8800 ultra stereo driver

[Dave]

Hi - we are using a model rendered in stereo on an e-magin z800 HMD. We have previously been using the NVidia GT7600 with the generic and stereo 91.31 drivers - everything has worked fine. To speed things up a bit we have just got a dual core PC with an 8800 Ultra graphics card - we were assured by NVidia that the 91.31 drivers would work ok but they were wrong - the driver does not recognise the hardware and will not load. So - now looking at some of the later version and beta drivers - specifically 158.22, 162.15/18 and 162.50. These load fine and the Vizard routines run great when stereo is not enabled. In 162.15/18 if stereo is enabled, then the two test screens (medical and rotating eye in tunnel) run ok but when the Vizard application is run (whether a stereo version or not) WinViz encounters a problem, closes and generates an error report and signature:-
Appname: WinViz.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: nvoglnt.dll
ModVer: 6.14.11.6218 Offset: 002417d5
Does anyone have any experience of a stereo/generic driver combination that works ok with WinViz routines on a GeForce 8800 Ultra - grateful for any help.
Thanks

[Deltcho]

Hi Dave,

Unfortunately, there are *no* working stereo drivers available for the 8800 series yet. Nvidia has been very slow with their driver updates and has yet to make a functional stereo driver that works with the 8800.

On the plus side, the built-in stereo support in Vizard does work. Have you tried using it with regular Nvidia drivers?

[Dave]

Thanks for the reply Deltcho. The Z800 is a frame sequential device and my understanding is (is this correct?) that the GEForce cards need to have the external stereo driver to emulate quad buffering. Is it the case (as I think it is) that if we had one of the NVidia quadro cards with hardware quad buffering we could just include the viz.QUAD_BUFFER command to achieve the frame sequential video output. If so does anyone out there have any experience of comparitive performance (speed) of say the Quadro FX1700 (512MB) (around the same price bracket) compared to the GEForce 7600GS (which works in stereo) and the 8800 Ultra (which works but not in stereo).

[farshizzo]

That is correct, the stereo drivers are simply emulating quad buffering. I don't have any technical performance comparisons, but Quadro cards are usually sufficient for most uses.

[Dave]

Hi - thanks for the help so far - I now have a quadro 1700 with the 162.52 driver that came with it which I think is going to be ok but am having trouble getting the emagin z800 to show a stereo signal. I have exported an executable only version of the routine, including viz.go(viz.FULLSCREEN | viz.QUAD_BUFFER) - this seems to be sending a frame sequential stereo output through the DVI/VGA converter ok - on a standard monitor it shows as alternating images in which features converge as you move towards them. Unfortunately the emagin z800 shows the same - it is not sending alternate images to the left and right eyes but both images to both eyes - the led is constant yellow. Is there some cunning setting in the NVidia 3D settings that I have missed - I have the stereo set to ON, set to single display performance mode but am not sure which Display mode is best - have tried all four with no joy. I have tried the force stereo shuttering on and off but no joy. Not sure what the buffer flipping mode does but it is on auto. Anyone any thoughts or a list of the 3D settings that work with the z800 and a quadro board. Thanks

[mspusch]

make sure you are really feeding the z800 HMD a 600x800 resolution and 60Hz frame sequential.
this is the most common mistake I have seen. the best is if you switch you computer to 600x800 output and connect a monitor BEHIND the Z800 HMD, i.e. route the VGA signal thru the HMD. do NOT use the dual out from your graphics card.
now go on the properties and make sure it's 600x800 and 60Hz, and shows up on the monitor as frame sequential (i.e. flickering).
if this is the case and it still does not work on your Z800, you should probably contact eMagins' support.

but I'll place a bet that there is something wrong with your output which is why it's not working currently.

good luck!

[farshizzo]

Just a small correction, the resolution should be 800x600

[Dave]

Hi - thanks for those - I too thought that it would be something silly but I have checked (about 4 times) I have 800x600 in all places and 60Hz. A monitor plugged into the z800 control box shows the flickering screen and, as before, the two images of an object converge as you move towards them so it looks very much like the quadro board is giving a stereo frame sequential output - it just doesn't seem to be recognised by the z800 - it still shows just the same flickering image. I went back to the 7600GS board to check that the z800 was ok - it was fine - gave a stereo image. Will try tweaking a few more of the settings in the NVidia control panel. The control panel for the quadro board doesn't seem to give the stereo test screen option that the generic one for the 7600GS has. I will contact emagin too but any other thoughts would be welcome. Thanks again.

[Gladsomebeast]

Try power-cycling the eMagin, then fire up Vizard with Quad Buffering. Perhaps the eMagin just needs a few tries to get synced with the active stereo signal.

By the by, viz.go should include the HMD argument for proper stereo disparity. I don't think this will fix the flickering in the eMagin though.

viz.go(viz.HMD | viz.QUAD_BUFFER)

[Dave]

Hi - thanks for the ideas. I tried powering the z800 on and off a few times and then running Vizard - didn't seem to make any difference. But here is a thing. When I run Vizard with viz.go(viz.FULLSCREEN | viz.QUAD_BUFFER) the image flickers and converges looking like a frame sequential stereo image - but still with both images sent to both eyes - no stereo, just flickering. When I run Vizard with viz.go(viz.HMD | viz.QUAD_BUFFER) I just get a pure, non flickering mono image! When I do the above two viz.go options with the GEForce 7600GS card (91.31 generic/stereo driver) I get a proper stereo image in the z800 (I guess it ignores the QUAD_BUFFER command) for both commands. I am just thinking that I am missing something obvious somewhere. I don't suppose running an executable version on the PC with the Quadro card makes any difference does it - I have Vizard installed on the 7600GS machine and am generating executables to try on the other machine. All ideas welcome. Thanks.

