Changes between Version 8 and Version 9 of hardware

Timestamp:

Feb 15, 2016, 4:56:25 PM (10 years ago)

Author:

Conrad Huang

Comment:

--

hardware

@@ -17 +17 @@
 But, to use it, you need to carefully pick your graphics card and display.  Often, the displays are coupled with active 3D glasses, ''i.e.'', glasses were the left and right eyes alternately turn off and on synchronously with the display, like many 3D TVs, or displays that work with NVIDIA's [http://www.nvidia.com/object/3D_Vision_Main.html 3D Vision] glasses.
 
-Since Chimera's 3D content is inside a window, to get 3D stereo in a window,
-you have historically needed a workstation graphics card with the graphics driver configured for stereo (e.g., an AMD [http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/firepro-3d FirePro],
-or a NVidia [file:///home/gregc/src/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/stereo.html Quadro] graphics cards for Windows or Linux, or a NVidia Quadro for Mac OS X).
+Chimera supports stereo viewing using an OpenGL feature called quad-buffer stereo (also known as "stereo in a window"), which is traditionally supported only by workstation-class graphics cards.  We have successfully displayed Chimera in stereo using a variety of equipment, such as:
 
-While the workstation graphics solutions still work, a relatively inexpensive solution that supports 3D stereo in a window is now available with Microsoft [http://windows.microsoft.com/ Windows 8],
-an AMD [http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop Radeon] graphics card,
-and a 3D TV!
+- an Apple !MacPro (circa 2010) running Mac OS X 10.8 with an Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 graphics card displaying on a Christie projector,
+- a Microsoft Windows 7 PC or Ubuntu 15.04 with an AMD !FirePro W7000 on a Christie projector,
+- a Microsoft Windows 7 PC with an NVidia Quadro FX 3700 and nVidia 3D Vision glasses and emitter and ASUS or Samsung stereo monitors.
 
-In 2014, Apple dropped 3D stereo support in its new products. But it used to work with Mac Pros with NVIDIA Quadro graphics, and some systems with AMD Radeon graphics. See the ''Stereoscopic'' line of the Apple's [https://developer.apple.com/opengl/capabilities/ OpenGL Capabilities Tables] to see which older products had 3D stereo support and thus might work with Chimera. 
+In the past few years, options for stereo viewing have changed. Unfortunately, Apple has chosen not to support stereo.  As of Mac OS X 10.11, there appears to be no stereo support in the Apple graphics driver, so there is no way to use Chimera with stereo glasses on a Mac (except in special full-screen configurations).  The Quadro FX 5600 graphics card that works with older Mac OS versions is reported not to work with Mac OS 10.11.
+
+For Microsoft and consumer-grade graphics cards, there is both good news and bad news.  The good news is that ATI released the HD3D in 2013, a feature which enables consumer-grade ATI graphics cards to support quad-buffer stereo.  We have successfully used stereo in Chimera on a Windows 8 PC with an ATI HD7950 graphics card and a Samsung 3D TV.  The 3D TV uses "frame packing" stereo format, but ATI's graphics driver handles all the details and Chimera can be placed into "sequential stereo" mode just like before and everything "just works".  But now for the bad news.  When we upgraded to Windows 10, stereo stopped working. (Actually it works a few seconds at a time, but not continuously.)
+
+With an ATI workstation-class graphics card (AMD !FirePro W7000), Chimera stereo works on Windows 10 with stereo-capable displays from Dell and Samsung.  (Unfortunately, it does NOT work with our Christie projector under Windows 10, even though it '''does''' work under Windows 7.  That may change as OS and drivers improve.)  Chimera stereo also works on Linux using the proprietary ATI driver.
+
+So here's the bottom line:
+
+- For stereo-in-a-window you still need a workstation-class graphics card and a good stereo-capable display.
+
+- We have not found a consumer-class graphics card that does quad-buffer stereo reliably with Windows 10. For using Chimera with stereo glasses and a consumer-grade card, the only configuration we’ve seen work is
+ * a Windows 8/8.1 PC,
+ * an ATI graphics card supporting HD3D, and
+ * a 3D TV.
 
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