Graphics quality in 3D games

It has been stated on forums and blogs that the graphics are “worse”, when using the 3D feature of 3D-enabled games, due to the fact that rendering from two camera positions at a high frame rate requires much more CPU/GPU time; so much that it forces developers to lower the resource requirements by scaling the graphics down (in resolution as well as in complexity).

While this is mostly true in a strict technical sense, it’s only one aspect of it, and it should be noted that despite the loss of graphics performance due to the need to render scenes “twice”, games still look extremely good — even putting the 3D aside. The actual loss in quality is negligible; it’s very much “current gen” graphics no matter how you look at it. But, more to the point, the 3D:ness in itself is worth much more than is lost due to the lower graphics performance.

If you are one of the people for whom 3D works and you do get that sense of immersion, then I can almost promise you that any slight loss in frame-by-frame quality will be eclipsed by quality gained from the 3D effect. But don’t take my word for it — try it yourself.