Viewing Results

Introduction

What can be better, than viewing flat images? Viewing 3D images! Stereoscopy allows you to see objects as if they are present in the real world - you actually perceive their depth, and thus they look more real and captivating. There are many wildly different ways of viewing stereoscopic images (and videos).

Viewing in 3D

This actually achieves the perception of the depth effect by the viewer.

Eye trickery. That's right, hardware is not necessarily required to perceive image depth. Usually, a human looks in the same spot with both eyes. The small differences in the picture allow the brain to deduce depth of every part of the image. However, for this process, there is no prerequisite that the eyes actually look at the same spot! This means, that by making your eyes go a little bit chameleon, you can perceive depth without any hardware (well, except for some monitor/screen). The techniques for that are called Cross viewing and Magic Eye. Usually it takes people anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes to view images using this technique. Moving eyes independently is hard, so is aligning them perfectly (it needs to be perfect, otherwise the illusion won't work). For some it is hard to keep the illusion for a time longer than a couple of seconds, especially in the beginning. These stereoimages can be generated using the "Generate stereoscopic image(s)" option. Keep in mind that Cross viewing requires "right-left" outputs, because the picture for the left eye should be on the right.

Anaglyph 3D glasses. Anaglyph glasses are extremely cheap - it is possible to buy a pair for less than a euro. The major drawback is that the color accuracy is sacrificed, as images that are shown to the left and to the right eyes are monochrome (and with different hues). To create anaglyph images, use "Generate stereoscopic image(s)" option. Make sure to select "red-cyan-anaglyph" output. This works for glasses, where the filter for the left eye is red, and blue for the right eye. If it happens that you need some other color combination, please file an issue.

HMD with a slot for a phone. SBS Stereo images ("left-right") can easily be viewed in 3D on VR devices, even cheap ones that use a smartphone like Google Cardboard. To view an SBS image, you may simply display it on the phone screen and then insert the phone into the headset. A more convenient option may be to stream the picture from the computer screen to the phone using Sunshine. You may want to change resolution to match phone's aspect ratio. A paid alternative would be to use GameWarp mode of RiftCat. If you decide to buy a headset, pay attention to the lens' size. If the lens is small, your field of view would be more limited - therefore headsets with larger lenses usually work the best (for example, Acme VRB01). The phone is also important - its physical size and screen pixel density affect the quality of the image.

VR glasses. 3D images can be viewed in expensive VR glasses. The setup may be different for different devices.

Holographic displays. Looking Glass displays are very expensive, but also convenient. Here is a simple interactive depthmap viewer for Looking Glass using three. Drag a horizontally combined RGB+depth image into the window to view it. Such an image can be generated by using "Output DepthMap" and "Combine input and depthmap into one image" options together (set "Combine axis" to "Horizontal"). A Unity3D project to view the depthmaps on Looking Glass in real time, as images are generated, could be published - please file an issue with such a request.

Viewing in 2D

Viewing on a flat screen is not as fun, but sometimes can be more useful/practical.

Depthy. An excellent depthy (live link) generates GIF and video. Instructions: Drag the rgb image into the window, then select Load depthmap, and drag the depthmap into the dialog inside the window.) Generates GIF and video.

Depth-player. The depth-player can load RGB and depthmap images and export a Wavefront OBJ file of a displaced plane mesh with the RGB image applied as texture (live link). Meshes can also be generated using the "Generate simple 3D mesh" or "Generate 3D inpainted mesh" options.

Simple viewer. Simple interactive depthmap viewer using three (source) (live link). Instructions: Drag a horizontally combined RGB+depth image into the window to view it. Such an image can be generated by using "Output DepthMap" and "Combine input and depthmap into one image" options together (set "Combine axis" to "Horizontal").

Use in 3D engines

Blender. Blender depthmap import addon by @Ladypoly (comment). Download the addon here : importdepthmap_1.0.3.zip (Blender 3.3.0 or newer)
Demonstration videos: 1, 2.

• To view the 3D-inpainted mesh in blender:
  • import the PLY file
  • Set camera to origin (0, 0, 0) and pointing up to align it with the mesh
  • adjust camera FOV to match the mesh
  • Add a 'Color Attribute' Node and connect it to the shader color input

Engines in general. Depthmaps can be used as a displacement modifier, creating a 3D shape. This shape may even be 3D printed.