Copyright: Visual Help Copyright® 1993 Firas Bushnaq


CONTENTS
          (POPOUT)

Random Dot Stereogram generator

Important!  Read this first

Installation

Introduction to POPOUT

How to Create a Stereogram

Hints for Viewing a Stereogram

Hints for Printing a Stereogram

Problems? Suggestions?

Advantages of Registering POPOUT!

How to Register


Advantages of registering POPOUT

This version of POPOUT is shareware.  It is a fully functional Random Dot Stereogram generating program, capable of creating 320x200 Black & White, Random Color, or Custom Color Random Dot Stereogram images.

This Help file, as well as the POPOUT Main Menu, was originally written and designed for a non-shareware, commercial version of POPOUT.  Therefore, there are references in this Help file to features that do not exist in this shareware.  Furthermore, there are some controls in the POPOUT Main Menu that are not used in the shareware.

Upon registering your copy of POPOUT, we will send you the commercial version of the software.  As we mentioned above, the commercial version contains a few enhancements not in the shareware.  While the shareware is fully capable of generating stereogram images, the commercial version is capable of generating more complicated stereograms.  Since this Help File was written for the commercial version, we've included the following addendum that explains the enhancements that have been added to the commercial version of POPOUT.

•	The number of "levels" of depth in this shareware is the "bottom" level, and one other level.  When this shareware version reads your Source File drawing, non-black colors are all treated the same.  In the commercial version of POPOUT, each of the 16 colors possible in a BMP Source File (or 256 intensities if TGA) drawing is translated by POPOUT to a different "level" of depth in the stereogram.  The result is a stereogram with up to 256 levels of depth.

•	The commercial version of the software supports the Dual-Image Output Style, allowing you to really personalize your stereograms.  Instead of being limited to stereograms of the Random Dot variety, the Dual-Image stereogram distorts a tiled background image to create the illusion.

•	The Options are not enabled is this shareware.  The Options pulldown menu provides the user with a mechanism to provide POPOUT with a number of flags that it uses when generating the stereogram image.  The Options have been preset to a fixed value in this version of the software.

•	The Pixel Density is fixed at 50% in this shareware.  In the commercial version, this parameter may be altered, allowing the relative contrast of the stereogram to be adjusted.  This enhancement is useful in improving the quality of printed stereograms.

•	The Depth Factor has no real use in this shareware.  In the commercial version, the Depth Factor gives the user the ability to trade off stereogram quality for levels of depth.  The Depth Factor allows you to fiddle with your stereogram to get the maximum acceptable quality with the most depth.

•	The Pixels/Inch parameter is used in the commercial version to taylor your stereogram to your target media.   By knowing the pixel resolution of your monitor, printer, etc.,  POPOUT is able to maximize the amount of depth in the stereogram while maintaining linearity in the  depth dimension.

•	The commercial version places no limits (except the amount of memory in your computer) on the size of the stereograms it generates.


Installation

Installation of POPOUT is easy.  Since this shareware is being distributed through a number of different channels, installation may be different for different users.

Look for a file called INSTALL.EXE or SETUP.EXE on the POPOUT diskette.  If it exists (and it should), then simply click on the "File" pulldown in the Program Manager window, then click on "Run".  For "Command", type in "A:\INSTALL.EXE"

Substitute another drive letter for your floppy if yours is not drive "A:".

The POPOUT Install utility will copy all of the necessary files to your hard drive, then create a program group and program items for POPOUT.


Introduction

POPOUT generates Stereogram images from drawings that you create.  POPOUT is capable of generating Random Dot Stereograms (RDS), as well as a type of stereogram which uses a second image as a tiled background.  At first glance, the images that POPOUT generates appear to be either a series of seemingly random dots, or else a repeating and slightly distorted pattern or image.  When viewed properly, however, a "hidden" three dimensional image will "POP OUT" of the stereogram!

POPOUT was designed to be used in two different settings.  In one, the user manually draws an image using Paintbrush or some similar drawing tool.  In this setting, POPOUT is capable of generating stereograms with up to 16 levels of depth.  While some very nice stereograms can be generated in this manner, manually creating POPOUT input drawings with much more than 16 or so levels becomes too difficult for the user.  In the second setting, the user creates the input drawing by way of one of the popular ray tracing packages available, such as POVRAY.  With these kinds of images as input, POPOUT is able to create stereograms with as many as 256 levels of depth.  Once the number of levels in the stereogram increases beyond 30 or 40, the eye tends to "blend" these levels to produce the illusion of actual three dimensional surfaces.

POPOUT does not know or care how these source drawings are created.  It is capable of reading 16-color BMP formatted images (which can be created using Paintbrush), as well as Type 1, 2, and 3 Targa formatted images (which can be created using popular ray tracing software).  16-color BMP drawings will create stereograms with up to 16 levels of depth, while the Targa formats will support up to 256 levels of depth.

POPOUT can create four different types of output stereogram.  The output image can be either a Black & White RDS,  an RDS with 16 randomly chosen colors, an RDS with a color scheme defined by the user, or a stereogram consisting of a repeating pattern or image defined by the user.


Creating a Stereogram

The following are the main steps you will follow in creating a stereogram image:

Create a Drawing

Generate the Stereogram

View and Print the Stereogram

Configuration/Preferences

Options


Create a Drawing

The first step in generating a stereogram image is to design the image that you want to be hidden within the stereogram.  This is the most time-consuming part of the process.

POPOUT has been designed to accept depth-containing files (called Source Files) that have been manually created, or files that have been created by some ray tracing program.  POPOUT will accept 16-color BMP files (which are easily created using Paintbrush), as well as Type 1, 2 or 3 Targa files (which most ray tracing software is capable of generating).

We've designed POPOUT to be used easily in conjunction with Microsoft Paintbrush, which most users are familiar with. If you've never used Paintbrush, you may want to spend some time getting familiar with it.  If you prefer another drawing tool, you may certainly use it. POPOUT's only requirement is that your drawing be in 16-color BMP format, and that the colors are those defined in the Paintbrush palette file POPOUT.PAL..  For purposes of this document, we will assume that you are using Paintbrush to create your manually drawn Source File images.  We also assume that you have access to some ray tracing software such as POVRAY or POLYRAY that is capable of generating Targa format files.  This is not an absolute requirement for generating stereograms, but does allow you to create up to 256 levels in your stereograms, whereas the 16-color BMP Source File will create at most 16 levels of depth.

The topics listed below are geared toward the manual creation of your own Source File drawings using Paintbrush, and saving the drawing as a 16-color BMP file.  For creating TGA format Source Files, we suggest getting ahold of either POVRAY or POLYRAY ray tracing software.  These packages are capable of creating Targa files which can be accepted by the PLY2POP utility and converted into a Type 3 Targa file which can be read as a POPOUT Source File.  The only limitation is that the ray tracing software must be capable of storing your traced image in either Type 1, 2 or 3 Targa formats, and impressing depth information into the image either as an unsigned integer on the Red channel, or as a signed (and offset by 128) value on the Red and Green channels (as POLYRAY supports with the '-p z' switch).  You can read more about this in the PLY2POP.TXT file.

We recommend that you create your manually-generating drawing by following the steps shown below:

Redefine the Paintbrush Palette

Initialize the Paintbrush Canvas

Create your Drawing

Save your Drawing

Warning!

