I don't think 3D TV sets are the issue when we have to wear the glasses. It's the glasses that are the problem. 3D isn't for regular features and games... it's for gimmicks. Honestly, it's easy enough to program an XNA game with Red/Cyan stereoscopy.

I've messed extensively with the nVidia 3D drivers, and I am a firm believer in stereoscopic 3D for video games. It really makes a huge difference in games like Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty 2, Colin McRae, and Flight Simulator, but it take a bit of time to tweak the parallax settings for the individual game. For example, Battlefield was more fun when the game appeared to be "inside the monitor", while Flight Simulator X had to have the opposite settings applied to give the illusion that you were looking out a window towards the distance.

The trouble I ran into was modern filters. The filters such as depth of field or motion blur often caused everything to appear flat, or wrap strangely onto objects removing any sense of realism. Considering that all modern games use filters, this is an obstacle that would have to be overcome for 3D to work appropriately.

In any case, I don't see the 3D glasses as anymore of a gimmick than a mouse, keyboard, or a headset. They're far from re-creating the sensation of the "real thing" (W,S,A,D for moving, anyone?), but they do enhance your precision.

For example, with stereographic 3D glasses on, I can land a helicopter in Flight Simulator X from any external view with relative ease. The difficulty is much greater when I'm not wearing the 3D glasses, because the pixels aren't truly revealing the actual depth.

Those hologram-style 3d TVs are making their way around too. Soon enough the glasses will be a non-issue, and having just finished switching to HD, we'll be switching to 3d next.

This doesn't seem like a surprise given how much attention was given to stereoscopic tech at Siggraph this year. The tools are starting to arrive -- Maya 2009 has a stereoscopic camera.

From the Autodesk demonstration they showed that there's a lot of tweaking involved for each camera shot to *pop* correctly. This makes me wonder how much work it'll be for games to take advantage and not seem like a cheap gimmick (i.e. Wii controller waggle).

Actually, in reguards to the first poster, there technology that they're most likely talking about is Autostereoscopic TVs. The viewer doesn't need to wear glasses of any form. The problem with these TVs and Computer monitors, is that they generally require you to sit a very specific distance from the TV. If I remember correctly, the TV that I've heard about requires you to sit at exactly 13.1 feet in order for it to work properly. If you're off, it either won't look right or you may end up getting nauseated or with a headache.

In regards to Bryson Whiteman's comment, most games these days (at least on the PC) are already programmed for 3D and all you need is the right equipment. I believe the stuff in 3DS Max and Maya is only for video and not games. That being said, however, as the article says, people need to learn to use it. Even though it's there and there are montiors capable of Autostereoscopic viewing, not all the games look the same. Some games have the 3D down better while others apparently bearly gain any depth or are just off and give you a headache. I don't believe it's a priority to figure out how set it up correctly since probably less than 1% of people even use it. I'm not even sure if it's intentionally programmed in or if it's just a side effect of the normal process in PC games. As far as console games go, I don't know if they're like the PC games, which might be why someone made technology to do it. Unless they just wanted to make an easy, unified way to do the technology and make it easier on everyone.

Personally I was never impressed by any stereoscopic 3D visuals that I have seen. I was very impressed by Johnny Lee's "view dependent" rendering techniques that required head tracking... Fortunately head tracking can be achieved without wearable gear by using a ZCam (by 3DV Systems).

there was this nice presentation of a guy from bandai namco at the digital content expo in tokyo this october. he showed stereoscope ridge racer 7... :D it seemed like a huge addition to games that rely on depth very much. e.g. racing and shooting. in these kind of games as somebody said earlier, it is not just a gimmick, but enhances play by better informing the player. so the game becomes more playable. this way you can bumb up the difficulty and immerse people more in a task. right now i am thinking of mirrors edge... :)

I agree with Lou, I'd like to see more view dependent rendering over stereoscopic. For me, the hack filtering tricks just give me a headache and only serve as a cheap thrill instead of a core feature. I barely manage to get through those 4D Disney motion rides before I start to lose interest in the stereoscopic effects.