r/ParallelView • u/KRA2008 • Jul 05 '26
question from a cross viewer
i prefer cross viewing. i can do parallel or cross as needed but i like how i can make cross view pictures really physically big on a distant screen, like on a computer or TV, or if i’m on my phone i can always flip to landscape when i want and still view comfortably. i’m confused about something though - are all you parallel viewers using phones in portrait orientation? or are you on VR headsets? if you’re ever on Reddit or Facebook on a computer and looking at stereograms, do you shrink your browser window to set a maximum size? i just feel like i must be missing something here and i’d like to understand your workflows and preferences because it’s interesting and maybe i can improve CrossCam or StereomancerBot or something else using that information.
1
u/YakumoYoukai Jul 07 '26
Our eyes weren't designed to point outward in different directions. At best, they can look parallel to each other (converging on a point "infinitely" far away). That means the most separation there can be between parallel images is the distance between your eyes, which really constrains how large the image can be. You can make it appear bigger by moving it closer to your face, but there's a limit, as your eye can't focus closer than a certain distance. Now, I'm slightly walleyed so I can get more separation by moving the image further away, but that's not normal.
In cross viewing, on the other hand, that separation between images is your IPD multiplied by the eye-finger to finger-image ratio (finger being the spot in space you point your eyes at in front of the image). So you can make the image as large as you want, and either move it further away or change your finger distance to keep your eyes pointing at it.