Topic: Wii U games in stereoscopic 3D

If Nintendo released a 3D attachment to get any Wii U game you own to run in 3D stereoscopic, assuming it has 3D graphics, would you buy it?
As you know, the 3DS can pretty much play any game in 3D auto stereoscopic. Nintendo has made it VERY easy to implement 3D effects into software on their handheld, so who's to say that Nintendo wouldn't be able to get a device running that will make things look 3D straight from the Wii U itself instead of relying on a 3D HDTV to do so?

It would be almost completely software/OS based since the real processing is going on within your own 2 eyes. The polygons are there, so all they need to do is allow you to see it how it is with a pair of 3D glasses.

Just imagine a plug that connects to your Wii U HDMI port that fixes the signal so that it shows up as it would on a 3D display. It's possible, so do you think it would be a good option to have 3D without a 3D TV? I say yes. Discuss...

I made a post about this in another thread, but I thought it would be an interesting "yay, nay" thread.

Proof that a 3D attachment could work, if designed specifically for Wii U to make sure it works for everything:
http://www.amazon.com/3D-Video-Wizard-Console-Glasses/dp/B005...
I have this thing, and it allows you to watch 3D blurays or play a 3D game from your PS3/Xbox 360 in resolutions up to 720p/1080i. I wouldn't be posting this if I didn't think it was relevant, FYI. I've been getting a 3DS vibe from all the similar software that Wii U shares with the 3DS. RE: Revelations, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and some games like CoD Black Ops II and Injustice are already 3D capable.
3D HDTVs have a pretty slow adoption rate, and I'm pretty sure Nintendo wants their software in 3D, so a 3D attachment seems viable to any 2D HDTV owner that doesn't want to spend an extra few hundred dollars for something they could literally have for less, and not required to purchase in one big deal that a 3D HDTV is.

EDIT: BTW, the product I linked you to uses anaglyph to get a 3D effect. It's possible to use some sort of other eye wear so the colors are accurate. The 3D video wizard is a budget 3D converter machine.

So you would opt out. That's fine. The main point to this thread was that Nintendo could get 3D stereoscopic to work from within the Wii U instead of your 3D HDTV.

EDIT: I didn't realize I double posted the thread.

Wii U HDMI 1.4 is capable of producing stereoscopic 3D image. But Nintendo said that there isn't enough demand for 3DTVs, so we won't be seeing it until more people buy 3DTVs.

That's why I'm saying that they could create an attachment like the one I posted above to get 3D into peoples' homes without requiring them to have a 3D TV. If you can buy an accessory for $40-50 to get your Wii U games into 3D, that could be alot more effective than waiting for more people to have a 3D TV.

The thing that 3D TVs have built inside of them is mainly a 3D decoder, and you don't necessarily need a 3D TV to have 3D on your TV.

Which will happen never since 3D TVs are quickly falling out of fashion.

I don't think 3DTVs are ever going to catch on because of price vs the fact that people still get headaches from this stuff. I'd actually love it if Nintendo released a pair of 3D glasses with head-tracking though. [youtube:Mv31kg5H6jM]
Either that, or a VR HMD like the Oculus Rift...

@CountWavula
I've taken those possible losses into account, and I figure that it would have the same performance in 3D. Frame rate would stay the same, resolution would stay the same, etc. The only benefactor here is the 3D. Games don't necessarily need to be downgraded for 3D. I understand Sony took the cut framerate route, but it doesn't have to be that way.

An attachment built for Wii U dedicated to 3D would give you access to the 3D slider akin to the 3DS via a touch slider in the home menu when you push the home button.

I'm talking full 3D, no drawbacks. It would be 90% or higher software based, then the attachment would carry the rest of the load via HDMI for the workload that Wii U doesn't need to dedicate processing to. I tried playing Super Mario 3D World in 3D using the device I linked, and it does work, but it's converting camera depth on the fly so it doesn't always have the best result.

I figure with the price I can get a device like that for, Nintendo would be able to market it as an accessory dedicated to Wii U that gets games into 3D without the 3D TV.

it would've been cool if the gamepad had a 3d screen like the 3ds. im having a hard time playing mario 3d world in 2d.

i would love to have such a thing but i dont quite think it will happen

At this point, I think having a 3D attachment would be a safe bet, compared to seeing whether 3D HDTVs will finally start selling.

Nintendo said they would start supporting 3D when the 3D TV install base got to a certain percentage(30% adoption rate. I think), but if that looks to be not be happening until 2014, I think Nintendo could be releasing a device like this. It's not as big of an investment as a 3D HDTV, with similar results, and it's optional.

Tons of people can't justify 3D because of lack of 3D content and the expensive entry price. Having 3D included into the OS would change that, and make it more accessible as a $40-50 item.

