Table of Contents:
01 – Is it just a new revision of the DS?
02 - Is the graphical power the same as the DS?
03 – Is 3DS the final name?
04 – Is that the final design?
05 - How big is it?
06 – Will it play DSI, DS and GBA games?
07 - Will it have a second cartridge slot? What type of media does it use?
08 - How big are the 3DS screens and what resolutions do they display?
09 - Is the top screen a touch screen?
10 - What gaming features does it have?
11 - Besides games, what other features does it have?
12 - What kind of online service does it have?
13 - When does it launch?
14 – Will Flash cards, like M3 or R4, work on it?
15 - What are the tech specs?
16 - How does the 3D screen work? Is it really 3d?
17 - Does 3d take twice the hardware power?
18 - What is Pica200?
19 - What are Shaders?
20 - How many polygons can it render?
21 - Which is more powerful: 3DS or PSP? 3DS or PS2 / NGC / XBOX?
22 - What effects / shaders can the 3DS / Pica200 do?
23 - Is the Metal Gear Solid 3 Demo going to be released on 3DS?
24 - Which games were playable at E3?
25 - How do game developers feel about the device?
26 - What games have been announced for 3DS?
01 – Is it just a new revision of the DS?
No!
It's a brand new console and hardware. If DS is like a Playstation, 3DS is like a PS2.
02 - Is the graphical power the same as the DS?
No!
It is much higher, at least a full generational leap like PS1->PS2.
03 – Is the name definitive?
We don't know for sure, but it most likely is. Iwata (president of Nintend) said he would announce the final name at E3 and it was announced there as "3DS". In September, Nintendo is having an event for the device which would be their last opportunity to change the name or branding.
04 – Is that the final design
Basically, yes. During E3, Nintendo had said that the design was subject to change, but in a recent interview, the project Designer Hideki Konno said that this is the final design.
Read here: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/07/hideki-konno/
05 – How big is it?
Basically the same as for DS lite (when closed):
Width: 5.3 inches wide, or 13.5 centimeters
Height: 2.9 inches long, or 7.4 centimeters
Depth: 0.8 inches tall, or 2 centimeters
06 – Will it play DSi, DS and GBA games?
Yes, Yes and no, in order. It plays DSi games and DS games, but like the DSi, it does not run GBA games. Nintendo has not announced any details about DSiWare compatibility, or about any "Virtual Console" service for the 3DS.
07 - Will it have a second cartridge slot? What type of media does it use?
No. Cartridges.
The 3DS only will have one slot for cartridges. It will be use to play the DS, DSi games and the 3DS games as well. 3DS games currently have a small notch in the top of their game card that makes them a slightly different shape than regular DS games. Besides the game card slot, it has a SD card entrance, like the DSi. 3DS cartridges can reach up to 2 Gigabytes (16 Gigabits) at launch. This is four times the largest DS cartridge, which was 0.5 Gigabytes (4 Gigabits).
08 - How big are the 3DS screens and what resolutions do they display?
Size:
- Top Screen: 3.53-inch widescreen or 9 centimeters (same size as the iPhone)
- Bottom Screen: 3.02-inch LCD, or 7.7 centimeters (same size as the fat DS)
Resolution:
- Top Screen: 800x240 pixel (compare to the iPhone's 320 x 480), with 3D on it drops to 400x240
- Bottom Screen: 320 x 240 pixels (compare to the DS's 256x192).
09 - Is the top screen a touch screen?
No.
According to Nintendo, putting a touch screen in the top screen would "break" the 3D effect, which is the main selling point for the 3DS.
10 - What gaming features does it have?
-A wide top screen with ability to view 3D images cinema style, without the need of glasses.
-3D Depth Slider to adjust level of 3D effect (can be scaled back or turned off completely)
-A bottom screen with touch functionality and higher resolution than the DS .
-An analog pad (called the "slider") which is said to be smoother than the PSP nub and is around the same size as the Wii's nunchuk analog stick.
-A d-pad, which is around the same size as the DS d-pad.
-Four face buttons and 2 side in the same style and position of the DS (A, B, X, Y, L and R)
-SELECT, START buttons and a Home button (for returning to the home firmware), located under the botton screen.
-Gyroscope and accelerometer to capture 3DS motion or tilting, like the Wii Remote or iPhone.
-An internal camera for functions such as filming the player during the game.
-2 external cameras, with resolution of 640 x 480 (0.3 Mega) each, to take pictures in 3D or be used in games with augmented reality, among other functions
-Audio; Stereo superior to DSi, able to simulate audio in 5.1.x with headphones.
-Wireless Communication (2.4 GHz band) for local LAN and Wireless Internet. Will support IEEE 802.11.
-When not in use, it can automatically exchange data with other Nintendo 3DS systems or receive data via the Internet while in sleep mode. This is called "tag mode" informally, the official service name has not yet been confirmed.