Some new users of POPOUT invariably try to convert a scanned photograph to a stereogram.  You should be aware that THIS WILL NOT WORK!  This is not a fault of POPOUT.  A scanned photograph contains NO depth information encoded within it.  Colors or greyshades produced by a scan are NOT the same thing as depth information.  POPOUT (or any other stereogram generator) has no way of determining relative depth in the image.  POPOUT Source File images must either be created manually (using Paintbrush), or automatically by using some ray trace software that is capable of impressing depth information into the Source File image.


Redefine the Paintbrush Palette

Your distribution diskette contains a Paintbrush Palette definition file called POPOUT.PAL.  We suggest that you redefine the palette using this file.

When you start Paintbrush, you may have noticed that the default Paintbrush palette consists of 28 colors.  Since Paintbrush can only save 16 of these uniquely (we don't know why), we've limited POPOUT to accepting drawings which are in a 16-color format.  This means that in creating your drawing, you will use at a maximum only 16 colors from the Paintbrush palette.

Click on the Paintbrush "Options" pulldown, then click on "Get Colors...".  Select the file POPOUT.PAL from your POPOUT directory.  This file will redefine the Paintbrush palette such that all but 16 colors will be "blacked out".  Furthermore, the remaining 16 colors will be rearranged in such a way as to make it easier for you to remember which color will map to which level in the stereogram.


Initialize the Paintbrush Canvas

Only the left-most 16 colors of the Paintbrush palette (8 on top and 8 on the bottom) will be used in creating your drawing.  If you've redefined the palette with POPOUT.PAL, these colors are the only ones remaining.

Before starting your drawing, you should clear the canvas to Black.  If you've used POPOUT.PAL, this will be done for you.

Before clearing the canvas, you might want to decide on an image size.  Click on "Options", then "Image Attributes".  Click on the "pels" (meaning pixels) "radio" button.  Enter the "Width" and "Height" of your image.  We suggest starting with something small, like 320 Width by 200 Height.

Once you've chosen the size of your drawing, you're ready to clear the canvas. Click on the top-left color of the palette with the RIGHT mouse button.  Click on the "File" pulldown, then click on "New".

Hint:

Later, you may want to experiment with clearing the canvas to a different color.  You can get some interesting "Push In" effects (rather than POP OUT) in your stereograms.


Create your Drawing

This topic refers to the creation of a Source File drawing using Paintbrush to manually draw your Source File.

Creating your drawing is the most time consuming part of generating a stereogram image.  This is where you will actually draw the image that you want POPOUT to hide within your stereogram.

Using all of the normal Paintbrush tools, go ahead and create your drawing.  The important thing to remember is that the colors you choose will be interpreted by POPOUT as "levels".  Of the 16 left-most colors, the color on the top left (Black if you've used POPOUT.PAL) will be interpreted as the level furthest from the viewer.  The next color (Dark Red if you've used POPOUT.PAL) is closer to the viewer.  This continues on until the bottom-right color (White if you've used POPOUT.PAL) is the closest level to the viewer.

Important!

Do not confuse these colors with the colors of your stereogram.  The color of your stereogram has nothing to do with the colors you use to create your drawing.  The colors that you use here is simply a way for you to put depth information into your drawing.

Hint:

If this is your first time, you may want to use a drawing that we've included on your diskette, rather than creating one of your own.  Click on "File", then click on "Open".  Select the file EXAMPI1.BMP from your POPOUT directory.  This is a good example of a 16-color drawing.

Another Hint:

When you're creating your drawing, try not to have less than 3 or 4 pixels of the same color (level) in one horizontal row.  For example, don't draw a vertical line that is only 1 pixel wide.  Because of the way the illusion works, something like this will be very hard to see in the stereogram.


Save your Drawing

Once you're finished creating your drawing using Paintbrush, you will need to save it to disk in order for POPOUT to read it.  Your drawing (which POPOUT calls a Source File) must be in a 16-color BMP format.

To save the drawing, click on the "File" pulldown, then click on "Save As...".  In the "Save File as Type" window, select "16 Color bitmap".  Here, you will need to choose a filename, for example, EXAMPI.BMP.

Hint:

We prefer to save Source File drawings with a filename ending in the letter "I" to indicate that this is an input file to POPOUT.  By naming the stereogram the same name but without the "I", it is easy to remember which drawing was used to create which stereogram.


Generate the Stereogram

Once you've either manually created your Source File drawing using Paintbrush, or obtained it as output from a ray tracing program, you're ready to start POPOUT.

In the POPOUT Main Menu, you will specify the Source File drawing and specify a filename for POPOUT to save the stereogram, called the Destination File.  After filling in a number of optional parameters, you will be ready to generate your stereogram.  The following topics provide a description of all of the controls in the POPOUT Main Menu.

Source File

Destination File

Background File

Output Style

Color File

Create Color

Pattern Width

Pixel Density

Depth Factor

Pixels / Inch

Generate and Exit

Options


Source File

The Source File is the filename of the image that contains the depth information for the stereogram POPOUT will create.  If you've manually created this file using Paintbrush, you must save it as a 16-color BMP image (note that Paintbrush defaults to 256-color; you will need to select 16-color).  The Source File may also be a Type 1, 2, or 3 Targa file.  If the file is Type 1 or Type 2 Targa, depth information is expected to be an unsigned integer value in the Red channel.  If the Source File is a Type 3 (Greyscale) Targa, depth is interpreted as the intensity of the grey value.  Depth encoded images produced by programs like POLYRAY are not quite compatible with this format.  The DOS utility PLY2POP will convert a POLYRAY depth encoded Type 2 Targa file to a Type 3 Targa file with depth encoded as intensity, which is a suitable Source File for POPOUT.  The Source File is the main source of information for POPOUT when creating a stereogram, as it contains the image that POPOUT will hide within the stereogram.

In the POPOUT Main Menu, click on the Source File button, and select the filename of the drawing that you created.


Destination File

The Destination File is the file which is your stereogram.  POPOUT will create this file.  The purpose of the Destination File button in the POPOUT Main Menu is for you to specify the filename.

POPOUT saves stereograms in either BMP or TGA format.  For the RDS Output Styles, the Destination File type (BMP or TGA) must be the same as the Source File.  For the Dual-Image Output Style, the Destination File type must be the same as the Background File type.

Hint:

When specifying the Destination FIle name, use a name similar to the name you gave to your Source File drawing when you saved it in Paintbrush.  Down the road, it will help you remember which drawing was used to create the stereogram.  If your Source File drawing is called EXAMPI.BMP, you may want to name the Destination file something like EXAMPO.BMP.


Background File

The Background File is only used when the Dual-Image Output Style is selected.  The Background File contains the image that will be tiled (and distorted) to create the stereogram.  The distortion of the tiled image is how POPOUT hides the Source File drawing into the stereogram.

The Background File format may be either 256-color BMP, or Type 1, 2 or 3 Targa.  The Destination File will be of the same type as the Background File.

Note:

If the Background File is a non-mapped Type 2 Targa file, the Destination will also be of the same type.  This means that the resultant stereogram will be a 24-bit color print-quality image.


