Forgot to add to my previous message:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I am guessing that technically you do not need to have one of these monitors to add ChimeraX functionality that displays the 3D graphics window separately from its 2D menu, right? Since it already has SBS support from the command line, switching to SBS mode should be easy, once that detached graphics window that can be made full-screen (e.g., by a hotkey [keyboard shortcut]) is implemented/available. Of course, another hotkey for flipping left-right for stereo 3D would be nice, in case the full-screen windows is shifted compared to the monitor’s lenticular lens array, for some reason.
Naïve questions from a non-developer user:
Cheers,
Gökhan
From: Tom Goddard <goddard@sonic.net>
Sent: Friday, 9 May 2025 7:33 AM
To: tolung.bio@gmail.com
Cc: ChimeraX Users Help <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu>
Subject: Re: [chimerax-users] Samsung 27" Odyssey 3D G90XF 4K 165Hz Monitor
Hi Gökhan,
The Samsung web page you referenced says the monitor is $3000, the same price as the Acer 27", and the Samsung also uses eye-tracking so it will probably only work for one person. The Sony and Acer displays both use OpenXR and eye tracking. This is good and bad. The good part is as you move your head to the side you see the side of the rendered objects. The bad is that most 3D applications do not support OpenXR unless they are VR applications. In contrast the Samsung uses side-by-side video input. That allows it to work with any 3D application that supports that common 3D format. Here's a description on Reddit talking about side-by-side input with the Samsung. (Unfortunately the Samsung manual does not say much.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/1k8wnqa/samsung_odyssey_3d_g90xf_in_depth_and_technical
The drawback of the Samsung approach is that the monitor has no way to tell the application (e.g. ChimeraX) that your head has moved to the side (that is what OpenXR does). So when you move your head to the side you just see the same view direction of the 3D object only skewed. It's not a disaster, you can rotate the molecule if you want to see it from the side. The Samsung manual says only Windows is supported since they include some crappy software that runs on your Windows machine. I'm not sure if it is needed to handle side-by-side input.
I'd love to see the Samsung display. It uses a 4K panel like the Sony and Acer. Like those displays it must be using a lenticular grating to send some pixels to your left eye and some to your right eye so the actual resolution in 3D is more like HD (2K). Still that is pretty good. (With old technology LCD shutter glasses you would get full 4K resolution since the two eye images use all screen pixels and just alternate in time.)
If I had one of these displays I think I could make ChimeraX render full-screen side-by-side. Since you can't drag the ChimeraX graphics into a separate window I would try to add code to create a separate window and render to it as an option. My lab does not have money to spare to buy such a display (NIH funding problems), so don't expect to work on this.
Tom