Nintendo 3DS - Year of the Luigi

Seems that the 3DS will cut FPS in half in 3D mode.

Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi has revealed in a chat with Famitsu (translated by the folks at Siliconera) that his crew's upcoming 3DS fighter, Dead or Alive Dimensions, will switch between 30 and 60 frames-per-second rendering based on whether players are using the handheld's 3D mode or not. It's a nice, if not entirely unexpected option, considering the 3DS hardware is always rendering the game at 60fps -- it's just 30fps per eye when in "3D mode."

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/11/dead-or-alive-dimensions-has-variable-framerate-for-3d-effect/

I think for fighters and action games that maybe I'll play in 2D mode only.

I am waiting for Rockstar to bring out the GTA Trilogy in 3D, now that would be special, but can the 3DS handle it? Methinks not, plus there's the space limitation.

Lonely Angel wrote:I think the content you get from a DS game is well worth £30.

When importing the same game from the States will cost you £18? I don't want to pay £12 for an annoyingly thicker box.

gamerforever wrote:I am waiting for Rockstar to bring out the GTA Trilogy in 3D, now that would be special, but can the 3DS handle it? Methinks not, plus there's the space limitation.

The 3DS appears to be roughly on a par with the GameCube, power-wise. The GCN was more powerful than the PS2. If the PS2 can do GTA, the 3DS damn well can too. In 3D? We'll see, but the idea that it can't handle them at all is preposterous.

suzzopher wrote:Seems that the 3DS will cut FPS in half in 3D mode. I think for fighters and action games that maybe I'll play in 2D mode only.

Title should be "Developers can use the extra grunt of 2D to bump up areas in which their engine is lacking." as Street Fighter doesn't change fps, and Resident Evil: Revelations uses it to turn on 2xAA. Dead or Alive is the only game at Nintendo World which was reported to change framerate, everything else was constant so I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the 3DS and everything to do with Tecmo's engine.

That Joystiq article acts like "30 fps per eye" is the same as "60fps", which is a pretty bizarre thing to say.

Elfhours wrote:

Lonely Angel wrote:I think the content you get from a DS game is well worth £30.

When importing the same game from the States will cost you £18? I don't want to pay £12 for an annoyingly thicker box.

We haven't been able to import a new game from the States for £18 in ages, ever since the US currency bounced back. It cost me £28 to import a game only a few weeks ago, which is more expensive than the average price you'll pay for getting PAL games (Which are about £25 in most cases).

Yeah I pay more for imports than new PAL releases.

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

suzzopher wrote:Seems that the 3DS will cut FPS in half in 3D mode. I think for fighters and action games that maybe I'll play in 2D mode only.

Title should be "Developers can use the extra grunt of 2D to bump up areas in which their engine is lacking." as Street Fighter doesn't change fps, and Resident Evil: Revelations uses it to turn on 2xAA. Dead or Alive is the only game at Nintendo World which was reported to change framerate, everything else was constant so I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the 3DS and everything to do with Tecmo's engine.

That Joystiq article acts like "30 fps per eye" is the same as "60fps", which is a pretty bizarre thing to say.

Isn't that pretty much how shutter glass 3D works?

Its not surprising to see stores set a high pre-order price to try and cover their asses. Companies like Expansys do it all the time with their mobile pre-orders.

LOL, I don't think it will be that much, but it will probably be around £250.

Alvin Flummux wrote:

suzzopher wrote:£300

If that's the actual price I may never get one.

It's a speculative price - they have to estimate well over the actual launch price or they'll have to honour the quoted price and potentially make a loss.

Still, it's looking like it'll be a dear do.

bear wrote:Isn't that pretty much how shutter glass 3D works?

Is shutter glass the technology where the TV displays one image, then another really quickly afterwards, and the glasses flick between showing the left and right eye the image?

The 3DS technology isn't like that, it displays both images simultaneously, which makes it framerate independant (pretty important for games), and it means that both images are being generated from the one "source". In the context of a game and the 3DS, implying 60fps is the same as 2 x 30fps is completely wrong.

suzzopher wrote:

UK shops are now taking pre-orders for Nintendo's 3DS console, and have listed unconfirmed release dates and pricing for the handheld.

TheHut, WHSmith, Best Buy UK and Woolworths all peg the 3DS for release on 18th March if you pre-order or 25th March otherwise for an eye-watering £299.93. They each list the 3DS in blue, black and red.

