3Dstereo apps in Blitz3D?

Hi everybody,
this is my first post: last week I purchased a Blitz3d copy!!

My questions are: has anybody experience with Blitz3D and VR hardware like head mounted displays, head trackers, data gloves, shutter glasses...? Could you tell me which is the best hard solution for Blitz3D based 3Dstereo applications? How does them works? I mean, could I see any of the 3d world created using Blitz in stereo mode? Do you have a good feeling of the stereo 3d world or does it make you sik?

I read the posts about TruDimension lib but I can’t found where to buy or download it. In the UnityPro web page?? But where? Does anybody tried it?

I also read the post about 3D VR Headset:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=57313#637344
but without the hardware I can’t get an idea of what could I do with it.

Thanks and sorry for my English

FiNegirO

Welcome FiNegirO,

If i were you i would search through the forums, codearchives, and toolbox for answer. I dont recall anyone ever succeeding with anything quite like this but i have only been here a year and took a 4 month hiatus a while ago, so it worth a try.

As for TruDimension, Todd Wildrick's website seems to be nonoperational so you would have to ask Dr. Wildrick, i think hes in the blitz max forums now, but he hasnt posted in a month.

From the list of Blitznews muk keeps i found that if you want info and a demo of TruDimension, you need to contact Wildrick at director[at]cherrycolastudios[.]com

The display part is mostly a non-issue. Depending on the hardware, the drivers for your videocard may already support rendering in stereo, or if you need to render the two views yourself as two monitors that is easily done by setting your Graphics3D view to 2048x768 (or whatever; double-resolution, in other words,) have two cameras in the scene right next to each other (for each eye,) and use Viewport to render a separate camera to each half of the screen.

Refer to this page:
http://www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/agave/BLITZ3D_STEREO_DEPLOY/

Getting the tracking information is a little more complicated. For the most part, you will have to take the SDK for your hardware and compile it as a dll for use in Blitz. I'm thinking here of something like Ascension's Flock of Birds. Or you could do a homebrew tracking solution like strapping a gyromouse to your head, in which case you are just responding to mouse movement like a normal FPS mouselook. I'm serious; a Gyration mouse makes a decent orientation tracker.

Incidentally, I'm thinking of buying the eMagin Z800. It's a pretty good HMD for the price point, plus it has a built-in 6DoF tracker. With the free version of Visual C++, I'm hoping it'll be not too hard to compile the SDK as a dll for Blitz. *fingers crossed*

Thanks for your help!

jhocking, the Gyration mouse and the eMagin Z800 seems very interesting. Did you try the free VC++ version?

I don't have any hardware so I'm still interested in somebody who's using 3dstero hard. How much should I expect from those devices?

Thanks
FiNegirO

Check out this thread from the Showcase...

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=60338

I just looked at the web site for the Z800. In the FAQ, it says the packaged USB and audio cables are 2 feet long. That seems rediculously short. Do they mean "meters" or "yards"?

It seems there is "one 10 foot cable between the eMagin Z8003D Visor and the RGB PC interface box". The other cables goes from the interface box to the PC. I think you should let the interface near the PC, connect the audio and video to it with short cables, than the large cable will bring all signals to the z800.

FiNegirO

I made a program with VR glasses. They are "i-glasses 3d".
Their resolution is 800x600. I used them with a headtracker the "intertrax2", however it worked best if you didn't move too much.
I was a bit dissapointed with the glasses. When I used a CRT beamer (Barco) with shutterglasses, it worked a lot better. However it would need a complete dark room.

I use a NVidia Geforce, because NVidia has stereo drivers that I managed to get to work. You can test them out using shutter glasses, those packages are relatively cheap.
When stereo is enabled, all DirectX applications will run in stereo.

Here are the glasses:
http://shop.rightthing.nl/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2&gclid=CPug5f727IUCFT1UQgodj08TuQ

Here are the nvidia stereodrivers:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dstereo_56.64

TruDimension - the personal and corporate version are still avliable, As you may or may not know the origional TruDimension was converted to Java and sold to a Toshiba for use in cell phones, pda's ect. However the blitz 3d and blitz max version are still avliable (and you dont need any buggy Navida drivers or a $300 video card to use it) In fact I urge you to disable your stereo drivers when using trudimension as they dont "play nice" with the other children...er... programs.
If you have any question I will be happy to help, you can find me, or my staff at www.unitypro.com
PS: I am familiar with the GeoWall project... Its an excellect project excpet for 1 thing that needs work: Lamp life. Those things can cost $300 each to replace and their lighting time is not long.
But the GeoWall idea is great and I wish them luck with their research.
Kind Regards,
Dr. Wildrick