http://www.x-woods.com/games/differences/loader.swf

Not hard at all. I can get every single one of the differences in mere seconds. Faster than I can physically click on them, in fact. I've already seen all the differences by the time it allows me to start clicking.

Of course, I'm using a trick to do it. Anyone wanna guess?

Bit of card so left eye gets left pic and right eye gets right pic?

In fact, I just went through it again, and discovered an error in one of the pictures: a sixth difference on one of the pictures which wasn't coded as a hotspot. I kept clicking on it and it didn't take, even though it was completely obvious...

Don't even need a bit of card. Just eye convergence. But yeah, that's it.

Gives you a headache, and not particularly good for your eyesight, so don't do it too much.

Hmmm

I have no idea how you can do that with the images so far apart. I've just gone back and tried that approach myself.

I now have a headache, but I couldn't convince my brain to converge the two images. I bit of card to give my eyes two separate images didn't help either.

I guess you are just gifted Tony

The trick is to sit back far from the monitor so that the eyes don't have to do much moving. Then it's just a matter of practice.

This is a lot like a really fun game that they have on those little Multi-Choice touchscreen game machines at one of the bars at my alma mater. Except the timer on that one is a lot faster. With a group of three or four guys working as a team, you can really tear through the levels. My buddies will be very happy to see it exists as a flash game now!

I've always been able to do this too even with a pretty large distance .. it's the same technique i use for those magic eyes. I think I do it backwards from what they always recommend -- I go crosseyed instead of walleyed. Technically I think this is supposed to cause the depth perception to invert (so things that are supposed to appear to be coming towards you are going away from you), but I read somewhere that the brain just corrects for that (which is pretty slick).

When I do the Magic Eye things, I don't get the proper effect when I go crosseyed, I have to go walleyed. My brain is more literal, I guess, and doesn't self-correct. If I go crosseyed at a magic-eye, the objects that are supposed to pop out instead look like carved holes in the image, and it's very difficult to recognize the object.

The thing is, cross-eyed is easier for me than walleyed. Dunno why. For the Magic Eye things, it only works for me if the image is under glass and I can see my reflection in the glass. then I just focus on my reflection and that gets my eyes diverged at the proper amount, and bam, there's the 3D image.

it's the same technique i use for those magic eyes

A question: how many people here can/can't do the Magic Eye thing?

No matter how hard I've tried, I just can't make it work. I suspect that it's because my eyes are different focal lengths -- I'm (only slightly) short-sighted in my right eye, but my left-eye is normal.

The different focal lengths may not be directly relevant but, because of it, I've always tended to favour one eye over the other -- I rarely use (focus) both of them at once -- which is one reason why I'm so bad at ball games -- I lose track of the moving object when it "crosses" from one eye (at distance) to the other (close-up).

Yep. I can't do Magic Eye pictures at all. I'm short sighted and have astigmatism (cornea is curved more in a particular direction. Not to be confused with stigmata ). The two combined makes me unable to focus the images in the exact way necessary for me to see the hidden picture.

I can do the Magic Eye things, but it takes me a lot of effort to "get into the zone". Once I have managed to get one to work the rest are much easier.

I find it really hard to go wall-eyed -- that's the one that gives me headaches trying to do it ... But I never seem to be bothered by extended periods of cross-eyed. I'm always scared I'm going to end up like that girl in (I think it) One Crazy Summer, where someone smacks her on the back when she's making the cross-eyed funny face and she's stuck like that forever ...

No magic eye capability whatsoever here. Something about 20/10 in one eye and 20/20 on the other that prevents me from seeing a scene out of both eyes at once.

I can do it either cross-eyed or wall-eyed, and can flick between them over a couple of seconds. I do find it easiest when a bit tired, or after a long night programming.

I do practice moving my eyes in different directions, though. I think it's an important skill babies have but we lose.

Study the chameleon, and it shall show the way

On a separate note - I can't do this game at all. I guess tech issues with my machine mean it just loads a dark green screen and nothing else.

A question: how many people here can/can't do the Magic Eye thing?

I usually can, though it's a bit of an effort. I can only ever do it by focussing too far away (wall-eyed), not too close (cross-eyed).

No matter how hard I've tried, I just can't make it work. I suspect that it's because my eyes are different focal lengths -- I'm (only slightly) short-sighted in my right eye, but my left-eye is normal.

I've only ever tried Magic Eye pictures with my glasses on, not least because I can barely see that far in my right eye without them on -- so in that situation my vision's probably been equalled out. But in my parents' house, my bedroom wallpaper had a very short pattern-repeat, and waking up in the morning a foot away from it I'd sometimes focus on that at entirely the wrong distance due to Magic Eye effects, so I don't think having two different prescriptions is in itself a problem.

Peter

ive been playing with my eyes all my life and never had a headache
i did ask my optometrist about it once, he said its not bad for your eyes at all. its just relaxing the muscles. i used to amaze my peers at school by pointing out what was in the magic eye books as soon as they opened the page. theyd try all sorts of things like moving it back and forth and looking past it and sliding it up into their vision. good times

Yeah I know what you mean.. I remember first seeing those magic eyes and getting them instantly while my friends were doing "weird things" to try to see it. Unfortuntely it's one of those things that's hard to explain how to do.

I can cross my eyes with no problem, but I can barely diverge them at all. I've gotten wall-eyed magic eyes to work a couple of times, but I have to get real close so that my eyes can't cross enough and then back away. Even then, I can usually only hang onto it for a few seconds. But I can do the cross-eye thing Tony suggested for this game all day long with no problem.

Stereograms: Not a problem
Doing what Tony does: Not a chance

I can cross my eyes pretty well too, but I can't overlap images like that. Of course, I have never even been able to overlap images in a pair of binoculars either, I always end up looking through them with one eye.

I'm totally addicted to this game now... (thanks)... It's in the fave's list now.