Darkworks SDK transforms 2D games into 3D games, no 3D TV required
By Darren Murph 
posted March 11th 2010 3:33PM
posted March 11th 2010 3:33PM
Well, wouldn't you know it? 3D seems to be the topic of conversation here at GDC , and Paris-based Darkworks is making a splash by announcing the availability of its TriOviz for Games SDK. In short, this magical software concoction is a post-process effect that allows standard 2D games to be transformed into 3D masterpieces... and you don't even need to buy a 3D television. We were briefed on the tech here at the show, and we're told that the magic happens in the software and the glasses, and unlike existing 3D technologies, other users around the house will still be able to watch you play in 2D without all those blurred edges. In other words, existing titles (for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC; sorry Wii owners!) can have a 3D experience added in, and we're guessing that a select few AAA games will be seeing a DLC pack in the near future for those who care to re-play their favorites in the third dimension. We'll be doing our best to swing by and catch a demo later today, but for now, just know that your life will never be the same once these 3D-ified games start shipping in the Spring.
This has been out for at least a month. I recieved a demo kit from them. If you want to try it you can email them on their website and they should send you one too.
@MoonWalkerCTE
Please provide a link.
PS I hope HALO REACH has this option
@abedinthehouse Here's the link. http://games.trioviz.com/
@Relsek or if that doesn't work for some reason you can just directly email them a request at: contact@trioviz.com
How come when I go to the cinema and watched Avatar the cinema had seemingly made no technological investment to bring us 3D except for the 50c shades but when I want 3D in my house I have to spend $3000?
@Armchaircritic The cinema also has a special projector for $60K
@Armchaircritic
Err...The movie producers have to spend a lot on cameras and the theaters have to spend a lot on specialized projectors. Just because you only have to spend an extra 50c on some cheap glasses doesn't mean someone somewhere is spending thousands on the same tech.
@JabariHB
What exactly does this new 3D projector do differently? I mean, it's still projecting a 2D image onto the same screen...the illusion only happens when the specs and our brains combine but the actual projection is 2D. When I watch old school 3D on my home TV now with similar 50c specs I still see 3D albeit sort of red and greeny.
@Armchaircritic
We have the priveledge of spending an extra $2 on the glasses.
@Armchaircritic
They've had to invest heavily in fairly sophisticated projectors that circularly polarise alternate frames to achieve a stereoscopic effect when viewed with appropriately polarised glasses. Big money.
@Armchaircritic
There are two images being projected onto the same screen, and each image has a different polarization (thus the specialized projectors). The cheapo glasses you wear have a corresponding polarization in each lens so that your left eye sees one image while your right eye sees the other, and you get 3D.
@TMS i think you mean 7 dollars
Disclaimer:
Actual Results May Vary... Dramatically!
Sorry Wii owners. HAHA. Pardon my expression of hateful glee.
@brrip Meh. this has already been possible on the Wii for a while: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.html
@The Madman I take it back - the Wii hasn't had the same as this at all. It's had something much better.
@The Madman You mean Mario Party?
@brrip Nah, I mean Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
How about you click the link?
Oh for the love of god stop calling it 3D, when you mean STEREOSCOPIC 3D.
There is 2D... like old 8 and 16-bit games (Sonic, original Mario Brothers, etc).
Then there is 3D... like most current games (FPS, Action, fighting games which use 3D polygons in a 3D environment but project images onto a 2D flat surface like your monitor screen).
Then there is STEREOSCOPIC 3D games which are based on the same technology as the example above, but have a different image for each eye which let you see depth.
The technology that this company uses is not new. Using the Z-buffer to extrapolate stereoscopic 3D images has been around for a while now. There is at least one product like this being sold for the PC market right now (not sure if it's by them, or someone else like nVidia).
@Hazdaz
Who peed in your Wheaties?
@Mentat The stereoscope did
@Hazdaz IZ3d is another company.
@Hazdaz
My old GeForce 3 had glasses which were needed to be plugged in for stereoscopic 3d gaming. Unreal Tournament went for great to awesome! I wish I still had it :/
@Mentat
If this was an automotive blog or something like that, I wouldn't care so much, but come on. This isn't rocket science here... I expect a tech blog to at least get the verbiage right.
This is a new technology to most people - get the phrasing correct now while people out there learn about this stuff.
@Hazdaz theres more kinds of 3D then stereoscopic and most have stopped using that one and have switched to polarized glass including usage in Avatar movie read up and inform yourself on the changes
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/digital-3d.htm
@Atlantian
They are ALL different versions of the same thing... they are all stereoscopic 3D. I have been involved in 3D design for ages, and have been creating Stereoscopic 3D animations for years now. None of this stuff is really crazy high-tech, but at least differentiate it from the typical "3D" that people think of like used in movies like ToyStory and games like Crysis which is 3D data that is only projected onto a 2D medium.... i.e. no depth. Be it using shutter glasses or old-school red/cyan or polarized lens stereoscopic 3D shows 2 images for each eye to create the illusion of depth. Depth is the real difference here and simply using the phrase "3D" doesn't convey the difference.
Now fortified with piercing headaches!
I can understand getting 2D into 3D. I just didn't know how they did it without making the games blurry on the screen for those without those glasses.
This could be interesting.
I liked the Sega 3D games for their master system.
I'm just surprised it's taken this long to try it out again.
@Meekermoloko
Well, I can't be certain, but looking up on Wikipedia what a Z-Buffer is, it would seem to me that the glasses do some crazy magical stuff and add depth to an image, but not in the typical "each eye sees a different image" kind of way.
What I mean is, if you close one eye, does the world suddenly become 2D from the perspective of the other open eye? Not so much? Then why does an image on a computer screen seem so flat?
Well, I'm no expert, and I'm only guessing the reason, but I think it has to do with focus. Our eye's look at an image on a flat screen and are forced to the focus the picture was taken at. Now imagine that these glasses allow for the eye to focus on an object in the game and have the focus of everything else distort just the right way to make for a realistic perceived depth.
@Halopend
Okay, I've read more into and I think I was talking out of my A$$. It seems to be special version of the colour filter glasses, don't ask me how it could possibly avoid blurriness and colour shifting though.
@Halopend
If this system uses one lavender filter then this is something old. I remember about 25 years ago one of the networks giving out these glasses and having a 3d night. You wore the glasses and all the programs that night looked like they were in 3d. If you didn't have the glasses everything looked normal.
The 3d effect is created by the brain processing certain colors faster than others. If something moved from left to right, it appeared to be foreground, right to left it appeared to be background. I remember watching a basketball game with the glasses on, when they ran to one basket, they popped out of the screen, the other direction and there was no visible 3d effect.
The night of programming scripted all the actors movement to support the 3d effect.
After some net digging it appears their glasses are similar to TrioScoptics system utilizing a green magenta filter. So why are they claiming it isn't anaglyph when it is? If you bought the Coraline 3d DVD/Bluray then you have essentially seen what TriOviz is. Frankly it didn't work very well at all with the same ghosting that red blue glasses have and is just as headache inducing. This is another claim they make, no ghosting. I await Engadget's take on their demonstration.