Single Image Random Dot Stereogram Animator

The authors makes NO WARRANTY or representation, either express ed or implied, with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you, its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and accuracy.

SIRDSANI requires a 286 or better CPU, at least 700K of free XMS memory and VGA compatible display.

SIRDSANI is not public domain. You can freely distribute this shareware version. Please register for the latest version which comes with 3.5MB of free objects, can animate more than five frames and generate large colour Single Image Stereograms.

About SIRDSANI

SIRDSANI was created so that you the user can create very good quality stereograms. This software can be used to create SIRDS as good as those available commercially. We make no restrictions on the use of SIRDSANI for the commercial use, other than we would like a copy of any stereogram you wish to sell.

How to use SIRDSANI

Entering the command SIRDSANI launches the program.

The first step is to load an object from disk. This is done by pressing the L key. SIRDSANI can understand 2 object formats: x3d 2.0 objects and Wavefront objects. Note: unfortunately the default extension for both these file types is .OBJ. Select the type of object you wish to load, a file listing will appear from which the file you require can be selected.

The next step after loading your object(s) is to position the objects in a more artistically pleasing position.

Object Manipulation

After loading the objects, SIRDSANI lets you manipulate your object set. The objects can be scaled, rotated and moved around the viewing area. When you're satisfied with your creation it can then be turned into a BMP colour SIS, a black and white SIRDS postscript file or on-screen animation Online help is available - press H.

Move the highlighter around the screen using the arrow keys. To carry out an action, select a button and then press either SPACE or RETURN.

The arrow buttons either rotate the object about or move the object parellel to the x, y or z axes or

Top Row buttons:

Rotate/Translate: There are two ways to manipulate the object, when in rotate mode the arrow buttons can be used to rotate the current object. In translate mode the object may be moved using the arrow keys.
Object: Changes the current object. Selecting 'All' allows global rotations of your composition.
Reverse: Toggles between cross-eyed (yes) and wide-eyed mode (no). Cross eyed SIRDS appear as shape molds to wide-eyed viewers as do wide-eyed SIRDS to cross-eyed viewers. You should reduce the size of the object when creating a cross-eyed SIRDS.
Clip: Toggles the clip mode. When clipped, only the part of the object above the z=0 plane is displayed. Use this to determine which part of the object is pointing towards you.
Animate: Previews the animation that you've configured.

Variables:

Theta: Defines the polar angle of the rotation axis. (Spherical polar coordinates are used in this program.)
Phi: Defines the azimuthal angle of the rotation axis.
Scale: Changes the size of the current object.
Flicks/Tops/Shimmer: Specifies the number of frames to use in the animation of a complete rotation about the given axis (360 degrees). The Flicks mode performs a rotation about the centre of the viewport. Tops rotates each object about its centre and Shimmer keeps the objects stationary but shimmers the background. Obviously the more flicks you use the smoother the animation will be, but the downside is the longer generation time. (The unregistered version is limited to five frames.)

When you've finished use

Go: Generates the SIRDS animation.

Hot Keys:

H Displays a brief overview of the controls.
P Create a postscript file of the current view - you can choose between a4 or letter paper size. The size of the postscript file is determined by the amount of free XMS memory available. The maximum size is 1400x900 this requires 2.5 Mbytes of free memory. Postscript files are named uniquely and it is not possible for SIRDSANI to overwrite an existing postscript file.
G Create a bitmap of current view. In the bitmap screen you may select the BMP file to use, the height and width of the bitmap (registered version only) and pixels per millimeter (ppm). Giving ppm a smaller value results in a closer repeating pattern conversely a larger value for ppm results in a more spaced out repeating pattern. This screen is also used to select the SVGA mode to display the resulting bitmap. The maximum size is limited only by the amount of free XMS memory.
S Displays some statistics on SIRDSANI.
O Set SIRDSANI options. This screen allows you to set height background bitmap, bitmap scale factor, random, dot pattern and SIRDS generation algorithm to use.
W Write out an animator file of the current view.
N Cycles to the next object.
T Toggle Translate/Rotate.
K Delete current object.
D Shell to DOS.
Q Quit SIRDSANI.

