Final #2: Six Monocular Depth Cues

This combination of screenshots is for the first monocular depth cue of size differences. The original image (above) shows the hydrant as an object no bigger than my virtual face. However, upon moving closer, the hydrant is almost as big as my virtual body. This helps to give the 3D illusion of distance from objects.

This is an example of the monocular depth cue of occlusion. The three objects I've circled in red, green, and cyan are a tree stump, a tree, and a cliff.  According to occlusion, the object that is blocking the other object is the object closest to the viewer.  So, as the stump blocks part of the tree, and the tree blocks part of the view of the cliff it gives the argument that the order of objects closest to my avatar are as follows: tree stump, tree, cliff.

This picture is an example of the monocular depth cue of lighting and shading. I placed my avatar so the virtual light source (sun) of the virtual world was on my right.  Using the examples of the walls of the building in front of me and even the skin on my avatar you can notice right away that the colors of the right side (towards the light source) of the objects are lighter than the left of the object (away from the light source).

This picture is an example of the monocular depth cue of texture density. The textures of the patches of grass in the cyan circles are very clear and easily distinguished.  They are less dense in that these textures are more spread out.  Patches of grass in the green circles however have lost any clarity and textures seemed mixed and unclear.  The density has clearly increased as the textures look as if they've been squeezed together.

This is an example of the monocular depth cue of linear perspective. In this image, I placed my avatar at one end of a road in this world. From my avatar’s perspective the closer part of the road represented by the green line is much wider than the further end of the road represented by the blue line. Although this road is not perfectly straight, the vast difference in the size of the lines is easily apparent.

This is an example of the monocular depth cue of atmospheric perspective. I placed my avatar close to the house in this world (above photo) and can distinguish a good number of objects and the detailing on the textures of each object (green boxes).  The wood paneling have their own texture and gaps between them, the shades are wavy textured, and the plants have a variety of shading in detail.  However, there is a huge difference when I put enough distance between my avatar and the house (below photo). I can no longer see the gaps in the siding, the waves on the shades, and barely any of the plants.  The majority of the earlier details are blurred.

These screenshots are of me in a virtual world identifying the monocular depth cues that are what make a 3D virtual world realistic. It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. This course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc