[Visualpython-users] Stereo

[Bruce S. <bas...@un...>]

New installers for Windows and Unix/Linux/MacOSX at http://vpython.org.

Thanks to Hugh Fisher, there is now support for true stereo video by 
setting scene.stereo = 1 on machines with suitable hardware. Hugh has 
tested this on Windows but not on Linux, and I don't have appropriate 
equipment yet (but I intend to get an appropriate graphics card and 
shutter glasses to see this for myself).

There is one slightly loose screw: On Windows, setting scene.stereo = 1 
on nonstereo hardware is essentially ignored, but on Linux this gives an 
OpenGL error (can't initialize the device). I'm inclined to think that 
it would be better to ignore the setting if the device can't give true 
stereo, since then the program would at least run (in nonstereo mode).

Here is the documentation contributed by Hugh and incorporated into the 
online reference manual:

stereo

Stereoscopic option; scene2.stereo = 1 will render alternating left 
eye/right eye images for viewing through shutter glasses if the graphics 
system supports quad buffered stereo. It not, setting the option has no 
effect. See also eyesep below. This is not a physically accurate 
virtual-reality type display. Some tinkering with the field of view, 
range, and eye separation values is usually needed to get the best 
results. (Quad buffered stereo is only available on specialised graphics 
systems that have the necessary hardware and shutter glass connector, 
such as SGI machines and PCs with nVidia Quadro or 3DLabs Wildcat 
graphics cards. It generates the illusion of depth by rendering each 
frame twice from slightly different viewpoints corresponding to the left 
and right eyes. Special shutter glasses are synchronised with the 
alternating images so that each eye sees only the matching frame, and 
our brains do the rest. It's called 'quad buffered' because there is an 
OpenGL buffer per eye, both double-buffered for smooth updating.)

eyesep

The eye separation distance in meters for stereoscopic display, ignored 
if scene.stereo = 0. The default is eyesep = 0.01, increase or decrease 
as necessary for your particular scene and camera settings.