Output Style

The Output Style section of the POPOUT Main Menu consists of four "radio" style pushbuttons.  The Output Style specifies the type of stereogram that you want POPOUT to create.  The following topics will discuss each of these Output Styles.

Black and White RDS Output Style

Random RDS Output Style

Custom Color RDS Output Style

Dual-Image Stereogram Output Style

Hint:

If you're experimenting just to see if you can get a viewable stereogram, and you're using Paintbrush to create your Source File, you may want to leave the Output Style set to Black & White, as these take up a lot less disk space than the other Output Styles.


Black and White Output Style

This is the default Output Style.  This Output Style selection will tell POPOUT to generate your Destination File RDS stereogram using only black and white colors.  If the Source File is a 16-color BMP, this output style will generate a 2-color BMP Destination File.  If the Source File is a Targa file, the Destination File is stored as a Type 1 Targa.  For hardcopy to a simple black and white printer, this is the Output Style you'll want to use.


Random Output Style

This Output Style button tells POPOUT to generate the Destination file stereogram using a random selection of colors  POPOUT will choose from 16 bright colors for the image.

These stereograms are stored as a 256-color BMP file if the Source File is in BMP format, and as a Type 1 Targa if the Source File is Targa.

Hint:

POPOUT chooses from a random selection of relatively bright colors.  Since the choice of colors is random, there's no telling how the stereogram will look.  We've added a mecanism to "steer" POPOUT into choosing colors of a specified color.  You may note on the Main Menu that the Create Color Button is enabled when the Random Output Style is selected. If you click on the Create Color Button, then in the Create Color menu select one of the Background Colors, then press the Cancel button without saving anything, POPOUT will try to steer the random color generation toward that color you selected in the Background Color list.  It's still random, but the selected color will tend to appear more often than the other randomly selected colors.  For example, if you were making a stereogram with a St. Patrick's Day theme, you might want to use the Random Output Style.  By pressing Create Color, then selecting LtGreen from the Background list, then pressing Cancel, the resulting stereogram will tend to have more bright Green than the remaining colors.

Selecting Black as the Background color tells POPOUT not to bias the color selection, so that all colors have the same probability of being used.  Note that Black is the default Background color.

Another Hint:

The random number generator within POPOUT that is used for generating colors for this output style is "seeded" when POPOUT is first started, and is never reinitialized as long as POPOUT is running.  What this means is that if you don't like the color scheme of your stereogram, simply press Generate again and try a new set of random colors.  By using the Create Color Background color, you can usually get an acceptable color scheme within a few iterations of pressing Generate.


Custom Color Output Style

This is the Output Style that allows users precise control over the coloring of their Random Dot Stereograms.  Stereograms of this type are stored by POPOUT in either BMP or TGA format, depending on the the Source File type.  When this Output Style is selected, POPOUT needs some mechanism to tell it precisely how to color the stereogram.  It uses something we call a Color File to do this.

Important!

Don't confuse the color of the stereogram with the colors in your Source File.  Those colors that you used in Paintbrush or that were generated by a ray tracing program were converted by POPOUT to "levels", and have nothing to do with the color of the stereogram.

The Color File is the mechanism used by POPOUT to control the color of the stereogram.  The Color File contains, in precise detail, how the color of the stereogram should vary from top to bottom of the image.

When using this Output Style, you must either create a new Color File by clicking on the Create Color button, or use a previously created Color File by clicking on the Color File button.

Selecting a Color File

Creating a Color File

Hint:

Color Files are independant of the stereograms.  You may eventually have an entire directory containg many Color Files that you've created.  Any Color File may be used to color any stereogram.  We suggest naming color files (which have a default extension of *.POC) such that they indicate the color scheme.  For example, a Color File containing the color scheme "LtRed, White, LtBlue" may be called something like USFLAG.POC, or RWB.POC.


Selecting a Color File

The rectangular Color File button is used to select a previously created Color File when generating custom color stereograms.  Click on the button, then select the Color File you want POPOUT to use when coloring the stereogram (Color Files have a default extension of *.POC).

If you will be creating a new color scheme for the stereogram, you will need to create a new Color File.  In this case, click on the Create Color button.


Create Color

The Create Color button is used to access the Create Color Window.  This window is used to create a new color scheme, and hence, a new Color File.  Color Files are used in the creation of Custom Color stereograms.  The Background Color may also be used to statistically bias POPOUT in the selection of colors for the Random Output Style.

The Color File is a simple text file which describes to POPOUT how to color your stereogram.  In a Custom Color stereogram, we consider some of the pixels to be foreground pixels, and others to be background pixels.  The foreground pixels of the Custom Color stereogram may vary in color from top to bottom of the image.  The background pixels all have the same color value.

When you press the Create Color button, a window which we call the "Create Color File" window pops up.  In this window, you may select any number of colors from 1 to 50 to make up the color scheme of the foreground pixels in your stereogram.  You may also select the color of the background pixels.

For a detailed description of the "Create Color File" window, refer to the topic "Create Color File Window".  For a detailed description of the structure of a Color File, refer to the topic "Structure of the Color File".

Create Color File Window

Structure of a Color File


Create Color File Window

"Create Color File" is the name of a POPOUT window that is opened when you press the "Create Color" button.  The main purpose of the window is to allow the user to create a color scheme for Custom Color stereograms, and hence a Color File.  The window may also be used to bias POPOUT's selection of colors for Random Color RDS images.

The "Create Color File" window has the following controls:

Foreground Color Buttons

Background Color Select

Clear Button

Save and Cancel Buttons


Foreground Color Buttons

The "Create Color File" window contains sixteen buttons along the left side of the window.  These buttons are used to create a color scheme for the foreground pixels in Custom Color Stereograms.

You may press any combination of the sixteen color buttons from 1 to 50 times.  By the sequence and number of button presses, you will define how you want the color of foreground pixels to vary from the top to bottom of the stereogram.

For example, if you press the buttons LtRed-White-LtBlue, the foreground pixels of the stereogram will vary gradually from LtRed at the top of the image to White in the middle, then finally from White to LtBlue at the bottom.

As you press a color button, a list is maintained and displayed to remind you of the color scheme you're designing.

Hint:

Color buttons may be pressed more than once.  For example, the key presses LtRed-White-LtBlue will produce a color scheme different than pressing LtRed-LtRed-White-White-LtBlue-LtBlue.  Experiment.

Another Hint:

If you've made a mistake, you can delete colors from the displayed list.  Click on the entry in the list to highlight it, then click on the Clear Button.


Background Color Select

To the right of the "Create Color File" window is a "combo box" which allows you to select the color of the background pixels in a Custom Color stereogram.

The default color of these background pixels is Black.

Hint:

If you will be printing this stereogram, try using  White as the background color.  The resulting stereogram will tend to be less "busy" looking.

Another Hint:

When the Output Style is selected as Random RDS, POPOUT will randomly choose from the 16 colors shown in the Create Color Window to make up the colors of your stereogram.  Murphy states that POPOUT will tend to choose colors you don't like!  It really is a random selection, and every time you press the Generate button, you'll get a new random color scheme.  We've added a mechanism to try and "steer" POPOUT into emphasing a particular color when making its random selection.  For example, if you're creating an RDS with a St. Patrick's Day theme, you may want to generate a Random color RDS that is "heavy on the green".  In the Create Color Window, if you select the Background color as anything other than Black, POPOUT will try and give that selected color more priority over all others when making a random color selection.  The resulting stereogram will tend to have more pixels of that selected Background color contained in it.  You don't have to save this to a color file, just choose the color from the list, and POPOUT will remember it.  If the Background color is Black, POPOUT will pick all colors with the same probability.


