Woah... if this actually works, and works well, then this could get me interested in the 3DTV idea...
Sony Patents Split-Screen Multiplayer That Keeps Screens Whole
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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This is a pretty damned clever idea. My hat's off to Sony. I may enjoy the hell out of this fifteen years from now when 3D televisions won't cost me a lung and a kidney to purchase.
I like how the people in the patent picture are playing Space Invaders and, I think Pac-Man. Wave of the future, man.
I wonder now if this could be applied to the movie industry as well. Never again would parents have to endure the movie version of their child's favorite show.
I can see it now. I'll buy this, excited about the prospect of finally playing decent split-screen with my girlfriend, only to turn it off 10 minutes later from the massive fucking headache from those stupid 3D goggles. It's bad enough in a movie theater. I feel like I'm in an audience that consists entirely of clones of the Blues Brothers.
Bah. Just because Sony patented it doesn't mean anything will come of it.
Think, everyone! What have Microsoft and Sony been doing? They have been releasing multiplayer games - all of which require a second XBOX or PS3.
This is just so that nobody else (Ie: Nintendo, the only company to produce same-room multiplayer anymore) can get a leg up on them and make even more money.
Think, everyone! What have Microsoft and Sony been doing? They have been releasing multiplayer games - all of which require a second XBOX or PS3.
This is just so that nobody else (Ie: Nintendo, the only company to produce same-room multiplayer anymore) can get a leg up on them and make even more money.
So what about the framerate for each virtual screen? If there are two, then the rate is halved.
Um. Isn't this a pretty obvious consequence of being able to render two images onto one screen at once? It's annoying that they're patenting it, as it's something anyone could do with a 3D screen/TV. Besides, the technology the PS3 uses for 3D is, pretty much, just the same thing as split-screen multiplayer: it renders one half the screen for one eye, the other half for the other, then stretches both out to fill the screen - in other words you're probably not going to get much of a resolution increase, not on the PS3.
Sound is fairly easy to fix as there's been a lot of development in locational, unidirectional sound, like this guy here: http://www.ted.com/talks/woody_norris_invents_amazing_things.html Sony bought this ages ago, so there's no reason they couldn't do it.
Sound is fairly easy to fix as there's been a lot of development in locational, unidirectional sound, like this guy here: http://www.ted.com/talks/woody_norris_invents_amazing_things.html Sony bought this ages ago, so there's no reason they couldn't do it.
It's still got the problem that makes (most) 3D not nearly as appealing as it could be - the glasses.
I do not want to be required to wear an extra pair of them over the version I already need to wear all the time just so I can watch something on my TV screen.
I do not want to be required to wear an extra pair of them over the version I already need to wear all the time just so I can watch something on my TV screen.
Is this really right to patent this?
I mean sure, patent a complete system but this is just an idea, a trick, the idea that stereoscopic 3D glasses don't have to show each user a stereoscopic image to each eye but two users can see two completely different images. I mean if some jerk had patented the "idea" of directly turning electricity into light, he may have stumbled around trying to get his inferior DESIGN to work because he had a monopoly on a great IDEA!
HOW can Sony have a monopoly on this idea for the next 30 years?
I mean patents are supposed to protect the WORK of talented individuals, like if you spend 5 years developing a new microchip-architecture that should be patentable... but not the idea behind it. This patent just seems too broad and so encompassing that it crushes innovation from competition.
I mean this doesn't even state what kind of glasses are used, there is no wiggle room here.
I mean sure, patent a complete system but this is just an idea, a trick, the idea that stereoscopic 3D glasses don't have to show each user a stereoscopic image to each eye but two users can see two completely different images. I mean if some jerk had patented the "idea" of directly turning electricity into light, he may have stumbled around trying to get his inferior DESIGN to work because he had a monopoly on a great IDEA!
HOW can Sony have a monopoly on this idea for the next 30 years?
I mean patents are supposed to protect the WORK of talented individuals, like if you spend 5 years developing a new microchip-architecture that should be patentable... but not the idea behind it. This patent just seems too broad and so encompassing that it crushes innovation from competition.
I mean this doesn't even state what kind of glasses are used, there is no wiggle room here.
Why not just skip straight ahead to contact lenses with visual displays? Then no two people will ever have to share the same experience ever again. We can all wander around in our own unique versions of this world.
Technology isn't bringing people together.
Technology isn't bringing people together.
This idea, slick as it is, is utterly unworthy of a patent. The amount code to implement this is trivial, given that you've already supported regular splitscreen gaming, and already have the ability to render two viewports on alternating screen updates (3D). I hope they go through with this, but I really hope the patent is denied for reasons of prior art.Don said: