stereoscopic 3D development questions

swamplord

Hi everyone,
I'm doing a final year project on stereoscopic 3D in university.
I'm only looking to develop a couple of animations and scenes to demonstrate some concepts and I don't want to have to invest a large amount of cash for the 3D monitor, glasses and computer hardware.
If anyone has any experience developing in stereoscopic 3D, what are the resources you used? Is it possible to develop something without a 3D setup? Is it possible to use 3ds max or maya to develop something in stereoscopic 3D?
Any help and insight would be greatly appreciated!

-Swamplord

haiddasalami

Maya has stereoscopic camera rigs that you can use. I believe max should have something like that or you can parent two cameras render from both left and right with the optimal eye distance. You can use Red/Cyan Glasses to get 3d video. Also go for pretty cheap, think I got mine for 10$

Ben Apuna

If you haven't already seen it, there was a How do I make my work stereoscopic? thread a little while ago.

Here's how to do it in Modo.

Stereoscopic rendering in modo 401 p1

- This is a quick review of the stereo options in modo 401 and how to create an anaglyph in Photoshop using the modo output.

Stereoscopic rendering in modo 401 p2

- Learn how to use modo to process stereographic image pairs into an anaglyph image. In this case we use a stereo pair movie. Nice.

swamplord

ok great, i'll take a look at all that asap.
thanks for the fast response

swamplord

Thanks guys. I'll take a look at all that ASAP

Ryan Clark

If you don't want to invest in an expensive setup, you can use tinted red/blue anaglyph glasses with pretty much any application.

Grab the free version of the iZ3D driver, from www.iz3d.com. It can add anaglyph support to most Direct3D and OpenGL software.

I've only tested IZ3D with valve's source engine, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't work with any hardware-accelerated viewport.

Anaglyph glasses can be purchased online for a couple of dollars. I recommend the sturdier plastic ones, instead of the disposable paper ones.

swamplord

A bit of a noob question but is the red/green stereoscopy the only choice when trying to do it without specialist hardware? Is it impossible to create scenes that would use shutter glasses or polarized lenses to have the 3D effect? If i remember right, that kind of stereoscopy needs a screen that filters the image through a polarized screen then the polarized lenses, right?

BeatKitano

Ryan Clark wrote: »

I've only tested IZ3D with valve's source engine, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't work with any hardware-accelerated viewport.

Unfortunately, unless you use 3d package that natively support stereo (maya/houdini etc), you won't have iz3d take care of it for you. For the driver to kick in, you need to be in native dx application, most of the time the application use ui taht gets in the way of the driver hook. And I'm not talking about ogl, it's a joke, you need a quad buffer enabled app for it to work, and there's close to zero. They took ogl support out of the driver in the latest versions anyway.

swamplord wrote: »

A bit of a noob question but is the red/green stereoscopy the only choice when trying to do it without specialist hardware? Is it impossible to create scenes that would use shutter glasses or polarized lenses to have the 3D effect? If i remember right, that kind of stereoscopy needs a screen that filters the image through a polarized screen then the polarized lenses, right?

Maya has few other supported mode, side by side, interleaved, checkerboard and a few other I forgot.

Ryan Clark

swamplord wrote: »

Is it impossible to create scenes that would use shutter glasses or polarized lenses to have the 3D effect?

Each of those methods is possible, for a hardware cost in the neighborhood of $500.

Nvidia makes shutter glasses that work with certain 120hz monitors and projectors. You need a compatible nvidia GPU with a dual-link DVI port. If you have such a GPU, you can buy the glasses and monitor bundled. eg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236092

Alternatively, Zalman makes a monitor with polarizing filter. It works with inexpensive polarized glasses, and it doesn't require any particular GPU. http://tinyurl.com/242fkx8

The 3D effect works great in both cases. The shutter glasses produce a sharper picture and seem to have a wider viewing angle, but the 60hz flickering bothers some people, and can cause eyestrain.

In my case, I have a laptop with no DVI port, so the Zalman was my only choice. But I'd probably have gone with the shutter glasses, if I had a dual-link DVI port available.