VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 15:01:15 CST

Hi Mads, Karsten, Magnus, Andy, VMD-L,
  I've got a test build of VMD 1.8.1 (alpha 4) that you can test if you'd
like to try it out. I've got a new VMDPREFERSTEREO environment variable
you can set which will force VMD to skip the multisample antialiasing
X11 visuals as it attempts to get the best graphics. This should address
the problem that the NVidia Quadro users like yourselves have been having.
I would have provided you guys with a binary sooner, but we've had some
problems with Tcl/Tk 8.4.1 integration last month that held me up several
weeks.

Anyone that wants to try the new stereo variable, just send a note to
vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu and I'll email you with the download location for the
test version.

Thanks,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Tue, Mar 11, 2003 at 02:09:20PM +0100, Mads Nørregaard-Madsen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Did you prepare the version described below? I have the same problem with a Quadro4 750 card.
>
> Thanks,
> Mads
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Stone [mailto:johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu]
> Sent: 7. januar 2003 16:43
> To: Karsten Suhre
> Cc: vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> Subject: Re: stereo display on NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL
>
>
> Dear Karsten,
> The fact that you don't get "STEREO" in the list of OpenGL extensions
> indicates that your card can't do both stereo and multisample antialiasing
> simultaneously. You might see if you can make changes to the NVidia
> environment variables to disable antialiasing, that should free up enough
> video memory to allow you to use stereo. VMD is a bit trickier than programs
> like O, in that it wants a number of OpenGL extensions, some of which are
> mutually exclusive. In the case of the NVidia drivers on Linux, it can
> end up with antialiasing but not stereo as a result of the way the NVidia
> drivers are written presently. If you're unable to force the NVidia
> driver to disable antialiasing in favor of stereo, let me know and I can
> give you a version that'll give stereo higher priority than antialiasing.
>
> Thanks,
> John Stone
> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 12:32:22PM +0100, Karsten Suhre wrote:
> >
> > Hello!
> >
> > I am trying to get VMD (latest version) running in stereo mode using an NVIDIA
> > Quadro4 750 XGL graphics card under SuSE Linux 8.1 using the latest NVIDIA
> > driver.
> >
> > My card should be working properly in quad-buffered mode, since I can view
> > stereo images using O correctly.
> >
> > When I start VMD, I get the following messages:
> >
> > Info) OpenGL renderer: Quadro4 750 XGL/PCI/3DNOW!
> > Info) Features: STENCIL MSAA(4) RN MTX TCM
> > Info) Textures: 2-D (4096x4096), 3-D (512x512x512), Multitexture (4)
> >
> > However, when I try to switch to "CrystallEyes" in the Display pull-Down menu,
> > I only obtain two separate pictures of my molecule (one above the other, as
> > without a stereo board).
> >
> > Am I missing something (e.g. setting some environment variable)???
> >
> > Thank you very much for any suggestion,
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Karsten Suhre.
>
> --
> NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078