President's Message

Thank you for joining “Meant to be Seen”. We are the first and only stereoscopic 3D certification (S-3D) and advocacy group in the world designed to appeal to end consumers. By joining this organization, you are helping push the success of S-3D software and technologies, and will improve the stereoscopic 3D gaming experience for millions of gamers – including you.

My introduction to S-3D gaming happened a few years ago when I bought a pair of LCD shutter glasses on eBay. For less than $50, I could play games in true stereoscopic 3D. Video game characters, munitions, and text literally exploded outside my screen! I was immediately sold.

I was very surprised to learn that stereoscopic technology has been around for several years, and wasn't a recent breakthrough. I was even more surprised to learn that the gaming industry had yet to officially adopt this innovation, and this has slowed progress in the field – so much so that several promising technologies had very limited success.

The problem is countless games were needlessly handicapped by incompatibility with these exciting technologies, and while the stereoscopic hardware industry strived to keep up with advances in video game development, the gap continued to widen between the S-3D hardware solutions and their gaming counterparts.

Without a consistent link between S-3D manufacturers, game developers, and consumers, everyone loses. The game manufacturers miss out on providing a truly thrilling experience, the gamers potentially lose their S-3D investment, and the phenomenal stereoscopic innovations are ultimately thrown out with the bathwater.

I launched MTBS to solve this problem. After a year, and thanks to the efforts of our members and industry partners, this trend is quickly slowing down.

Including industry credit, some of the highlights for our first year include the following:

• MTBS has spoken at three respected events, including one keynote.
• MTBS has been featured in multiple articles and interviews.
• When MTBS started, there were all of fifty gamers participating in online forums. We expect to break 3,000 registered members and 10,000 unique visitors a month shortly.
• Once just a handful of S-3D discussion posts a month, MTBS forums are quickly approaching 6,000 spam free posts by excited gamers interested in S-3D.
• We have confirmed by surveying our members that a stereoscopic 3D gamer spends up to $400 more per year compared to traditional hardcore gamers. This means our market is the most valuable gaming market in the industry.
• MTBS endorsed Unigine, the first modern game engine that natively supports stereoscopic 3D without the need for add-on drivers or middleware.
• The Stereoscopic Displays & Applications Conference is publishing the MTBS Programming Guide, the only non-proprietary S-3D programming guide in existence today.
• MTBS has benefitted from up close interviews with and participation from the leading names in the industry including Joshua Greer (President of Real D), Tim Partridge (EVP for Dolby 3D), Dave Cook (Head of Stereo Driver Development for NVIDIA), and many more.
• After listening to our members, iZ3D LLC is developing non-proprietary S-3D drivers. The industry is excited about these drivers because they support post processing effects in S-3D (e.g. HDR, Bloom, Blur, etc.) which were unheard of up until now in stereoscopic 3D gaming.
• NVIDIA is expected to release their updated stereoscopic 3D drivers shortly that support DX9 and DX10.
• TDVision Corp. is developing the first high definition HMD that supports 1280 X 1024 in the consumer space, and has joined MTBS’ effort.
• Alexa.com ranks mtbs3D.com in the top 3% of all websites.
• In the cinema space, Beowulf 3D, U23D, Hanna Montana, and others in the works consistently demonstrate 2:1 and 3:1 revenue compared to traditional 2D showings. This has established a growing pressure and demand in the consumer space for game developers to take a serious look at proper S-3D adoption in gaming.

While it has been a very good first year, it is much too early to pat ourselves on the back. Our industry’s number one barrier to widespread success is a solid business case. A business case can demonstrate itself as either an S-3D unit in enough homes, or a visible demand for S-3D units in enough homes. Therefore, every person who registers on MTBS helps us support these requirements.

Our second year of operation is going to focus on growing from 3,000 to 100,000 registrants, and to do that, we are going to appeal to traditional 2D gamers.

Our mission is to give gamers the means to get superior visual beauty and game immersion out of their video games, and we think the only way to do that is through stereoscopic 3D technology.

In order to make this mission a success, mtbs3D.com is being adjusted so we can keep our focus, and also appeal to traditional hardcore gamers so they can take an interest in what S-3D has to offer.

Our first step is to launch an MMOG or Massively Multiplayer Online Game. MTBS Nations at War (NAW) is an addictive game run through Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers that pits MTBS members against each other to capture the highest rank in the game. Members build cities, armies, and infrastructure. It’s run in real-time which means members regularly come back to play, and with allegiances and resource sharing, it’s guaranteed to be a lot of fun.

We have dabbled with game servers during the year, and after some experimentation, we know how to launch them in a way that will attract new members and have regularly populated games that will be a lot of fun for members too.

Finally, expect to see a lot more content on MTBS. People need a reason to come back regularly, and we want to diversify what is offered here in a manner that is useful to S-3D gamers, and interesting enough to capture the attention of traditional 2D gamers.

It is critical that our members play a role in all three venues by submitting articles to MTBS, playing the MMOG, inviting friends to participate, etc. This is your community, and a great deal of our focus is going to be about making MTBS a place for you to call your online home.

So please accept our thanks for making our first year a success. I firmly believe that the stereoscopic 3D industry has a very bright future, and we ask that you come back to this website often for updates, announcements, and interaction.

Sincerely,
Neil Schneider, President
Meant to be Seen