Cross-eye should be the default format for stereo screenshots online
Something that keeps bothering me with stereo 3D image posts: most side-by-side stereo pairs are shared in “parallel” format - left-eye image on the left, right-eye image on the right.
That makes sense for some viewers, headsets, and glasses-based workflows, but for normal internet browsing it is awkward. Most people cannot comfortably free-view parallel stereo pairs on a monitor, especially once the image is large. You basically need glasses, a viewer, or some extra setup.
For casual viewing, cross-eye format is far more practical:
Right-eye image on the left.
Left-eye image on the right.
That way anyone can instantly cross their eyes and see the 3D effect directly on a normal screen, with no glasses, no headset, no software, and no faffing around.
And for people who are already using glasses, a viewer, or stereo software, swapping the images back is usually trivial. But for everyone else, a parallel stereo pair is effectively locked behind extra hardware or effort.
So my argument is: for stereo pairs posted online, especially screenshots and game captures, cross-eye should be the default public sharing format, or at the very least every post should clearly say whether it is cross-eye or parallel.
Parallel format may be technically conventional in some pipelines, but cross-eye format is far more accessible for instant human viewing. If we want more people to actually appreciate stereo 3D screenshots, we should make the format match how people can actually view them.
Proposed standard: internet stereo pairs should be cross-eye by default: right-eye image on the left, left-eye image on the right.