easy stereo viewing cel script (works on a geowall)

[alh]

Here a nice simple-yet-effective trick for stereo viewing in celestia.

1) select your favorite object
2) invoke split vertical view
3) invoke the cel script attached below (it wil operate on the left view)

Why this works: it orbits the left view a few degrees around the selected object, then resets the camera angle to point straight ahead. This latter rotation is, in fact, crucial for comfortable stereo viewing. It is not enough to simply orbit around the object with the left eye; both eyes should in fact be [b]looking towards the same infinity[/b] (a common, painful mistake with stereo rendering). If you want an even more precise stereo view, invoke a similar script, but with opposite rates of orbit and rotation, for the right view (after making it the active view) - if you do this, your eyes will be nicely centered on the reference object and neither one ahead of the other.

Because the procedure involves orbiting aroung a reference object, you can easily be a large giant (eyes far apart) by zooming (via the mouse wheel) far away before invoking the script. This gives you a nice 3D view of the galaxy as a whole, for example. If you start moving before you split the window and invoking the script, your eyes will travel forward at the same speed.

This stereo trick is fun on a single monitor, but is especially nice when paired with a dual-projector geowall. All the user needs to do is open celestia to span both monitors of two-monitor display, then split the view vertially and invoke the script. On a geowall, the left-eye view goes to one projector, and the right-eye view to the other. Passive polarized filters are fitted onto the two projectors, and the viewer wears a corresponding set of polarized glasses to send the correct view to the correct eye (see http://geowall.geo.lsa.umich.edu/). I set up a geowall with celestia at a science fair recently, and the students (and parents) were amazed by the god-like (that is, eyes wide apart) celestial immersion.

Now, could anyone suggest a way to split and rotate all in one script? That would simplify things a bit. Alternatively, could a future version of celestia have a stereo button which does this sort of thing? The ideal, of course, would be to allow synchronized navigation through both left and right halves, once the stereo rotation had been invoked.

Thanks for a great program! I am looking forward to the next science fair at the local elementary, for another go at this.


----------------------------------------
{
# this sets up a nice stereo pair, by orbiting the left view
#around a reference object and resetting the camera angle
orbit { axis [ 0 1 0 ]
rate 0.25
duration 1 }
rotate { axis [0 1 0]
rate -0.25
duration 1 }

}

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[Rich]

Oh man, this is too cool!!
Looks great with the satellites orbiting earth!
-R

[trenner]

Thank you!
I've been scratching my head trying to figure out how to apply this stuff to Celestia.
I can't afford the two projector setup yet, but I've been experimenting with this - http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/p ... omemirror/

I have a partial 12' dome in the basement, and I've just about finished a 16' dia 3/4 sphere in the back yard

I sent some money to http://sbol.com/mars/3dglass.html about a month ago, and haven't heard anything. Could you possibly suggest a more reliable source?

Regards
Terry Renner

[alh]

I have always had good luck with American Paper Optics:

http://www.3dglassesonline.com/

They sell both red/blue and polarized glasses.

Does anyone have ideas for synchronized navigation? Or, is there some setting or script which can be invoked, to direct all keyboard/joystick commands to operate on both halves of a split view at once? I realize that certain commands would instantly muck up the stereo, but others (i.e. "proceed forward at one ly/s") would work just fine.

[Harry]

Does anyone have ideas for synchronized navigation?

From what I understand this could be solved with CELX.
- Find active and non-active View
- Get observer's position from active (i.e. keyboard-controlled) View
- Transform position (possibly orientation?)
- Change position of observer in non-active View

Harald