3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: 3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video]

#31

Post by brudgers » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:43 PM UTC

willvarfar wrote: post #14

brudgers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pixelation is a result of viewing it a distance closer than the distance at which the image was designed to be viewed. At a microscopic level, a fine art photograph will show grain, an inkjet print will show ink dots, and a computer monitor will appear as individual pixels. The video is shot in close and tangentially in order to show how it works.

By "pixelated appearence" I mean the blockiness caused by seeing the black sides of each block when its a different height. The display is a bit like a minecraft map with the colouring only on one face of each cube.

I agree. The opening scene of the video and the shot at around 0:38 depict the typical angles and viewing distance from which most people will experience the sign. From these view points, the individual pixels are not readily apparent. But a two video from typical angles and distances would not be very interesting compared to close ups that show the mechanism in action and showing the mechanism is probably more suitable for a sales/marketing video.

Re: 3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video]

#32

Post by iammyIP » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 11:33 PM UTC

odessacubbage wrote: post #12

iammyIP wrote: post #4

It's pretty sad that such an aesthetic piece of technology is completely ruined by that companys content.

the pursuit of aesthetics has always been bankrolled by commercial dick measuring contests of one form or another. the fact that we can convince our corporate overlords to continue financing unnecessary objects is one of the few things that keeps me hopeful for the future.

Nice viewpoint, but still - why couldn't they engage some artists to do some really beautiful stuff with this setup instead of nonstop-plastering their default imagery onto it.

It's a missed opportunity to show off even bigger dick in that regard.

Re: 3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video]

#33

Post by coin » Sun, Sep 10, 2017, 1:56 AM UTC

firefoxd wrote: post #25

I'm always impressed on how high quality these screens are. Despite the fact that they are on 24/7 and run under extreme condition, snow New York, and excruciating heat in vegas. You really have to see them up close in person to appreciate it, then realize you are watching a commercial.

> then realize you are watching a commercial

Regardless of its impressiveness, at the end of the day it's just an ad trying to sell you stuff

Re: 3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video]

#34

Post by pluma » Tue, Sep 12, 2017, 3:32 PM UTC

jkgsligoa wrote: post #11

pluma wrote: post #2

This is a cool effect but it looks like it's mechanical: the screen is split into tiny squares which can slide in and out independently. It's not 3D, it's literally tiny screens moving along the z-axis. The technology behind this is probably quite interesting as the movement has to sync up with the video but I can't watch this without wondering how long it will take for some of the tiny screens to get stuck because o…

It's literally real 3D. Do you think only pseudo-3D-in-2D is real 3D, while actual real 3D is just a 2D hack? It's ridiculous.

Technically it's a 2D surface extruded in real 3D space.

Early 3D games didn't have polygonal models and the levels were actually defined by a 2D grid (making it impossible to climb "on top" of something as each square could only be blocking or passable but had no "height"). Objects in the game world were drawn as 2D sprites on that 2D plane but it was all rendered in perspective to give the illusion of 3D.

Nowadays we call those games "2.5D" to distinguish them from modern 3D games which can render arbitrary polygonal objects.

This display is 2.5D. It basically "renders" a rectangular 2D texture with a low-resolution depth map by painting the texture on the screens and then extruding the screens according to the depth.

Re: 3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video]

#35

Post by pluma » Tue, Sep 12, 2017, 3:36 PM UTC

ryandvm wrote: post #16

jkgsligoa wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally real 3D. Do you think only pseudo-3D-in-2D is real 3D, while actual real 3D is just a 2D hack? It's ridiculous.

It's a very neat effect, but I think his point was that it's not 3D rendering, so from that aspect it's not particularly interesting. It's sort of like going to a play and then saying you just watched a 3D movie.

It's interesting, but it's like putting a TV on a robot arm and then saying it's a 3D display. The only difference is it uses multiple displays and limits the movement to a single axis.

Re: 3D Coke Sign in Times Square [video]

#36

Post by pluma » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 8:57 AM UTC

Geee wrote: post #27

damnfine wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one dimension is limited compared to others, it makes sense to call it psudeo 3d, because all planes are not fully realized. But it is still clearly invoking a 3rd dimension, maybe a 4th if you consider movement in time. I still call it just shy of '3D'.

Offtopic, but why is 'pseudo' almost always misspelled even on HN?

Because in English the way it's spelled seems entirely orthogonal to its pronunciation.

"pseudo" basically sounds like "sudo".

Compare to German where the way it's spelled is exactly how you'd spell it if you first heard it (and speak German). We don't drop the "p" and we pronounce "eu" as a diphthong as in other Germans words (sounding like "oi" in English).

As a German this is why I almost never misspell it in English. It looks the same as in German and is a loanword in both languages, so I tend to sound it out the German way even when thinking in English.