To realize the natural three-dimensional optical display, the presentation style of real objects should be followed, and both the binocular parallax and the smooth motion parallax are required. The research status of the three-dimensional optical display both at home and abroad is reviewed. Research progresses on the dense-viewpoint display, integral imaging display, light field display and holographic display in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications are mainly presented. The full-parallax light field display and the holographic display represent the future development direction of three-dimensional optical display.