Clear Button

The Clear button in the "Create Color File" window has two purposes.  When selecting a foreground pixel color scheme, a list of the colors you've chosen appears in the center of the window.  If you click on one of the colors in the list to highlight it, then press the Clear button, the entry will be deleted from the list.  If you press the Clear button when no entries in the list are highlighted, all of the entries are deleted.


Save and Cancel Buttons

Once you've chosen a list of foreground colors, and selected a background color, click on the Save button to create a Color File.  You will be prompted for a filename for the Color File.  POPOUT Color Files have a default extension of *.POC.

Once you've saved your color scheme into a Color File, the "Create Color File" window will close, and the name of your newly created Color File will be entered into the "Color File" space in the POPOUT Main Menu.

If you've decided that you don't want to be generating a Custom Color stereogram afterall, click on the Cancel button to close the "Create Color File" window.

If you've pressed the Create Color Button because you want to bias the random selection of colors for the Random RDS Output Style, you don't need to save anything.  Pressing Cancel will tell POPOUT to remember the Background color you selected, and this color will be the "preferred" color when POPOUT creates your Random Color RDS.


Structure of a Color File

Most users will probably never have any need or desire to manually modify a Color File.  Since a Color File is a simple text file which can be edited using an editor such as Notepad, you may very well want to "tinker" with Color Files.

In the interest of simplicity, we designed the "Create Color File" window to create Color Files containing full and half intensity primary and secondary colors, as well as White and Black.  By "tweaking" a Color File, you can create color schemes including many other colors.  Therefore, we've included this topic to discuss the structure of a Color File.

As previously mentioned, a Color File is a simple text file.  The Color File can contain any number of lines.  Each line contains a command to POPOUT.  There is a very strict syntax that must be adhered to in a Color File (remember, since Color Files are generated by POPOUT's "Create Color File" window, there's normally never a problem - problems only occur when you modify a Color File).

Each line in a Color File must begin with one of four words: RED, GREEN, BLUE, or BLACK (case does not matter).  Any number of lines may begin with the words RED, GREEN, or BLUE, but only one line may begin with the word BLACK.  Furthermore, the line beginning with the word BLACK must be the last line in the Color File.

For lines beginning with the words RED, GREEN, or BLUE, the syntax is as follows:

COLOR STARTC ENDC STARTY ENDY

where:

COLOR is either RED, GREEN, or BLUE
STARTC is the beginning intensity (in percent) of the color
ENDC is the ending intensity (in percent) of the color
STARTY is the beginning line (in percent) of the stereogram
ENDY is the ending line (in percent) of the stereogram

STARTC, ENDC, STARTY and ENDY are all integer numbers between 0 and 100 (inclusive), preceeded by one space.  ENDY must always be a larger number than STARTY.

For the line beginning with the word "BLACK", the syntax is:

BLACK REDC GREENC BLUEC

where:

REDC is the amount (in percent) of Red in the background pixels
GREENC is the amount (in percent) of Green in the background pixels
BLUEC is the amount (in percent) of Blue in the background pixels.

REDC, GREENC, and BLUEC must all be integer numbers between 0 and 100 (inclusive).

For example, the line:
 RED 0 100 0 100
would be interpreted by POPOUT to mean, "Gradually vary Red from 0% intensity to 100% intensity, from 0% down the image (the top) to 100% of the way down the image (the bottom).  In other words, this command will ramp any red in the image from full-off at the top of the stereogram, to full intensity at the bottom.

The following example is a Color File generated by pressing the sequence LtRed-White-LtBlue in the "Create Color File" window, and selecting LtYellow as the background color.  Note that this sequence will cause the foreground pixels in the stereogram to be Red at the top of the image, gradually fading into White in the middle, then onto Blue at the bottom.  The background pixels will be Yellow.

RED 100 100 0 50
RED 100 0 50 100
GREEN 0 100 0 50
GREEN 100 0 50 100
BLUE 0 0 0 50
BLUE 0 100 50 100
BLACK 100 100 0

The above example Color File would be interpreted by POPOUT as follows:
The first line would be read by POPOUT as, "Vary Red from full-on at the top of the image, to full on in the middle of the image".  In other words, Red stays at full-on for the top half of the image.

The second line would be interpreted as, "Vary Red from full-on in the middle of the image to full-off at the bottom".

The third line tells POPOUT to vary Green from full-off at the top to full-on in the middle, and the fourth line says to ramp green from full-on in the middle to full-off at the bottom.

The fifth and sixth lines ramps Blue from full-off at the top to full-on in the middle, then to stay at full-on for the bottom half.

When POPOUT combines all of this information when creating foreground pixels, we see that there is no Green or Blue at the top of the image, but lots of Red.  So, the very top of the image will be Red.  For the top half of the image, Green and Blue gradually increase in intensity so that in the middle, we have full intensity of all three colors, resulting in White in the middle (Red + Green + Blue = White).  Moving from the middle to the bottom of the image, both Red and Green fall to full-off, while Blue stays at full-on.  So, in the bottom half of the image, we fade from White to Blue.

The last line of the Color File redefines the Black, or background pixels, to be full-intensity Red and full-intensity Green, but no Blue.  Red + Green = Yellow, so the background pixels will be Yellow.

Hint:

If you're in there fiddling with Color Files, make sure and "overlap" both color and position values.  For example, in the two lines above that describe Red, the middle of the image (50%) is defined in both lines.  Don't do something like:
RED 100 100 0 50
RED 100 0 51 100
In the above example, we haven't "covered" the area between 50% and 51% of the way down the image.


Dual Image Output Style

This output style does not generate a Random Dot Stereogram, but rather, a stereogram that hides one image into the slight distortions of a repeating series of a second image.  To generate this type of stereogram, you'll need two images.  The first is the Source File, which contains the depth information for the hidden image.  This is the same kind of Source File as in the other types of Output Styles.  The second image is called the Background Image.  The stereogram will be made up of a repeating series of this Background Image, and the Source File image will be hidden within it by distorting the series of background images.

The Destination File will be either in BMP or TGA format, depending on the Background File image type.

Note:

This particular Output Style is particularly sensitive to the Depth Factor,  Pixels/Inch, and Background width values.  If you see streaks in the image, try decreasing the Depth Factor, or use a wider image as the Background Image.


Color File

The Color File button is used when you want POPOUT to create a stereogram with a color scheme that you have previously defined and stored on your disk as a Color File.  The Color File button is used to select the Color File.  This button is enabled only when you've selected the Output Style to be Custom Color.

Color Files are independant of stereograms.  You may in time have a directory full of miscellaneous Color Files.  Any Color File may be used to define the color for any Custom Color stereogram.

To create a Color File, refer to the topic "Create Color".

Create Color

Hint:

Color Files have a default extension of *.POC.  Name a Color Files to be descriptive of the color scheme it defines, not the stereogram you're using it to create.  For example, a Color File that describes the color scheme "LtCyan, LtMagenta, LtYellow, Black" might be named something like CMYK.POC.


