How 3D Works on the PlayStation 3

Firmware 3.30 turned on 3D game support on the PS3 this week, but there are no 3D games current available. Digital Foundry have done some investigation into how the technology works on the console, starting with how Sony translated WipEout HD from 2D into 3D. In short, many games need to scale down the resolution and reduce the frame rate.

WipEout HD run at 1080p, which means the resolution needs to be scaled down to 720p and the frame rate reduced to 30Hz for the game to work in 3D. This allows the devs the breathing room to complete the extra geometric calculations required by 3D.

For games like Motorstorm: Pacific Rift that ran at a 720p / 30fps clip, the solution was to generate it at a lower resolution and to use hardware upscaling and a few optimizations to make 3D work. The SCEE devs also mention that quite a few field-of-view and motion-illustrating effects could simply be disabled in 3D.