3 ms·

I've done 3D movies, and they look as expected. I guess I'm not quite being accurate when I say it was exactly like stuff in 3D on my monitor - it did sort of

I've done 3D movies, and they look as expected. I guess I'm not quite being accurate when I say it was exactly like stuff in 3D on my monitor - it did sort of look like things were 3D, but meaningfully less than what I expected. Honestly, I'm having a hard time describing it accurately, but suffice to say it was extremely underwhelming.

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
Good to know! Thanks for the response.
mustacheemperor 3y ago
This was also my takeaway from trying it at AWE2022. 3D works great on me, and I’ve always loved stereo 3D stuff even just for the gimmick value. But Tilt5 didn’t feel close enough to the experience of viewing through a hololens or looking at a real 3D display. I think that was especially obvious at the show, where vendors like Looking Glass and Sony had 3D displays with much more impressive depth and rendering capabilities. I get that Tilt5 is taking a different approach and has a reason for it - I’m just not sure that approach is actually good enough in practice. I’ve only used it for the simple demos at the show, but I remember thinking the resolution looked like it might be a limitation for doing more complex games too. Most of the board games I enjoy the most but which are complex enough I’d want a digital alternative involve lots of cards with small text on them.
- jgennis 3y ago
  I mentioned this in another comment below, but it likely applies here as well. We tune the interpupillary distance (IPD) software setting down a bit to accommodate a wider variety of face shapes. If the IPD is set to a distance greater than the physical distance between their eyes, then the effect is very uncomfortable to look at as their brain has trouble "unifying" the two images each eye is seeing. If the IPD is set to a distance less than the physical distance between their eyes, then the effect is perfectly comfortable, but there is reduced depth perceived from the images. We err on the side of comfortable but "flatter" for our default setting and for trade shows and conventions, but adjusting the setting to be appropriate for your face is just a slider in our control panel. We also have a calibration app in our latest public beta drivers for people to find their IPD if they don't know it. I hadn't heard people complaining about this at trade shows before, but it makes a lot of sense. We should probably incorporate a quick calibration at the start of our demos. Thanks for the feedback!
  - mustacheemperor 3y ago
    Aha, this makes sense - especially because I have a relatively narrow IPD! We also weren’t using the mat with the tilted sides, as I recall, which probably makes an impact. Thank you for the explanation, and good luck with the platform! It was really exciting to finally use the tech after watching it develop for so long and I do expect it’ll be part of our tabletop group one day. I mentioned it elsewhere, but if you folks could license some of those complicated, mini-heavy board games like big trouble in little china, it would be a dream. Finally play the complex games without the complex setup. Our company started building AR software around the time of the Tilt5 kickstarter and seeing your team’s efforts was really inspirational to us. Congrats on all your success so far, I look forward to giving it another try…and calibrating my eyeballs first.
brandonjm 3y ago
I have also tried one and I had a similar experience but only in some scenarios. It might be a different effect to what you had but I’ll try to explain. In my experience I got a good 3D effect for objects that were right in the center but the moment things got close to the edge the illusion broke. At times it did look a bit like 3D content on a 2D screen. Objects near the edge of the retroreflective area disappear when you would normally expect them to appear ‘above’ the mat. They somewhat get around this by presenting most information below the surface. Apps like board games were the worst for it because they typically use the whole mat and they typically appear on or above the surface. Anything above the surface just gets cut off around the edge. The larger board that can be tilted up at the back helped but only from one angle.

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago

Good to know! Thanks for the response.

mustacheemperor 3y ago

This was also my takeaway from trying it at AWE2022. 3D works great on me, and I’ve always loved stereo 3D stuff even just for the gimmick value. But Tilt5 didn’t feel close enough to the experience of viewing through a hololens or looking at a real 3D display. I think that was especially obvious at the show, where vendors like Looking Glass and Sony had 3D displays with much more impressive depth and rendering capabilities. I get that Tilt5 is taking a different approach and has a reason for it - I’m just not sure that approach is actually good enough in practice. I’ve only used it for the simple demos at the show, but I remember thinking the resolution looked like it might be a limitation for doing more complex games too. Most of the board games I enjoy the most but which are complex enough I’d want a digital alternative involve lots of cards with small text on them.

jgennis 3y ago
I mentioned this in another comment below, but it likely applies here as well. We tune the interpupillary distance (IPD) software setting down a bit to accommodate a wider variety of face shapes. If the IPD is set to a distance greater than the physical distance between their eyes, then the effect is very uncomfortable to look at as their brain has trouble "unifying" the two images each eye is seeing. If the IPD is set to a distance less than the physical distance between their eyes, then the effect is perfectly comfortable, but there is reduced depth perceived from the images. We err on the side of comfortable but "flatter" for our default setting and for trade shows and conventions, but adjusting the setting to be appropriate for your face is just a slider in our control panel. We also have a calibration app in our latest public beta drivers for people to find their IPD if they don't know it. I hadn't heard people complaining about this at trade shows before, but it makes a lot of sense. We should probably incorporate a quick calibration at the start of our demos. Thanks for the feedback!
- mustacheemperor 3y ago
  Aha, this makes sense - especially because I have a relatively narrow IPD! We also weren’t using the mat with the tilted sides, as I recall, which probably makes an impact. Thank you for the explanation, and good luck with the platform! It was really exciting to finally use the tech after watching it develop for so long and I do expect it’ll be part of our tabletop group one day. I mentioned it elsewhere, but if you folks could license some of those complicated, mini-heavy board games like big trouble in little china, it would be a dream. Finally play the complex games without the complex setup. Our company started building AR software around the time of the Tilt5 kickstarter and seeing your team’s efforts was really inspirational to us. Congrats on all your success so far, I look forward to giving it another try…and calibrating my eyeballs first.

brandonjm 3y ago

I have also tried one and I had a similar experience but only in some scenarios. It might be a different effect to what you had but I’ll try to explain. In my experience I got a good 3D effect for objects that were right in the center but the moment things got close to the edge the illusion broke. At times it did look a bit like 3D content on a 2D screen. Objects near the edge of the retroreflective area disappear when you would normally expect them to appear ‘above’ the mat. They somewhat get around this by presenting most information below the surface. Apps like board games were the worst for it because they typically use the whole mat and they typically appear on or above the surface. Anything above the surface just gets cut off around the edge. The larger board that can be tilted up at the back helped but only from one angle.