SL in 3D (glasses required)

Been doing some research in 3D stuffs lately. It turns out I'm partially steroblind. If my eyes are crossed, I can see fine. But anything beyond half a foot away is "flat." It turns out this type if steroblindness is somewhat common and is usually due to one eye being dominant. It also has the rather odd effect of VR being more "real" than the "real world." The only things I see in 3D are things like anaglyph stuffs, magic eye, and oddly enough things in the rearview mirror of my dad's truck wich I think has some sort of polorized anti-glare coating. But the good news is with visual therapy I can train my eyes to work together. ^_^ So I'm gunna start watching more stuff in 3D, even if it gives me a headache (Brain needs Bloood to grow).

Anyhooo, I found this driver by Scitech (described here: http://www.stereovision.net/reviews/gldirect/gldirect.htm).



I can't get it to work on my laptop (FINALLY getting a real computer next week), but I was wondering if anyone here can manage to get it to work with SL. If it works, you should be able to experience SL in 3D with any form of 3dD glasses you can get our hands on. Once I get my new computer I'm hoping to play SL exclusively in 3d so I can perform my own form of "vision therapy." (In scare quotes cuz I'm not a doctor.)

Yes, one day I hope to be able to park my car. ^_^

I have a similar problem, my one eye is nearsighted, and the other farsighted: hence I can't see anything in 3d, unless wearing 3d glasses with the different colours (red and green, ya know...) Shutterglasses I have never tried, but I suppose they would work for me as well.

Sofar, i only had (and still have) problems with catching things, I have grown accustomed to not being able to see any depth at all. i cheat by looking at the ground to estimate how far things are from me , but obviously that doesn't work with things that come sailing trought he air ^^

seeing SL in 3d for once would be cool, wish there'd be a way to see RL in 3d as well...

Welcome to the stereoblind club!

I used to think the reason I couldn't catch the goddamn baseballs because I was a lamo.

Turns out that I was stereoblind...AND A LAMO!

sorry for the double:

do you still have to "cheat" consciously? I've found that I don't have to think about any of my compensation mechanisms at all. Most of the information I need to navigate the world reliably is accessible via parallax,occlusion and relative sizes.

I'm not stereoblind but you've got me intrigued enough to consider setting up a 3D viewer system on my rig. Don't have the money for it yet but thanks for the idea.

And also, I never knew there was such a condition for those with two eyes working.

For a lot of people with this problem it's simply a cocktail party fact. I rarely run into problems with it.

For example, I lost a competetition to some monkeys in grad school because of it.

It's fascinating, nonetheless, when I learn something new. I can imagine the problems considering that I, without that problem, already have a hard time catching flyballs. Fastballs are actually easier for me.

One thing I love to do in SL is rotate the camera around...and around... and around... almost gives me a sense of 3D. Yea, I can get a round fine by just reckoning based on those things. But I don't have a sense of where I am in a 3D Space... So things like Parking and catching balls-- stuff like that where you turn your attention away from your settings.... I just have to rely on luck. Only scraped one car outside of a bar so far. >.<

Pissed my dad off though when I was little, I kept closing my eyes in T-Ball cuz I didn't want to get hit and I couldn't trust myself to put my mit where the ball would be....but I knew the balls was comming at me.

You can get by without it... and no one will ever notice the difference. I read somewhere that it occurs in at least 20% of the population but 5% are completely stereoblind and cannot even see depth with aids like glasses. One reason I've read is that people spend too much time indoor compared to our ancestors. We don't exercise our eyes enough most of what we focus on is at most 10 feet in front of us (less if you are a computer geek or couch potato-- then it's less). I have read one account of a 48 year old gaining normal depth perception through prism lenses and professionally guided visual therapy. If training my eyes by watching 3D movies every day until I get a head ache doesn't work, once am covered by insurance I am definately going to look into seeing a specialist.

But there are artifacts from having one eye dominant. Some things appear "shiny" when they are not.

