Darkworks, TriOviz Partner On PlayStation 3 3D Middleware

Author: by Staff

Game developer Darkworks and stereoscopic 3D technology developer TriOviz have partnered on a 3D graphics SDK that will allow game makers to implement one 3D solution that works on both standard HDTVs as well as 3D-capable TVs, and today the companies announced that the SDK has been accepted into the official PlayStation 3 Tools & Middleware Licensee Program. The TriOviz for Games SDK, first demonstrated earlier this year, supports both types of TVs by making use of a shader in the game engine itself, rather than using the traditional method of rendering different frames twice as fast. "Launching with little support for console games, 3D TVs present a chicken-and-egg dilemma; consumers are waiting for a critical mass of 3D content to justify the purchase while developers are waiting for an installed base of 3D TVs that justifies the development investment," said longtime graphics technology expert Jon Peddie. He described TriOviz's tech as "an excellent bridging solution" allowing gamers to "play the same 3D console title on their existing HDTVs and then on their new 3D TVs." Paris-based Darkworks hasn't developed a game since 2005's Cold Fear, and its more recent project I Am Alive was taken internal by publisher Ubisoft; the company has focused more heavily on "future-generation" R&D for games. TriOviz, also based in Paris, is a developer of various pieces of 3D video technology. TriOviz for Games is supported on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and was incorporated into the Game of the Year Edition of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum.