GPUs to Revitalize 3D Movies and Audio Processing Industries (Now with Video!)

GPU's Role in Enabling Digital 3D Movies

3D movies that you see and hear about these days aren't actually a new fad; in fact, the earliest 3D movies were the horror flicks of the 1950s. Of course techniques used then to bring about the 3D movie effect back then were primitive - basically projected images had dual color layers that were superimposed and offset. The problem was the eye strain when viewing the projection through a pair of anaglyphic glasses (those red and blue glasses). Plus the quality was nothing to shout about. Thus the novelty wore off soon after and 3D movies haven't had the fanfare ever again up until Chicken Little (2005) and more accurately, Monster House (2006).

We managed to catch a tech session with Arthur Shek, Software Manager of Walt Disney Animation Studios who presented the audience with this clip on the making of the 3D version of Cloudy with a Chance of Meat Balls, an animation which is currently playing in theatres at the time of writing this article and has managed to clinch top spot at the Box Office for two weeks straight:-

3D movies are making a come back now because of a combination of digital cinemas, modern digital cinematography and that of computers playing an extremely pivotal role all through the production and post production process enabling 3D and other special effects with much better quality and ease. Chicken Little was the first ever digital 3D movie and the uptake and interest is getting better with each successive 3D movie. With about 5000 digital theaters worldwide that are ready for 3D movies, it's not surprising at all and this number will certainly explode further. Furthermore, 3D movies command a premium and the box office takings for certain titles like those shown in the slide below garnered far more revenue for the 3D screenings are proof that digital 3D movies are probably here to stay.

So far we talked about why and 3D movies are becoming more prevalent, but DIGIDIA who specializes in products and services related to broadcast and transmission of media, came down to the GPU Tech Conference to share with the audience on areas where the GPU's untapped shader processors can help to improve the viewing quality of 3D movies. It's understood that GPU clusters are employed for rendering these movies, but what we're touching upon are improving how a 3D movie is presented such as convergence accommodation, eliminating ghosting, and avoiding left-to-right image conflicts from the sides. We'll let the following slides point these out:-

And other areas in post production are incorporating automated tools for gradual depth changes through fading, and of course how not to forget about converting plain old 2D movies to look 3D which requires a lot of processing power to analyze each frame and scene (the process is also known as dimensionalization):-

3D Movies at Home!

While the previous page covered movie and theatre release considerations, DIGIDIA also touched upon the 3D home move status since HDTV is fast becoming a norm in homes and the next step moving forward is to bring the 3D experience home. The slide below illustrates the technology adopted by major TV and projector manufactures for their current and upcoming line-up of 3D-ready displays.

As you would have noted from the slide, the active electronic shutter glasses based technology is going to be the choice of 3D experience at home just like those used in NVIDIA's own PC-based 3D Vision kit. As we spoke to NVIDIA engineers, they mentioned that while Autostereo 3D TVs and display technology are available which doesn't require the glasses, but the industry is more concerned of the 3D experience which the electronic shutter glasses based technology can provide unrestricted, Full HD video quality experience much better than any other current forms at a reasonable price point. Plus, one has to consider that not all content is in 3D and as such the display has to double as a good 2D display as well - Autostereo 3D displays don't excel at this and are best suited for 3D signage than for the home.

3D displays on the small screen are however easy to implement due to the very small display size and the extremely limited viewing angle. 3D can be implemented by using a 'Parallax Barrier' method where each eye sees only a certain view and the combined view as processed by our brain will perceive it to be a 3D display with depth.

The biggest problem in 3D for the home is that display sizes can vary by a great degree and accommodating content for a 20-inch multimedia screen all the way up to a 103-inch plasma monster is no joke; without proper compensation, the 3D effect may not be effective, thus spoiling the fun altogether. This screen size differential would mean adjustments to the interocular distance (the stereo spatial distance between both eyes) would have to be compensated for and here again the GPU can play a role to perform real-time adjustments with regards to screen and room size.

GPUs in Audio Processing

Well we don't quite mean the use of a GPU for audio playback needs but rather the GPU can be a quite an ally for the audio editing realm. This is still a very new area where GPUs can lend their shader processing power but suffice to say this is possible because audio editing involves signal manipulation and it follows a mathematical formula of concatenating two signals through linear convolution. Where problems can be mathematically expressed, the chances of GPUs playing a role of accelerating these tasks are high.

So NVIDIA is suggesting that their GPU be used for co-processing needs (an audio DSP if you will) and do away with additional hardware targeted specially for professional audio signal processing. Sony's Acid Pro 7 seems to support this as demonstrated to us at the session.

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