There was this one guy who wore glasses that inverted what he saw so everything was up-side down (right-side up on his retina). After a week, his brain adjusted and everything looked right-side up. He took his glasses off and the world was upside-down for a week until he re-adjusted. Even if the imput devices are good, sometimes you can tweak with the drivers. >.<

Well, if you get the driver working, let me know. ^_^

I had no idea this was so common. No depth perception here, either. And those stereograms where people say they can see a boat or whatever? I still think it's a huge conspiracy against me.

That will all depend on the cash situation, not expecting to be able to do something like that anytime soon.

However aren't there 3D glasses that work with specific video cards directly and don't depend on OpenGL or DirectX programming? Production of stereo-pair images from the current crop of GPUs can be done completely on the vidcard.

Wow! There was a report on NPR recently about a woman who was stereoblind all her life, and with therapy was able to gain 3D vision.

Heres the linkage: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5507789
(Be sure to both read the article and listen to the audio; they're not exactly the same.)

Her lack of binocular vision was because she was cross-eyed at birth, and it was not corrected until she was two. Until recently, researchers though that she was outside the window for her brain to re-wire itself -- only infants could do that, they thought. This woman's story is yet more evidence that the brain can rewire itself, even in adult years.

The story of her experiencing her first 3D snowfall is priceless!

I wish everyone who's pursuing visual therapy the best of luck!

@Simon

The fact that we can still learn new things, learn new skills and make new memories means that there is a rewiring going on all our lives. It's just slower than when we are young.

But what amazes me is what Aster said about those upside-down glasses.

I've heard lately that it's supposed to be really bad for kids to spend much time watching TV when they are very young, like from 0 to 2. I haven't heard why. Does it have something to do with need to see 3D reality in order to learn how to process it correctly?

When I was little, I used to draw pictures side by side so I could draw things in 3d by crossing my eyes until I saw three and look at the one in the center.

Something that I'm still wondering why it hasn't hit the mainstream, or why there isn't a marketable product out for it yet, is polarized 3d for home usage--you'd need:

1. polarized 3d glasses, like ones used in captain EO or in other 3d movies put out in the 80's that used polarized, non red-blue 3d glasses.

2. a video card that can put out two separate images to screens

3. a modified stereo 3d driver for the video card that puts out the image for the left eye on one screen and the right eye on the other

4. two projection screens of the same make and model that you can put a polarized lens vertical-style on one screen and horizontal-style on the other

5. point both screens at the same spot on the screen/wall and make sure they're focused correctly

Then put on the 3d glasses, load up the 3d environment and boom, non-flickery lcd-shutter glasses, non red&blue, full stereo 3d.

blah blah blah....

I actually have a set of shutter glasses..

Heres the gotchas tho:

1. Its 100$. Tricky enough.
2. The company MAY be defunct.. their site does not work last i checked. (http://x3dshop.com)
3. You have to have a CRT monitor.. LCD? SOL.
4. You have to have an nvidia based gfx card.
5. Your monitor has to have a hella good refresh rate (No less than 120hz unless you want a headache!)

@Fmeh

3D glasses that interface to NVIDIA cards have been around for several years now.

In addition there are 3D displays that do not need glasses. Unfortunately the only one I've seen commercially involves HDTV plasma screens and you have to be some distance back and the 3D isn't full 3D yet. But it does look like parts of the image really float off the surface of the screen.

Yes, I know about LCD shutter glasses. They've been around since the late 80's, and it has only been until the past 5 or 6 years that high enough refresh rates have been available to not give one a headache. I have 3 friends that use 3d shutter glasses with NVidia cards--I'm not talking about shutter glasses, I'm talking about polarized 3d (not ugly analygraph cyan & red), like captain EO and other 3d movies that were usually really cheesy, like Jaws 3. It requires two points of projection, polarized lenses on the projectors, and polarized 3d glasses (one eye has the polarization set for vertical, and the other for horizontal).

EDIT: Look at http://www.c3dnow.com/Content/Stereo3D/3D_glasses.htm for an explanation of several 3d methods. Here is a link that talks about other specifics of dual digital projector polarized 3d methodology: http://www.crystalcanyons.net/Pages/TechNotes/ProjectorShootOut.shtm