Brandenburg Concerto

[guest]

For anybody who hasn't downloaded and run the program themselves (why not?) there's a YouTube video below. The animation demonstrates how the brain can be convinced something is 3D when actually it isn't: the organ pipes are a plane image, not a 3D model, but I've deliberately set it back behind the front panel a little which adds some perspective. If you study it carefully the 3D illusion will probably evaporate, but at a glance I can easily convince myself that I can see 'depth' in those pipes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QVQuxkIUaw

[DDRM]

Hi Richard,

Agreed, it looks very convincing, though knowing it is flat you can see that if you look closely - particularly on the square pipes. But how often does that matter, when a visual impression is what is required? Certainly in the context of a game or somethings similar, where scenery is changing relatively fast, and you don't have the attention to study the detail carefully, I can see that this would give a very acceptable view with much more limited complexity of rendering.

best wishes,

D

[guest]

knowing it is flat you can see that if you look closely

Which is what I said! But "knowing it is flat" is key: if I hadn't told you, would you have studied it closely enough to have noticed? The 'trick' of setting the plane image a short way behind the front face provides the brain with 3D cues which enhance the illusion.

Another interesting feature of the Brandenburg animation is the source images that are used for the texture mapping; they are not what you might have expected: