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Comment by viraptor | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know how it works? It's hard to find any real information about this...

The most probable display technology is Autostereoscopy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereoscopy), since it doesn't require glasses. It's already available in standalone 3D displays, and Hitachi have shown it off in a mobile phone form factor.

Unofficial:

Asahi in Japan offers the first word on how the 3DS achieves its 3D-ness by suggesting that the new portable game machine with feature a parallax barrier LCD from Sharp. The tech has apparently already been deployed in a few cellphones over there and is described as "unsuitable" for large-screen TVs. This is corroborated by Nikkei, which suggests that the screens on the new device will be smaller than 4 inches diagonally, placing it closer to the DSi than the 4.2-inch DSi XL / LL.

Other news from the latter source include so-called 3D control stick(s), though it's not entirely clear whether this'll be anything massively new or just a pair of analog nubs for us to push around. Either way, Nintendo is said to have secured patents for the new control methodology in Japan late last year. The Nikkei article also mentions improvements in WiFi transfers and battery life, as well as a new vibration function. Now that we've got all that out of the way, can someone please tell us if this thing has Tegra inside or not?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/nintendo-3ds-to-come-with...

I've seen a few auto stereo displays and they only work if you view dead on from the center, at the right distance - though for a portable device that might not be too much of a restriction.

An example would be this cell phone:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1597252/hitachi-3d-...

Just wondering (probably stupid), but could that be combined with a camera to track where the head is, so that it could be viewed at multiple angels?

Sort of like this effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWAg1s7xfz0

Probably not. The cell phone (and effectively any other "real" 3D effect without glasses) has very limited viewing angles to get a 3D image. A small horizontal movement, or effectively unlimited vertical, does work on most methods I've seen (though horizontal is arguably more important). However, as the phone seems to allow 3D in both orientations, it probably can't handle either direction's angle changes very well.

Personally, I like head-tracking better than limited camera angle, primarily because it lets you look "behind" things by changing your viewing angle. Stereoscopic 3D alone doesn't allow that, because you're looking at a fixed image with depth. It's also cheaper to render the image, because you don't need to do it twice (or more, if you want to allow additional viewing angles).

I'm actually really surprised I haven't seen fairly frequent head-tracking for the current generation of consoles, imagine how well that would sell for single-player games, even if it's only subtle shifts (which are all you need to get a 3D feel). Suddenly, your TV has depth.

Of course like said it's single-player only games and wouldn't work for multiplayer. That's why I don't think we will see them soon.

Because single-player games don't exist on consoles? Or because they're so rare, nobody has them?

I think it would be a hard sell to say you have to drop that feature in multiplayer mode, but I guess people live with split screen.

Well, ultimately, there's no reason you can't do it with multiplayer. Just map the person's head, and render each split-screen based on their location. It can be done with a single camera, though Z-movement isn't too accurate at a distance. If you want more precision, then wearing the LED-bar that goes above the TV with a Wii would work too, and calculations are way simpler (thus likely faster).

(hadn't actually thought of the split-screen head-tracking before, silly me >.< )

One problem with this, is the field of vision will be very small, so the effect would be poor. However 3D iPad type device could be really good. Maybe with the new DSi XL is a sign of things to come?

I was thinking maybe something like HoloToy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lipIyMp6w8w

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