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We’ve landed some pics of a new debug build of PS3’s Firmware, clearly showing a “3D video output” option.
As you can see from the images below, the feature appears to be included in the 3.20 release, which is apparently now in the hands of developers.
There’s been a great deal of talk about 3D games in recent months, with Sony especially being a strong supporter of the tech.
SCEA’s John Koller, speaking at CES in January, said that, “It’s gonna take just a simple firmware update which most people do regularly anyway, and that’s all it’s gonna take to accolade the PS3 to 3D gaming.”
He added: “It’s just a simple firmware update on the hardware.”
Koller did add a caveat, saying, “You will, however, have to have a 3D TV and the glasses to get the full experience and Blu-ray movies in 3D will require a separate firmware update, which will be required by the end of the year”.
Sony showed GT5 running in 3D at CES.
Microsoft, however, has been less enamoured with the concept.
“I think there’s a lot of questions, to be honest,” green machine Aaron Greenberg said, also speaking at the Las Vegas show last month.
“3D is great in the theater, but for the living room? I think we’re a long ways away from that.”
PS3’s Firmware currently stands at 3.15. Sony’s yet to announce a release date for future upgrades.
Viewing 50 responses
daytripper said:
a lot of people have only just adapted to HD and now 3D is coming, just getting ripped off imo
Psychotext said:
As “meh” as I think the tech is… you don’t have to buy it daytripper.
cookiejar said:
Yep. Nice to have the option, even nicer you don’t have to buy into it
Razor said:
Poor sod only has a 40gig
Gekidami said:
What exactly is “Fake np sns throttle”?
mike3648 said:
they should get in game chat sorted, along with giving a system that should surpass X-box online, and forget 3D until its more established.
What a waste of effort and fingers up to customers by Sony, whos only intrested in producing ‘it does everything’ machine, and forgets its main purpose….gaming.
Gheritt White said:
3D television won’t have mas market penetration before 2019, if flatscreen and then HD adoption rates are anything to go by.
mington said:
from what i can gather its pretty cheap and easy to make a tv 3d enabled, i predict every new tv on the market in 2 years time will be 3D ready
you just have to make the tv able to run at 120hz innit, i think, what ever that means
Gheritt White said:
I suppose it all boils down to how much the screens cost. Until you can get a 3D TV for £300, mass market penetration will be limited.
Mike said:
120Hz, innit.
Psychotext said:
I still think they’re going to reserve 3D for their premium models so that they can increase their profit margins… time will tell though.
On the bright side, at least this is a real functionality increase rather than the recent trend we’ve had of thinner = everything with few improvements to picture quality.
Blerk said:
Interest level: 0%
Eregol said:
This is quite annoying.
There’s a lot of features the PS3 needs before 3D implementation.
Why they’re putting this in so early is beyond me.
Psychotext said:
To sell TVs.
Eregol said:
Just because the feature is there doesn’t mean they’ll sell tvs.
As has already been said, people have just made the jump to HD. 3D is going to be years away, when it becomes affordable.
Redh3lix said:
Awesome photoshop skillzorz
Mike said:
They’re all so putting it in i order to say “Your PS3 BD player is mega up to date, now tell everyone you know” and to sell tellies, yeah
mington said:
anyone played any 3d games for a prolonged amount of time, they’ve had 3d enabled games on pc for a while
http://elder-geek.com/2010/01/bad-company-2-pc-beta-this-month-3d-enabled/
first thing i grabbed off google
i just want to know if it will make my brain melt?
Avatar made my brain smart a bit, i left the cinema feeling like i had just sat an exam
Robo_1 said:
Exactly, this is all part of Sony’s plan to have all of their departments walking to the same beat. I agree that this tech is really one generation too early to be of any significant note, but if they’ve got their tech in order, then I hope the lucky few who will be purchasing 3D TV’s over the coming years enjoy their Wipeout in 3D.
I think 3D will become standard in all films, TV’s and games over the next few years, but for it to hit the mainstream, they need to get it so that you don’t need the glasses, something which Toshiba are apparently very close to cracking.
Psychotext said:
I used to have a Nvidia setup, but it wasn’t particularly impressive and gave me headaches if I played for more than an hour… so I dumped it and went back to good old 2D.
