Roger Ebert: '3D doesn't work with our brains and it never will'

World-famous film critic Roger Ebert – who previously had to U-turn on his statement that games can't be art – now believes that 3D will never work.

This is based on information in a letter sent to him from film editor and sound designer Walter Murch. The letter states that 3D has a number of problems, most notably the darkness of the picture and an unsolvable convergence issue.

Murch explains: “3D films require us to focus at one distance (the screen) and converge at another (the illusion). 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point. Our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches.”

This process is like the difficult art of tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, according to Murch.

However, CTO of CineForm David Newman disagrees, and has chimed in on his blog to say why. He believes that although many areas of 3D can and should be improved, the so-called unsolvable convergence issue is a false one.

“There is an error made in the assumption that 'the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen'," he said. "While that is generally true for objects close to a viewer in space, it is not true for a movie screen '80 feet away'."

So which side do you agree with? This is, after all, the kind of technology packed into Nintendo's highly anticipated 3DS console - albeit designed to be viewed a lot closer than "80 feet away."

Have your say below.