[Chimera-users] Fwd: Re: stereo LCD display

[Greg Couch]

(Forgot to reply to list.)

On 10/20/2010 09:02 AM, Wu, Weimin (NIH/NIAMS) [E] wrote:
 > We are planning to buy a stereo LCD display system. Most of time we 
will use it to visualize the density map and PDB structure in Chimera. 
We want a LINUX 64bit system. Has anybody got experience on it? Would 
you please tell me the specifications of your hardwares? How about 
Miracube G240?

The Miracube is a good product, see our tech note about the Miracube at 
<http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/technotes/miracube.html>.  A Zalman 
display is an excellent, inexpensive, alternative,
and both will work with gaming graphics cards (NVIDIA GeForce and 
AMD/ATI Radeon).

But I would recommend a display where you don't lose half of the 
vertical resolution, that way the 2D dialogs are readable when you are 
looking at the 3D stereo image.  For that, you will need a workstation 
graphics card, a NVIDIA Quadro/Quadro FX or a AMD/ATI FirePro/FireGL, 
and a suitable display:

(1) The Planar 3D/Stereoscopic displays use passive glasses, like those 
that movie theater's use, and will work with both NVIDIA and AMD/ATI 
workstation graphics cards.

(2) 120Hz LCD displays, with active glasses, like what many 3D 
televisions use, work well too (we have a Samsung 2233RZ that we like).  
NVIDIA has temporarily cornered this market.   For a list of displays,
see <http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-requirements.html>, but for 
a list of compatible workstation graphics cards, see 
<http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_pro_graphics_boards.html> (and in 
your case, click on the "Linux customers" link).  NVIDIA has just 
released a "Pro" version of its stereo glasses, and the supported 
displays are slightly different, see 
<http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-pro-requirements.html> for details.

I believe that option 2 is currently cheaper, but look at the total cost 
of the graphics card, glasses, and display for comparison.  Planar 
claims that "flicker from active glasses can cause eye fatigue,
headaches and other discomfort", but I have not experienced that, but I 
have not looked at a stereo display all day either.

     Hope this helps,

     Greg