Gamescom Tech: Trioviz 3D Gaming

Trioviz work with games publishers to bring 3D gaming to everyone without having to blow your savings on a 3D TV. I’ve been against 3D for a very long time but could this technology be the thing to transform my opinion?

No. It’s bollocks. The current generation of 3D prides itself on being unencumbered – you have your active shutter glasses that flicker too fast for you to notice. You have polarised glasses that filter certain types of light. And finally, you have the 3DS which uses two separate display panels which somehow magically broadcast different pictures to each eye, provided that you give yourself migraines for a week before your brain figures out that this crazy picture is not going to stop and that it had bloody well better sort it out.

Trioviz dispenses with all that garbage and returns to the old-style pink-and-green lenses. Witness:

Instead of mucking about with putting extra hardware in our homes, they work with games developers and publishers to add an extra setting in the software. Games supported so far are Batman: Arkham Asylum, Enslaved, Captain America

But how is the picture?

Surprisingly, it’s not bad at all. I played a bit of Captain America and yup, the 3D effect works fine when you’re right in front of the telly. The booth cunningly set their TV up through a doorway behind a desk which meant it was impossible to test the width of viewing angle that you could play with. I was surprised that looking at the screen without the glasses resulted in very little picture distortion, if any.

The problem with this system lies in the glasses. There is a little colour distortion on the screen but it’s quite acceptable – in line with using a “natural” vs “colour boost” profile on any television. No, there’s a much larger issue to worry about here. The very dark green lens coupled with a light pink lens means that your eyes are dealing with different light levels. It’s not noticeable while playing but moment you take them off is very disorienting, to point where I felt physically dizzy and had to grab a table for support.

The Trioviz system really works. It’s a nice idea to make 3D cheaper for us consumers and at €30 per pair of glasses, it’s very affordable but still a bloody pain to use. I’ll continue to pass, thanks.

Trioviz is available now. Get more details on the technology from Digital Foundry on Eurogamer or buy the glasses directly from Trioviz. Or, y’know… don’t.