even with them on, the combination of the two glasses layered on one another doesn't work well. At all.

On VR, I believe its still going strong. IT'S problem is that it takes incredibly high end hardware to use, and its a very anti-social system. Worse still is that just a decent headset sucks, and moving in vr is donkey balls.

I'm a believer in VR, but 3d..... nah. This "convert 2d to 3d" just never works out. It's too deeply flawed.

 

[Localhorst86]

Passive glasses like you get at the cinema would have been fine.

I hate 3d movies that go to great lengths to remind you that you're watching a 3d movie.

There were plenty of tvs available with passive 3d glasses yet the technology is simply dead today. The fact that 3D is still available in cinemas only shows that people simply were not interested in 3D in their home at all.

 

[JoeBloggs777]

since the days of the Sinclair zx81 I was hooked on video games, even learnt to program in machine code on the Vic 20 and had some games published. But for some reason I just stopped playing video games after finishing resident evil 3 on the original psx. since then I've hardly ever played any games for more than a few mins. now i get games for my son who is addicted like i was at his age.

I bought him a rift last month for his birthday, now when i first tired his rift i was amazed by the experience, it kinda relighted my interests from years ago, going from a flat tft screen to actually feeling like your in the game in. games like sky rim and superhot have relighted my fire

 

[Kallus]

Valve will save the day for VR. Just you guys wait

 

[comput3rus3r]

are you making a distinction between 3d and vr? because 3d panels and lcd glasses are dead. the way we're going to have 3d now is in the form of vr. Also VR won't become mainstream until the price drops as you already need a vr ready pc on top of the expensive vr itself. I'm looking forward to using vr in the future though.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

3D is a useless gimmick that offers nothing more than additional depth perception, something that doesn't really add any meaningful data important to what you're viewing (for consumers, that is). 3D was DOA, and will only ever be enjoyed as an occasional "treat" at the movies, not a household staple.

VR, on the other hand, doesn't just give you that additional depth perception, it gives you the ability to interact with that additional data. The only problem with modern VR is that it's still in its infancy and lacks monumentally good software to make it worth a purchase to the average consumer. Once the technology improves and becomes cheaper to manufacture in another generation or two, I imagine we'll be seeing VR becoming one of those household staple products, and not some expensive tech demo like it is now.

 

[smf]

There were plenty of tvs available with passive 3d glasses yet the technology is simply dead today. The fact that 3D is still available in cinemas only shows that people simply were not interested in 3D in their home at all.

I was interested, I just wasn't interested enough to replace a tv that still worked. I've not upgraded to 4k either, there are only a small number of people who would upgrade just because something new comes out.

It would be like car manufacturers deciding to stop selling electric cars, because it's clear people don't want them. Look how many non electric cars are still out there.

Cinemas still show 3d because they only had to convince the cinema owners to buy into it & there are far fewer of those and they saw it as a way to make money. I don't think you can infer that people have made a decision that 3d in cinema is good, 3d at home is bad.

3D is a useless gimmick that offers nothing more than additional depth perception, something that doesn't really add any meaningful data important to what you're viewing (for consumers, that is).

I don't think it's completely useless & for single viewers it would be possible to add head tracking, which wouldn't have all the advantages of a headset but it also wouldn't have all the disadvantages. It's a pity that it didn't stay around long enough that it could reach critical mass.

 

[Localhorst86]

I was interested, I just wasn't interested enough to replace a tv that still worked.

It would be like car manufacturers deciding to stop selling electric cars, because it's clear people don't want them. Look how many non electric cars are still out there.

A TV is a considerably cheaper purchase than a car, therefore your comparison simply doesn't work that well. Smartphones are in the same ballpark like a TV and people are happy to throw out their old smartphone every 1-2 years.

I know a lot of people that purchased a TV when Smart 3D TVs were "the thing to have" (it was pretty hard to find a TV that didn't have either Smart, 3D or both features) and yes, most people still have their TV. The "Smart" features now no longer work because the TVs are no longer supported but obviously, their 3D functionality is still operational. Yet, no one uses it anymore, be it active 3D (shutter glasses) or passive (polarization glasses). People used it once or twice, then got bored of it.

 

[raxadian]

VR and 3D fail so much the surprise would be it not failing.

Heck not even Google Cardboard made VR popular enough and the more expensive alternatives are more expensive and so even less popular.

 

[UltraHurricane]

yeah, 3D support is kinda dead, not only cause people got bored easy but it was also a major hassle to set-up with not a lot of payoff, i can still remember how much of a pain it was to set up my Nvida 3D Visions monitor and it still took awhile to adjust and tinker with specific games so that it wasn't a total eyesore

VR on the other hand i still i can still see sticking around as it's got a ton of potential and offers a lot more immersion and interactivity then 3D could ever offer, it's just the hardware is still too clunky and pricey for mass adoption, but once companies fix both of those problems i can easily see it actually taking off

 

[RattletraPM]

3D? Yes, it's dead. Aside from blu-ray and, generally speaking, movies there was poor software support back then and virtually zero nowadays. No new 3D capable hardware is being produced. Hell, even the 3DS has somwhat dropped 3D yet most don't notice. The fad has lost its charm and now 4K/Ultrawide/Curved TVs are all the rage. People simply weren't all that much interested in it back then and won't care about it now.

