VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Aug 16 2010 - 11:20:00 CDT

Hi,
  The issue with making movies for 3D projectors is that there
currently isn't a low-cost encoding mechanism for this type of media.

There are a bunch of competing proprietary solutions, but nothing
that you can reliably use with off-the-shelf software.
I do occasional consulting for a business that develops various
production tools for Hollywood, and one of the tools I helped develop
previously was a 3D movie player that works with the standard digital
files that the movie industry uses. All of the code I wrote was 100%
custom because there still really aren't any widely-adopted standards
other than for Blu-Ray. The most common free/low-cost methods are currently:
  - encode 3D as two separate movie bitstreams
  - encode 3D as a single movie bitstream, using above-below image formatting
  - encode 3D as a single movie bitstream, using side-by-side image formatting
  - encode 3D as a single movie bitstream, using frame-sequential formatting

All of these require special player software...

The new Blu-Ray 3D format uses H.264/AVC with multiview video coding.
So far as I know, there are currently no free or inexpensive MVC-capable
movie encoders in existence. Most of these things currently cost >= $5,000
last I checked. At present, the only way to do 3D movies is to either use
expensive commercial encoders and players, or roll-your-own with your own
custom player.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:40:36AM -0400, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
> hello daniel,
>
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 6:07 AM, Daniel Hornburg <Hleinad_at_gmx.de> wrote:
> > Hello everybody!
> >
> >
> >
> > I am using vmd for visualization of trajectories. Since the ray tracing
> > movies are quite nice and I have the opportunity to use a polarized 3D
> > system I would like to produce high resolution movies suited for 3D
> > visualization (real time is not an opportunity due to slow rendering of my
> > system).
> >
> > However when I choose stereo views like side by side and start rendering I
> > only get pictures of a single view.
>
> yes. that is how it works. the stereo display settings
> only affect the OpenGL output drivers.
>
> > Does anyone of you have created movies for 3D projectors and may help me?
>
> i have been thinking about it and may give it a shot for a
> demo at the GTC'10 conference (if there is time). the question
> is not so much about rendering (you can easily render the
> left and right eye images separately), but about compression
> and playback. what kind of encoding would you want to use
> and what player software would you want to use?
> there are no widely accepted standards so you'd have to
> use some kind of proprietary solution or implement one yourself.
>
> cheers,
> axel.
>
> >
> > Thanks a lot!
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Daniel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer    akohlmey_at_gmail.com
> http://sites.google.com/site/akohlmey/
>
> Institute for Computational Molecular Science
> Temple University, Philadelphia PA, USA. 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078