3d Archive

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Why 3D doesn’t work and never will

Never thought about 3D films as it related to human vision, but this makes a lot of sense. I do feel very strained watching a 3D film.

Walter Murch, Oscar-winning film editor:

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the “convergence/focus” issue. A couple of the other issues — darkness and “smallness” — are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen — say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point.

Read: Why 3D doesn’t work and never will. Case closed. – Roger Ebert’s Journal.

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Vizio ‘Versus’ offers two-player head-to-head gaming on one screen

Interesting way to use 3D technology for things over than “image quality.” I’ve always disliked split-screen gaming for the simple fact that the screen real estate feels too small for comfort.

Unfortunately it looks like this implementation still has the same division of pixels between the two players – it’ll just look blurry instead of having a squished part of the screen allocated to each player.

The set uses a 3D panel to drive two images, so two players can play the same game head-to-head. Like 3D gaming, the software needs to support the functionality; thankfully, if the game already supports stereoscopic 3D, it only needs a “small interlace tweak” to support head-to-head gaming.
It works like this: Instead of rendering two unique 540p images to create a single “1080p” 3D image, it renders two distinct gameplay streams and uses specially keyed glasses (ours were marked “L” and “R”) to isolate each player’s display.

Read: Vizio ‘Versus’ offers two-player head-to-head gaming on one screen (video inside!) | Joystiq.

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Bob Lefsetz Thrusted His Arm At U2 3D

Music industry hyperbole-sensei, Bob Lefsetz viewed the new U2 3D movie on IMAX recently and has wasted no time in imparting his CAPS LOCK LADEN opinion to loyal Lefsetz Letter readers.

Don’t go to the Website, don’t watch the trailer, stop reading this right now and get your ass to the THEATRE!

Apparently he enjoyed it.  So much so that he did what is quite possibly the pottiest thing a human can do at a movie theater:

I thrust my arm in the air and sang along even though Felice and I were the only people in the theatre!

Much love to Felice who was probably shaking her head at lil’ Bobby.

That being said, I’ve viewed the film myself and I must say it was simply amazing.  3D films have an unfair stigma of being cheesy/corny/gimmicky, but this film is certainly none of those things.  It’s the closest experience to actually being at a live music concert.  Now, that may seem like a trite statement, but I mean it in full earnest.  The 3D effects in the film are tastefully done, so much so that you almost don’t even notice them there.  It just feels natural.  Yet you’ve never experienced something like it before.  That, my friends, is a true mark of innovation.

I’ve seen U2 four times and each time I waited 8 hours in front of the venue in order to get a prime spot in the pit for the show.  Does the movie match that experience of the concert?  Of course not, there’s just no way to replicate the vibe, the intensity, the MUSIC of being there in person.  But you could argue the experience of the movie might exceed that of being in the nosebleed seats, and Lefsetz, in fact, does mention this.  I got goosebumps and chills while viewing the movie as if I was at a real U2 show.

While I can’t bring myself to slather on anymore hyperbole, I will say that Lefsetz is right about this one.  Whether or not you like U2, do yourself a favor and go see this film.  You won’t regret it.

Read Lefsetz on U2 3D [lefsetz.com]