P3D Re: canopus total-3d graphics cards

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998
>From: Andrew Woods <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>............
>Hi All,
>
>In my last post I asked whether anyone knew whether the new total-3d
>card supported LCS glasses...  Unfortunately, I think the answer is NO.
>
>I had a look at the canopus web site http://www.canopuscorp.com 
>and determined the following:
>
>The original card (called "Total-3D") supported hardware page flipping
>  and had a jack for LCS glasses in the back.  Unfortunately, it appears
>  Canopus no longer sell or manufacture this card.  :-(
>The new card (called "Total-3D 128V") has a graphics accelerator, 
>  video capture and NTSC/PAL video out.  It doesn't appear to support
>  hardware page flipping and doesn't appear to have a jack for LCS glasses.
>  mega :-(
>
>So, it appears Canopus has got out of the stereoscopic imaging market.
>Anyone care to comment?
>
>I believe there are new cards available from other manufacturers which 
>support hardware page flipping and also have the new VESA stereoscopic 
>connector but I can't remember off hand what they are - anyone know?
>

******   According to what they have told me, they will not make another
dedicated stereo card because the market wasn't there for it. My biggest
criticism of that attitude is that they did very little to promote their
card when they were making it. An uninformed, unstimulated market cannot
provide suitable feedback on product viability. That's all ancient history now.

There apparently will not be any manufacturers making a dedicated stereo
card in the future either. There will be video cards with LCS jacks on them
according to the new VESA standards, but the Canopus card pre-dates that new
standard. This is part of the reason more stereo cards don't already exist,
the manufacturers didn't want to build a special feature till it was
standardized. In that sense, Canopus is to be commended on their willingness
to experiment.

Other changes in the marketplace and in software solutions remove the need
for a specialized board. NuVision makes software available that provides
page flipping stereo for most good video cards. They intend to expand the
compatibility base for their solution so it will work with most types of
systems. With software like that, a special card isn't needed.

I've heard that most cards will offer stereo jacks at some point in time,
but I haven't researched which cards currently have them. The special jacks
only need to provide synchronization for the glasses. Everything else about
the cards will be general purpose.

At some point in the future the special 3D acceleration systems that exist
will be upgraded to include built in stereo support. It's unclear on just
when this is supposed to take place. At one time MS claimed that Direct3D
version 5 was going to have that support. It didn't. Maybe version 7 or
later will provide this? I haven't heard any special news relating to OpenGL
3D systems and stereo support.

The new API for JAVA3D will eventually include stereo support. At the moment
they are in early experimental versions of this API so the direct support
for stereo devices hasn't been included. Maybe in a year or so it will catch
up to it's own specs. It's encouraging to note that several developers have
been asking for LCS support in the JAVA3D API and expressing disappointment
that it's not there yet. By next year stereo should be available on most
systems based mostly on software, not hardware. *If* JAVA actually does
become the preferred programming language as is expected by many
programmers, that makes stereo for the future look promising.

For the non computer oriented, having built-in stereo support within the
programming interface means that programmers can provide stereo support
within a variety of applications easily, without having to *re-invent the
wheel* to do so. That's good news. 

In the meantime at least there are a few choices that work very well, the
previous Canopus card is one of those solutions and it should still be
available. Since it hasn't been updated for other new things that currently
get included on video cards, it has it's limitations. I've had visitors who
work with other video cards sit down at my computer with it's Canopus card,
and they expressed amazement at how fast the graphics are handled. So, I'm
quite happy with the performance of this older card. If you are looking for
an up to date solution, visit the NuVision website and select from the
boards that they know are compatible with their free software. Then you will
have up to date display technology and page flipping stereo as well.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 2695
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