Amusement Park 3D at home? Is it possible?

[Amblix]

Hey everyone, long time lurker, 2nd time poster, 25 year 3D enthusiast

My first intro to 3D was in the form of print with anaglyph glasses, I was probably around 5 or so, I was hooked from that moment on. Quickly I taught myself how to draw 3D Flip/book stick figure animations. (My dad worked at a printing press and always had tons of drawing pads around)

A few years later Captain Eo opened up so I begged to go see that at Disneyland. My jaw was to the floor the entire experience. I had never seen anything like that. Many years go by and Honey I shrunk the audience came out. Again INCREDIBLE 3D....

flash ahead 1999...

I started a tech company and found a small startup (eDimensional) and worked with them displaying their technology at all the trade shows I had booths in. Although I did think it was amazing at its time, it was still nothing like when I was a little boy at Disneyland.

flash ahead 2005-present...

My company designs and installs Hi-End automation/media systems for very hi profile customers. I have been so busy I havent followed 3D in sometime since it died out. I get wind of the NVidia setup and go buy their promo package as well as a samsung plasma and viewsonic projector for testing. I would love to start installing 3D Media Servers.... Anyway, it didnt really seem like much has changed aside from vast support now due to hollywood hype. It still did'nt WOW me, although it does most everyone else.

So now I have decided to do some testing in my personal theater and have a very basic question I think...

Is it at all possible to have the immense amount of depth and out of screen effects like I saw 20 years ago??? Is it sheer size and distance ratios? Can only a dual setup do this so well?

I'm just not quite grasping what's different especially from the 80's

I have a budget of around 15K-20K to test but need some advice and direction. I have never setup a dual passive system but have found tons of info to be able to do this with confidence. I'm not looking to build a 15-20K system, I need some "experiment" money, so no $18K projectors please I'm also not referring to the lasers used inside the parks theater to enhance the 3D lol

So as my topic title asks....Is it possible to achieve Amusement Park style 3D at home? In a club? With modern available consumer/lowpro grade equipment?

Any calculators on seating distance/depth/convergence/out of screen would be very helpfull

I'm currently am using various content for testing:


3D Teleconferencing Equipment
AutoCad
Maya
IMAX films
Video Games
Fuji Finepix
Dual Digital Still Cam
Dual Camcorder
Sony HD auto converging stereo cam
Custom Developed Apps

Glasses Testing:
RealD Circular Polarized
Linear Polarized
Nvidia Shutters
Xpand Shutters
RealD Shutters
S0n.y Shutters (shhhhhh, I didnt say that one)


Thank you everyone again! Happy Viewing!

[cybereality]

I think its certainly possible with enough money and effort. You could go the DIY route for dual passive-polarized, but with your budget you could probably afford the DepthQ. Building your own rig is probably better though as you could easily support a large audience affordably. So you are looking at getting two 1080P hi-end projectors and all the associated gear for a polarized setup. That should only cost a few thousand, maybe $5K tops.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't achieve the same "out-of-screen" effects as in the theme park. I think the content was heavily tailored to get these effects to work. This means careful control over the convergence/separation and a knowledge of where people are sitting in relation to the screen. But there was no magic going on at the theme parks (as far as I know). Its just a stereoscopic source, you decide what each eye sees.