Talk about a gaming first! Sheridan’s IC3D video game for Ontario Tourism is the first immersive real-time rendered 3D game. Immersive 3D gaming is still an emerging field. Case in point, there’s lots of experimenting by companies taking 2D and traditionally rendered 3D perspective games and adapting them to new 3D display technologies.

But the IC3D project is fully 3D. To make it happen, Sheridan and VDI partnered with Spatial View, a company with offices in Toronto that has its own proprietary 3D displays and software development kit to allow rich 3D visuals for viewers. The Spatial View displays create a glasses-free 3D image with a special stereoscopic overlay on display screens. Their technology allows up to 5 channels of video to be combined to produce stunning 3D images. TheSheridan IC3D Game is an interactive real-time application whereplayers use BlackBerry® smartphones as game controllers to assemblepuzzles featuring some of Ontario’s most popular tourist attractions.

How did we get it all to work together? Summarizeit this way: 3D rendered in real time is not easy. In fact, it’s a bitof an art – particularly designing visuals that produce the greatest 3Deffect. It’s crucial to having something that’s immersive for players

The great thing about working in an emerging area means SheridanResearch and VDI had the opportunity to innovate each day by testingthe boundaries of what has been done in the past and improving on them.During the months of development we spent creating IC3D, there was aconstant need for experimentation and innovation to make the gameachieve the best 3D appearance. A lot of that came down to ourSheridan-trained digital artists who broke new ground in stereoscopic3D design and rendering.  A team of students from the college’s Applied Computing and EngineeringSciences School worked with VDI staff to take this application fromconcept to finished product.

Sheridan’s 3D video game on display at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games is based on very cool technology.

The game, called “IC3D”, is a showpiece at the Ontario House Pavilionat the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, and will be used to introduce someof Ontario’s most well-known tourist attractions to the world-wideaudience in Vancouver.  Visit our mini-site to catch some of the action live from Ontario House!

Visitors to the Ontario House Pavilion will play the puzzle gamefeaturing 20 of Ontario’s landmark attractions, displayed as‘icicons’,* on 46” Spatial View auto-stereoscopic 3D screens. Thepieces of each attraction, or ‘icicon’, appear scattered on a frozen 3Dlandscape. Up to five players work collaboratively to assemble the‘icicons’, each using a BlackBerry smartphone. Once complete, amultimedia presentation of the attraction is displayed on each player’sdevice.

On its surface, IC3D is a tourism promotion tool, but it’s really a technology proof-of-concept for emerging 3D technologies. Because the technology for immersive 3D applications is still developing, the market hasn’t existed to date. But it’s clear that’s going to change as display companies start to introduce 3D televisions and computer displays to the consumer market.

"The cutting edge technology of Sheridan’s 3D Game showcases ourprovince’s tourism icons like never before. The world will see in aunique and innovative way that there truly is no place like Ontario tolive, visit and invest,” said Michael Chan, Ontario’s Minister ofTourism and Culture.

We’re looking forward to what the future holds and continuing to play a part it its development.

"The project is a great example of how Sheridan’s expertise in applied research can seamlessly combine multiple disciplines as diverse as art and information technology. Sheridan’s long experience in digital media made collaborating with Spatial View on a 3D gaming and visualization project an ideal partnership,” says Jill Birch, Sheridan’s Vice President of Business Development. “This unique and innovative collaboration not only demonstrates the Province’s commitment to innovation in technology, but we think it has been a model for how technology companies and educational institutions with expertise in applied research can partner to create technological breakthroughs.”

“We are excited to be working on such an innovative project with one of North America’s premier Visual Design educational institutions,” says Beat Raemy, CEO of Spatial View. “The combination of Spatial View’s technology and Sheridan’s creative software development skills has resulted in a truly amazing glasses-free 3D experience.”

Read the full press release here