Weirdest experience with the graphics display
21 Mar 2016 21:08:29 UTC
Topic 198524
(moderation:
out of boredom (I admit) I started the graphics for a work unit, it looked
very strange and distorted as the sky map was moving from left to right,
constellations warped mysteriously and I could not make sense of it... Until I
realized my visual cortex was playing tricks on me: actually the sky map moves
from right to left, but if you 'misread' what is front and what is back this
strange effect can be observed, did anyone have the same experience?
Weirdest experience with the graphics display
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Yes! I have E@H running on a secondary computer across the room from my main computer. Every time I glance over at it, and it's running the graphics screen saver, it looks like it is spinning from left to right at the front. After staring at it a few seconds and blinking once or twice, it then snaps back into right to left rotation at the front.
Once I get it going correctly, it is hard for me to try and get the original incorrect rotation back again!
I'm not worried about it until it starts rotating from top to bottom. Then it's time to cash in the chips and sign off... :D
It's a visual effect related
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It's a visual effect related to what is known as the Necker Cube :
where, as you say, one's brain is unsure of what lies to the front/back. With line drawings it is relatively easy to invoke because they don't convey depth information. However you can really screw around with this by deliberately injecting contradictory clues :
so this type of effect establishes that we have an internal layer of visual analysis that goes beyond mere 'pixel rendering'. We imply or expect consistency with a 3D space - the usual one we live in everyday.
The Starsphere screensaver has not alot of the 'right' triggers for such a system and thus is prone to what has been described in this thread. Add to that the occasional change in rotation axis, in the screensaver code. Interestingly in interactive mode ( it can be invoked separately from any BOINC activity ) with mouse input you can 'play' with the sphere. Now because you are in control ie. as if you held it in your hand, then disambiguation becomes easy and the thing/object has simple meaning.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
As you say, it seems to be a
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As you say, it seems to be a matter of depth perception and not purely 3D nor stereoscopic awareness. I can look at your cubes above with one eye closed and still flip my brain from one "front" of the cube to the other. The first cube is easier to work with whereas the second one uses shading as a further level of trickery!