ASDA has the 3DS down for 18th March, but fails to offer a price.

Nintendo is yet to price or date the 3DS for Europe, although we know it'll be released on these shores in March. The company is expected to make a raft of 3DS-related announcements at an Amsterdam event next week.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-12-uk-shops-begin-taking-3ds-pre-orders


£300

Do Nintendo not understand why they were successful with the DS

This is Nintendo doing a Sony.

No chance at £300, graduation or not.

£250 and we'll talk, £200 and you had me at hello.

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

bear wrote:Isn't that pretty much how shutter glass 3D works?

Is shutter glass the technology where the TV displays one image, then another really quickly afterwards, and the glasses flick between showing the left and right eye the image?

Yes, but the console spits out both at once.

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

St Nick wrote:

John Galt wrote:What sort of time can we expect this launch announcement? Is there some show/expo going on at the time?

The presentation starts at 3pm our time.

If only it was listed right at the top, and again at the bottom, of the OP (in big images!) so people wouldn't have to ask, eh?

In my defence, the internet was loading gooseberry fool up proper slowly last night so I might not have seen those images.

pyxl-8 wrote:

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

bear wrote:Isn't that pretty much how shutter glass 3D works?

Is shutter glass the technology where the TV displays one image, then another really quickly afterwards, and the glasses flick between showing the left and right eye the image?

Yes, but the console spits out both at once.

I take it you mean the PS3? I always wondered how they got around that, since if it was timed to the TV then a variable framerate could kill it. Sounds like it works just like the 3DS in creating the images then, the TV just handles the output differently.

Can we move all talk of price to here please? I put the price piece in the wrong thread

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

pyxl-8 wrote:

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

bear wrote:Isn't that pretty much how shutter glass 3D works?

Is shutter glass the technology where the TV displays one image, then another really quickly afterwards, and the glasses flick between showing the left and right eye the image?

Yes, but the console spits out both at once.

I take it you mean the PS3? I always wondered how they got around that, since if it was timed to the TV then a variable framerate could kill it. Sounds like it works just like the 3DS in creating the images then, the TV just handles the output differently.

Yep. Not just the PS3, though. Every HDMI 3D device has to use frame packing like this.

HDMI version 1.4, released in June 2009, defines a number of 3D transmission formats. The format "Frame Packing" (left and right image packed into one video frame with twice the normal bandwidth) is mandatory for HDMI 1.4 3D devices. All three resolutions (720p50, 720p60, and 1080p24) have to be supported by display devices, and at least one of those by playback devices. Other resolutions and formats are optional.

We're definitely talking £250+. The actual 3D tech it uses is going to be very expensive (a 40" costs around £3,000+). It has better graphics and obviously all the tech the Dsi had and more! I think Nintendo are aiming at a different Market here...due to the restrictions of under 6's not allowed to use it...but then isn't that a bad thing? I mean that's a huge chunk of the market!

Game have Ridge Racer a obvious launch title...down for March 25th...they've also recently added Monkey Ball and upped the prices from £32.99 to £39.99! I disagree with the game prices here..I mean, it's a handheld not a home console..so £39.99 is at least £10 too much...

Looking forward to next week..just keeping my fingers crossed for a Zelda launch..but I think we'll be seeing it pret quickly afer anyway!

Ah balls, CustomPC ran a great piece on Nvidias 3D vision kit a while back and how enabling 3D in games like Arkham Asylum (the pc version uses shutter glass 3D unlike the consoles GOTY edition which uses old style 3D glasses) and how that affected the games overall framerate but it doesn't seem to be up on the bit-tech site.

suzzopher wrote:

UK shops are now taking pre-orders for Nintendo's 3DS console, and have listed unconfirmed release dates and pricing for the handheld.

TheHut, WHSmith, Best Buy UK and Woolworths all peg the 3DS for release on 18th March if you pre-order or 25th March otherwise for an eye-watering £299.93. They each list the 3DS in blue, black and red.

ASDA has the 3DS down for 18th March, but fails to offer a price.

Nintendo is yet to price or date the 3DS for Europe, although we know it'll be released on these shores in March. The company is expected to make a raft of 3DS-related announcements at an Amsterdam event next week.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-12-uk-shops-begin-taking-3ds-pre-orders


£300

That can't be true. It'd be £100 cheaper just to buy it from Japan/probably cheaper in America too.