The Generation:

To generate the SIRDS animation select the Go button of the SIRDS Animator controls. This may be your cue to go make a cup of tea - if you have a 486DX you had better be quite quick at making tea though. A white line will appear on the top of the screen indicating the progress being made in processing the next SIRDS.

The Animation:

This is the bit we've all been waiting for! The following keys can be used during the animation:

H Help!
+ Speeds the animation up.
- Slows it down.
R Reverses the direction of animation.
P Toggles pause - during pause press any key to see next frame. Press P again to resume animation.
S Displays some statistics.
E Return to object manipulation screen.
Q Returns you to the real world.

How to View:

The best way we've found for teaching people to view SIRDS is to turn the brightness of the computer monitor down so you can see your reflection and wait a few minutes. The animation can help as then there is no fixed pattern to try to concentrate on. You must keep you head upright as it is impossible to see SIRDS with your head at an angle.

The other method is to try to imagine you are looking at an image beyond the computer screen.

For cross-eyed stereograms, look at the screen cross-eyed - you may need to get quite close to the screen as focusing at the correct distance with crossed eyes is quite difficult. When you can only see three triangles on the top of the screen, move your head slowly away to see more of the image. Warning - looking at the screen cross-eyed can be quite tiring at first.

SIRDSANI Options:

These are found by pressing the O key in the object manipulation screen. The following parameters can be changed:

Dot Pattern: Select different random dot patterns to use, only two to choose from at present.
Z-Shift: Controls the position of the background plane. A value of 1 places the background plane at the clip-plane (z=0). Try values between 0.9 and 0.6.
Bitmap: Select a bitmap for use as a height map, i.e. A picture in which the colours correspond to a height. 16 or 256 colour uncompressed windows BMP files can be used as a height bitmap.
Bitmap Scale: Controls the height of the windows bitmap. For 16 colour bitmaps a value of 4 is appropriate for 256 colour bitmaps choose a scale of around 1.
Perfect: Selecting perfect will cause the SIRDS or SIS to be generated with a hidden surface algorithm. This gets rid of ghost images that sometimes appear, but does take much longer to generate.

Using these options correctly is a fine art. I would recommend always setting perfect to yes when generating your finished product. To achieve greater depth on your picture set Z-shift to 0.7 and then increase the bitmap scale (If using a height bitmap).

Command Line Options:

SIRDSANI supports the following command line options:

-object (file) Load x3d 2.0 object file.
-wav (file) Load Wavefront object file.
-zshift (sf) Determines the position of background plane: default value is 0.9, sensible values are between 0.6 and 1.0.
-perfect Generates the SIRDS according to hidden surface algorithm - This removes any ghost images that can appear in the standard method of generation but does take a lot more time.
-r (file) Reads a bitmap height file.
-fac (sf) Z scale factor for the bitmap file.

Using SIRDSANI with command line options

            SIRDSANI (options) (ani file)

Use SIRDSANI -w (object file) to load Wavefront objects and SIRDSANI -o (object file) to load x3d object files. For example:

           SIRDSANI -o cube -w tank example1.ani

will load the x3d object cube and the Wavefront tank object into SIRDSANI and store the animation data in example1.ani.

Additional objects may be loaded into animator files,

          SIRDSANI -o cone example1.ani

will load the cone object plus the objects contained in example1.

Problems:

Only works with XMS protocol 2.0. This problem can be overcome by either running SIRDSANI in a windows DOS box or by using the HIMEM.SYS from the DOS 5 release.

Maximum number of points in object is 3300.

If you encounter any other bugs tell us.

Address Information:

If you have any suggestions or recommendations to add to this program - we want to here them.

You can reach us at:

Email            garethrichards at cableinet.co.uk
                 Peter.Chang at nottingham.ac.uk