Sean Sylvis wrote: >I have been unable to get stereo viewing working in Java3D for the GeForce2 or >GeForce4 Ti4200. From what I have read on this list, you need a particular version of >Nvidia's stereo drivers as well as a patch (SoftQuadro) that modifies the drivers to >work (I think creating a software emulation of the Nvidia Quadro stereo >functionality). However, I wasn't interested in patching the drivers of my video card >to get it working. > > I'd go further and state that even having to consider patching a driver to get this to work is completely insane. nVidia TNT2, GeForce2, 3, and 4 cards (all stereo capable) are in a large percentage of end-user computers. They are powerful, and *very* cheap (I bought a 128 MB GeForce4 Ti4400 for ~$260)). Although the GeForce is limited to full-screen stereo (unlike the more expensive Quadro), it's still a very useful operation mode.
<ravingFrustratedDeveloperMode> So why doesn't Java3D support stereo with the GeForce line of cards? Why do I have to pay more for a less powerful card to get stereo support? Because Sun doesn't seem to even want to consider (at least publicly) adding support for stereo outside the OpenGL quadbuffer stereo standard, or enter in to some discussions with nVidia to address the issue. Given how prevalent nVidia cards are, and that many Java 3D users are in the scientific visualization field, adding nVidia's flavor of stereo to Java 3D would be a huge boon for the API. Has anyone at Sun actually looked into the technical issues here, other than "it's non-OpenGL compliant stereo"? If it is a highly complicated addition just to support nVidia stereo, let us know the details so we'll shut up about it. But if it's only a couple of days work, why not do it? I've read this <http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0204&L=java3d-interest&P=R126179>, and recognize some investigation has occurred, but the true problem hasn't been nailed down. </ravingFrustratedDeveloperMode> <offensiveRavingOpenSourceFanaticMode> Of coarse if Sun would allow an OpenSource(TM) implementation of Java 3D this issue would have been fixed the month nVidia released the stereo drivers. And we'd have Java 3D on OS X too. </offensiveRavingOpenSourceFanaticMode> Sorry to rant, but since the developer community has no insight into the implementation guts behind Java3D, and no power to fix problems, it's hard not to think that this nVidia stereo (that works perfectly fine with other full-screen OpenGL apps) should simply work with Java3D, and any tweak to make it work shouldn't be a big deal. simeon -- /** * @author Simeon H.K. Fitch * @organization Mustard Seed Software * @web http://www.mustardseedsoftware.com * @email [EMAIL PROTECTED] * @voice 210.867.1616 */ =========================================================================== To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff JAVA3D-INTEREST". For general help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
