On Thu, 3 Oct 2002, Alwyn Jones wrote: > >Quadro4 900 XGL under Linux > > we now have this card running on a linux system (AMD XP1700). > > the stereo performance is stellar with a suitable high refresh > monitor, NuVision glasses and emitter. > > the only problem comes when you switch back to mono with F1. the > performance (as judged by spin, for example) then drops by ~10.
There has been some discussion of this on the PyMOL list as well. All nVidia stereo-capable cards experience this problem with O and PyMOL when stereo is enabled (but not activated). I think the GLUT library is partly to blame, but the problem is specific to nVidia hardware. Presumably this is because both programs are opening a GLUT stereo window under mono mode -- nVidia's hardware or drivers have a unique problem with this configuration, which competiting options (ATI, SGI, 3DLabs) do not share. Note that this problem is not OS-dependent -- it also occurs under Windows -- and it doesn't matter which OEM manufacturer built the card -- the problem lies with nVidia chips or low-level drivers. > if you start with a mono visual (i.e. setenv STEREO OFF), performance > is again excellent. > this is the first linux stereo card that i have seen that i can recommend. I think this "bug" is a major drawback with nVidia cards. My experience has been that the FireGL2's are a better choice for stereo under Linux, with the caveat that you have to be very careful about running a version of Linux compatible with their fickle drivers. The new ATI FireGL X1 may offer the best stereo performance of any card available right now, but I haven't yet had the privilege of being able to try one. Considering the importance of stereographics to structural biology, computational chemistry, and bioinformatics, I really hope one or both manufacturers will start taking stereo support under Linux (as well as Windows) more seriously. The pharmaceutical industry as well as thousands of academic researchers have a significant amount of money to waiting to be spent on solid PC stereo-graphics solutions, if and when such solutions become available. Cheers, Warren