PolyGoneWithTheWind said:
You have to stop looking at it with UK eyes – the US and Asia embraced HD at a ridiculously quicker rate than in the UK. The UK are the world’s laggards with HD adoption – primarily because of cost of actually receiving input from TV. Sky + HD has only just become relatively worth it. 3D will go down well in other markets but even there, and especially here, will not be a major thing.
Yes, it’s there to sell TV’s but unless gaming gets its “Avatar Moment” people won’t be too bothered.
Putting the option in takes next to no time for SCE and they might as well put it in – if anything, Avatar 3D on a Blu-ray for when that comes out might sell the odd screen of two.
mington said:
side note
that vvvvvv advert on the left is going to be really irritating
more appropriate side note
imagine how annoying 3D enabled adverts will be
Razor said:
“3D is going to be years away, when it becomes affordable.”
In time, it’ll likely be that the PS3 becomes the “entry” 3D machine, even after the PS4 arrives with likely full 1080p 120fps (maybe more) 3D.
Much like HD Ready TV’s; they display HD, but they’re not the full 1080p 120Hz machine, the PS3 will likely become the “3D Ready” machine in time.
johnnywashngo said:
3D TV is on the way, make no mistake.
Its part of the HDMI 1.4 spec which means that TV manufacturers will implement it in their TV sets to remain competitive with rivals manufacturers. Who wants to release a new TV that doesn’t include a major part of HDMI 1.4 when others are making their TV sets fully compliant?
Its a smart move on Sonys part to enable their games system to play 3D games as well as 3D movies. I can’t see me buying a 3D TV anytime soon, but its nice to know the PS3 will support it when I do buy one.
Psychotext said:
The US only just hit 50% (edit, actually I’m wrong, it’s 46%) of households with a HD screen… that’s over 15 years after they first became available.
Alakratt said:
It’s ok for Sony to be making progress with 3D, but really, at this stage it shouldn’t even be in the market. When I can see 3D without glasses THEN I’ll consider it. That would be a REAL breakthrough. Still, for those that are tech-hungry and full of money this is great….again, for them.
Blerk said:
So what’s the difference between this 3D which apparently requires a firmware update and the 3D that the Avatar game did which worked on the PS3 and the 360 without requiring any kind of firmware fanciness?
Eregol said:
Probably because this allows the PS3 to output Blu Ray and DvD to 3D rather than games?
Maybe it can now render everything in 3D rather than just games which are enabled?
To be honest, I don’t know. I’m sure someone will enlighten.
OlderGamer said:
Too much too fast. The vast majority of non-gamers are just getting into HD. I know a lot of people that do not have HD TVs. And the ones that do, also still have and use SD TVs.
I understand the Option to use 3D or not. But I still think that many people will feel rushed, they will feel as if they can’t keep up, and ask after HD came 3D, what next? Why not wait for that?
Unless this is VERY cheap, and comes included people won’t be interested. Also they can’t expect people to replace their current SD/HD tvs to get 3D ones. I just think, like some others, that this tech should be sat on for a generation. Make it perfect, and make it cheap, then release it.
Still a lot of people with underpaying or no jobs at all.
Psychotext said:
As I understand it… the difference between Avatar methods and what’s do-able after the patch is that they’re able to send the standard 2D image to the TV, as well as a bunch of z-buffer data. That doesn’t make for better 3D (there are some issues with it), but it does make for cheaper (processing) to generate 3D.
Kaufer said:
@27
If what some sites are saying last year are true, then it will probably work to retroactively to existing games.
Blerk said:
You can’t ‘magically’ make 2D games 3D. It’ll still only work for games which actively go out of their way to make use of it.
PolyGoneWithTheWind said:
“The US only just hit 50% (edit, actually I’m wrong, it’s 46%) of households with a HD screen… that’s over 15 years after they first became available.”
Sadly, you have to also look at that at a total population figure. A rather scary amount of Americans are under-employed and as many as 10% of major conurbations by certain metrics live just above the poverty line.
