At the 3D Gaming Summit in Hollywood this week, some of the biggest supporters of 3D gaming met to discuss the future of the format. And with all the advancements in the tech, there's still much to learn.

Pal-Kristian Engstad, lead graphics programmer on Naughty Dog'sUncharted 3: Drake's Deception, elaborated on how his studio has incorporated the technology into its upcoming, high-profile PlayStation 3 game.

"The way I see 3D, it's a different kind of experience, it's a closer experience. You can use it to get closer to the player. We use it so that you understand that if you step off a ledge, you might hurt yourself. It's not a sacrifice, it's an additional component to the game in our view."

He also was careful to point out one of the most prominent technological hurdles of stereoscopic 3D game development: "But when you're trying to max out the potential of a console, [keep in mind] you have to render things twice. If you have an engine that can't render as fast, you're going [to suffer] from running twice as much data at once."

Jeremy Nikolai, senior programmer at Ready At Dawn, developer of God of War: Origins Collection for PS3, confirmed a similar development experience to Engstad's. "For God of War: Origins Collection, we had to make some adjustments. The 2D game runs at 60 frames per second in 1080p. But because of the rendering associated with 3D, it runs in 720p at a lower framerate. If we were starting from scratch [instead of adapting the PSP games to home console], it would've been different."

Cheap Thrills Or Smart Implementation?

Panel moderator Shane Satterfield with GameTrailers.com cited lower-brow Hollywood films' use of 3D effects for "cheap thrills." He asked the panel what they felt the difference was between "smart" and "cheap" use of 3D effects in games.

"We were working off a remake, but we think we used it intelligently," said Nikolai. "You have to use it right. We have to be careful about 'window-in violations' and not breaking the fourth wall too much. Everything has to come through the center instead of breaking that dimension from the sidelines," Nikolai said. He also mentioned that the team established a "virtual bubble" to ensure that any flying 3D effects came from within specific areas to enhance gameplay, rather than provide cheap thrills.

Naughty Dog's Engstad elaborated. "We initially just implemented 3D, then all of the designers got really impressed and started thinking of what they could do to make it better. It's paying off now."

"It's important to use the medium appropriately," added Simon Benson, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's senior development manager for its 3D team. "It's not just video, there's more you can do with it. [At Sony] we start by making sure teams understand the technical boundaries of 3D. It has its own set of rules. It's a high quality video mode, and once you hone the technical boundaries, you then implement creative."

"It's a two-phase process. 3D on PS3 is only 12 months old," he said. "It's still new. We still have 60 games. At this point, people are learning to implement the creative elements now that all of the technical work has been established."

3D's Low Adoption Rates

Moderator Satterfield cited an NPD sales figure that reported that in 2010, only 4 percent of televisions sold in the U.S. were 3D-capable. With a softer market, he shifted the attention away from creative implementation to the challenges facing the 3D market.

What it boils down to is creating content that convinces consumers that investment in 3D is worth it. "For our technology to work in games, [we] must work directly with teams from the outset to design titles that utilize it," noted Guy Matteotti with 3D middleware company TriOviz.

The ZL2 boasts a range of technologies designed to provide a decent 2D and 3D viewing experience, including face tracking, Resolution+, Auto Calibration, 2D to 3D conversion, and Smart TV features including Toshiba Places.

The ZL2 is the world’s first TV targeted at consumers to include a Quad Full HD display, offering a mega 3840 x 2160 resolution compared to the standard Full HD which is 1920 x 1080.

The glasses-free 3D technology is based on the stereoscopic principle of simultaneously delivering a picture to the left eye, and another one with a small offset (parallax) to the right eye, in order to achieve the 3D effect. To deliver a glasses-free 3D image a range of lenticular lenslets guide the dedicated images to each viewer in the room.

Toshiba says the ZL2 is able to provide 3D images for up to nine different viewing positions. The TV tailors the 3D to the viewers’ actual positions in the room using face tracking technology. At the touch of a button, it is able to detect where each person is sitting, and adjust the viewing zones accordingly which it does by moving the lenslets.

3D Projection Mapping on a building such as the one of the theater on the video can turn out great if everything is working as it should.

This time however the specific event, organized by LG Electronics, as a part for their ongoing Cinema 3D TV marketing campaigns has failed quite bad due to technical problems. 

"Shit happens" but the parts that do work give a stunning glimpse as to whats coming.