[Dave]

Further news - I have still had no joy with the Quadro FX1700 and stereo using the QUAD_BUFFER command and an Emagin z800. Our supplier has talked to NVidia - they think it is a problem with the driver not syncing properly with the z800 - they did send a beta driver 169.19 that they said would solve the problem but this didn't work either. So I think I will have to move to a different Quadro board and driver hat is known to work with the z800 - so here is the question. Has anyone out there actually successfully used an Emagin z800 with a Quadro FX board and a Vizard routine invoking the QUAD_BUFFER command to give stereo in the HMD. If so I would be very grateful if you could let me know which Quadro FX board(s) you used and which driver - at least then I can use something that is known to definitely work. Thanks in anticipation.

[Dave]

Also - referring back to my very first post - does anyone have any thoughts as to why the 8800 Ultra/162.50 driver combination doesn't work with Vizard? As I said - it shows the two test applications fine in stereo on the Emagin z800, presumably indicating that the 162.50 stereo driver works ok with the 8800Ultra card but crashes when a Vizard executable routine is launched. So, is this more likely to be something Vizard related?

[osorge]

@Dave: One question please...
I have bought a z800 and have a 8800 graphic adapter. The page flipping will not work on my computer. I use the same drivers but the z8000 controller box do not switch to 3D mode. any idea?

[mspusch]

from all the news I have so far, the stereo drivers for the 8800 cards still don't work.

RE Z800 with Quadro working reliably, we have used the NVIDIA Quadro FX 540 By Leadtek


http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/workst...&pronameid=157


many times. it's a low end card, but it works well enough with the z800's low resolution.

also the 7900 series cards with the consumer stereo driver work reliably.

[m7ossny]

Hi,

We had the same problem with 4600 Quadro, and 8600 GT. Same symptoms, the stereo is not working, messed up drivers, projecting the shuttering exactly to both eyes, ... .

If you are as desperate as I am, there is a solution. Forget about the stereo driver. If you have it just disable stereo at all. Download a 3dvisor's utility called labtool (http://www.3dvisor.com/support.php). It forces the 3d mode to the emagin box. We tried it with 162.15/18, and the monitor was daisychained to the emagin box and it worked.

Regards. Mohammed Hossny.

[Dave]

Mohammed - brilliant, thanks for that. Works a treat - can now run the model smoothly in stereo using a quadro fx3700 with the 169.39 driver. Interestingly this works when you run labtool and have toggle left and right but, counter-intuitively (to me anyway) set the Force 3D mode to 2D! You also don't seem to need to leave labtool running - just start up, set Force 3D mode to 2D, close it down and then you can open the original z800 software utility (which has a couple of settings that I cannot see in labtool) - the left/right toggling continues to work - what's that all about? Anyway - thanks again.

[Dave]

Hello,
Is there a way to make the labtool save the changes i make, so that the next time i load my pc it will have it changed?

Thanks

[Gladsomebeast]

I don't think labtool has a save settings capability.

You could write a C++ plugin that acesses emagin's SDK and sets the settings you need. Then run this C++ plugin from your Vizard script.

The Labtool software simply provides a GUI wraper for the emagin SDK.

[Byteman3D]

I also have a Geforce GT 8600 graphics card and I can no longer use the z800. $1500 device has become a piece of garbage. Your message became a hope to me again, because I also saw the Labtool switching the goggles to to a flickering 60 Hz mode, but I couldn't see anything stereo 3D yet.

I tried to setup 162.18 driver but it also doesn't recognize the hardware. What do you think I'm doing wrong? You say something like 162.15/18. What do you mean? and if possible, can you please note a few step by step instructions to see something in 3D.

[Gladsomebeast]

As far as I know, the Geforce 8000+ series cards don't support 3D with the eMagin, Labtool or no Labtool. I think m7ossny probably just used it to fix his Quatro setup.

Interestingly, I just noticed that nVidia has got this newish 3D Vision shutter glasses product. The supporting drivers require 8800+ cards and Vista. Me thinks this could provide the field-sequential/page-flipping/eyeball-hanky-panky the eMagin requires. Though this forum post says otherwise.

But do people on the internet know what their talking about? =)

Maybe eMagin users can just install the driver and it works? Maybe nVidia's sneeky and you need to plug-in their $200 IR emmiter and it works?

I don't have an 8800 card, Vista, or $200 not earmarked for beer.

Maybe money-bags WorldViz will figure it out?

[Mxd70]

Mohammed,

I followed the steps and downloaded the Labtool utlity. I have a Quadro FX 1600. I can get stero to flash on the HMD but then it disappears. The light turns from yellow to green for about half a second and then I lose stereo. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by m7ossny

Hi,

We had the same problem with 4600 Quadro, and 8600 GT. Same symptoms, the stereo is not working, messed up drivers, projecting the shuttering exactly to both eyes, ... .

If you are as desperate as I am, there is a solution. Forget about the stereo driver. If you have it just disable stereo at all. Download a 3dvisor's utility called labtool (http://www.3dvisor.com/support.php). It forces the 3d mode to the emagin box. We tried it with 162.15/18, and the monitor was daisychained to the emagin box and it worked.

Regards. Mohammed Hossny.

[Gladsomebeast]

Did you:
--check the "force 3D" checkbox on the misalanious tab of the LabView utility?

If you did all that then I'm stummped.

If you are not getting flikering on the plain old monitor also check that you:
--Put viz.QUAD_BUFFERING in the viz.go call.
--Enable stereo in the nVidea control panel.