Stereo

2010-12-08T19:12:16Z

Ericj: /* Stereo on TFT monitors */

== Stereo on TFT monitors ==
Question: is someone using Nvidia 3D vision + a compatible 1920x1080 23.5" Desktop Display e.g. ACER GD245HQ 120 Hz LCD display OR Alienware OptX AW2310 120 Hz LCD display? Is it running nicely with Linux + Nvidia's Linux driver? How is the stereo quality compared to Zalman's 3D-LCDs or the old CrystalEyes shutter glasses + CRT monitor?

Answers:
# I am using the combination you are asking for with alienware monitor. The driver I am using is 195.30 beta. It works very well. Quality is much much better than Zalman and somewhat better than CRTs.
# I have Nvidia 3D vision running on the Samsung SyncMaster 2233. One note of caution, for the Quadra FX3800 if you are using dual monitors I haven't found a way to get TwinView to work with the Nvidia 195.30 beta linux driver. You can configure for 2 X-screens to drive the two screens as a work around. This is most likely a 3800 problem since the 3800 has 1 DVI and 2 HDMI outputs instead of 2 DVI outputs. If you are looking for a new graphics card as well and like dual monitors I would stay away from the Quadro FX1800 and FX3800. The Nvidia 3D vision quality is better than Zalman but the Zalman glasses are much lighter if you do a lot of stereo.

Follow up question: Is your Nvidia 3D vision emitter connected via the 3-pin DIN or USB? The Nvidia 3D vision emitter I have only connects via USB and I could not get this working under linux.

== Stereo on conventional CRT monitors ==

Some of the NVidia Quadro cards support stereo. The cards that have an output called "stereo" under "Display Connectors" listed at [http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html Nvidia's Quadro overview page] have a 3-pin DIN outlet that fits with [http://www.nuvision3d.com/the60gx.html NuVision] or [http://www.reald-corporate.com/scientific CrystalEyes] stereo glasses.

The cheapest of these used to be the FX1400 (difficult to find these days, around 450 €), but now appears to be the FX3450 (around 750 €). These cards are by far fast enough for protein crystallography or modelling.

For stereo, the xorg.conf might need the following lines
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
if the X log file (e.g. at /var/log/Xorg.0.log) says that stereo is not supported by composite.

Another option that will be required in xorg.conf by programs running stereo is

Section "Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "Stereo" "3"

----

Sometimes it is handy to configure two Desktops: one on a CRT monitor that can do stereo-graphics, and one on an LCD monitor for the more regular work, eg your refinement jobs with CCP4. For Nvidia cards you need to modify the xorg.conf file to have a section more or less like that:

<code>
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Iiyama"
ModelName "Vision Master Pro 512"
DisplaySize 450 330
HorizSync 31.5 - 120.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 150.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Philips"
ModelName "150B"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA Quadro FX (generic)"
BusId "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA Quadro FX (generic)"
Option "Stereo" "3"
BusId "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1280" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"

</code>

Note that one can think this is rather silly to define two card, two monitors, two cards, and two screens.
However, that the only way I know that one monitor can be stereo-enabled and the other one not.

==Ono==
You also need to set the environment variable STEREO for the stereo to work properly in ono:
setenv STEREO on (tcsh)
STEREO = on; export STEREO (bash)
[http://dbb.urmc.rochester.edu/labs/wedekind/Wedekind-Lab/X-ray%20Lab/Methods/Nvidia-ONO.html]

==Mac OS X==
The following command needs to be run for Macs to be able to support stereo in X11 programs, such as Coot [http://xanana.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki/index.php/Installing_Coot_on_OS_X] :
defaults write com.apple.x11 enable_stereo -bool true

==See also==
Stereo on TFT: see [[Coot zalman]]

http://pymol.sourceforge.net/stereo3d.html

http://pymolwiki.org/index.php/Stereo_3D_Display_Options

CCP4 wiki - User contributions [en]

Stereo