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Quake II In Full Motion Stereogram 3D Engine
crhylove writes "A guy called Lewey Geselowitz has hacked the GPL Quake II code to display a real time full motion stereogram SIRD 3D environment. Warning, though, it's very hard to play if you aren't excellent at focusing on SIRDS already. He has a download page on his personal site with more information." The page notes: "You finally saw the yacht in the seemingly random bunch of dots! Now use your skills to free yourself from your evil extra-dimensional zombie oppressors! Welcome to Quake II as it was never meant to be."
I tried the first screenshot, and it actually worked! I could see some detail in the background, I could see jagged pieces and textures in between textures... and then I look to the side and Ker-FUBAR!
"Okay, who took my focus? I knew I had it here a minute ago..."
Either people playing Magic-Eye QUAKE 2 use mouselook like their heads have been spot-welded to their shoulders, or whenever they look to the sides of the screen their focus will break like the wind.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
This software could cause brain damage, kill an epileptic, create pandomonium globally, or cause irreversable damage to your colon.
cool... a sailboat.
This isn't exactly new in a game... I remember that Bullfrog's Magic Carpet had this feature way back in 1994. It was virtually impossible to actually play while in this mode, of course, but it was kind of neat for a few seconds. But it was nothing more than a gimmick: certainly not a major feature.
While Quake II would be even neater, I don't think anything's changed now... Hell, text-mode Quake II would be more playable.
This article gives a nice overview of how Single Image Random Dot Stereograms (SIRDS) work and their history.
Also, check out this Java applet here which can generate stereograms, with source code.
More screenshots on the developer's homepage.
One problem remains: how the hell are you supposed to read your status (ammo, hp, etc) while you're all crosseyed?!?
You should be fine as long as you continue to focus on the middle of the screen.
You see, as each new frame is drawn your eyes are already adjusted to being crossed, the next frame will have roughly the same depth so your eyes won't uncross.
I imagine the difficult part would be establishing a focus on a moving scene.
But really, I hated looking left or right and losing it immediately... I'd have to have a large monitor and enormous fov setting to play that way.
As I have yet to find a stereogram I could not view easily, I decided to take this for a spin. After playing for a few minutes I've noticed some interesting things.
1) Playability is greatly reduced by the fact that the HUD and crosshair is not put in stereo as well.
2) If someone is not familiar with the levels already, the lack of textures makes it almost impossible to navigate properly.
3) After quitting the game, I realize how much I enjoy viewing things in real world color/lighting
4) This is still pretty wicked awesome, and I have to give props to the creator.
Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
Grab the Quake 2 demo from GamersHell, install it and replace ref_soft.dll with the AbSIRD one.
I can't play it because I only have one eye!
Actually tried to use this excuse (along with proving it by tapping my proshtetic eye really hard with a fingernail) to get into a 3d ride (the kind with the glasses) for half price. Never worked though.
"You all laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same."
Even if you are good at static stereograms, you need to give this one a while before your brain & eyes will work well with this. After a while it's pretty playable, but the (neccessary) lack of texture and colored objects makes navigation very difficult. A wall and a door look exactly the same. Enimies are not so bad, since they are more geometircally complex than almost anything else, and they move, even when you don't. Thus the key seems to be whenever you hear an enimy wake up, stop moving and look for the part of the screen where the depth is changing.
It's quite amazing. It really, really makes you appricate the fact that your visual system extracts much more than just shape from the world. On the other hand, quake worlds were never that geometrically complex, and that makes it very easy to get lost. Perhaps if you could only see shape in the real world it wouldn't be so bad, since there is so much more varation.
No dice, guy.
I've had a lazy eye since long before these things first became popular in the early late 80s/early90s.
All my friends kept telling me how cool they were, and I literally spent dozens of hours trying every stupid method. Putting it behind glass, buying special "helper glasses", etc...
There's some things in this world us lazy (eyed) people were never meant to experience.
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.