tjh@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Timothy Hall) (09/05/89)
Does the 'patch' routine work while in 'mmode( MVIEWING )' ? When I tried this I got a singular matrix error from invert matrix. (Yes, one of my patch matricies is singular) When I replaced the patch routine with moves and draws it worked fine. Granted using the patch routine and mmode( MVIEWING ) doesn't normally make much sense but I was playing around with stereo viewing and using two different projection matricies. It would be easiest to just load these into the graphics engine projection matrix rather than saving the transformation matrix and applying the projection each time I want to render a scene. While on the subject of 3-D viewing. Has anybody out there tried the LCD glasses? (I'm just using colored lenses) A figuere of $2k seems to stick in my mind for them - is that right? If so, has anybody tried going to Toys R' Us and getting Sega or Nintendo glasses and hooking them up to the SGI? (These run about $100) -Tim Hall Boston Univ. Computer Graphics Lab tjh@bu-pub.bu.edu
blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") (09/05/89)
I saw the LCD glasses at SIGGRAPH '89. They didn't work for me, but
I was in a rush, so I don't know if I was using them correctly. I just
got pricing information from the company. The glasses ONLY are $1745.
What else you buy depends on what kind of hardware you already have.
Here is the company and their address:
StereoGraphics Corporation
P.O. Box 2309
San Rafael, CA 94912
(415) 459-4500
FAX: 415-459-3020
Personally, I think the passive glasses systems sound more economical.
--
Brent L. Bates
NASA-Langley Research Center
M.S. 294
Hampton, Virginia 23665-5225
(804) 864-2854
E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.govthant@horus.sgi.com (Thant Tessman) (09/06/89)
In article <8909051554.AA00507@aero4.larc.nasa.gov>, blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") writes: > > I saw the LCD glasses at SIGGRAPH '89. They didn't work for me, but > I was in a rush, so I don't know if I was using them correctly. They have four little buttons on the side for turning them on/off, clear/shuttered, stereo and pseudo. People of course messed with these a lot so the chances that you got them in the right mode is slim. > What else you buy depends on what kind of hardware you already have. > Here is the company and their address: > > StereoGraphics Corporation > P.O. Box 2309 > San Rafael, CA 94912 > (415) 459-4500 > FAX: 415-459-3020 They are also available through SGI as StereoView. > > Personally, I think the passive glasses systems sound more economical. Actually, they are much cheaper than the Z-screens (from both SteroGraphics and Tektronics) and they have better transmission and much less ghosting. Great taste AND less filling. Actually, if you wanted to show a roomfull of people a stereo image from a projection monitor, then the z-screen is cheaper than buying a couple dozen Crystal-Eyes. Call a sales type for pricing. thant@sgi.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let us say, then, to summarize, that a mythology is an organization of images conceived as a rendition of the sense of life, and that this sense is to be apprehended in two ways, namely: 1) the way of thought, and 2) the way of experience. As thought mythology approaches -or is a primative prelude to- science; and as expierience it is precicely art. - Joseph Campbell -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") (09/06/89)
The though of asking a boss for $1800 for A pair of glasses, just didn't appeal to me. That is another reason the Z-screens sounded better too. -- Brent L. Bates NASA-Langley Research Center M.S. 294 Hampton, Virginia 23665-5225 (804) 864-2854 E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.gov
naegle@oberon.sgi.com (David Naegle) (09/07/89)
In article <37519@bu-cs.BU.EDU>, tjh@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Timothy Hall) writes: > While on the subject of 3-D viewing. Has anybody out there tried the LCD > glasses? (I'm just using colored lenses) A figuere of $2k seems to stick > in my mind for them - is that right? If so, has anybody tried going to > Toys R' Us and getting Sega or Nintendo glasses and hooking them up to the SGI? > (These run about $100) > > -Tim Hall > Boston Univ. Computer Graphics Lab > tjh@bu-pub.bu.edu I haven't seen these glasses in operation, so I can't comment on the contrast ratio or the switching speed they provide. I think they are designed to work with 60Hz display monitors, which results in a refresh rate of 30Hz per eye. While it works, I doubt you'd be comfortable watching it for very long. We decided that 30Hz was an unacceptable refresh rate for an SGI product. (note: low refresh rates tend to make you crazy; scene update rates have much lower acceptable limits in most applications) To fix this flicker problem, we offer a multi-sync monitor as a neccessary part of the StereoView option. This monitor displays at 60Hz for all non-stereo applications, and automatically switches to a 120Hz display when a stereo application is run, so in either case you see 60Hz per eye. The stereo field signal (left eye/right eye) is only available in stereo mode (120Hz video) so you need the multi-sync monitor, even if you try to interface cheap game-type LCD glasses to the system. The current cost of the monitor is something like $3K (see a sales type for accurate pricing). In article <8909051554.AA00507@aero4.larc.nasa.gov>, blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") writes: > > Personally, I think the passive glasses systems sound more economical. Depends on your needs. A schoolbus is cheaper than a sports car on a per-seat basis, but it costs more than a sports car. (not to mention being a lot less fun to drive :-) I expect active stereo glasses to complement passive eyewear systems. Passive eyewear stereo systems should be used for group presentations because that's what's most economical. For individual users (a much bigger market in my opinion) you need a stereo technology which costs less than 10% of the workstation price. Also note that customer costs are tied to materials costs; it's going to be hard to make z-screens too much cheaper because of the high costs and low yeilds of the large-area LCDs involved. Active LCD glasses, on the other hand, are easy to make cheaper as the volumes increase, and multi-sync monitors are not much more expensive than other high-resolution monitors. So there are technical reasons to believe that active eyewear stereo will be an inexpensive, ubiquitous technology in the 3-D workstation market. David Naegle Graphics Hardware Manager naegle@sgi.com
blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") (09/11/89)
The Stereographis system requires a 120Hz monitor too. One thing to note on these systems is that in order to get the 120Hz, you sacrifice vertical resolution. The bandwidth is constant, so in order to get twice as many frames/second, they cut the vertical resolution in half. The software must create the stereo images one above the other (at 60Hz), so that when viewed at 120Hz you have two images one right after the other. -- Brent L. Bates NASA-Langley Research Center M.S. 294 Hampton, Virginia 23665-5225 (804) 864-2854 E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.gov