jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (11/27/90)
In article <1990Nov25.125931.1361@santra.uucp> jmunkki@hila.hut.fi (Juri Munkki) writes: >The Macintosh is not well suited for stereo animation, if you want to >use a classic-style Macintosh (only two buffers) or if you want more >than four colors from an 8 bit video card. Even with the 8 bit video >card, you have to know how to access the video drivers directly and >for that you need to read the "Designing Cards and Drivers..." book. You can say that again. Buy an Amiga 500 for <$800 and a pair of Haitex 3D goggles ($100 or so). The Amiga is *designed* to do video work (master clock is NTSC and accepts external sync :-). The goggles are LCD shutter, and the display format is pretty simple to use. I think there's another set of 3D goggles available, but I don't know anything about them... -- J. Eric Townsend Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Systems Manager - University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics - (713) 749-2120 EastEnders list: eastender@karazm.math.uh.edu "This meme's for you..." --me
aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowley) (12/01/90)
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >Buy an Amiga 500 for <$800 and a pair of Haitex 3D goggles ($100 or so). Why are these glasses so expensive? They're only a couple of big LCD's. Does anyone know if it would be possible to cannibalise an ordinary LCD display to switch it all at once? That way you could build your own shutters. What would be particularly useful would be a connection to a photosensitive switch: you stick a small sucker cup with a photosensitive transistor inside in one corner of the screen and use it to synchronise the shutters. That way, I can use it on the University computers since I don't own one of my own. Electronics people? -- \/ o\ Paul Crowley aipdc@uk.ac.ed.castle /\__/ "Trust me, I know what I'm doing" - Sledge Hammer
jmunkki@hila.hut.fi (Juri Munkki) (12/01/90)
In article <12077@milton.u.washington.edu> aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowle y) writes: >jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >>Buy an Amiga 500 for <$800 and a pair of Haitex 3D goggles ($100 or so). > >Why are these glasses so expensive? They're only a couple of big LCD's. $100 is actually quite reasonable. It requires money to market things like these and there aren't all that many people willing to buy 3D glasses. >Does anyone know if it would be possible to cannibalise an ordinary LCD >display to switch it all at once? That way you could build your own >shutters. I don't think that this would work. LC displays are highly integrated and you would still have to find a display with a single large pixel. I recommend the Sega LC shutter glasses. They are extremely simple to interface with almost anything and they cost US$34.95 plus US$2.20 shipping, if you get them from Sega ((800) 872-7342 (USA-SEGA)). >What would be particularly useful would be a connection to a >photosensitive switch: you stick a small sucker cup with a >photosensitive transistor inside in one corner of the screen and use it >to synchronise the shutters. That way, I can use it on the University >computers since I don't own one of my own. Doesn't sound all that hard, but it has a problem. The computer has to be aware of the vertical blanking and there's a danger of getting the left and right screens reversed. Still, it's a good idea, since it works quite well with interlaced displays (you loose 1/2 resolution). This could also be a good way to provide a vertical sync signal to a computer that doesn't have one. Just connect the device to a serial port handshake line and let the computer watch that. BTW, IMHO, the NeXTDimension color graphics board is currently the best platform for fast color stereo graphics. Why? It has a very smart clut that understands about windows. You define a window to have two 16 bit color buffers while everything else is in 24 bit colour. I guess you could expand that to four 8 bit color buffers, which is just about right for most stereo 3D CAD applications. (Of course I'm talking about serious applications here, so the low cost systems are out almost by default.) ____________________________________________________________________________ / Juri Munkki / Helsinki University of Technology / Wind / Project / / jmunkki@hut.fi / Computing Center Macintosh Support / Surf / STORM / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
larry@belch.Berkeley.EDU (Larry Foard) (12/02/90)
In article <12077@milton.u.washington.edu> aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowle y) writes: > > >jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >>Buy an Amiga 500 for <$800 and a pair of Haitex 3D goggles ($100 or so). > >Why are these glasses so expensive? They're only a couple of big LCD's. > [stuff deleted] I just ordered a pair of SEGA LCD glasses, they cost around $40. They haven't arrived yet but I will post if I get them to work. Contrary to popular opinion the Mac and Amiga arnt the only machines around that can do graphics, a 386sx with 1024X768X256 color VGA is around $2000 (including monitor and harddrive).
sobiloff@stolaf.edu (Chrome Cboy) (12/02/90)
In article <12077@milton.u.washington.edu> aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowle y) writes: >Why are these glasses so expensive? They're only a couple of big LCD's. Yeah, but it's the quality of the material that you have to pay for. The best liquid crystal material shaped into the size of a lense will set you back about $1000. The better the material the faster it can switch states (opaque and clear) and the greater the diversity between the two states (ie the darker and the clearer the material gets, respectively). To be able to go completely opaque and back to completely clear in 1/60th of a second or faster is quite a feat! -Blake -- _____________ ___________________________________________________/ Chrome Cboy \______________ | "With the zeal of Amerigo Vespucci, who 'discovered' the Americas some years | | after Columbus landed here, Microsoft's CEO Bill Gates laid claim to the | | 'new' territory of a totally graphical user environment, which he promised | | in future versions of Windows." --MacWEEK, 11.20.90, covering Comdex/Fall |