View-Magic and Microsoft Flight Sim

[P3D Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Thorpe writes
>
>I have the MS Flight Simulator but was unaware of being able to 
>generate two views to be used as stereo pairs. Would you be kind 
>enough to explain how to do it?
>

Okay here goes. Yes this is not documented in their program. I 
don't think they even know you can do it. This hidden feature has
been available in previous versions of MS FS (Microsoft Flight Sim)also. 
Actually, before I get into describing how to do it, I might mention
that's where I learned to free view.
 
In MS FS you have the option of different configuarations of views,and
windows or frames. The frames can consist of the instrument panel, map,
views outside cockpit, or views from a spot plane or tower. When I first
saw these features I immediatly thought if it was possible to use these
features to view in 3d. I wasn't dissappointed. At first I used a antique
Holmes type stereoscopic viewer to view the 3d scenery with left and right
views in MS FS but the frames or windows were small because of the viewer.
This is when I learned by accident to free view. I was straining my 
eyes to fuse the two images without a viewer, trying to see the 3d
effect with a full window when one day it was all clear! I didn't 
expect to be able to see it clear. I have since spend many hours
cross eyed playing I mean flying with MS FS (till magic- viewer).
I didn't know anybody with the same 3d interests as I did therefore I did 
not know free viewing was a common technique. I even wondered if anybody
else knew about the 3d feature in MS FS, then I found a article posted by
someone on compuserve that had a scheme to view FS in 3d but in panoramic
mode which never occured to me. What they mentioned was that if you
arrange the windows instead of left and right views but put one
window on top and one on the bottom, you still utilize the full 
screen and you have a panoramic view. But how do you fuse these views
which is impossible in free viewing. They said to use a prism
made out of plexiglass and described how to make it. This worked
okay but was not the greatest optically. The prism was well made
by taking a rectangular piece and filing it into a prism and polishing
it crystal clear, but acrylic introduces distortions, that can't
be avoided, especially chromatic. I toyed with using mirrors similiar
to a Pentax and this worked okay also but when I finally discovered
the View-Magic I said to myself I finally found the ultimate in 
what I was looking for. I first saw there left and right viewer and
said oh great, it can be used with FS and then I saw there up and
down version and said to myself oh this is even greater. 

Okay I have rambled enough, now how do you actually set up FS to fly
in 3d. For the benefit of those that don't have FS, I will describe 
what the default screen shows. Basically at default FS presents you
with an outside view from the cockpit on the top half of the screen
and the instrument panel on the bottom half. FS allows you the option
to change, move, or resize any of these windows in any combination, 
similiar to Microsoft Windows or the Mac version. You go in the view
options menu and turn off the instrument panel. Turn on view 2 which
defaults to a spot plane view. Change view 1 which was the original
top view from inside the cockpit to spot plane view. (spot plane view
is the view of the plane you are flying from another plane) Leave view 1
as is and resize view 2 to fill up the bottom half of the screen.
This configuration is if you have the up-down magic-viewer. If you
have the left-right magic-viewer resize view 1 to the left hand side
and view 2 to the right hand side as in a regular stereo pair. Change 
all the parameters in the view and spot plane options so they are the
same. i.e. zoom factor, distance and altitude of spot plane, roll and
transition. The last on put on fast. This has to be done because they
won't necessarilly be the same in default.
 
Now that you have a left and right or up and down view and you are viewing
the plane you will be flying, from another plane (spot plane), you have
another option where you can change the position of the spot plane relative
to the plane you will be flying. You can move the spot plane 360 degrees
all around the plane and at any angle you specify you will be looking
in radially at your plane. This is the secret. You move the spot plane
angle slightly, a few degrees depending on your zoom factor, for each
view. Now strictly speaking this is not condoned as this is toeing in
and not truly a parallel left and right view, but for all intensive purposes
its okay because the circumference that the spot plane can be positioned is
large so the toeing in angle is very slight. I would estimate 1 or 2 degrees.
Now where and at what angle do you actually place the spot plane in the
2 views. You can place the spot plane anywhere but preferably right behind
the plane you will be flying.

For a left-right configuration, position the spot plane slightly to the left
of the tail for the left window and slightly to the right for the right view.
This is if you are using a magic-viewer, if you want to free view cross eyed
in 3d, reverse the spot plane positions. (it is easier generally for most
people to freeview cross eyed if the image is large) 

For up-down configuration, view 1 is on top and spot plane slightly to the
right of the tail. View 2 is on bottom and spot plane is slightly to the
left. 

In both the left-right and up-down the diffence in angles between the
two spot planes is not more than a few degrees. Max 5 degrees or less.
This also depends on the zoom factor you use. If you would like to 
simulate as if you were flying straight out of your own cockpit and
not viewing from a spot plane you can zoom out till you can't see
your plane and it will look as if you are in your cockpit except
you will not see any banking or rolling. Also to note in the up-down
magic-viewer the left eye is viewing the bottom view and the right eye
the top. 

Other interesting aspects that can be done with FS, is making a 3d planet
earth by slightly changing the viewing positions in the map mode.
This involves no toeing in and is really nice except the resolution of the
earth is pixelated due to the coarse image they used of the earth. It is
really nice thou in 3d and even with poor resolution the sphereical 
3d effect is quite pronouned. I will post it up (on my web space)next week
in anaglyph mode when I clear up some disk space on my hard drive and track
down the floppy where I have it. All in all MS FS is a great program and they
have fanastic scenery disks that can all be viewed in 3d. Some of 
their scenery disks are actually taken from satellite photographs.
I have some nice shots of mountains and ariel shot of Las Vegas, San Francisco,
and Washington D.C. The actual satellite imagery used was 2d but they pasted
these images onto the polygons, that can then be viewed in 3d. The polygons are
rather large, so you don't see intricate mountain features in closeup thou.

There are other flight simulator products that actually use anaglyphs
intended  for the general public and if anybody is interested I will describe
them another time as I obviously have gone on long enough and they might have
to devote a whole digest to this post. -) <<going to sleep

Gabriel






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