Field Sequential (interlaced) 3D support on XP

Discussion of legacy stereoscopic 3D gaming hardware and software (e.g. NVIDIA XP stereoscopic 3D drivers).
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kyodai
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 3:56 pm

Field Sequential (interlaced) 3D support on XP

Post by kyodai »

Hi there, I am new to these boards.

I am a big fan of the mid-90s Head Mounted Displays like Forte VFX-3D, 1995 i-Glasses PC, Cybermaxx and so on.

My favorite is the 1995 i-glassses PC with headtracker. The problem is that support on modern operating systems (I count Windows XP as "modern") is rather bad.

For games only the game "James Cameron's Avatar" offer a field sequential stereo mode, about all other games lack stereo modes. Nvidia had great drivers with stereo support but all newer ones don't support real 3D, only some crappy mode for their own brand shutter glasses (lol? That's how you sell today....). The only real alternate method was using IZ3D drivers which work fine for the good old field sequential mode HMDs. Actually terrible app as it costs 50 Dollars and is limited to the PC you bought the license for which is total BS. OK i tempered a bit with IZ3D, so for me the field sequential mode is now the "free" mode, but to make it short: I wanted more.

The first problem is that in Windows XP you can't set the screen res to 640x480 with the normal menu - 800x600 is the smallest you get but all the vintage HMDs wont work with that.


So to enjoy viewing full screen S-3D video with my old HMDs i had to make a little handy app that changes to 640x480 and back to your original resolution with just one click. Really usefull, i keep it in my quicklaunch bar. To view a video in field sequential format just use the app to switch to 640x480, open the FS-3D video in VLC media player, set it to fuill screen and then change aspect ratio to 4:3.

OK so here is the resolution switcher in case anyone needs it:

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1275166793.zip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Well the next thing i did is looking into how field sequential stereo 3D is made - you basically just draw the first line from the left picture as line 1, then draw line 2 from the right pictures first line and so on. So i made a little tool to generate field sequential stereo images from a left/right pair. I have worked a bit on the application and it now automatically handles 640x480 input images and resizes them, so you don't need to manually skew your left/right images before converting them to FS 3D. Originally i only made this app to create Field sequential graphics for further programming, i want to make a game in Field Sequential 3D. But as it was so much fun i integrated a "Viewer", so you can just click "Full Screen" and instantly enjoy your stereo pic on your HMD in Field Sequentail 640x480 - no need to get obscure drivers or stuff, so it's also a great app to try out your HMD you bought on ebay. =)

Image


OK here is the app in case anyone wants it. I will continue working on some games and stuff.

Note: Set your screen mode to 1280x1024 or higher or this might not work. I really tried making a 640x480 compatible app, but i couldn't do it, so you have to live with that. If the 3D is screwed up then try to swap left/right images. This works fine on windows XP, it should generally also work on Vista/7 but i dont have these so i couldnt try.

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1275796284.zip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I have also got the newer (2003) i-glasses with frame sequential stereo mode, but so far i have not started to make anything frame sequential. Does anyone have sources or tutorials for proggramming frame sequential appz?

All comments welcomed. =)
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iondrive
Sharp Eyed Eagle!
Posts: 367
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:13 pm

Re: Field Sequential (interlaced) 3D support on XP

Post by iondrive »

hi kyodi,

I think you would like my mplayer thread. It's nice and complicated.

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4521" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's in the movie forum section but I've asked Neil to move it to the Tech Support section. It can do a surprising amount of stuff on either Windows or Linux and I still have some more posts to make concerning frame-sequential info. I wonder if you can make a browser plugin. That's what I would like. A plugin that lets me see the 3d screenshots posted here on this forum. The plugin would take side-by-side R/L images posted here and show me an interlaced version after I right-click on them and select "show in interlaced mode". I have looked for such a plugin but I don't really like what I've found. One thing is called "DepthCharge Viewer" but that opens a new window for viewing. I want to see the 3d in the browser's window just like I see the original images. Can you write such a plugin for firefox?

The filename for "DepthCharge Viewer" is DCInstaller_2_5.exe but I can't seem to find where I downloaded it from. I thought you might want to try it. Oh, here it is:

http://www.vrex.com/depthcharge/DCInstaller_2_5.exe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(googled depth charge Installer vrex)

The other things I've found are 3DCCPlayer and "stereo photo viewer" (spva032.zip) and I don't remember the details of them but that I wasn't happy with them. They don't work like I've described above.

OK, later.

--- iondrive ---
kyodai
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 3:56 pm

Re: Field Sequential (interlaced) 3D support on XP

Post by kyodai »

Hmmm, i think the idea to use mplayer is not bad, with the command line options you can easily combine it with your own programs.

Personally i use VLC for field sequential DVDs, for other formats i use the japanese stereo movie player, imho one of the best ones out there...

http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stvply/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Well i did experiment with it and i think the only serious way to program a frame sequential viewer is to use directX, everything else would be either re-inventing the wheel from scratch or equally difficult. I could probably use mplayer in my appz, but i am more interested to create my own solutions. I think for frame sequential i might get back to it, but for field sequential i will use my own program for now.

I have played a bit with it, but it is nearly impossible in frame sequential to synchronize manually or with timers, you always get out of synch. Without directX i dont think i could do it and directX would mean to start from scratch basically, so i stay with field sequential for now.


The app is very slow, which is also a problem for field sequential, in DirectX you could do it in real time which allows much more possibilities.

I think i will make some simple games first, maybe some card games or so. I actually made the field sequential viewer mainly to at least have ONE halfway recent app for the vintage headsets and as a tool for making the graphics for my games. OK and i was quite curious how some of my 3D scenes would look in 3D.


I think to make an app that creates a field sequential image from left/right pairs here at the forums would be quite easy. I dont think i would make it as a browser plugin, I have no experience with browser plugins. Maybe if i have time i will make a lil app to grab the picturers from clipboard, that would be quite easy to make.
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