Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!milton!jmunkki@hila.hut.fi From: jmunkki@hila.hut.fi (Juri Munkki) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: Cheap 3D? Message-ID: <1990Dec1.123417.13370@santra.uucp> Date: 1 Dec 90 12:34:17 GMT References: <11561@milton.u.washington.edu> <115 <1990Nov25.125931.1361@santra.u Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND Lines: 50 Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu In article <12077@milton.u.washington.edu> aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowle y) writes: >jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >>Buy an Amiga 500 for <$800 and a pair of Haitex 3D goggles ($100 or so). > >Why are these glasses so expensive? They're only a couple of big LCD's. $100 is actually quite reasonable. It requires money to market things like these and there aren't all that many people willing to buy 3D glasses. >Does anyone know if it would be possible to cannibalise an ordinary LCD >display to switch it all at once? That way you could build your own >shutters. I don't think that this would work. LC displays are highly integrated and you would still have to find a display with a single large pixel. I recommend the Sega LC shutter glasses. They are extremely simple to interface with almost anything and they cost US$34.95 plus US$2.20 shipping, if you get them from Sega ((800) 872-7342 (USA-SEGA)). >What would be particularly useful would be a connection to a >photosensitive switch: you stick a small sucker cup with a >photosensitive transistor inside in one corner of the screen and use it >to synchronise the shutters. That way, I can use it on the University >computers since I don't own one of my own. Doesn't sound all that hard, but it has a problem. The computer has to be aware of the vertical blanking and there's a danger of getting the left and right screens reversed. Still, it's a good idea, since it works quite well with interlaced displays (you loose 1/2 resolution). This could also be a good way to provide a vertical sync signal to a computer that doesn't have one. Just connect the device to a serial port handshake line and let the computer watch that. BTW, IMHO, the NeXTDimension color graphics board is currently the best platform for fast color stereo graphics. Why? It has a very smart clut that understands about windows. You define a window to have two 16 bit color buffers while everything else is in 24 bit colour. I guess you could expand that to four 8 bit color buffers, which is just about right for most stereo 3D CAD applications. (Of course I'm talking about serious applications here, so the low cost systems are out almost by default.) ____________________________________________________________________________ / Juri Munkki / Helsinki University of Technology / Wind / Project / / jmunkki@hut.fi / Computing Center Macintosh Support / Surf / STORM / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com