> From: vanevery@rbdc.rbdc.com (Brandon Van every):
>
>> But you guys keep missing the point: computer graphics is _not_ 3d.
...
> Well, actually that's getting into implementation specifics, which is
> somewhat outside of the charter for this list, I believe. Sterographic
> viewing is NOT strictly 3d transformed to 2d, and may be what many
> people invision when they think of VR. Also, the problem with doing
> the Escher transform, is that the actual physical representation of
> the space would change based on the 2d results as the viewer moved,
> basically a reverse of how the transform normally works. The point is
> developing a 3d model to represent Esherian space and have a standard
> viewing transform for it, which is most likely not possible. What your
> suggesting would involve more than one viewing engine, basically one
> for every view produced, as there is no standard algorithm for
> producing Escherian effects.
Makes sense to me. I disagree about the "standard algorithm" statement,
though. I think there could be a standard method for producing each of
Escher's effects. He used to use mathematically plotted warped grids to
transform normal points of view into illusions. It was his playing around
with the normal systems of reference and then producing drawings within
the new system which is his trademark. I'm sure we could get a computer
to produce his 2D effects. Extrapolating that into 3D would be a problem
for many of those effects, though. The human vision system hasn't
changed, so relying on it to suddenly be able to see four or five
dimensions in order to produce a 3D illusion will not work.
> What would be more interesting, I think, is to take the 3d space and
> play games with representing 4d space... i.e. extrapolate what Escher
> might do with the same tools.
Yes! What would Escher do? He certainly wouldn't hang some of his 2D work
on a virtual wall. He'd play with the medium until he found some
interesting effects, and then bring those effects together to produce
works which would amaze and entertain the viewer's mind. That's Escher.
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