One of the worst drawbacks of the photos you find on the HCM web-pages
is the lack of a real 3D-View (although the perspective of the pictures and the shadow
gives a faint idea of the missing third dimension).
After some weeks of testing different ways of taking 3D-Pictures, scanning the images
and finding appropriate viewing devices finally most of the problems are solved!
So here are the first results - this is the first time you can see Home-Computer
in true 3D on the internet :-)).
What do you need?
The Hardware-Side:
a LCD-Shutter glass like: H3D, Eye3D or (with some restrictions) ELSA Relevator
OR a Red/Green or Red/Blue (cardboard) 3D glass
(you find these sometimes in 3D books or can buy it at the optician)
OR a nothing but a special viewing technique (see below)
The Software-Side:
As all the 3D files are stored in the common JPS-Format you
only need a 3D viewer that supports your hardware. Here are some
recommondations:
VREX DepthCharge
This is a free Web-Browser Plugin (RECOMMENDED) that
supports Red/Green, Red/Blue Anaglyphes and special viewing techniques.
Works very well with H3D and Eye3D but NOT with the
ELSA Relevator.
The VREX supports full-screen viewing (even with Windows NT).
You can download the free VREX-Plugin from their official Homepage
[here]
or directly [here] (1.6MB)
Technical background:
The technical background for Stereo-3D viewing:
Viewing and creating 3D pictures is still a quite tricky business. I can't
sum up all the details on this topics so here are the most important links:
http://www.stereo3d.
The best site for any Stereoscopic Questions (Hardware, Software, Technical) by Christoph Bungert. It has
a good discussion board and some VERY GOOD articles about 3D Topics.
I very much recommend reading
"3D Image-Formats and Graphics-Modes" if you want to know some details. There is also
a quite good overview article
"All at once - Stereo-3D in a Nutshell".
Do not get discouraged by the confusing menue :))
Elsa Relevator User:
Poor guys - you can't use VREX DepthCharge but MUST use the very limited
ELSA viewer (it can only display in 800x640 and 256 color)
To convert the JPS-Images to the proprietary ELSA BMP format use
the "Combine Revelator Image Converter" by Richard Scullion. (BTW:
interlaced images are by far better converted to ELSA-Format - so if you find a
way to convert JPS to inerlaced do this first.
[download]