Tag Archives: compiz

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Stereopsis is an effect that allows for the eyes + brain to perceive depth, and is utilized in an optical illusion that, when equipped with the right method of visual perception, allows for the viewer to perceive a sense of depth in an otherwise flat surface area.

Many methods have been devised since the 19th century to give off an illusion of depth in a media-dedicated flat surface area (a technique known as stereoscopy), ranging from "wiggle stereoscopy" to the manual side-by-side-so-cross-your-eyes stereoscopy to the iconic anaglyph image + polarized "red and blue" glasses.

Most recently, a few folks on YouTube took to demonstrating the combination of anaglyph imagery and polarized 3D glasses with MIT graduate Johnny Chung Lee’s WiiMote headtracking method (resulting in hundreds of demo videos on YouTube from inspired users) to demostrate how such a combination of anaglyph imagery with headtracking might work.

Sadly, I’m not convinced by the look of the videos. Plus, after thinking it through, I ‘ve started to think that it seems redundant to combine digital CGI anaglyphs with headtracking polarized glasses.

I mean, if you demonstrate Compiz Fusion with its Wiimote-recognition plugin for headtracking separately from Compiz Fusion with its anaglyph filter plugin for polarized glasses, you get a fairly stereoscopic view from either perception; in fact, the Wiimote plugin for headtracking seems to possess much further potential range depending upon the range of motion that the viewer has around the screen, while the Wiimote anaglyph plugin for polarized glasses gives the classic feel of being able to almost reach inside the imagery on the screen.

The drawbacks, therefore, may dedicate either method of perception to particular media and particular audiences:

  • the Wiimote headtracking method may be best for visual environments – preferably 2.5D – which concurrently allow for manipulation of the environment’s contents through interactive controls (like games)
  • the anaglyph method may be best for visual environments – namely 2D – which don’t allow for manipulation of the environment’s contents through interactive controls (like movies).

I’ll expand upon this a bit later, but here are the two demos posted to YouTube:

(Not a criticism) How Compiz Fusion jumped the shark

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It was bound to come from this project eventually:

Why do I say “jumped the shark”, though?

Well, I’m not saying it in a deprecatory manner; I hope to eventually try it out myself to see it first hand.

Rather, I say “jumped the shark” because Compiz Fusion, the window management plugin system for Compiz, has finally come to a point of “not-much-turning-back”; while Compiz and Beryl, the CWM that had forked from Compiz back in 2006 and remerged in 2007, had primarily focused on revolving flat surfaces (the infamous “desktop cube” that was once exclusively a WM feature of Mac OS X’s Quartz Compositor), Compiz Fusion has finally incorporated the distortion of windows and desktop surfaces in various curvatures as a major feature of window management, and it seems like it will become the standard fare of desktop distortions by CF for some time to come.

So….expect many new videos of bouncing desktop balls or waterlogged fishbowls (with fish inside!) or, as you just saw, globes of planets. Revolving cubes are sooooo 2006.

Also, MPX has been merged into X.Org 7.5. Expect Compiz Fusion compatibility (and lots of video demos) later this year, at the least.

Multi-touch Compiz Fusion soon?

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Yes, very soon.

Or at least an experimental build of Compiz for the MPX fork of X.Org (currently in development) by Peter Hutterer, replacing the simple, built-in MPWM window manager.

The catch is that we have to wait until 0.9 (development branch) comes out with the debut of Dave Reveman’s integrated Object-Framework. Once that occurs, this guy plans to start an experimental MPX branch of Compiz.

Unfortunately, 0.7.2 was only released 5 days ago, although Compiz Fusion’s update releases are notoriously fast (0.6.0 was released in October, and 0.7.0 was released in February). Therefore, the earliest that we can expect the release of 0.9 (if a Compiz release comes every 4 months) is by this coming October.

I anticipate YouTube video demos of a multi-touch Compiz. One guy explores the possibilities.