![]() ![]() To make objects stick out, the left (red) channel is separated further and further to the left from the right (cyan) channel to make them recede, the left channel is separated further and further to the right. Still, anaglyph 3D images require no special hardware other than the glasses and some well-constructed images can be very compelling. In practice, as anyone who's looked at anaglyph images knows, the strategy is imperfect: most full colour images will have some bleed-through and while colour selection and processing can reduce differences in brightness between the eyes, some amount of ghosting and retinal rivalry between the two sides is inevitable. Likewise, as the cyan filter is over your right eye, the cyan filter should optimally admit only what is part of the right eye image. Since the red filter is over your left eye, your left eye only gets red (primarily), so the image that should be delivered to the left eye is tinted red. The basic concept with anaglyph is that the coloured glasses filter certain wavelengths of light, delivering different views to each eye. Today we'll try to get a primitive anaglyph effect working on the Commodore 64, and we'll do it with the classic and widely available red-cyan glasses you can get on Amazon or from specialty shops like Berezin (no affiliation, just a satisfied customer). A third option is possible with modern displays but it, too, will be the subject of a later post. The latter, though not general purpose due to how the effect is generated, can be sufficiently convincing with the right application and we'll look at that in a later article. (That gives me a headache just thinking about it.) For most situations the typical choice will be either anaglyph, i.e., red-cyan glasses, or exploiting the Pulfrich effect. While some systems implemented a spinning shutter wheel as an active 3D display option, many older systems lack sufficient refresh rates to be sufficiently smooth and very old machines can't update the screen fast enough between eye views anyway. ![]() ![]() However, classic computers invariably don't have either of those options, so we must resort to less satisfactory approaches. This generates a high-quality, (usually) flicker-free high definition 3D picture. Modern systems can both generate a 1080p image and/or (with most video cards) a high-refresh-rate image, and most 3D displays or 3D-capable TVs are 1080p, so depending on whether you have an active or passive display system you can either use fast refresh (like my 120Hz DLP projector, which delivers a full 60Hz to each eye with active glasses) or an interlaced image and polarization (like my Vizio 3D TV and Mitsubishi Diamondcrysta monitor). In our first 3D article we talked about the various types of stereoscopy available on computers. This article is part of a series - you can read other entries This box was only opened by the previous owner to check the contents, though it got flattened a bit by sitting stacked in the storage unit. Getting it out, we experience our first Christmas emotion: anticipation. I acquired this SX-64 as NOS still in its original box and packaging a few months ago and decided to get it out of storage as a fun little exploration. It did not sell particularly well but the sheer number of SX-64s that survive and see regular use today (I actually own three others) attests to their residual popularity. Power usage is too much to run on an external power source any smaller than your typical car battery but in the age of systems like the Osbourne 1 such a machine wasn't implausible as a luggable. ( There was even an SX-500, based on the Amiga 500, but it never got past the prototype stage.) Portable in this case is used advisedly, as it weighs about 23 pounds, but it has a 5" monitor which isn't terrible, a built-in 1541 5.25" floppy drive and a detachable keyboard all in one tank-like enclosure that can be lifted around by the handle (which doubles as a stand). Originally part of an entire family of portable Commodore 64 systems, it was supposed to be the midrange model between the black-and-white SX-100 and the dual drive DX-64 as announced at Winter CES 1983, but only the SX-64 was ultimately released by May of that year. The Commodore SX-64 has the distinction of being the first portable colour computer. As a holiday-appropriate entry, let's unbox. Happy holidays and to those of you that celebrate it a very merry Christmas. ![]()
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