3D Stereoscopic technology is all the rage these days, in part thanks to the blockbuster success at the box office by James Cameron's Avatar. It's not just Hollywood that's obsessed with 3D, however, as more and more game companies are starting to R&D the technology to prepare for the future. In an effort to advance the 3D gaming sector, a non-profit group called S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) formalized itself today and will focus on standards, education, and product adoption.
Some of S3DGA’s notable current members include LG Electronics, Blitz Games Studios, RealD, Next3D, DDD, Jon Peddie Research, Sensio, TDVision Corp, and iZ3D. Advisory board members include Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director for Electronic Arts, Andrew Oliver, CTO and Co-Founder of Blitz Games Studios, and Neil Trevett, President of the Khronos Group & VP of NVIDIA Mobile Content.
“S-3D gaming content is available on PC and console, gamers are great viral marketers, and our industry needs to reach out to the early adopters first. Our industry needed a qualified voice, so S3DGA was formed to properly leverage and develop this market,” said Neil Schneider, S3DGA’s Executive Director and Spokesperson.
“We need an industry-wide standard for S-3D gaming, and S3DGA has the drive and experience to push this forward. All developers and manufacturers should participate,” added Zargarpour
Serving as the interim Standards Division Chair is Keith Elliott, who is well known in the industry for helping to invent the low-cost stereoscopic display architecture used in over two million 3D DLP high-definition (HD) televisions. “When we are talking about standards in gaming, it’s not just about passing a left and right image to the display - that’s easy. Game developers also need to speak the same language, quality and compliance expectations need to be set, and lots of compatibility politics are going to surface very quickly I’m sure. We wanted a strong people person to head this up, and this individual’s previous work had to be well known. We found that person in Keith Elliott,” Schneider explained.
S3DGA plans to hold its next official meeting at the 3D Gaming Summit in April.