-Microphone
-AC adapter connector
-Parental controls similar to the Nintendo DSi system will be included.
-The amount of internal storage memory has not yet been confirmed.
11 - Besides games, what other features does it have?
Take 3D Pictures, watch movies, web browsing.
In this year's E3 Nintendo showed that the device can be used for taking pictures in 3D and watching movies in 3D. Three 3D movies were demoed: How to Train your Dragon, Legend of the Guardians, and Disney's Tangled. Nintendo has not announced a business model for selling movies (digital or retail), and they have also not confirmed any details about media playback software.
12 - What kind of online service does it have?
Supposedly Nintendo is making a real effort to improve these features compared to the Wii and DS and give them more attention. While exact features have not been confirmed, Nintendo has announced that the 3DS will support leaderboards and ghost data in many games. Other information is not revealed yet. An interview posted by Nintendo with an EA developer suggests an achievement system, but it is unclear if he was referring to the OS have an achievement system or his game having one.
13 - When does it launch?
All territories are supposed to launch before the end of March 2011, although no date has been given. In the USA, the President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime, said on an interview on the "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" show that the 3DS will launch in 2011. Nintendo could still launch in 2010 in Japan or Europe, though.
14 – Will Flash cards, like M3 or R4, work on it?
No. Nintendo has emphasized strong new anti-piracy technologies and THQ representatives have been quoted as saying the hardware is "hacker-proof". The DSi still hasn't been fully hacked, so it is likely the 3DS will stay secure for a while.
15 - What are the tech specs?
-Weight: 230g (DS Lite weighs 218g and the original DS 274g)
-Dimensions: 130x74x20 mm (slightly smaller than the DS Lite which is 133 × 749 × 22 mm)
-Screen: top has an 3.53 inch screen and the bottom has a 3.02 inch screen (the DSi has 3.25 inch screen and Lite 2.9 inch screen)
-Battery: Nintendo is aiming for DSi level battery life, which lasts 9 to 14 hours. Is less than the Lite, which lasts 15 to 19 hours
-Brightness levels: details TBA . The DSi has 5 levels and Lite 4.
-Stylus: Telescoping stylus which is 100mm when fully extended. This is larger than the DSi's 92mm and a Lite's 87mm.
-Controls: a, b, x, y, R, L, d-pad, the-pad, touch screen, the accelerometer, gyro, start, select, home, power, camera, volume control and 3D level.
-Cartridges: up to 2 GigaBytes at the beginning.
-Storage: it is still the value of internal memory
-RAM: TBA. The DSi had 16 megs of RAM, the Lite had 4 megs.
-CPU: No one knows yet. The DSi uses a 133 MHz ARM9 and an ARM7 RISC at 33 MHz.
-GPU: DMP Pica200 IP core
-Camera: 1 internal with resolution of 640 x 480 (0.3 Mega) and 2 external with 640 x 480 (0.3 Mega) for taking 3D pictures.
16 - How does the 3D screen work? Is it really 3d
All 3d screens operate on the same principle: 2 images of the same scene at different angles are superimposed on top of one another, with half the images going to your left eye and half the images going to your right eye. By having a difference in the angle of the images, the brain is tricked into thinking that what it is seeing is 3D. See, in the picture below shows how it's done 3D:
Early 3d was called anaglyph 3d and used red and blue glasses, but the resulting images were tinted. Recent 3D movies (including Avatar) and 3DTVs from Sony use polarized 3D glasses.
The 3DS uses the barrier polarizing manner (parallax barrier) that does not need glasses. It works as follows:
1-The 3D generates two slightly different images, each 400x240.
2-The two images are interpolated into a single image of 800x240 resolution
3-The barrier in the screen receives the interpolated image and separates the images to travel to each eye.
Here this picture made by jarosh from NeoGaf explaining better:
A video demonstrating this:
17 – Does 3d take twice the hardware power?
No.
In 3D, Both the DS and in any other hardware , there are things that are not processed twice and things that are. The machine doesn't need to render the geometry (templates) twice, or process the physics engine twice (gravity, collision), or run the movement image twice, or the particle engines. These things are only processed once. After the scene is ready, 2 pictures are taken and the processor takes the generated image and a 3d map, completes the picture. This could be compared to texture mapping, reflection mapping, bump mapping, light mapping, etc. In other words, additional hardware power is needed to render in 3D, but not twice the hardware power.
It's harder for the processor to make games with split-screen multiplayer than 3D.
18 - What is Pica200?
The GPU (graphics processing unit) for the 3DS. The power of GPU comes from resources it has (such as shaders), the speed in MHz to render these features and the memory of the hardware to save the processed information and send it to the screen. Without knowing how much MHz and RAM of the device has no way of knowing for sure what kind of performance it has.
19 - What are Shaders?
