5.3 Stereo

Both hardware and split-screen stereo displays are supported in the 3D display. Hardware stereo requires a graphics card that supports ``stereo in a window" display as well as the appropriate stereo glasses. The current version of hardware stereo has been successfully tested on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and SGI Irix using CrystalEyes glasses (from StereoGraphics). In order to properly view stereo on an SGI, the screen resolution must be set to a value that is appended with the letter `s'. For instance 1200x1024 would likely not behave correctly, where 1200x1024s would. It is also important to note that the effective refresh rate of the display will be halved as the monitor has to swap two different scenes back and forth to create the stereo effect. Hardware stereo has never been tested on other UNIX or Linux platforms.

We have every expectation that most high-end workstation-class graphics cards (e.g. 3DLabs Oxygen and Wildcat, NVidia Quadro, ATI FireGL) will support hardware stereo on Microsoft Windows, but we have not been able to test all of them. However, one card that we have tested which caused problems was the ATI FireGL V3200. There were no problems observed with the ATI FireGL V5000.

Unfortunately, consumer level graphics cards (e.g. NVidia GeForce and ATI Radeon) will definitely not support hardware stereo as they do not support ``stereo in a window" display.

Until recently, Mac OS X did not currently support ``stereo in a window," so hardware stereo was not possible on any machine running Mac OS X. However, Apple now does sell machines which are capable of displaying ``stereo in a window" and thus being able to utilize hardware stereo.

For those machines that do not support hardware stereo, split-sreen stereo is still a viable option. Both cross-eyed and wall-eyed views are available. Furthermore, the stereo angle and eye offset parameters can be adjusted in the Preferences (see chapter 12) as well as on the Graphics page in the Syle Window (see Figure 5.1) to better fine tune the display to personal preferences.

In the Style Window, the Stereo section is disabled by default, but can be enabled by checking the box next to the Stereo title in this section. Checking this box will turn on stereo display in the 3D display and will allow customization of the stereo parameters. On computers that do not support hardware stereo, the Hardware radio button will not be enabled.

				VIDA User Manual

				VIDA User Manual