Is the "impossible object" possible in computer graphics?

Question

This may be a silly question but I want to know the answer to it. I saw this thing called the "impossible object", while they're many different images of this online, it's suppost to be impossible geometry.

Here is an example:

Now as far as logic goes, I know you don't have to obey it in games, such as a flying cow, or an impossible object. So that's out of the way, but what stands in my way is whether or not there is a way to draw this onto a 3D scene. Like is there a way to represent it as a 3D object? Thanks!

Answer 1

3D computer graphics works based on the mathematics of 3D space. Objects like that cube cannot exist in 3D space - that's why they're "impossible objects" - so they cannot be directly modeled in computer graphics either.

Of course it is possible to build objects that, when seen from a certain camera angle, produce an optical illusion that makes them look like an impossible object.

Or as Jari Komppa commented, it's possible to render things "incorrectly" (mis-sorted for example) and make things look like impossible geometry that way. And there are games that play with 2D/3D perspective deliberately, such as echochrome, Fez, and Perspective.

Answer 2

Sure you can, just modify the geometry as the player goes through.

There was a game called Antichamber that was built entirely around this idea, where the maze changed as you went through it.

So like you start at this point right, where you choose which dir to go

You go up the stairs,

Turn the corner,

Then end up back at the same point

Physically impossible, done with (apparently portals as Nathan says in this post)