In the field of computer graphics, a shader is a set of software instructions, which is used primarily to calculate rendering effects on graphics hardware with a high degree of flexibility. Shaders are used to program the graphics processing unit (GPU) programmable rendering pipeline, which has mostly superseded the fixed-function pipeline that allowed only common geometry transformation and pixel shading functions; with shaders, customized effects can be used. (wikipedia)
Effects such as: light and shadow, smoke, textures, fur, bump mapping, normal mapping among other things are considered shaders.
20 - How many polygons can it render?
40 million, more or less, but the exact specifications are unclear. This is confusing; the GPU, Pica200 was created in 2006 and the specifications said it could do 15 million polygons. In 2008, an updated spec sheet for the GPU gad 40 million polygons listed. This number can be either the total number of pure polygons, with no shader, or the total already with shaders applied. Some people are saying the 3DS probably falls between the two spec numbers offered. Because we don't know the exact specs of the Pica200 used in the 3DS, we can't know for sure, but what we know right now is that the Pica200 can hit 40 million polygons.
21 - Which is more powerful: 3DS or PSP? 3DS or PS2 / NGC / XBOX?
The 3DS is more powerful than the PSP, but the other comparisons are unknown because we do not have the complete specifications for the 3DS. Moreover, it takes time to master the hardware and find the perfect balance between resources and the ability to run smoothly. But when it comes to raw numbers, we have the following:
Resolution:
-PSP 480 x 272 pixels / 3DS 800x240 pixels (400x240 with 3D connected)
-PS2-640x480 interlaced for most games, progressive scan in a few. Some games (GoW2, GT4) have limited high resolution capabilities.
-NGC-640x480 interlaced for most games, progressive scan in some.
-XBOX-640x480 progressive scan for most games, some games render in HD.
Fillrate (Pixel per second-capacity hardware on show pixels on screen):
-PSP-660 m-2 texture layer
-3DS-between 800 million and 1 billion
-Ps2-600 million-up to 4 layers of texture
-NGC-648 million-up to 8 layers of texture TEVs
-XBOX-932 million-up to 4 layers of texture with higher resolution
Instructions per second (important for things like A.I., physical, shaders, etc):
-PSP-400 million
-3DS-TBA
-Ps2-360 million
-NGC-925 million
-XBOX-1.9 billion
CPU-central processor unit
-PSP-333 MHz-MIPS R4000
-3DS-TBA
-Ps2-294 MHz-Sony emotion Engine
-NGC-485 MHz-IBM "Gekko"
-XBOX-733 MHz-customized by Intel
GPU-graphics processing unit
-PSP-166 MHz-PSP owner
-3DS-200-400 MHz-Pica200 DPM
-Ps2-147 hmz Intel CPUs-Sony Graphics Synthetizer
-NGC-202 MHZ-customized by ATI
-XBOX-233 HMZ INTEL CPUS-customized by Nvidia
Poligons:
-PSP-33 million pure-6 to 12 in game
-3DS-~40 million, but actual power unknown
-Ps2-70 million pure-12 to 20 in game
-NGC-60 million pure-12-30 at stake
-XBOX-125 million pure-15 to 40 in game
RAM
-PSP-32 megs for games
-3DS-unknown
-Ps2-32 megs
-NGC-40 megs (being 24 1T-SRAM, faster than the normal memory)
-XBOX-64 megs (free use)
Graphic filters:
-PSP-2 x AA + 4 layers of texture + textures + Hardware compression Clipping
-3DS-4 x AA +? layers of texture + textures + Hardware compression Clipping
-PS2-2 x AA + 4 texture layers
-NGC-2 x AA + ETA 8 layers of texture compression TEVs + textures + Hardware Clipping
-XBOX-2 x AA + 4 layers of texture high resolution texture Compression + + Hardware Clipping
Shaders:
-PSP-transparency, smoke, Morphing, light and shadow primitive, subdivision of polygons (never used in games).
-Ps2-all PSP + plenty more advanced light and does subdivision polygons
-NGC-all from PS2 + refraction + cel shaded native + programmable shaders Has that can be added or updated.
-XBOX-all NGC + bump mapping + normal mapping + light correction per frame-fixed, non-programmable shaders.
-3DS-all Xbox + 4 x AA + Self shadow + subdivision polygons + programmable shaders equal to NGC.
Comparison photos:
Metal Gear: Ps2-PSP-3DS
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - PSP-3DS-XBOX
KH2 vs KH3D
RE4 vs RE 3DS
Steet Figther IV - iphone-3DS-Ps360
Mario Kart Double Dash vs Wii vs 3DS (working in progress)
Star Fox - N64 vs Remake
Dead or Alive - DC-3DS-XBOX (DC and Xbox shots are not representative of actual in-game quality)
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anyways i didnt sticky this ! who did ?