46% is a staggeringly high figure when you compare input to output HD ratio’s of the UK standing at approx 2%
PolyGoneWithTheWind said:
@ Blerk. Totally correct – it can be done with recorded film through a particular post-production method but it isn’t as good as “made for 3D” as it is retroactively creating the effect. You can’t do that with games because an image for a game is constructed completely differently than that of a TV feed.
Psychotext said:
56% of households in the UK have HDTVs Poly…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8407690.stm
Where on earth did you get 2%? (Or is that the number with HD satellite or something like that? If so, that’s not particularly relevant in the comparison.)
El_MUERkO said:
Bioshock 2 also has a 3d option in its graphics options.
PolyGoneWithTheWind said:
It isn’t about who has them, it’s about who uses it fully with HD input. The vast majority of UK consumers bought a HD screen because they were thinner not because of using HD broadcast.
Sorry, should have stated the source. Full usage studies of HD technology was done by Forrester and also by TNS. They found that while HD sales in the UK were strong, over 60% of people after buying a HD screen thought they were viewing HD when they plugged their aerial or Sky box in. Startling! While sales are on a par with many other countries, they are not being utilised properly
Psychotext said:
No, it just means that our broadcast network is shit. What’s new? The simple fact is that for whatever reason, our HDTV penetration is a fair chunk higher than that of the US… so it’s a little disingenuous to argue that our HDTV adoption rate is lower.
…especially given that your initial argument was that we don’t have a high adoption rate because the broadcast services aren’t compelling / cheap enough.
PolyGoneWithTheWind said:
HD adoption rates are classed on who is viewing in HD, not who has the capability to view HD because they have the screen. In that “full adoption” rate the UK are indeed laggards. And yes, totally agree, the blame is with SKy and they will do the same with 3D when their 3D package will require a “double-up-sell” you will need to pay more for HD, then pay yet more again to access their 3D channels.
The UK people aren’t the ones who will make 3D struggle, it will be people like Sky and limited bandwidth/EPG placements that terrestrial broadcasters have. To create in 3D for TV doubles the production costs for TV, they need to make that money back by subscription services as advertisers will not pay the premium to target a niche audience.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be boring people or banging on about semantics but we struggle because of a monopoly – in North America and Asia there are multiple providers meaning the market is more open and fairer. We, us poor Brits, are owned by Mr Murdoch and his son.
Psychotext said:
Sorry, but that’s rubbish, and so is your 2% number. Based on Sky HD penetration alone, 7% of households in the UK have HD satellite. Add V+, BT Vision, Freesat and Freeview HD and you’re looking at higher number again.
Syrok said:
Curious as well.
Gheritt White said:
“HD adoption rates are classed on who is viewing in HD”
I’m sorry, but from a video-game publishers PoV this is bogus. Before investing in new display tech for games – be it HD or 3D – publishers would want to know how many people already own TVs with the functionality to play games in HD/3D, not whether or not these TVs were used to view HD/3D content already.
Bulk Slash said:
NP could be network protocol and SNS could be Social Networking Services.
It could be some feature for developers to test multiplayer gameplay conditions when there are Tweets and Facebook updates using up bandwidth.
Dean said:
@Gekidami and @Syrok
Is boring, but for sites like Facebook/Twitter etc (SNS = Social Networking Sites, I believe), there are strictly defined guidelines as to how much time needs to elapse before allowing a new post to be made (it’s called throttling). This option allows developers to have their simulated calls to post to Facebook etc return a throttling error, so they can test their code properly.
Syrok said:
Thanks, Dean. You are right, that’s not interesting at all.
ReeceHeywood said:
“New debug build of PS3’s Firmware”
Doesn’t mean it’s coming to retail firmware anytime soon.
RGW1982 said:
@ 6
3D Has A Lot More To Do With Gaming Then Cross Game Chat Does.. LOL, Besides You’ll Be Paying A Premium Fee To Use Cross Game Chat When It’s Available Anyways.
Silvio6 said:
Of course this will come on the PS3 first.
How else do you think will Sony shops sell 3D TVs if 3D BD is not ready yet ?
It is so easier to just plug a PS3 to a Sony 3D TV and upgrade the FW than wait for Avatar to come to 3D BD
Go Sony Go !
Torgo said:
Expect it next week, believe it.
grimso said:
help download debug firmware