What hardware and software do I need for hardware stereo display using Maestro?

Maestro supports two hardware stereo methods: interlaced and quad-buffered.

Interlaced stereo

Interlaced stereo is inexpensive and easy to set up but is lower quality, and might not be suitable for sustained use. It requires a monitor that supports interlaced stereo, which are produced by Zalman and iZ3D. It works on all platforms suported by Maestro: Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. The graphics card must support stencil buffering and support the native resolution of the monitor (which most modern cards do). To view in stereo requires only simple polarized glasses. You can also plug one of these monitors into a laptop to display in stereo.

Quad-buffered stereo

Quad-buffered stereo is professional-level hardware stereo, and has tighter requirements on the hardware, software, and setup. Nvidia with its 3D Vision technology is the primary vendor on the market at the moment. The following pages from Nvidia provides most of the relevant information for product compatibility:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-system-requirements.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-pro-requirements.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_pro_graphics_boards_linux.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dvision-pro-faq.html

A summary of the options and requirements is given below.

Operating system: Quad-buffered stereo can only be used under Linux or Windows. It is not available under Mac OS X.

Graphics software: Maestro is an OpenGL application. It does not support DirectX stereo on Windows.

Graphics card: The Nvidia Quadro series of graphics cards with its 3D Vision technology is the only current option for use of quad-buffered stereo with Maestro. On Linux, the graphics card must have a 3-pin mini-DIN to connect to the emitter if an external emitter is used.

Graphics drivers: Always use a recent driver from Nvidia, and preferably the latest driver. Many stereo-specific options and settings (e.g., optimization for 3D Vision monitors on Linux) are only found in newer driver versions. Many of the regular non-stereo OpenGL/GLSL features and options can only be used with the latest drivers and are constantly being updated.

Remember that if you update your operating system, you will have to reinstall the graphics driver.

Display devices: A monitor with a refresh rate of at least 100 Hz is required. Most modern LCD monitors support this refresh rate, as do CRT monitors (if available). Any monitor listed on the Nvidia website as "3D Vision-ready" should work. Nvidia also supports stereo HDTV screens made by Mitsubishi. Some newer LCD monitors have built-in emitters. Stereo projectors can also be used for larger audiences.

If you want to use lighter passive (polarized) glasses instead of active LCD shutters, with a mirror-based dual-monitor or dual-projector setup, you can consider the devices made by Planar (http://www.planar.com) or by Omnia MIMO (http://www.inition.co.uk). There are also autostereoscopic 3D stereo monitors that require no glasses at all: see for example http://www.miracube.net, http://www.dti3d.com, or http://www.seereal.com.

Glasses and emitters: Nvidia has optimized their drivers for use with 3D-Vision-approved devices. If the choice of monitor requires an emitter, you will need to obtain one. There are special stereo options 10 and 11 that you can set in the xorg.conf file when using Nvidia graphics drivers on Linux.

You should also be able to use CrystalEyes shutter glasses and emitter. On Linux, this will require a 3-pin mini-DIN stereo connector on your graphics card.

If the monitor has a built-in emitter, it should work normally under Windows. On Linux there may be some synchronization issues with the built-in emitter.

You should check the Nvidia web sites for details on what hardware and software is supported and is not supported for quad-buffered stereo!

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