Keep in mind that this is a 100% viable option. It just depends on how well 3D HDTVs sell.

Unless I'm mistaken, AC 3 does have stereoscopic 3D output, so the Wii U can do it without an attachment. It's just that developers don't see enough reason to have that option, whether it is the cost, the number of consumers that have a 3D-TV, etc.

The Wii U CAN handle 3D games on it's own. The issue with getting 3D from Wii U games is the TV you own, if it's not 3D. That attachment would be there to turn your 2D HDTV into a 3D HDTV, not to make the Wii U 3D compatible.

Whether or not it would be compatible with any other device is Nintendo's deal, but I can assure you with 100% confidence that creating a device to get your Wii U games running in 3D on an OS paired software level is plausible.

As I keep saying, the product I posted supports frame packed, side by side, and top and bottom 3D. Then it puts it out as an anaglyph 3D image(red and blue glasses). All Nintendo would have to do is find a way to make the adapter compatible with a more accurate colored 3D pair of eye wear that's either passive or active, then hook the Wii U to the HDTV and put on the glasses.

EDIT: Using a device like this would allow the Wii U to send a frame packed image directly to the screen, instead of sending the data to a 3D TV to decode as an frame packed image.

Are you as certain about this 3D device as you were about the add-on that you discussed which would connect externally to the Wii-U and give it as much graphical horsepower as a PS4/Xbox? Or what about the developers tool you hypothesized that would allow any studio to put a 360/PS3 game into a machine and at a push of a button, port it over easily to the Wii-U for $1 million or less?

I think both of those devices would be more useful than a 3D adapter.

Actually, yes. Whether you care about 3D or not is your deal, though.

EDIT: Also, it would depend on how much more graphically capable the other systems are, and whether it matters.

I would love to be able to use my 3D TV feature with my Wii U.

The difference is whether the HDTV is displaying the image, or the 3D capable device is displaying the image. Thus far, devices such as the PS3 and Xbox 360 are sending files to your 3D HDTV to be decoded.

The way this would work(using the adapter), would be by having the Wii U send the 3D image that's visible using glasses without having a 3D HDTV decode the files. Hopefully this better explains how this works. The image itself is pre-rendered via the adapter before it reaches your display, but not the graphics(real time), and the image would look the same as a 3D HDTV using glasses.

You do realise that the only difference at this stage between a 3D capable and a non-3D capable TV is the refresh rate right? Your average 2D TV runs at 50-60Hz and can't do 3D because half of that (25-30Hz) isn't enough to create a non-headache inducing 3D effect. So those TVs that are 3D run at 100-120Hz or they include some sort of inbuilt filter to enable passive 3D. Once a manufacturer has gone to that point then "adding 3D" is a fairly cheap and easy value add. So because of that basically all of the mid-to-high end TVs are therefore 3D enabled.

What you're saying is (was?) a thing that happens with monitors with proprietary NVidia tech. Again only supporting monitors with refresh rates of around 120Hz and up and only working with NVidia's cards. It wasn't very popular. So in a nutshell no, what you're saying is a bad idea.

Well, passive would still be easy as hell to do. In that case, you would be sacrificing resolution(to half).

In any case, if Nintendo were to have such an accessory for the Wii U, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't make it look like trash.

Just look at the 3DS for example. They got 480p to work on an otherwise 240p screen using a parallax barrier. I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to figure out how to get good 3D going using some sort of glasses that can filter the image you see coming from the Wii U on any display, at any Hz rate. 120Hz doesn't even matter for a passive 3D.

3DS is passive auto stereoscopic.

EDIT: Also, I've played Mortal Kombat in 3D on PS3 using the 3D video wizard on my 2D HDTV. Ya, it's anaglyph, but it also showed me that they completely effed up the framerate, anyway. They expect you to play at 120Hz, but the framerate was still cut on Mortal Kombat even though it didn't need to be.

Mortal Kombat ran at some choppy framerate on PS3, assuming you would have a 120hz HDTV. That's proof that they cut corners with that crap. The framerate had nothing to do with it.

Passive is even more unlikely because it involves putting a filter on the screen itself. The 3DS works by having a barrier on the screen that directs different pixels to different angles. A pair of glasses won't be able to differentiate between pixels without something screen side. Anaglyph is the only type of 3D that's possible without doing something screen-side and it also happens to be garbage.

Also frame rate and refresh rate are two entirely different things. The 3D shutter glasses work by alternating which eye is blackened and which one is clear. If you drop the refresh rate the glasses have to run slower which causes headaches. Which makes sense because if you try to do 3D on a 60Hz display all of a sudden you're watching something that behaves like a CRT at 30Hz.....