VR? Not really, I think it still has a chance. People are interested in it, it's just that a VR setup costs too much. Yes, recently some "budget" VR headsets have been popping up but keep in mind that we're still talking about 250+ EUR for a new one, plus you'd still need a somewhat beefy computer anyways so it's still out of reach for many people. Space is also an issue of course but you could still play most games seated: it's not as immersive, but it's still better than nothing. It just needs some more time, if GPU prices drop down and some proper budget VR headsets show up (even used DK1/2 headsets when newer and better headsets show up, for example) it might catch on.

 

[RedoLane]

That really depends on the definition of 3D, since different people intercept it in different ways.
Personally, 3D already became a common feature in society when it comes to movies, but it was pretty short-lived with gaming.
VR on the other hand, seem to be gathering more attention very slowly, and I do see a lot of VR attractions in malls and other big places in my country.
I'm not the kind of person who gets any motion sickness from video games, which is why I could sit with a VR headset for plenty of hours every week with only feeling a bit tired.
That's quite weird, since the 3DS for example, who implemented more accessible 3D effect, and movies in 3D, both seem to make me waaay more tired.
I guess it all comes to how the brain interprets the vision and radiation from the screen, but since i'm using a VR headset, maybe the brain intercepts it as actual vision, and it isn't affected by it's radiation? I dunno, i'm not an expert.
But yeah, just like how it took quite a long time for video game consoles in general to become a common thing in society(I mean, I heard about more people who know what is a PlayStation, than people from Gen X and Y who knows what are the arcades or the Atari.), VR gaming might take a while to become a well-known gadget for entertainment, and especially for gaming.
HOWEVER, compared to previous attempts(*COUGH COUGH* virtual boy *COUGH COUGH*), I feel like this arsenal of headsets and current lineup of VR games, are going in a decent direction.

One of the best VR games I ever played was Tetris Effect, and as a die-hard tetris fan and player, this gave me literally the best "Tetris effect" ever.
Too bad it belonged to my friend since I don't have a PS4, but I hope it'll get a Steam release!!

 

[raxadian]

yeah, 3D support is kinda dead, not only cause people got bored easy but it was also a major hassle to set-up with not a lot of payoff, i can still remember how much of a pain it was to set up my Nvida 3D Visions monitor and it still took awhile to adjust and tinker with specific games so that it wasn't a total eyesore

VR on the other hand i still i can still see sticking around as it's got a ton of potential and offers a lot more immersion and interactivity then 3D could ever offer, it's just the hardware is still too clunky and pricey for mass adoption, but once companies fix both of those problems i can easily see it actually taking off

And there also was 3D TV... the failture of that thing left many people with a sour taste in their mouths. Not to mention the 3D TV Blue Rays only work on 3D mode... so no one wanna buy them unless you still are stuck with a 3D TV thing.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

VR hasn't reached a point where it's good enough to become mainstream. There are a couple things that need to improve:
Headsets need to become higher resolution, and higher FOV. 4K is a must here.
Mainstream PC hardware needs to get powerful enough to actually drive these 4K (or higher) VR headsets. Even a 1080Ti would struggle with this, the RTX 2080Ti might be able to do it, but then again that is hardly mainstream at the moment, and due to the high price is not something most people are going to prioritize.
All that while lowering the price for both high refresh rate 4K-optimized PC hardware and the headsets themselves, so it's not such a huge investment if you want to get a VR headset and also need to upgrade your rig to be able to run it.
And even when those two things happen, it will still take years to come before most people have upgraded their rigs to something that can run 4K VR.
They also have to do something about the motion sickness. It's a tough thing to solve entirely, so that might never happen, but they have to improve it to the point where the majority can play without experiencing anything more than maybe a little light headedness after a few hours of playing.

But there is the catch 22 issue that as long as it isn't mainstream, most games aren't going to support it, which makes it tougher for it to go mainstream. You can get support for many games through 3rd party software but the support is never as good as something natively made for VR and it always feels tacked on. This is not what is going to sell VR to the mainstream. It's a nice bonus, but that's all it is.
That catch 22 could end up being what kills VR for another decade or two until someone decides it's time to try again. But no doubt we will have mainstream VR sooner or later, it may take 20 years and it may be in a completely different form than what we have today, but make no mistake, VR (and also AR) is the future. It's far more than just a 360 view of the environment, it's an entirely new way to interact with and experience games and software, something you simply can't get with a regular screen, and that sets it apart from fads that have come and gone such as 3D.

 

[Raverrevolution]

It's going to take a long long time for VR to be commonplace in society. Humans need to get used to more information (depth, z-axis) hitting their brain.

I bought the PSVR blind, never having tried modern VR, and I can tell you that it single-handedly revitalized video gaming for me. Old school VR always looked like this primitive laggy mess. Modern VR is legit!! It's mindblowing being IN the game!

Console manufacturers will be stupid if they don't hop onto VR, keep improving it, and cheapen it up. After having played with the PSVR I can tell you that this is in fact the inevitable future of where gaming heads to. We have already reached the pinnacle of 2D graphics. VR feeds candy to the brain, the candy that it's been craving.

 

[Maximilious]

I have a 3D TV and it is great for movies, not for games. Movies look great on it, even though I seldom use the feature. Gaming however is very hard to do with the 3D feature turned on, at least for me. Playing Sonic Generations in 3D makes me want to go into seizure's, and I'm not even epileptic. I do hope they keep maintaining 3D displays as I do really enjoy movies in 3D that are worth it (Transformers 3, any animated movie, some Marvel or any high-CGI movie typically have amazing 3D, even if it is post-production and not 3D camera filmed).

As for VR, I have a Samsung Gear for my S7 and tried it out for a bit and also enjoyed it. Lack of the controllers limited my use of the functionality but I can definitely see potential in it once the price-point is right.