Nintendo 3DS Announced!

[PressBot]

It's amazing how just a small bit of information can explode and span the Internet.  This is all that was shared by Nintendo in their formal press release.  It wasn't even written like a press release!


March 23, 2010

To Whom it May Concern:
Re: Launch of New Portable Game Machine

Nintendo Co., Ltd (Minami-ward of Kyoto-city, President Satoru Iwata) will launch "Nintendo 3DS" (temp) during the fiscal year ending March 2011, on which games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.

"Nintendo 3DS" (temp) is going to be the new portable game machine to succeed "Nintendo DS series", whose cumulative consolidated sales from Nintendo amounted to 125 million units as of the end of December 2009, and will include backward compatibility so that the software for Nindendo DS series, including the ones for Nintendo DSi, can also be enjoyed.

Read full article...

[Anthony1]

How is the 3D going to work without glasses? Will it be some type of mini-hologram technology? Seems hard to fathom, considering Nintendo's preference to having low cost hardware.

[Neil]

Just a guess, but it could be a barrier tech like the auto-stereoscopic display on Fuji's 3D camera.

Regards,
Neil

[DmitryKo]

Looks like the rumor of Virtual Boy 2 was true to some extent.

I find it ironic how Nintendo dismisses usefulness of 3D gaming first, then announces their own portable 3D console without a blink in the eye. Does anyone still need any confirmation that gaming console companies will downplay anything 3D until they have a competing product to announce (well, one company from now on, since only Microsoft has not announced anything stereo 3D so far).

As for the technology they use, it's probably either good old lenticular lens or a parallax barrier, and probably allows for single-view autostereocopy; the trick is to place your head in the sweet spot, but that should be easy with a portable console.


Copy/paste news:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6254031.ht ... es;title;1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/ ... latestnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ssiu]

I guess the "next Sony PSP" will likely be stereoscopic 3D as well.

Now if the next iPhone has S-3D screen then we will have conquered the world

[rat2255]

LISTEN! CLEAR 3D WITHOUT GLASSES is possible, and this is what they are going to implement. A LENTICULAR LENS screen accomplishes this, It has already been implemented on an IPHONE through wazabee! http://www.wazabee.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
the only reason this 3D is not popular with all the TV's and such is
a). It requires the screen to be viewed at a certain angle
b). It has to come built in with the TV or product thus increasing the price, or quality is usually reduced,

A handheld accomplishes both of these tasks! because you mainly view the screen at one angle and only one person at a time, usually. Also a lenticular screen for a small DS screen is not very expensive at all.
This is how it will be implemented, and if done correctly, turning off the 3D effect will look as though it is a normal 2D DS lite, and therefore completely backwards compatible with all of the other DS games.

you have probably seen this technology on those little 3D gift cards or cereal boxes, usually those don't look that good, however, if the resolution of the lenticular lens increases then it will hardly be noticeable and quite clear.

I still only use my original (original) DS, yes the fat grey one, and now I am going to upgrade.

[cybereality]

This is it. This is what we have been waiting for (I just pray its not an elaborate April Fools joke.) I have always said that the real 3D revolution will be with auto-stereo mobile devices. And who better to lead the craze than Nintendo? This could really be the tipping point.

I am interested what type of auto-stereo display it will be using. I doubt a classic lenticular display as that would break 2D backwards compatibility with legacy DS software. So this must be something that can be turned off. An LCD overlay with a parallax barrier pattern would probably be doable and cheap but I wonder if that will give good enough quality to meet Nintendo's standards. Maybe a directed-light type active parallax barrier like Fuji is using on their camera. Maybe something new? I just hope it looks good enough that this doesn't become the Virtual Boy 2.

[cybereality]

Here is a link from another post that got locked:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6254031.ht ... es;title;1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Go read the comments. I got through like the first 100 and I did not hear any of the usually "doom and gloom" type comments. In fact, most people sound genuinely excited. Maybe it is all about the glasses...

[rat2255]

This is it. This is what we have been waiting for (I just pray its not an elaborate April Fools joke.) I have always said that the real 3D revolution will be with auto-stereo mobile devices. And who better to lead the craze than Nintendo? This could really be the tipping point.

I am interested what type of auto-stereo display it will be using. I doubt a classic lenticular display as that would break 2D backwards compatibility with legacy DS software. So this must be something that can be turned off. An LCD overlay with a parallax barrier pattern would probably be doable and cheap but I wonder if that will give good enough quality to meet Nintendo's standards. Maybe a directed-light type active parallax barrier like Fuji is using on their camera. Maybe something new? I just hope it looks good enough that this doesn't become the Virtual Boy 2.

if it is a lenticular display if the resolution is high enough (which it will have to be to support this technology), then all the hardware would have to do, is instead of having 2 different pixels behind each lens, have the 2 pixels generate the same light, therefor creating a completely normal 2D display, 100% backwards compatible
here is a a mock up image

[cybereality]

if it is a lenticular display if the resolution is high enough (which it will have to be to support this technology), then all the hardware would have to do, is instead of having 2 different pixels behind each lens, have the 2 pixels generate the same light, therefor creating a completely normal 2D display, 100% backwards compatible

I see what you are saying, but that would require that the new 3DS had twice the horizontal resolution has the original DS, otherwise there would be a loss of data. This would mean that text would become unreadable as you would effectively lose half the pixels (every other column would be duplicate, remember). If you did not duplicate and just left the image as-is, text would still be very hard to read although graphics might be passable.

