ZBrushCentral

real-time stereo editing plugin?

Hi,
Have you heard of anyone developing an active stereo editing (work in stereo) plugin for ZBrush?

I’m also interested on this. Will be easy maybe to have some viewport anaglyph like nvidia Gelato or a 2 viewport set for interpolated stereo output… Waiting for some answers.
Cheers

I agree. Or, maybe a SpatialView plugin like they have for Cinema4D. ZBrush technology is different from the other 3D apps, though, in a way I don’t understand; so, I don’t know. I’m no expert.
Side by side parallax viewing with two viewports is an idea; interpolated views or anaglyph as you say are also possibilities. Though I can view parallax easily, after a few minutes things get weird when trying to get back to seeing normally. The eyes aren’t made for looking on parallel lines of sight (as if for far distance) when the object is actually very close (monitor), I guess.
There is an inexpensive stereo optical prism viewer for monitors called Pokescope which would require separate left and right stereo-adjusted viewports.
It would be amazing to edit in stereo for any 3D app. Blender has a script for setting up active stereo viewport pairs. Rhino 4 does, too, or maybe it’s anaglyph.
The problem with two views in a sculpt program is the software and system resources needed to draw to screen two simultaneously active viewports. There are a number of threads I participated in at various sites about this all. I’ll dig them up and post here soon. Any info you can get about ZBrush or any other app would be great.
Thanks.

You’ve hit the nail on the head when you say:

the problem with two views in a sculpt program is the software and system resources needed to draw to screen two simultaneously active viewports.

I think it unlikely that there will be stereo view in ZBrush any time soon - it would be too much of a drain on resources. ZBrush makes the best possible use of your system resources and that’s why it can do what it does.

Could be done using head-tracking and require very few additional resources, since it’d only be computing one view still. This guy, Johnny Lee provides downloads for his code.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

Cool stuff. I will be looking into this. As far as additional resources, what were you envisioning?

The main resource issue I can envision is that Zbrush will need to allow sculpting and constantly updating the viewpoint simutaneously. Since both of those activities can be cpu-intensive with higher-poly meshes, I would foresee this only working well with less demanding meshes. Or, the display repositioning could be “paused” when a sculpt/paint action is in effect – probably that’d be preferable anyway.

Using this head tracking method, there’s still only one view to render, so any additional overhead should be negligible.

Now who wants to write it? :evil:

Yes, it would be hard to keep your head absolutely still while editing.:smiley:

I wrote Johnny Lee about his thoughts about the headtracking in conjunction with true binocular stereo.

About getting around resource crunch: It might only be possible with two systems, two copies of Zbrush and each video signal outputted to the left and right screens of goggles, with the views of the two respective objects’ startup views positioned for a proper stereo pair. The two systems would have to be controlled by a simultaneous pointing device.

Then again, there is the problem of Z position of the object in this setup. I’m no expert on stereo 3D, but I know changing Z position IS a problem. However, movement on the picture plane, that is X/Y panning, is not a problem because the virtual distance to the two cameras remains the same and the cameras’ virtual distance apart doesn’t need to be adjusted. Complicated stuff.

I wish Cinema 4D would magically, suddenly come up with a great sculpt set of tools. Much as I hugely admire ZBrush, there is a SpatialView plugin for C4D that does allow for real-time stereo with an auto-stereo display or red/green glasses (plugin, $700 USD). Apparently their other similar plugins for LW, 3DS, Maya (I think), do not have the realtime stereo editing capability. They have their Canada office here in Toronto. I just sent them an email to see if I can go drool in their showroom.

How about ChromaDepth technology?? is cheap and easy realise - need material zdepth from red in front green in middle and as depper color is blue.

I think is can be created easy and fast, performance still same.
But I’m not seen not it “live”, is diffractive prism s, and glass cost is around 10$ (!), this of.site http://www.chromatek.com/

Thanks for that link. I had not heard of this before. It’s very interesting. I’m going to inquire around further about it.

Its can be simulated by matCap material with circular ramp image (red in center, green in middle and blue at borders), but its not truly depth, but interest effect (simply based face angle).
I try doing another variant with red material and green fog. (but only red-green gradient, cant do 3 color gradient)
But without glasses it not check right.