Pattern Width

One of the first things you notice when looking at a Random Dot Stereogram is the seemingly repeating patterns of random dots across the width of the image.  We refer to this distance between repeating patterns as the Pattern Width.

When POPOUT generates a stereogram, it reads this parameter (which we've arbitrarily defaulted to 60) to determine how many pixels to generate before repeating the pattern.  The Pattern Width value is specified in Pixels.

Since we don't know the resolution or size of your monitor, and we don't know the resolution of your printer and whether you'll be scaling your image before printing it, we don't know the physical distance between patterns in your finished stereogram.  This physical distance between patterns is what increases or decreases the relative "depth" of the image contained within the stereogram.  The wider the pattern, the more depth in the image.  Also, the wider the pattern, the more difficult it will be for some people to see the hidden image.

Depending on your own environment, you will probably want to experiment with different values for the Pattern Width.  We recommend a pattern width of somewhere between three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half.

Note:

The Pattern Width value is not specified when the Output Style is selected as Dual-Image.  For this Output Style, the Pattern Width is defined as the width of the Background File image.  Be careful.  There is a tendency to use background images that are too wide, making the stereogram very difficult to view.  Remember, the background image dictates the pattern width in this Output Style.  Don't use background images that are any wider than you'd normally use as a pattern width.


Pixel Density

When generating a Black & White or Custom Color stereogram, we have the concept of "foreground" and "background" pixels.  In Black & White stereograms, we consider the White pixels to be in the foreground, and the Black ones to be in the background.  When creating Custom Color stereograms, we consider the colored pixels to be the foreground pixels, and the "Black" pixels (which may be redefined to another color) to be the background pixels.

The Pixel Density is a percentage value.  It specifies to POPOUT the percentage of foreground pixels that should be generated.  The default value is 50, which tells POPOUT that when creating a Black & White or Custom Color stereogram, make roughly half of the pixels the foreground color, and half of the background color.

The reason for including the Pixel Density parameter is for generating a stereogram which you intend to print.  Users who copy their stereograms to directly to high density printers (such as the 300 and 600 dots per inch with no scaling) will find that stereograms created with a 50% Pixel Density tend to be a bit dark.  By adjusting this value, a lighter print can be obtained.  Allowable values are from 1 to 99 (both 0 and 100 make no sense, as this would produce an image of all foreground or all background pixels!)

Hint:

You can get some interesting RDS images by using very high or very low values for the Pixel Density.  It really is amazing how sparse your random dots can be, and the human brain is still able to discern the hidden image.  Try setting the Output Style to Black & White RDS, and set the Pixel Density to 90%.  Only 10% of the pixels in the resultant stereogram will be black pixels, but you'll probably still be able to see the hidden image!

Note:

The Pixel Density is not used when the Output Style is Random or Dual-Image, since there is no concept of foreground or background pixels.  In the Random Output Style, all pixel colors are chosen randomly by POPOUT.  In the Dual-Image Output Style, output pixels are generated by using pixels from the Background File image.


Depth Factor

The Depth Factor is a value used to give POPOUT a mechanism whereby you can trade off stereogram quality against the possible number of levels that will be generated.  This value is expressed as a percentage, and allows values between 1 and 100.  This number refers to the percentage of the original Pattern Width (or Background File width for Dual-Image stereograms) that will be sacrificed in order to maximize the number of levels that will be generated.  In other words, the higher the Depth Factor, the more depth will be generated, but at a cost of reduced quality.  The lower the Depth Factor, the lower the distortion in the image, but will result in less total depth.  This is particularly noticable in Dual-Image stereograms.

Whether or not your stereogram will be viewable is dependant on several factors, including the Depth Factor, Pattern Width (or Background Image width), and Pixels/Inch parameters.  The goal is to make the Depth Factor as low as possible (thereby minimizing distortion) while getting as much depth as possible.

We've defaulted the Depth Factor to 50%, meaning that POPOUT will sacrifice up to 50% of the Pattern Width when creating levels of depth in the stereogram.

Hint:

You may need to go through a few iterations of pressing the Generate button before you get a stereogram you're satisfied with.  If you see "streaks" in the image, or if the image is simply not viewable, try reducing the Depth Factor.  If the image is viewable but doesn't contain many levels, try increasing the Depth Factor.


Pixels per Inch

The Pixels per Inch parameter is used to taylor you output stereogram to your particular output media of interest.  The parameter is used by POPOUT to accurately develop the best quality stereogram.  If your intent is to view your stereogram on the CRT, your Pixels per Inch value would reflect the actual number of pixels per inch on your display.  If you intend to print your stereogram to a high resolution printer, you'll want to adjust this parameter to match the resolution at which you'll be printing.

When creating stereograms with only a few levels, you'll probably never need to fiddle with this parameter.  We've included it for those cases when you'll be reading TGA format Source Files and generating stereograms with many levels.  In this case, telling POPOUT the resolution of the target image will aid in maintaining the constant distances between levels.

We've arbitrarily defaulted the parameter to 80.


Generate and Exit

The Generate button in the POPOUT Main Menu is the "DO IT" button.  Once you've set up all of the controls, click on the Generate button.

The first thing POPOUT will do is a bit of a sanity check on your choices for file names.  For BMP format images, we suggest using a file name extension of ".BMP", and for Targa images, we require an extension of ".TGA".  For the RDS Output Styles, POPOUT requires the extensions of the Source File and Destination File to be the same.  For Dual-Image stereograms, POPOUT requires the extensions of the Source and Background files to be the same.

At this point, POPOUT will read your Source File drawing, and any appropriate controls that you've set Output Style, Pattern Width, etc.  POPOUT will then create a file on your disk with the name you gave as the Destination File.  This file is your stereogram.  POPOUT displays a status bar at the bottom of the menu to provide feedback as to where it is in generating your stereogram.  Depending on the speed of your computer, you may never even notice it.

Once POPOUT has finished generating your stereogram Destination File, you may exit POPOUT if you wish.  The "Exit" button is used to exit POPOUT.

Hint:

Don't exit POPOUT if you're experimenting with an image.  Iconify POPOUT, and view your stereogram using Paintbrush (if it's in BMP format), or some other image viewer if it's a Targa file.  This way, POPOUT will retail all of the parameters you've set up, and it will make it easy to change a parameter for another iteration.

Another Hint:

Since the RDS is based on randomly generated pixels, sometimes you may get a stereogram that just doesn't "look right".  A glob of blue pixels here, a glob of black pixels there, etc.  Each time you press the Generate button, POPOUT uses a different set of random numbers, so keep hitting Generate, view the stereogram via Paintbrush, go back and hit Generate again, etc., until you get a stereogram that you like.  Note that this does not apply to the Dual-Image Output Style.


Options

The Options pulldown menu has been included to provide a means for specifying various flags used by POPOUT in generating a stereogram image.  Each of these Option parameters are discussed in the topics listed below:

Diverging

Converging

Filter Enable

Maximize Quality

Maximize Depth

Guide Dots

Use Color


Diverging

This toggle is enabled by default.  It directs POPOUT to generate a "diverging" type of stereogram, the most common and easiest to see of stereogram images.  In this type of stereogram image, the viewer relaxes his eyes such that the point of focus is behind the image, and the hidden three-dimensional image appears behind the image plane.


