MMORPGs in 3D: A Study in Red and Blue

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Just got back from Virginia yesterday afternoon (you’ll be seeing some pictures from my trip on my ShutterCal widget to the right in the coming days) and am still catching up on all the blogospheric happenings of the past few days.
Reason enough to show off some 3D images I’ve been making.
A few weeks ago, I got wondering how I could turn game screenshots into three dimensional images. MMORPGs would be a lot more immersive if we could see the game world in the same number of dimensions as we see the real world.
It turned out to be both easier and harder than I thought.
I originally wanted to make stereograms, like for the old View-Masters (and I still want to), but it looked like that would entail a significant effort. That led me to Anaglyphs, the combined red/blue images that you need to view with red/blue glasses.
I found a short tutorial on making anaglyphs in Photoshop, ordered some red/blue glasses, and was off.

1. Bree: The first picture looks down into Bree from the Prancing Pony Inn in Lord of the Rings Online. The 3D effect makes it easy to follow the bumps and dips in the cobblestone road; in particular, there’s a steep bit on the left of the road that wagon drivers likely try and avoid when bringing supplies to the Inn.
2. Cannon: This experimental cannon, found in EQ2’s Moors of Ykesha, hurls people back to the dock area — if they are lucky.
3. Clockwork: One of the roaming clockworks in EQ2’s Moors of Ykesha. The 3D effect is amazing in this shot; not only does the clockwork look real enough to grab, it’s easy to see the depth of the rock shelf to the right, and the distance of the tower on the island to the left.
4. EQ2Bar: This is the bar Stargrace made me for my apartments in Gorowyn.
5. EQ2Camel: A camel standing behind a group of treants in my apartments. I started off with simple indoor scenes where things wouldn’t move, too much.
6. EQ2Clock: I shot this clock scene for my rebuttal to Wolfhead’s First 15 Minutes in EQ2 article. Since the clock and both moons were lined up so nicely, I took another shot for the 3D effect.
7. EQ2Theater: Another shot from my Stargrace-designed apartments. The effect here is amazing; everything looks absolutely solid, if a bit toy-like.
8. EQJunkbeast: The Junk Beast in EverQuest’s Plane of Innovation. The color didn’t come out well in the anaglyph, so I converted it to black and white to enhance the effect. With red/blue glasses on, it’s easy to see the monster is actually hovering above the ground.
9. EQNexus: The main Combine spires in EQ’s Nexus. This used to be the meeting place for the EverQuest community, back when Luclin was new. Now, empty.
10. EQPoJustice: One of the Hammers that guard the portals to the trials in the Plane of Justice.
11. EQSHDwarves: A group of dwarves in Shadow Haven doing what they do best: Drinking. Very nice effect here, but I had to drop to black and white.
12. EVE Online: The next four pictures are all from EVE Online. Since you can’t strafe in EVE, I just rotated the view a little to get the two pictures. I’m convinced. Of all these games, EVE would look the most incredible in 3D.
13. FRMerryVale: Merry Vale from Free Realms. It was too colorful for the 3D effect to work, but it’s better in black and white. Red/Blue anaglyphs leech all the reds from every picture.
14. FRSnowville: Snowville from Free Realms. Anaglyphs LOVE scenes heavy in greens.
15. PrancingPony: The Prancing Pony Inn from Lord of the Rings Online.
16. SBQuarterstone: An inn in Spellborn’s Quarterstone, in the Pit District.
17. SBStatue: Statues from Quarterstone’s Statue District in Chronicles of Spellborn.
18. SBVaultsZigg: A twisty collection of switchbacks leading up the Vaults in Spellborn.
19. W101Car: An auto in my showroom in my house in Wizard 101. It’s hard to take good screenshots in Wizard 101 because your character is always in the picture. In my home, I could place a book case where I wanted to take a picture, stand as close to it as possible, and the camera would place itself in front of both the bookcase and my character. This wasn’t easy to do outside.
20. W101 Krok: Krokotopia seen from Sphinx Island. I cropped out my character. In both this and the Sphinx picture, I waited for the sky to come back to the same position so it would look like I took both pictures at the same time.
21. W101Parlor: The parlor from my Wizard 101 home.
22. W101Sphinx: The Krokosphinx itself. Again, heavily cropped to keep my character out of the picture, and the sky in the same position in both shots was a priority.

I’ve also started on some real-world anaglyphs, but I am having a bit of trouble with those. The real world doesn’t stand still and wait for me.