3D Vision Blog

If you’ve read my guide from 2 days ago on How to Convert MPO Pictures to JPS (Stereo JPEG) and you are one of the first owners of Fujifilm’s FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital camera this ne program might be useful for you. As you probably know Fujifilm is using the fairly new MPO (multi-picture file format) to store the stereo pairs of the pictures you shoot in 3D with their camera and there is still not many software applications that support this file format. Among one of the few is STOIK Imagic 5.0, but it a commercial product and if you need it just for extracting JPEG files from MPOs you’ll not be happy if you have to buy it. Fortunately the user cybereality at MTBS has written a small fee application called MPO2Stereo that completely replaces the need of STOIK Imagic 5.0, but you’ll still have to do some work in order to get the JPS files fro viewing with GeForce 3D Vision for instance…

The program MPO2Stereo just extracts the stereo pairs into a separate frames for left and right eye out of the MPO file you drag over the executable of the program or write as a parameter in command line. Yes it is a command line application, but even if you don’t know how to work with these you can still easily take advantage of its functionality by just dragging and dropping MPO files over it and then continuing to work with the extracted JPEGs. Of course it would’ve been great if the program joined the two files into a single side by side version and outputting a single file with JPS extensions, but still even at this moment it i quite helpful tool. So if you own a Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital camera and an S3D system of some kind like Geforce 3D Vision for instance this tool might be useful to you… ;)

- To download the MPO2Stereo utility and for more information @ MTBS Forum…

You probably know that the stereo JPEG images are actually plain JPG file containing the two frames next to each other (for left and for right eye) and with an extension JPS (example above). This makes it quite simple to view, edit, convert and whatever else you need to do with them or event to make JPS files with almost any image editor there is. Unfortunately the same thing cannot be said about about the fairly new MPO (multi-picture file format) that is still being used by just a few digital cameras, among which is also the Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 camera that is able to shoot Stereo 3D pictures. It seems that Fujifilm has decided instead to go for JPS to rely on MPO files for storing the two frames required for the Stereo 3D image, but this actually makes the pictures you take with the camera almost unviewable on anything else than the camera itself or the optional 3D digital frame Fujifilm is also offering. But can we as owners of Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision or any other S3D capable setup do something in order to view these S3D images taken with the camera? We already know that Nvidia is going to add support for MPO file format in their stereo picture viewer soon, but what to do until that happens… fortunately I was able to find a solution, not very easy and elegant, but hey it works. :P

I still don’t own a Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital camera, but earlier today I was pointed to a review of the camera at Akihabara News with some example pictures taken in MPO format. Now the review is not great and very detailed, not to mention not covering much about the 3D functionality of the camera which is a key point in this product, but anyway I’m thankful for the images I could work on. Now lets get back to the MPO file format, which seems to be some kind of container for multiple frames (not just two) that seems to be using JPEG compression for the pictures it stores. Unfortunately there is still not a lot of software or actually more like almost no such software for viewing, editing, converting etc. these MPO files the easy way. The one program that I was able to find that can at least open and do some very basic manipulations with the MPO files was STOIK Imagic 5.0, which is not free, but it still has 15-day trial that probably should be enough for now. Then you’ll also need some sort of an image editor much like Photoshop, but almost anything with a bit more advanced editing functions should do the work.

So here is the short guide you need to follow:
- Download, Install and Run STOIK Imagic 5.0
- You need to navigate to the folder where you put the MPO images
- Right click on a MPO file and choose Split MPO file to get the two frames in separate JPG files
- Start your image editor, Photoshop or other and open one of the two JPG files you got in previous step
- Use the Canvas size function of the image editor to double the width of the first picture you’ve opened
- Import the second image (frame) and put it on the right side of the first one already present in the working canvas
- Export the final image you’ve got of the two frames next to each other into a single JPEG image and then rename the file to JPS

- To download the STOIK Imagic 5.0 image editor software…
- To download AkihabaraNews’ example MPO files converted by me in JPS

While you are playing a game or using a 3D program compatible with GeForce 3D Vision you can take screenshots in JPS format that can be viewed later on in a 3D form instead of the normal “flat” 2D screenshots that can be saved on JPEG format. If you press the Print Screen button or use a program like FRAPS to take in-game screenshots when using GeForce 3D Vision you’ll notice that only normal (single frame) images are being saved. But if you press ALT + F1 instead while in the game you can save a JPS screenshot that actually contains 2 images – one for the left eye and one for the right, thus allowing you to see the image in 3D Stereo mode with a compatible viewer. The 3D screenshots are being saved in a folder called NVStereoscopic3D.IMG in your current user’s My Documents folder. The only drawback when taking 3D Stereo screenshots is that it takes some time, when you press the key combination to save a JPS file you may have to wait for a second until it is ready…

By default when you install the GeForce 3D Vision drivers you also get the Nvidia 3D Vision Photo Viewer that is needed in order for you to be able to open JPS files and view them in 3D Stereo mode. When you open an image in full screen it is shown in 3D mode, and when you exit the full screen mode it gets in a side by side view of the two frames (the ones for the left and for the right eye). You should have in mind that when viewing the 3D stereo images you cannot change their level of depth like you can in a normal 3D application… when making the screenshots they are being saved in the depth level you were using in the actual game or other 3D application.

- Here are some screenshots form the Nvidia’s Medusa 3D Stereo demo
- And here is the Nvidia’s Medusa 3D Stereo demo itself that you can download and run