AMD lays out Open Stereo 3D Initiative at GDC
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 15th 2010 2:33PM
posted March 15th 2010 2:33PM
NVIDIA has certainly been more active in 3D than ATI/AMD has as of late, but it looks like the situation may be starting to change, as AMD has taken advantage of the just concluded GDC to lay out its new Open Stereo 3D Initiative. While the company isn't yet drumming up too much fanfare about it (or even issuing a press release), it does seem to have gotten things started on an ambitious note, with the initiative promising to provide consumers with "more choice, more innovation, and lower cost." In the nearer term, that will apparently translate to products like 3D-enabled ATI Eyefinity technology, 120Hz displays, stereo 3D notebooks, and various bundled solutions and shutter glasses. Of course, any actual product announcements are still a little ways off, but it looks like AMD does already have quite a few partners lined up.
I creamed my pants :)D
@Bowsa
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@hdawggy you forgot the squigglies
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@Bowsa ":)D"
i see eyes, handlebar mustache, then big smile.
@elduderino
And i l0l.......................now!
@Bowsa ATI may have the GPU power, AMD isn't up to par yet. Without Intel stepping in as partners, this initiative is going nowhere.
@tommy2468
This is off topic.... B~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Thankyou AMD. You let me build a great gaming machine for pennies and now 3D! I couldn't afford the NVIDIA option but this allows me to use whatever I please for a 120Hz monitor and glasses.
I hate the current vogue for 3D crap. curse you Avatar.
@Mister Warmth
There's nothing to hate, it's progress!!
The current implementations that require glasses only herald a new age of information display that could prove pretty intuitive in it's access/manipulation.
Then there's entertainment..
you're missing the point. this phenomenon is The Emperor's New 3D Goggles -- every few years 3d makes the rounds like a door to door vacuum salesman before it gives up and crawls back into its hole. and thanks to avatar now everyone's quick to let said salesman into the house this time around because they assume they're going to be watching avatar type 3d 24x7 in their living room.
the fact that its SO trendy right now is worrisome because that's usually the kiss of death for every new fad that comes and goes.
About damn time ATI, now THIS is what I have been waiting to buy a new GPU for...
@abedinthehouse
And DirectX 11? Otherwise you could have bought a new Nvidia card awhile ago if all you wanted was 3D.
@KAL326 its expensive o.o especially for those who own amd cards already, they have to go and buy nvidia cards and then buy the 3d stuff and a 120Hz monitor
"The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Grace Hopper
Awesome, my 6 year old 19"" CRT can do 120hz.
3D HERE I COME.
@Gamecheater your long awaited day has finally come mate.
@Gamecheater
19-inches?
Lol.
@Gamecheater
Elsa Revelator (nVidia) cards could do 3D shutterglasses years ago on games with no mods.
I played Thief, Thief 2, System Shock 2, etc. without a hitch on a 20" Sony Trinitron monitor.
Nvidia had incorporated the Elsa 3D stuff years ago and it disappeared, until now that is.
Hopefully they'll try to make it as compliant with nVidia's 3D as possible
I just hope it's in the form of a driver update and compatible with the 4k series since I have the HDMI (1.3 currently) hookup to my TV and everything is setup already...
personally,i think they should do a new type of integration on motherboards.have the main processor,then have a network interface processor socket,a sound processor socket,maybe even a graphics processor socket...all integrated,but dedicated too...naturally,youd have to put in more DIMMs,but this way,your capability is held only at how much you want to/can drop on your respective processors and ram and dont have to buy all kinds of add on cards.
Yes, yes, yes! Give me choice, ATI! Just hurry the hell up.
I love my 3D Vision and I'd love to have the option to choose whichever video card I'd like.
So even when the news story includes the term STEREO 3D, you guys STILL stubbornly refuse to use the correct terminology for this technology?!?
If you guys are going to call yourselves a tech blog, then get the phrasing correct. Geez.
@Hazdaz
I don't get it...
@Rossgadget
This initiative by AMD is about stereoscopic 3D imaging... in other words, using 2 images (1 for each eye) on a screen to give you the sense of depth when viewed with the proper glasses. (like the movie Avatar)
Engadget is simply using the generic "3D" terminology which becomes very confusing. To most people, 3D simply means polygon-based graphics (like Call of Duty, Halo, Need for Speed and pretty much every other game made in the past 5+ years).
"3D" is a term used in the way the game art is made.... "Stereo 3D" is a term used in the way a game is viewed. There is a pretty big difference between the two. It is especially annoying because AMD themselves are clearly using "Stereo 3D" in their press literature to keep things clear, but then that get's ignored when posted here.
(and yes, I realize that I am being very anal about this, but having worked in the 3D industry for many years, I think it would be nice to get the phrasing correct now that stereoscopic 3D is just starting to enter consumer's radar screens)
@Hazdaz its ok to be anal , i learnt something
@Hazdaz
Wow, thanks for the informed response! I would have replied earlier if Engadget's "E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment" feature actually worked.
I'll be sure to use the correct terminology myself in the future
@Rossgadget
It doesn't seem to matter though... there have been a few posts about Stereo 3D here and there and no one wants to use the proper terminology. I should continue to bitch them out, but I know it's not going to matter.
For me, this is like back in the day when not-so-computer literate people would use the term "harddrive" when they simply meant to say computer. For a site that purports to being tech-minded, it's a shame they can't get the wording correct.
AMD sucks for not supporting Linux. AMD are hypocrits for using the word "Open" when they only support the Microsoft Windows OS.
nVIDIA had real stereo 3D almost 10 years ago before pissing off all the stereo 3D community, and it way more Open than any of these mega-corporations marketing tricks we al hear about lately since last year and the Avatar movie and last CES.
nVIDIA and AMD should release real Open stereo 3D software for use with standard head mounted displays in Linux instead of these DRM filled, sheep crowd brain washing gimmicks.
@uhsf
So any time you hear the word "Open" you think it should run perfectly on linux?
Sounds like you're kinda brainwashed.
Go look up some definitions of what "Open" and "Open Source" is.
Ah, the computer industry sign of failure... "Our standard is open!"
3D Running on Ati 5830 on a All-in-one PC from MSI at Cebit was REALLY BAD (Much flicker). The NVidia machines was using something different, better looking with glasses on. Not without :P Without glasses, the nvidia was all 'seeing double'.