Converging

This Toggle is used to direct POPOUT to direct the "convergence" type of stereogram image.  This is a less common and harder to visualize image, where the viewer must "cross" the eyes such that the point of focus is in front of the image plane.  The hidden three-dimensional image will then appear in front of the image plane.

Note:

When this Toggle is selected, the "Maximize Depth" toggle will also be automatically selected.  This type of stereogram is very sensitive to the distance between the viewer and the image plane, and you'll want to maximize the amount of levels that can be generated.

Hint:

When generating this type of stereogram, you will want to use a Pattern Width a little larger that with the Divergence type.  Also, you will want to experiment with using larger values for the Depth Factor, which tends to give better results.


Filter Enable

The Filter Enable and Filter Disable Options are used to enable and disable a simple low pass filter that is used on the Source File image.

The filter is used to try and "smooth out" abrupt changes in the Source FIle image when the image is of Targa type.  The filter is included because of the way ray tracing programs tend to stipple pixel intensities when there is a gradual change of depth.

Hint:

If, when using a Targa file generated by a ray tracing program is used as the Source File, and the resultant stereogram has "speckles" within it, enabling the filter will tend to reduce if not eliminate this speckling.


Maximize Quality

This Option is selected by default.  When this Option is selected, POPOUT will try to maintain a high linearity in the depth dimension.  In other words,  POPOUT will try to maintain the same apparent depth between each level in the stereogram, at the cost of the total numbers of levels.  This is especially important when generating the common Divergence stereogram images that has a significant amount of depth.

Note:

When the Diverging Option is selected, this Option will automatically be selected.  The common Divergence type of stereograms are very sensitive to nonlinearities in the depth dimension, and you'll find that if you don't tell POPOUT to maximize the quality, the image will be distorted.

Hint:

When generating the Convergence type of stereograms, the distance between levels is very sensitive to the distance between the viewer and the image plane.  Maximizing the quality is sort of a waste of depth in this case.


Maximize Depth

This Option has been included to allow POPOUT to sacrifice consistency in distances between levels for total depth of the image.  For the common Divergence type of images, you probably won't want to maximize the depth.  For the Convergence type, however, you probably will.  This Option will automatically be selected when you select the Converging Option.


Guide Dots

What we call "Guide Dots" are those annoying two blobs that you see at the top or bottom of a stereogram that some RDS generators produce.  While we don't personally like them, we realize that it helps some folks to see the image.  The Guide Dots are not generated by default.

Note:

Guide Dots are not generated for Dual-Image stereograms; they only apply to RDS images.  Since the pattern width is so obvious in Dual-Image stereograms (it's the background image), we saw no point in mudding up the image with anything else.


Use Color

These three colors are used when the Source File is a Type 1 or Type 2 full-color Targa file.  They tell POPOUT to get the depth value from either the Red, Green, or Blue component of the pixel.  Note that for Type 3 Targa files (greyscale), this toggle is not used.  Also, for 16-color BMP source files, the color-to-level mapping is predefined by POPOUT.


View and Print the Stereogram

Once you've clicked on the Generate button in the POPOUT Main Menu and POPOUT generated your stereogram, you will want to view it.  POPOUT saves your stereogram using the filename given as the Destination File, and saves it in either BMP or TGA format.  Black & White stereograms are stored in either 2-color BMP format or Type 1 TGA format (depending on the Source File type), while Random and Custom Color stereograms are stored as 256-color BMP or TGA files (also depending on the Source File type).  Dual-Image Destination Files are either 256-color BMP, or Type 1, 2 or 3 TGA, depending on the Background File type.

For Destination Files in BMP format, start Paintbrush, and Open the file that you specifed to POPOUT as the Destination File.  If you're not satisfied with something, either Open your Source File drawing and fix it, or fiddle with the parameters in POPOUT.  Once you're satisfied, you may want to print your stereogram.  Print your stereogram directly from Paintbrush.  Refer to the topic "Hints for Printing".

For Destination Files in TGA format, you will need to use some other image viewer to print the image, or else use some image converter to convert the image to a format that Paintbrush can read.

Hints for Printing

Hint:

When you're working on a stereogram, never exit POPOUT.  This makes any iteration of fiddling with your drawing, fiddling with POPOUT parameters, viewing the stereogram, fiddling again with your drawing, etc., a lot easier and quicker.


Hints for Printing

Paintbrush contains a nice mechanism for printing your stereograms.  There are a few tips, however, that we've included so that you produce the nicest looking hardcopy.

•	Always use the Printer Resolution.  When you print using Paintbrush, there is a box in the Paintbrush Print window labelled "Use Printer Resolution".  Always 'X' this box.  If you don't, you may see vertical ridges or lines in your stereogram.

•	Try to scale by integer multiples of 100.  In the Paintbrush Print window, scale by numbers like 100%, 200%, 300%, etc.  Otherwise, you may see the same vertical lines or ridges mentioned above.

•	Depending on the resolution of your printer, and the scaling factor mentioned above, you may need to go back and recreate your stereogram with a different value for the Pattern Width in the POPOUT Main Menu.  On paper, the distance between repeating patterns should be around an inch to an inch and a half.

•	If you've generated a Black & White stereogram, and your printing to a black and white printer, you may notice that the stereogram is a bit dark, especially if you have a high resolution printer and your print scale factor is small.  Go back and re-generate your stereogram with a higher value for the Pixel Density in the POPOUT Main Menu.

•	We've had some good experience with taking a TGA format stereogram to the local quick-copy store.  For a small fee, these places (assuming they have the equipment) can read an image, and send it directly to a color copier.  The results are impressive, and by far the best quality for the buck.

For a High Resolution Printer (> 300 dpi)

If you intend to print your stereogram at a very high resolution, keep in mind that what you can print is far more resolute than what can be displayed on your CRT; perhaps by as much as a factor of 10 or more.  This means that you may be able to produce an image which while unviewable on the CRT (because of a huge pattern width), is perfectly fine when printed.  Keep in mind that a most important factor in the quality of your stereogram is the linear pattern width; try to keep it between an inch and two inches.  On a 300 dot per inch printer, for example, you want a pattern width around 300 or 400 pixels.  This image would be difficult to view (if not being totally non-viewable) on an 80 pixel per inch CRT (making the linear width over 3 inches), but would look just fine on a printer, where the linear patter width would be about an inch.


Preferences

The Preferences menu is accessed by clicking on the "Configuration" pulldown in the POPOUT main menu.  This menu allows you to specify your default image viewer, and the default pathnames of your images and color definition files.

Note:

When you click the "Save" button in the Preferences menu,  your default selections will be saved to disk, and will be used each time you start POPOUT.


Hints for Viewing

Some folks will have no problems in viewing your stereogram images.  Others may need a bit of help.  Below is a list of "hints" that we've compiled from different people.

•	Start with your head about a foot or so from the image.  Stare at it and let your eyes relax.  If things start to move out of focus, let them.  Keep staring.

•	With your head about a foot from the image, suddenly move toward the image, and try not to refocus.

•	Stare at something at a far wall.  Then, suddenly, glance at the image. Don't try to refocus on the image.

