Matt covered pretty much everything, but note that for active glasses plus a 120Hz LCD (number 2 below), you'll want a Quadro card instead of a Geforce card; Chimera works in windowed mode with Nvidia 3D vision and a Quadro card. The advantage over the crystal eyes setup is that because Nvidia 3D vision uses a usb-connected emitter, the Quadro card need not be equipped with an onboard stereo port, so you can buy a cheap ($120) model like the FX380. I also have a setup that uses a cheaper projector capable of 85Hz sequential projection, a FX4500 Quadro card I bought used for $500, and 30pr of relatively cheap active eyewear (the $100 edimensional glasses). But honestly, active eyewear is a bad idea for large audiences. Bad. I covet Matt's passive setup with the infocus projector. Dan On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Dougherty, Matthew T <matthewd@bcm.tmc.edu>wrote:
Hi Ed,
It turns out it is a complicated answer depending on various factors. I will outline some of the issues.
If you are doing a workstation only, that is not supporting a projector for a lot of users, the cheapest route is row interleave; zalman makes a display for $300, and uses cheap glasses ($1-$15) the same used in most movie theaters; no additional hardware. The downside is you loose half your vertical resolution.
If you are doing a workstation only and want maximum vertical resolution you will need to go with active glasses. There are several ways to make this happen: 1) crystal eyes glasses ($300), quadro card ($1800), emitter ($100), CRT ($200-500); stereographics.com. NuVision offers cheaper glasses. Someday someone might offer a 120HZ compatible LCD display, this is not a technical problem. 2) active glasses ($150), Gforce card ($300), LCD 120 HZ monitor ($300), emitter ($50); only works on MS Windows, not sure if chimera supports this. nvidia.com Nothing is compatible with #1). someday may work with linux and mac.
If you are doing a workstation and want to support a projector, you got two options, passive and active using an in-focus projector ($5-6k). You get full vertical resolution even if you are doing passive. If you do passive you will need a polarizer ($5k) and cheap glasses ($1-15) same used in the most movie theaters. If you do active you need a theater emitter ($500-1000) and active glasses ($200-300). Either way you are going to need a quadro card ($1800) in your workstation.
In my lab we use all the methods except the polarizer, which is on order. I find the Zalman approach the least hassle and most recyclable, but for conference room setting with a number of people the polarizer is most economical, what the movie theaters are gravitating to, and has less operational failures.
Matt ________________________________________ From: chimera-users-bounces@cgl.ucsf.edu [ chimera-users-bounces@cgl.ucsf.edu] On Behalf Of Eric Pettersen [ pett@cgl.ucsf.edu] Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 4:24 PM To: Chimera BB Cc: Edward Pate Subject: [Chimera-users] Fwd: Chimera 3-D viewing
Forwarding Ed Pate's question (below) to this list, in the hope that someone who actually knows the answer can chime in!
--Eric
Begin forwarded message:
From: Edward Pate <edpate@hotmail.com<mailto:edpate@hotmail.com>> Date: June 19, 2010 2:39:09 PM PDT To: <pett@cgl.ucsf.edu<mailto:pett@cgl.ucsf.edu>> Subject: Chimera 3-D viewing
Hi Eric:
I am looking into getting a new workstation for Chimera. In the past, we have gotten CRT displays in order to do 3-D visualization. Could you recommend other display options that are available now and that users have been happy with? Is a CRT still the best option?
Thanks for the help.
Ed
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-- ____________________________ Daniel Gurnon, Ph. D. Assistant Professor of Chemistry DePauw University Greencastle, IN 46135 p: 765-658-6279 e: danielgurnon@depauw.edu