You can buy glass on ebay or search on web (on ebay is ~12-15$ with international delivery on pair of this)

I think is 10 minutes to Marcus write depth shader with 3 linear color point. :wink:

Thanks for that explanation. I could not follow it however since I am new. Is there a way to find someone who can do this?

I’m think marcus_civis can make it easy :wink:

Circular Polarized displays can work as well, no weird colors, looks great too. But it needs a special monitor ( or at least a special screen ).

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071009005718&newsLang=en

These work real well, and don’t require funky colors. But I can’t imagine any of these being easy on the eyes for sculpting.

10$ vs 5000$ :slight_smile:
Is good and interesting but very expensive and limited size display.
And main I think is need anyway some support from application or how its know depth information to polarize…

I’m read about realise 3D TV in Japan, and think its use polarization based illusion, tv is bigger and cost around 4000$

3D monitors are overkill, really.

If you have a Direct3D signal, any NVidia card can (at a loss of framerate) move a duplicate camera a few virtual inches and display the stereo views in alternating or interlaced patterns for use with a $30 pair of LCD glasses. And there are similar drivers for OpenGL.

Most 3D display solutions leverage those same drivers, so again it becomes a question of whether the self-contained presentation is worth such an increase in cost. Hint: it’s not. Just go with the LCD glasses.

That said, those drivers don’t work in a windowed environment. Which is something every sculpting platform I’m aware of requires. You need to find one which is truly full-screen, with menus drawn in 3D space rather than overlaid by the operating system. Or you need a custom solution to be created from scratch by the makers of your sculpting platform.

Sadly, neither of those are ever going to happen.

One other possibility…

Take a pair of cheap sunglasses. Poke out one of the lenses. Wear and enjoy.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it works more often than you’d expect. Try orbiting around your model. If the effect doesn’t kick in, switch lenses, or orbit the opposite direction.

This is also good for turning normal broadcast television 3D (and those technologies which claim to convert 2D to 3D in realtime pretty much work on the same principal).

The idea is that you’re introducing a delay before light reaches one of your eyes, such that each eye is looking at different frames of the same realtime animation. When an object rotates in Z, or moves in X, you already got depth cues through parallax distortion, but the forced time disparity takes it a step further, simulating what you might have seen from a dual-camera setup.

Of course, when it isn’t working, you’ll get headaches and eye fatigue, and you’ll look like an idiot. But for some of us, that’s not much of a change. :lol:

Seems I do not get automatic notification of replies…

Original poster here. The best solution I’ve heard of, but have not seen in action, is the SpatialView plugin for C4D. Apparently everything on screen is properly displayed in stereo 3D. Ya need an autostereoscopic monitor, but I think the plugin also does anaglyph (red/green) and polarized. IZ3D is one of the autostereoscopic monitors; it will work with Direct3D. SpatialView offers one of their own. Way outta my league for total cost. I am still asking around about Chromadepth. I did find a post filter for Max, but post work is not what I want.

Thanks for the input. I was surprised by the number of replies. Usually, stereo 3D for a 3D app as a forum subject gets a poo-poo, won’t work, a yawn, or no replies period. I just think it’s such a cool concept. I still think it’ll happen one day and headaches won’t be an issue.

I swear, I didn’t make that up. It’s okay to try it.

Side note: I just stumbled across something I wrote about this back in 2003.

“This is called the Pulfrich effect, because German physicist Carl Pulfrich discovered it back in 1922. Interesting bit of trivia: Carl was blind in one eye, and could thus never experience the effect named for him.”

Wikipedia has a lot more to say about it.

Original poster here:

I am exploring the Chromadepth possiblity first because I have the company’s prism glasses coming soon.

Can someone explain in some detail what would be needed (if it’s possible) to have a preset color gradient applied to the active viewport so all distance from the viewpoint (center point of the picture plane) is indicated by color change… in the case of Chromadepth, pure red at the point where the line of sight emanating from the viewport camera/viewpoint first intersects an object/plane and then changing through orange, green and finally to pure blue for the furthest object in the viewport, along any radial line of sight from the middle point of the picture plane? This is for active editing, not post work.

See again the sample Chromadepth example attached.

Thanks for all the various comments and suggestions.

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