It's crazy how varied everyone's experiences are. I can't visualize anything at all, but have a very strong spatial sense, and navigate much better than my wife does (who can visualize things very vividly).

Can you draw what you visualize? Can you recall a face exactly and draw it? As an amateur artist, I don't think there is as much "mechanical skill" in art, as there is clearly imagining what you are trying to draw. Any time anyone claims to be able to visualize, I ask them this question.

To be clear, I am not "challenging" you in any sense, but it's a good reality check.

Anyway - I am the same with maps, I can easily see the route in my head, but that has to do with being aware of where north is and a vague notion of where I am.

No OP, but I fall into the camp that can draw/sculpt/paint/etc what my mind's eye produces. I'm not as good a sculptor as a painter, but I can generally paint a face/landscape/car/etc that my brain is seeing, at least to a degree that I am satisfied with. Paintings take a long time to get 'good'.

Getting better at drawing and creating takes time and practice. I'd go on youtube to take a look at how to get better quickly, there's a lot of good people on YT that are happy to share and teach.

One good 'cheat' is to use a camera lumisia or a reference mirror to see how light interacts with your media directly: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/11/vermeer-secret-to...

I'm likely an outlier though, as I'm a synesthete and my senses get a bit mixed up from time to time. So take that into account.

Actually my mechanical skill is way too inferior to capture things that I can imagine. Like I could spend a long time trying to bring to life a specific image, but why? I wouldn't bother unless it was somehow very important to communicate to someone else. Simple things I'm easily able to picture and draw.

Oh, the map thing is interesting. I can visualise pretty well but I can’t move around smoothly in my visualisations. I can only warp around like in VR games. Most of what I visualise is more like a 2d film/photo than a full 3D scene. Like your wife, I can’t figure out maps or 3D spaces (I spend a lot of time in 3d games wandering around lost) - despite me being able to form images. Maybe some of us only have 1d/2d imaginary worlds in our heads!

I also don't see smooth movement without extraordinary effort and simple objects, and it seems I'm just increasing the framerate. Although funnily I can imagine body and hand movements (which are smooth) in detail, and I don't feel the framerate limitation at all; I can get a 'intuitive feeling' for each kind of movement that way. So it seems like my kinetic-proprioception has a lot more temporal capability.

In terms of 3D imagery, I can visualized complex 3D objects and rotate them around, or navigate 3D cave spaces. But it requires significant focus, and the "framerate" is very low, like warping you mentioned. And for years I've spent time before sleeping visualizing things (often in 3D), so I think it's something I developed too (it's fun and I knew it was going to be useful -- when solving problems I very often resort to visualizations).