[android78]

if it is a lenticular display if the resolution is high enough (which it will have to be to support this technology), then all the hardware would have to do, is instead of having 2 different pixels behind each lens, have the 2 pixels generate the same light, therefor creating a completely normal 2D display, 100% backwards compatible

I see what you are saying, but that would require that the new 3DS had twice the horizontal resolution has the original DS, otherwise there would be a loss of data. This would mean that text would become unreadable as you would effectively lose half the pixels (every other column would be duplicate, remember). If you did not duplicate and just left the image as-is, text would still be very hard to read although graphics might be passable.

I agree with rat2255 on this one. And the DS resolution of 256 x 192 pixels shouldn't be too difficult to double the horizontal resolution on. the HTC magic is a good example of a screen 480*320 pixels (if you hold it horizontally) that would almost work.

[DmitryKo]

I am interested what type of auto-stereo display it will be using. I doubt a classic lenticular display as that would break 2D backwards compatibility with legacy DS software. So this must be something that can be turned off.

They can just use a high resolution 512x384 screen, so older games will be effectively placed at screen depth by doubling the resolution, and all new games will be presented in genuine stereo3D by default. No need for active switching at all.

The highest quality solution could be non-square pixels with doubled resolution as mentioned above. I have always thought that it would make an interesting possibility for a new class of single-view autostereoscopic displays or passive polarized stereo displays, in which 2D mode is automatic and achieved by simply doubling the pixels across one axis.

Until now the limited market share of stereo 3D displays did not make such special panels viable, but that can change in the near future. One problem is, vertical doubling would be best for standard production of LCD panels in a horizontal aligment of subpixels, but I'd imagine autostereoscopy would be best served by horizontally doubled pixels, since it would better match the pattern of an autostereoscopic lenticular array; hopefully this could be overcome.

[rat2255]

Hey did anyone think of this, the 3DS has a camera built in on the front of the display, this could actually use head tracking to overcome the the limitation of an autostereoscopic screen (certain angles).
here is a video of what they could implement (the screens after 1:26 are examples)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydtDOAJzoco[/youtube]

and here is a video of DSi head tracking, already implemented

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_P4gyjf5tQ[/youtube]

then again they could also implement it like the above video, but instead of the screen being 2D it will generate a true 3D image based upon where your head is to actually see into the room from all angles, by looking around. there are so many possibilities.

EDIT:
also In early January, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata gave an interview with Japan's second largest newspaper The Asahi Shimbun in which he apparently said the Nintendo DS successor will have "highly detailed graphics, and it will be necessary to have a sensor with the ability to read the movements of people playing".
http://kotaku.com/5499697/nintendo-anno ... ntendo-3ds" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This gives more evidence to this theory

[cybereality]

Yeah you guys are probably right. A high-resolution display and a lenticular sheet seems to be the most obvious solution. I guess I was just hoping for something revolutionary, but I suppose any Nintendo-branded 3D device is a revolution.

[Okta]

This is actually cool and i think it will be a massive hit, just think, you will be able to encode 3d movies to watch on it. Maybe auto stereo is the real thing the masses are waiting for.

The only catch it... you will ALWAYS be losing resolution no matter what. If you double the pixel density to get it back, you are still sacrificing that double gain in resolution you created by halving it for 3d.

Maybe as display tech goes higher and higher we will reach a point where the resolutions available will be so high no one will really care if it is divided by 16 to display for 8 different angles of view.

Hmm thinking about it, the tech is already here, look at the density in mobile devices, just make a really big (expensive) one

[DmitryKo]

Yeah, what about an DSi XL sized console with wide 6" 1600x480 pixels screen that fits the entire top cover? That should allow 800x480 per eye in stereo mode


PS. They say it will use parallax barrier tech from Sharp, which is a switchable parallax barrier in a dual-panel configuration - one b/w-only panel acts as a parallax barrier in 3D mode (probably at the subpixel level) and deactivates in 2D mode, another panel is a regular LCD that forms the color image.


http://www.develop-online.net/features/ ... 3D-display" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (from Sharp’s hand in 3D display)
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2777 ... System.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://sp.cs.tut.fi/mobile3dtv/technolo ... lays.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1386949,00.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They also say it's based on Tegra 250.

[cybereality]

Yeah, if Sharp is making it then its likely parallax barrier based given their history with desktop displays and laptops.

Also, I don't think losing half the pixels is that big of a deal. That is how my Zalman is and its fine. Also the tests I did with a DIY parallax barrier were promising enough that I could see this working on a handheld. Lets just hope it lives up to the hype.

[Neil]

The following is an excerpt of a blog article.  Read Full Article

It's amazing how just a small bit of information can explode and span the Internet.

This is all that was shared by Nintendo in their formal press release.  It wasn't even written like a press release!