Stereo
Stereo on TFT monitors
Nvidia 3D Vision 2
- 3D Vision Pro is not what you want, this seems to be for projectors
- Quality is much better than Zalman and somewhat better than CRTs
- Compatible monitors are mentioned at www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-displays.html but this website does not seem to be updated. There are 5 passive monitors (needing a separate emitter) at http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/?cat=monlcd19wide&xf=3135_passiv#xf_top .
- The Nvidia 3D vision emitter that connects via USB only works on Windows, not Linux. Linux needs the DIN connector which is only on the high end Quadro cards.
- The currently (2013+) best NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 solution on Linux is to buy one of the monitors with built-in emitter from http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-displays.html (we have the BenQ XL2420TX), and a cheap Quadro, e.g. (2013) the FX380 or (2015) K420. The latter has a Dual-Link DVI and a HDMI/Displayport outlet, so can drive the stereo monitor, and an additional monitor. This solution avoids the USB/3-pin hassle altogether. See below for xorg.conf! We found that using a GeForce card instead of Quadro does not work on Linux.
- www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-displays.html names monitors with built-in emitter. None of these are sold any more in Germany or the EU, it seems - the NVidia page has not changed for at least the last two years. But: As of January 20, 2015 http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/?cat=monlcd19wide&xf=3135_3D-f%E4hig%7E3135_aktiv#xf_top shows 8 active 3D-capable monitors; ASUS VG248QE and VG287HE and VG278HR, Acer GN246HL and Predator XB240HAbpr and HS244HQbmii, BenQ XL2430T, Philips 273G3DHSB. All of these are 24-27" and cost between 205 and 490€.
- cheap Quadro cards with dual-link DVI-D or DisplayPort work well. Quadro 380, 400, 420 and 600 have been reported to work on CCP4BB. Make sure the card can do dual-link DVI if your monitor has only DVI input. Any card (including the "Windows only" ones!) listed at http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-pro-requirements.html#Quadro should work if a) it can do dual-link DVI if the monitor has only DVI input, and b) if the monitor has built-in emitter. DisplayPort is fine with the BenQ XL2420TX.
TFT monitors: update January 2015
Using NVidia's 346.35 driver on RHEL/CentOS/SL 7, I changed /etc/X11/xorg.conf to have
Section "Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "Stereo" "10"
EndSection
but there is no stereo (coot only shows a slightly rotated view), nor is there any hint in /var/log/Xorg.0.log that stereo is disabled. In fact, it is disabled, due to the Composite Extension (see http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/346.35/README/xcompositeextension.html). If this is disabled by
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
then the login screen (gdm) crashes. This is documented at https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/556113/3d-vision-and-composite-option/ . The only way out is to install a different display manager, like documented at e.g. http://jensd.be/?p=125 . This works well - I'm now using lightdm and the MATE desktop, an NVidia Quadro K420 and a BenQ XL2420TX.
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) [1]
Mac OS X
The following command needs to be run for Macs to be able to support stereo in X11 programs, such as Coot [2] :
defaults write com.apple.x11 enable_stereo -bool true
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 Nvidia's Quadro overview page have a 3-pin DIN outlet that fits with NuVision or 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:
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"
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.
See also
Stereo on TFT: see Coot zalman