Just got back from Virginia yesterday afternoon (you’ll be seeing some pictures from my trip on my ShutterCal widget to the right in the coming days) and am still catching up on all the blogospheric happenings of the past few days.

Reason enough to show off some 3D images I’ve been making.

A few weeks ago, I got wondering how I could turn game screenshots into three dimensional images. MMORPGs would be a lot more immersive if we could see the game world in the same number of dimensions as we see the real world.

It turned out to be both easier and harder than I thought.

I originally wanted to make stereograms, like for the old View-Masters (and I still want to), but it looked like that would entail a significant effort. That led me to Anaglyphs, the combined red/blue images that you need to view with red/blue glasses.

I found a short tutorial on making anaglyphs in Photoshop, ordered some red/blue glasses, and was off.

1. Bree: The first picture looks down into Bree from the Prancing Pony Inn in Lord of the Rings Online. The 3D effect makes it easy to follow the bumps and dips in the cobblestone road; in particular, there’s a steep bit on the left of the road that wagon drivers likely try and avoid when bringing supplies to the Inn.
2. Cannon: This experimental cannon, found in EQ2′s Moors of Ykesha, hurls people back to the dock area — if they are lucky.
3. Clockwork: One of the roaming clockworks in EQ2′s Moors of Ykesha. The 3D effect is amazing in this shot; not only does the clockwork look real enough to grab, it’s easy to see the depth of the rock shelf to the right, and the distance of the tower on the island to the left.
4. EQ2Bar: This is the bar Stargrace made me for my apartments in Gorowyn.
5. EQ2Camel: A camel standing behind a group of treants in my apartments. I started off with simple indoor scenes where things wouldn’t move, too much.
6. EQ2Clock: I shot this clock scene for my rebuttal to Wolfhead’s First 15 Minutes in EQ2 article. Since the clock and both moons were lined up so nicely, I took another shot for the 3D effect.
7. EQ2Theater: Another shot from my Stargrace-designed apartments. The effect here is amazing; everything looks absolutely solid, if a bit toy-like.
8. EQJunkbeast: The Junk Beast in EverQuest’s Plane of Innovation. The color didn’t come out well in the anaglyph, so I converted it to black and white to enhance the effect. With red/blue glasses on, it’s easy to see the monster is actually hovering above the ground.
9. EQNexus: The main Combine spires in EQ’s Nexus. This used to be the meeting place for the EverQuest community, back when Luclin was new. Now, empty.
10. EQPoJustice: One of the Hammers that guard the portals to the trials in the Plane of Justice.
11. EQSHDwarves: A group of dwarves in Shadow Haven doing what they do best: Drinking. Very nice effect here, but I had to drop to black and white.
12. EVE Online: The next four pictures are all from EVE Online. Since you can’t strafe in EVE, I just rotated the view a little to get the two pictures. I’m convinced. Of all these games, EVE would look the most incredible in 3D.
13. FRMerryVale: Merry Vale from Free Realms. It was too colorful for the 3D effect to work, but it’s better in black and white. Red/Blue anaglyphs leech all the reds from every picture.
14. FRSnowville: Snowville from Free Realms. Anaglyphs LOVE scenes heavy in greens.
15. PrancingPony: The Prancing Pony Inn from Lord of the Rings Online.
16. SBQuarterstone: An inn in Spellborn’s Quarterstone, in the Pit District.
17. SBStatue: Statues from Quarterstone’s Statue District in Chronicles of Spellborn.
18. SBVaultsZigg: A twisty collection of switchbacks leading up the Vaults in Spellborn.
19. W101Car: An auto in my showroom in my house in Wizard 101. It’s hard to take good screenshots in Wizard 101 because your character is always in the picture. In my home, I could place a book case where I wanted to take a picture, stand as close to it as possible, and the camera would place itself in front of both the bookcase and my character. This wasn’t easy to do outside.
20. W101 Krok: Krokotopia seen from Sphinx Island. I cropped out my character. In both this and the Sphinx picture, I waited for the sky to come back to the same position so it would look like I took both pictures at the same time.
21. W101Parlor: The parlor from my Wizard 101 home.
22. W101Sphinx: The Krokosphinx itself. Again, heavily cropped to keep my character out of the picture, and the sky in the same position in both shots was a priority.

I’ve also started on some real-world anaglyphs, but I am having a bit of trouble with those. The real world doesn’t stand still and wait for me.

According to news sites T-Online and GameZone, Dutch-developed Fantasy MMORPG Chronicles of Spellborn will be shutting down the Frogster-operated European servers at the end of July. European players may have their characters transferred to the Acclaim-operated American servers by filling out a form on the Acclaim site.

The article goes on to say that Spellborn will be relaunched in 2010 as a Free2Play game, funding itself with a cash store that will sell gear and character services. Upon relaunch, Frogster will again operate the European servers.