•	Get your nose right up to the image.  Gradually (or for some people, quickly) move your head back.

•	Practice by drawing two dots on a piece of paper about an inch or so apart.  Stare at them and let your eyes relax.  Both dots should go out of focus, and you will see a total of four fuzzy dots.  Keep staring.  As the two middle fuzzy dots start to move toward each other, let them.  There will be a point where the two middle fuzzy dots meet, and you will see a total of three dots, where the one in the center is clear, and the two edge dots are fuzzy.  This is what you need to be doing to your eyes to see the stereogram image.

•	On a printed RDS, draw two dots like in the above hint just above the stereogram, at a distance identical to the pattern width.  Once you stare and see three dots, gradually move your eyes down into the stereogram without trying to refocus.  Some RDS generators do this automatically.  Personally, we think it's dumb.  You can always do this yourself with a pencil, or inside Paintbrush.  Of course, with a Dual-Image stereogram, you don't need this.

•	Put your stereogram behind a piece of glass, then stare at your reflection in the glass.


PROBLEMS AND SUCH
Problems, Suggestions, etc.

If you've encountered some sort of problem in trying to generate a stereogram image using POPOUT, our first recommendation is to rummage through this Help file.  We've tried to include a number of tips and suggestions to give you the best possible results.  Chances are, the answer to your question is buried in this Help file somewhere.

If not, or if you have any other problems, either contact the agent or merchant that sold you your software.  If he or she can't answer your question, you can contact the authors by way of the addresses shown below:

POPOUT

C/O Bob Hankinson

P.O. Box 50632

Dallas, Texas 75250

Or via the Internet, America OnLine, or CompuServe:

Internet or AOL:  BHankinson@aol.com

CompuServe: 73144,1046


HOW TO REGISTER
How to Register POPOUT

To register POPOUT, simply click on the "Help" pulldown in the POPOUT Main Menu.  Then, click on "Register POPOUT", and an order form will be displayed.  Also, if you restart POPOUT, a button labelled "Order Form" will appear on the opening window.  The order form may be printed by clicking on the "File" pulldown in the Order Form window, then clicking on "Print Topic".


Allowable Image Formats

The following lists all of the image formats that POPOUT will accept.  We've selected these formats carefully, as accepting them makes for an easy interface to either Paintbrush or some of the popular ray tracing software packages available.

Source File Formats

POPOUT will accept any of the four following image formats as a Source File:

•	16 color BMP.  This image format is easily generated using Paintbrush.  It is intended to be the format of choice when creating a Source File by manually drawing a picture using the colors defined in POPOUT.PAL.  For users that create Source File drawings using Paintbrush, select "Options" in the Paintbrush window, then select "Get Colors".  Type in "POPOUT.PAL".  For folks using another drawing package, the refer to the topic "BMP Source File Colors" for a list of the colors recognized by POPOUT.  This topic lists the acceptable colors in the order of the level of depth that they will create in the output stereogram.

BMP Source File Colors

•	Type 1 Targa.  This is a color mapped image.  POPOUT will accept up to 256 colors.  Depth information is interpreted by POPOUT to be the intensity of the Red color.

•	Type 2 Targa.  This is an unmapped color image.  POPOUT will interpret depth to be the intensity of the Red color,  just as in the Targa 1 format.  Note that this is not quite the manner in which ray tracers such as POLYRAY encode depth information.  Such an image must first be run through the PLY2POP utility, which will convert the image to a Type 3 Targa file described below.

•	Type 3 Targa.  This is an unmapped grey-scale image.  POPOUT expects 8-bit pixels, and interprets depth as the intensity of the pixel.  Brightest pixels are closest to the viewer.  This is the preferred format, as it makes for the shortest file with no doubt as to which pixels map to which levels.  Most ray tracing programs encode depth into their output images in a manner different from this.  There is a DOS command-line utility on this disk called PLY2POP.EXE, which will convert a depth-encoded Type 2 Targa image to a Type 3 Targa for use as a POPOUT Source File.  Read the file PLY2POP.TXT.

Note:

We have purposely NOT chosen some more common image formats as acceptable Source File formats.  Inevitably, we will receive mail that suggests, "Why don't you modify POPOUT to accept GIF format images, as I have plenty of GIF's that I'd like to create stereograms from."

As mentioned elsewhere, scanned images contain no depth information, and are therefore unacceptable as Source File images!  POPOUT (or any other stereogram generator) has no way of determining relative depth in the image.  Color and brightness are NOT the same as depth.

Destination File Formats

POPOUT will create stereograms in either 2-color BMP, 256-color BMP, or  Type 1, 2, or 3 Targa formats, depending on Source File and Background File formats, as well as the Output Style selected.

The rules for Destination Files are as follows:

For RDS Output Styles, the Destination file must have the same extension (BMP or TGA) as the Source File.  For Dual-Image stereograms, the extension of the Destination File must be the same as the Background File.

Background File Formats

Background Files are only used for the Dual-Image Output Style.  Background files may be in 256-color BMP, or Type 1, 2, or 3 Targa formats.

Warning!

Be careful when mixing file types.  There are instances when POPOUT will create "upside down" stereograms!  While these are easy to fix using some graphics viewers, it is good to know.  This will occur when the Output Style is selected as Dual Image, the Source File is a "right-side-up" Targa, and the Background is a 256-color BMP.  Since POPOUT creates a stereogram on a line by line basis, and because the Destination File must be BMP format (and BMP's are stored "upside down"), POPOUT is forced to write the image in an upside down fashion.  Both the hidden image and the tiled background pattern will be upside down, so "flipping" it using some graphics viewer may be necessary.  This can be prevented by instructing the ray tracing software that writes the Targa Source File to write it in an upside down fashion (Targa files can be stored either way).


BMP Source File Colors

When using a 16-color BMP format drawing as a POPOUT Source File, there are some limitations as to the colors used.   POPOUT requires a fixed set of colors, and contains a fixed mapping of color in the Source File to level of depth in the stereogram Destination File.  These colors have been chosen carefully, and are listed below with their resultant level of depth.  The 3 numbers in parenthesis refer to the value of the Red, Green and Blue component of each pixel.

Base Level - Black (0, 0, 0)
Level 1 - Red (128, 0, 0)
Level 2 - Green (0, 128, 0)
Level 3 - Yellow (128, 128, 0)
Level 4 - Blue (0, 0, 128)
Level 5 - Magenta (128, 0, 128)
Level 6 - Cyan (0, 128, 128)
Level 7 - Grey (128, 128, 128)
Level 8 - Light Grey (192, 192, 192)
Level 9 - Light Red (255, 0, 0)
Level 10 - Light Green (0, 255, 0)
Level 11 - Light Yellow (255, 255, 0)
Level 12 - Light Blue (0, 0, 255)
Level 13 - Light Magenta (255, 0, 255)
Level 14 - Light Cyan (0, 255, 255)
Top Level - White (255, 255, 255)

Colors that deviate from the above list are not usable to POPOUT.  To guarantee that your Source File contains these colors, we suggest that you use the "Get Colors" Option in Paintbrush, and select the POPOUT.PAL Paintbrush Palette file.  This file contains the colors defined above.


Definition of Terms

The following are descriptions of some of the terms that appear in this Help file.

