Want True 3D Gaming Without the Heavy Goggles?  Trinigy and SeeReal Ready to Innovate With New Monitor Technology

by Louis Bedigian

“The hallways of Quake extend themselves into the monitor and it appears as if your computer screen was 100 feet deep – and your enemies seem to grab at you, just inches from your face.”

Where does the future of gaming lie?  I’m sure many of you envisioned game consoles that came with 3D glasses, allowing you to look inside the game world and become a part of it.  Other gamers listen to the dreams of developers who wish to create a world that is only possible in Star Trek, a world where you can enter a virtual room and explore it as if it were real.

The hit movie Paycheck showed another possibility: a true-to-life three-dimensional screen.  The image pops out of the screen, giving you a unique picture to look at from all angles.  Not only would it be cool to have something like that on your desktop, but it also opens up a world of possibilities for brand-new kinds of video games.  Developers could make them more realistic and much more immersive.  Just think of what Resident Evil 4 would be like if the zombies appeared to jump out of the screen!

While sitting in that movie theater last fall, watching Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman save the world from another deadly threat, the technology seemed like a dream.

SeeReal, a designer of desktop monitors, wants to make that dream come true. 

SeeReal is working on special 3D monitors that remove the need to wear an eye piece that manipulates your brain.  They’re developing monitors that will place 3D images outside of the screen, giving game developers the chance to create illusions that were previously just a fantasy.

Trinigy is the maker of the Vision Game Engine, which is being used in games like Psychotoxic.

What better way to take advantage of the two technologies than to team up?  To find out more about Trinigy and SeeReal’s technologies and their relationship together, GameZone Online spoke with Dag Frommhold, Managing Partner (Trinigy) and Erik Nielsen, Sales Manager (SeeReal Technologies).

Introduce your technology to our readers.  Paint us a picture – make it clear as to what you're trying to accomplish.

Dag Frommhold: Trinigy's Vision technology is a complete 3D game engine, providing rendering, physics and AI functionality along with a comprehensive tool set. From a technological point of view, our aim is to reduce the limits imposed on design, art and programming departments by combining very high performance and an outstanding feature set with an exceptionally smooth workflow. However, our vision (pun intended) of providing middleware for the entertainment industry isn't limited to cutting-edge technology, but also encompasses a close partnership with our customers. We provide continuous and reliable support, regular updates and two to three major SDK releases per year which are given to our customers at no additional charge.

Psychotoxic is one “crazy” FPS (pun intended).

The Vision Game Engine has been used in a lot of games.  What makes it superior to other engines?  What can it provide that others can't?

DF: Vision is an exceptionally versatile engine, suitable for a wide variety of game genres on various platforms - a fact that is also reflected by the Vision-based games currently in development which range from strategy titles over first-person shooters to adventure games. Our tool set is designed to provide a high degree of freedom for game developers. For example, they can create their content in MAX, Maya or our own proprietary CSG editor vEdit2, and even mix these geometry types pretty arbitrarily. Furthermore, we have a very comprehensive set of fully integrated and optimized engine features like per-pixel lighting and shadowing, automated level of detail algorithms, while at the same time also offering lower-level access layers.

When Trinigy first begin working on Vision?

DF: The first work on the Vision engine dates back to the year 1997, when my colleague Fabian Röken (now senior programmer and co-founder of Trinigy) and I started to build a 3D software rendering engine. Vision evolved from these humble origins during the following years and was transferred to Trinigy GmbH in 2003.

Is the engine complete?

DF: Yes, with the first title shipping in August this year. However, since Vision is continuously extended and improved, you can never really say it's "finished." ;-)

Will you update the engine at some point in the future, or do you have plans to design an all-new one?

DF: As I already said, we're continuously working on the technology, with usually two to three major SDK releases per year (the second SDK release of 2004 has just been shipped). For 2005, we're working on some pretty cool new features, but the details won't be announced too soon. No, really not ;-)

As you can see, Vision is very impressive.

How did your relationship with SeeReal begin?

DF: SeeReal contacted us as a leading middleware provider in Germany, since they were looking for partners in the games industry. We met with them, and we at Trinigy were seriously impressed with the 3D effect their auto stereoscopic displays were able to produce. After getting a sample screen, we added specific code to the Vision engine that basically allows game developers to add support for SeeReal's technology with a single line of code - for a TV presentation, for instance, we quickly modified a version of Back To Gaya (a jump'n run game based on Germany's only high-budget animated movie) to provide stereoscopic vision.

For our readers who are unfamiliar with SeeReal, please describe their technology and what it is they're doing.

Erik Nielsen: SeeReal is developing 3D enabling technology for auto stereoscopic displays. An auto stereoscopic display is what commonly is just called a 3D display, which allows the viewer to see things with depth, meaning you will see objects hovering in front of you instead of just being flat on the screen. What [this] does is to project one image to the left eye and one to the right. Since the images are of the same scene or object just generated at slightly different viewing angles (simulating the eye distance) the user will experience this as being three-dimensional with depth.

You’ve been able to design 3D monitors that don't require the users to wear 3D glasses. Tell us about this.

EN: Until recently the only way to see high quality 3D has been by wearing special glasses. The principle behind the glasses is that the left and right picture is shown alternating, switching between left and right at a very high frame rate. When the right image is shown the glasses block the left eye from seeing and when the left image is shown the view from the right eye is blocked. If you do this fast enough the brain will not see the pictures alternating but recognize it as two pictures, which can then create the 3D effect. [However], this technology has never really had its breakthrough. The users do not want to wear the (heavy) glasses. The frame rate is cut in half and the switching the view on and off in front of your eyes gives you an annoying flickering effect, which is known to cause headache and nausea. Furthermore the brightness is reduced and the colors tend to be darker.

What will gamers see when they look at one of your screens?  Just how three-dimensional (and how interactive) can it get?

EN: The hallways of Quake extend themselves into the monitor and it appears as if your computer screen was 100 feet deep - and your enemies seem to grab at you, just inches from your face. The effects are only limited by the software and the fantasy of the programmer.

How will your creations affect the games that we play in the next five to ten years?  Do you expect to see big changes in the industry?

EN: When we switched from monochrome monitors to color, the applications started making more use of colors. The same thing will happen with the computer games once 3D monitors will become more common. If you see the depth possible today from a Trinigy based game it is very impressive. I can't wait to see what will happen when the developers uses their creativity to make full use of the extra dimension.

In the future I see almost all displays being three-dimensional. Not only computer monitors but also "Game Boys," mobile phones and eventually televisions

What do game developers have to say about the 3D monitors?  Have any developers expressed interest in creating games that are designed exclusively for it?

EN: The market is too small to make games only designed for 3D monitors. But I am sure that having the added feature of 3D and using this to the fullest will become standard within [a] very short time.

Looks like a paintball shooter.

Have you thought about targeting the arcade market with your technology? Unique, highly-advanced technology is just what that dying industry needs.

EN: Yes, we have contact to some of the main players in this market [as well].

What do you anticipate the cost will be for a consumer-based monitor from SeeReal?

EN: At this point it is difficult to say. But our main goal is to get the price down to consumer level as fast as possible. This means that a 3D monitor should not cost much more than a high quality flat screen monitor.

Thank you for your time.