Okay, THAT was a day of good discussion, so thanks, Wolfshead :) Why did I feel your “first impressions” article needed rebutting? Well, SOMEONE had to stand up (and thanks to Hudson, who did!). I couldn’t say that stuff about WoW and expect to come away without comment. In grand blogging tradition, Wolfshead now has a rebuttal to my rebuttal :)

Adding fuel to this smoldering fire, Warhammerer does the same first few minutes analysis to SOE’s Vanguard. That company just can’t catch a break these days, even if it had sealed box with the words “WARNING — DO NOT OPEN — LIVE BREAK” stenciled on it.

Planning on playing Aion when it comes out, or have you pre-ordered it and are now allowed to play on the preview weekends? Naamah of Aionic Thoughts has some useful tips which will make your game flow more smoothly. Naamah also has some screenshots of the new lingerie introduced with the latest, 1.5 patch. This is the last major patch before release, if I remember right.

Stingite at Friendly Necromancer shows off the new sword he got from a code in Beckett’s Massive Online Gamer magazine. Pretty swanky, looks like an EQ1 epic…

Hey, did you hear that Sam Raimi of “Evil Dead” fame is making a new movie? About World of Warcraft? Zoso of Killed in a Smiling Accident managed to snag a few pages of the shooting script. Hilarity ensues when the Hunter rolls “need” on everything.

Anjin is concerned that Champions Online won’t encourage solo play, but then corrects himself. Truth is, Champions Online supports solo play the way EQ2 does. You can solo, but you won’t be able to do a certain portion of the quests from the yellow exclamation point dotted quest hubs unless you have a group available.

Yellow exclamation points above the heads of NPCs clustered in quest hubs? Not sounding super-heroish? Green Armadillo is just not a fan of the WoW model at all.

After Saylah of Mystic Worlds has been going on about the multi-boxing lifestyle in World of Warcraft, Spinks chimes in with the goods and bads of duoing through WoW.

Keen continues with his look back to the elder days of MMO gaming with his latest article on the importance of factions in old EverQuest. I remember getting my dark elf shadow knight loved in Rivervale!

And lastly (early meeting today) — as seen on Rock, Paper, Scissors, and from the creator of Crayon Physics Deluxe, a Post-It Note shooter.

Like an ebbing tide, the weekend slowly recedes, leaving behind the flotsam and jetsam of yet another Monday. Only a few years too late to knock ‘em dead in Mrs. Moran’s 3rd grade English class on similes.

Are the World of Warcraft’s raids too dependent on scripting to be done by unaided humanity? I haven’t played WoW in a few years, but it’s sounding more and more like WoW raids are just a multiplayer, more colorful version of the old “Dragon’s Lair” video game, where you had to move to lit-up squares in a room to defeat monsters. Actually it sounds EXACTLY like it, as Copra found out to his dismay. WoW raiding — an update of a classic 80′s video game for a new generation.

Spinks wonders why people agree to “boost” other people through high level dungeons. I first heard this term from my son, when he would get his Diablo II characters boosted to level 99, and then turn around and boost others (basically, powerleveling). And then he did it in EverQuest II, and in Call of Duty 4. Someone even asked ME to “boost” them through Wizard 101. I don’t think this says anything about the laziness of players, more than just the design of a game that isn’t as much fun played as intended.

Wizard’s Journey has a great post on this weekend’s “Wizard 101 Meet & Greet”, a fantastic opportunity for W101 bloggers and readers to meet up and get on each other’s friend lists. I wasn’t able to attend, but I’ve heard from reliable sources that a fun time was had by all.

Brad McQuaid continues wearing his public hair shirt of taking the piss for other people’s problems leading to the downfall of Sigil in “The All-Star Team“. Sigil hired the best and the brightest, and got a team of MMO superstars all pulling in different directions, claims Brad.

Petter of Don’t Fear the Mutant is taking Final Fantasy XI for a spin, and it’s fun reliving those heady times again, through his adventures. He started off in Windurst, while I started off in Sand Oreo, so I can see why he didn’t stay in the Dunes — he came at them from the wrong side (the low level stuff is on the Oreo side).

Struggling to remain afloat in any form, Chronicles of Spellborn is going Free-to-Play, but with a cash shop. I’m having a tough time figuring out what a game where gear and loot is severely de-emphasized in favor of player skill could offer in a cash shop. Maybe a more standard “press this button until everything is dead” interface. Whatever. Beau of Spouse Aggro looks at several different ways in which Spellborn could relaunch itself as a F2P title.

And finally Gordon of We Fly Spitfires revels in misogyny as he compares MMOs to women. Quick summary: Age of Conan – slut. World of Warcraft – your willing love slave who doesn’t mind if you cheat on her. Extra points for comparing EVE Online to the Soviet Union…

A Monday full of meetings at work! So I’d better be going. See you tomorrow, and keep gaming!