Source File

The Source File is the primary input to POPOUT.  This is the file that contains the depth information that will be used by POPOUT to create the stereogram.  This file may be a 16-color BMP file (which is easily created using Paintbrush), or may be a Type 1, 2 or 3 Targa file, which can be created with some of the more popular ray tracing software available, in conjunction with the PLY2POP utility.

Destination File

The Destination File is the file that POPOUT creates.  This is the stereogram image.  POPOUT will create either a 2-color or 256-BMP file, or a Type 1, 2 or 3 Targa file, depending on the type of the Source File, Background File, and/or Output Styles selected.  When generating a Black & White, Random Color or Custom Color RDS, the Destination File will be of the same type as the Source File.  When creating dual-image stereograms, the Destination File will be of the same type as the Background File.  Note that when creating dual-image stereograms, the Background (and Destination) File may be a Type 2 Targa, meaning that it is possible to create 24-bit true color stereogram images.

Background File

The Background File contains the image that POPOUT will use when creating a stereogram that contains a non-random repeating pattern or image.  Background Files are only used when the Output Style is selected as "Dual-image Stereogram".  Background Files may either be 256-color BMP files, or Type 1, 2 or 3 Targa files.  Background files are limited to a maximum size of 65536 pixels (width x height).

Output Style

The Output Style refers to the type of stereogram that POPOUT will create.   POPOUT is capable of creating four distinct types of stereogram images. Three of these output styles are Random Dot Stereograms.  We refer to these three output styles as Black & White, Random Color, and Custom Color.  Black & White RDS images are easy to generate and typically occupy less disk space.  They make nice images for hardcopy.  Random Color RDS images consist of 16 colors chosen randomly by POPOUT.    Custom Color RDS images use a color scheme created by the user and stored in something called a Color File.  Color Files are only used when creating Custom Color RDS images.  The fourth output style is called a Dual-Image Stereogram.  This kind of stereogram is not comprised of random dots (hence, it is not an RDS).  A different algorithm is used here.  The stereogram consists of a repeating series of images that has been distorted to contain the hidden image.  The Background File is used as the repeating image, and the hidden image is generated from the Source File.


UK Order Form

Oakley Data Services
3 Oakley Close, Sandbach,
Cheshire CW11 9RQ, England

Call +44 (0)270 759739
Fax +44 (0)270 765272
CIS: 100024,1763

Note:  You can print this order form by selecting the "Print Topic" in the "File" pulldown above.

To:
Oakley Data Services, 3 Oakley Close, Sandbach,
Cheshire CW11 9RQ, England

Please send me ____ registered copy(s) of POPOUT, together with Shareware Versions of some of your other software.

Prices:

UK and EEC:
17.00 Pounds Sterling including P&P, plus VAT (17.5%) = 19.97 Pounds Sterling per copy.

Outside the EEC:
17.00 Pounds Sterling plus 2.00 Pounds Sterling P&P = 19.00 Pounds Sterling per copy.

Unless otherwise requested, we ship 3.5" HD disks.

Total Price: ________

I enclose a cheque / wish to pay by MasterCard / Visa (delete as applicable)

Credit Card Details:

Name as on card: ___________________________________
Card Number:       ___________________________________
Expiry Date:         ___________________________________

Please send the registered version to:

Name:    ______________________________________
Address: ______________________________________
              ______________________________________

Post Code: ______________  Day Time Telephone: ___________

You can also contact us by:
Phone: +44 (0)270 759739
Fax:     +44 (0)270 765272
Compuserve: 100024,1763
Internet: 100024.1763@compuserve.com

It would also help us if you could tell us where you got POPOUT from:


USA Order Form

Note:  This order form can be printed by selecting the "Print Topic" option from the "File" pulldown above.

Please add my name to the list of POPOUT registered users, and send me a copy of the commercial version of the software.  Send my copy of the commercial version to:

Name:            ___________________________________________
Street/Apt:      ___________________________________________
City/State/Zip: ___________________________________________

Registration Fee:                               $20.00
Sales Tax (TX residents add $1.50)     $_____

Total                                                 $_____

Make checks payable to "POPOUT", and send your registration to:

POPOUT
P.O. Box 50632
Dallas, Texas  75250

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, the authors can be reached by way of the Internet, America OnLine, or CompuServe.  Email questions are typically answered within a day.

Internet: BHankinson@aol.com
AOL: BHankinson
CompuServe: 73144,1046

It would also help our distribution efforts if you let us know where you received your copy of this shareware!


Background color

The Background Color in the Create Color menu is used to specify the color of background pixels in the Custom Color Output Style, and is also used to bias the random selection of colors in the Random Color Output Style.


Background File

This is the file that contains the image that will be tiled and distorted to produce the Dual-Image type of stereogram.


background pixels

Pixels in a Custom Color stereogram that all have the same color


Black & White

A stereogram Output Style consisting only of black and white pixels


BMP

A standard image format.  Stands for "bitmap"


Cancel

Use this button to exit POPOUT.


Color File

Contains the color information for generating Custom Color stereograms


Create Color File

A window that pops up when the "Create Color" button is clicked


Create Color

Use this button to create a new color scheme.


Custom Color

A stereogram where the user designs the color scheme


Destination File

This is the file that POPOUT creates that contains your stereogram.


Dual-Image

This is a type of stereogram generated by tiling a background image, and distorting the tiled image in such a way as to hide another image within it.


EXAMPI.BMP

A sample Source File drawing included with this diskette.


foreground pixels

The white pixels in Black & White stereograms, and the colors that are varied in Custom Color stereograms.


Generate

Use this button to create the stereogram.


GIF

You've probably got some images stored in GIF format.  POPOUT doesn't support this format just so you won't try creating stereograms of your scanned image.  It won't work.  Trust us.


Output Style

Specifies the type of stereogram that POPOUT will generate


Paintbrush

Paintbrush is a drawing tool included with Microsoft Windows.  POPOUT was designed specifically to be used with Paintbrush.


palette

At the bottom of the Paintbrush window is the palette of colors you use in drawing.  With POPOUT, only use the left-most 16 colors.


Pattern Width

The distance in pixels between repeating patterns in the stereogram


Pixel Density

For Black & White and Custom Color stereograms, the percentage of pixels that are foreground pixels.


POC

Default Color File extension


POP16ORG.POT

A Translate File included with this diskette


POPOUT

POPOUT is a Windows based Random Dot Stereogram generator.


POPOUT.PAL

This is a Paintbrush palette definition file that blackens all but the left-most 16 colors in the Paintbrush palette.


POPOUT.POT

A Translate File included with this diskette


POPOUT16.POT

A Translate File included with this diskette


Random

A stereogram Output Style consisting of randomly chosen colors


RDS

Random Dot Stereogram


scan

Scanned photographs are not suitable for stereograms as they contain no depth information.


seed

The random number generator used for the Random Color Output Style is seeded, or initialized, when POPOUT is first started, then is not touched as long as POPOUT is running.


Source File

This is the drawing your create which will be "hidden" within the stereogram.


Stereogram


Targa

The Targa format is the "format of choice" of popular ray tracing software.  POPOUT supports Type 1, 2 and 3 Targa formats.


TGA

Targa format


Translate File

A text file that provides the "final word" on how POPOUT will convert colors to levels.