[mullingitover]

3D strikes me as superfluous. Our brains already look at the images projected onto a 2-dimensional plane and infer the third dimension. It's absolutely a gimmick, and don't get me wrong, it can be fun, but it doesn't contribute anything meaningful to the viewing experience.

Call me when the brain interface is ready and we can actually travel around in the space, because that's another story.

[gizmo686]

I've watched a few 3D movies. The gimmicky parts are very gimmicky, but the normal scenes, where we see the background actually behind the foreground, and don't see a drop of water fly right into are eyes, the 3D looks a lot better then the 2D version.

2D seems the same as looking around with one eye closed. I don't notice the difference when I am doing it, but when I open my second eye, everything looks subtly better.

[danudey]

The Doctor Who 50th anniversary special was possibly the best use of 3D I've ever seen.

In one scene, there is a 3D oil painting. We see the characters marvelling at the effect they're seeing, but in the broadcast version we don't know what it is they're looking at until the camera pans around to show us.

In the 3D version, however, you can tell. You don't get the full effect until later, but even then it's far more pronounced than it is in the 2D version.

There are also a few other depth tricks they use, but they use them sparingly. In one scene, we see the image of The Doctor as he is broadcasting a message to another party; in the close-up of the feed (i.e. when it takes up the full screen), we see the image as we normally would, but in the four corners are an overlay, like a HUD in a video game or presumably like a HUD in an F16. They don't move, there's no animation, they're just a bit of stylistic flair, but you can tell that they're 'over' the image, which gives it a more pronounced effect, and makes the transmission 'feel' cooler and more futuristic.

I'll be glad when '3D all the things' is gone, but there are a few neat tricks that I hope we can keep in the future.

[msutherl]

A "brain interface" is also superfluous because your senses are already "brain interfaces". Any interface connected to your brain will "appear" to you as a new sense organ.

I'll take some new sense organs for sure, but a "brain interface" is not the panacea people make it out to be. For one, the thoughts in our head are a jumbled mess and are only clarified through expression, which involves sensing and acting with your body. Any new interface will become a new body part. You cannot speak before you speak and you cannot write before you write just as you can't run before you run.

[jmpeax]

Your comment about 3D being superfluous without contributing anything meaningful really hits home when I try to recall the 3D movies I've seen. Even the one that made the biggest impression on me, the stunning and very well made "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3D, but to this day I remember it in my mind as if it was only in 2D.

[trekky1700]

Tell this to a person blind in one eye and unable to perceive depth.

[dspillett]

Actually depth perception is possible with only one view-port. Both my eyes work (for varying definitions of "work") but they don't work together very well (tests show I only tend to use one at a time, which one gets control depending on the location of the object(s) I'm trying to focus on and how tired I am) and I can perceive depth just not quite as well.

The main clue the brain uses for depth perception on top of the binocular input (of instead of the binocular input for those who don't have it) is parallax effects gleaned from moving objects within the view passing behind each other. On top of that comes knowledge of the world (how big things should be relative to each other) though that is very easily fooled.

On top of that the perception of parallax exploited further by moving your head. Ever seen a cat size up a jump is isn't entirely confident with? You seem them bob their heap up and down a bit giving them extra parallax clues effectively extended the effect of multi-eye vision into a second degree of freedom. This effect can be used by single ey eby moving the head more.

Binocular vision can help 3D perception a lot, which is why most creatures use it, but it is far from the be-all and end-all of it.

[chestervonwinch]

I agree. I've experienced the 3D effect in cinema as a strong smell that I become desensitized to shortly after exposure.