VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2018 - 10:10:00 CDT

Hi Carlos,
  This strikes me as a driver bug.
The OpenGL quad-buffered stereo code in VMD hasn't changed in quite a while, and it
had been working fine on Linux and Windows in all of the previous testing I've done.

The NVIDIA 3D vision test programs are written using Direct X rather than OpenGL,
so the fact that they work okay means that at least the hardware is working,
but I think that the OpenGL part of the driver stack must not be working correctly.

The Quadro FX 5800 is now a very old GPU (GT200 architecture) that is no longer
supported by the current NVIDIA drivers, which I'm guessing you're already keenly aware
of. This makes our options somewhat limited and cumbersome. My suggestion would be
to cycle through the last few driver versions that support GT200-architecture GPUs
in general, or the FX 5800 explicitly, and see if you can find one that works correctly.
This isn't a fun process, but if you want to keep using that card, that is likely
the best option.

Perhaps if we're lucky, another Windows user with GT200-based GPUs can comment about
what driver versions work for them on Windows 10 w/ stereoscopic displays.
Let's see if anyone else can comment on their recent experiences here.

Best,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 09:26:35AM -0400, Carlos Simmerling wrote:
> hi all, I have an Nvidia 3D vision setup including the LCD shutter
> glasses, 3D vision monitor, emitter and quadro card. It should all work
> fine with VMD, and the Nvidia 3D setup wizard tests do work fine for me.
> This also used to work in VMD when I used windows 7 on this PC. Now,
> however, when I select quad buffered stereo in VMD I get only a single
> image (very slightly shifted from the image with stereo off). My quadro
> fx 5800 drivers are up to date (342.01). VMD seems to recognize the setup
> (see below). Any suggestions?Â
> thanks!
> ) VMD for WIN32, version 1.9.3 (November 30, 2016)
> Info)Â [1]http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> Info) Email questions and bug reports to [2]vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> Info) Please include this reference in published work using VMD:
> Info)Â Â Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., `VMD - Visual
> Info)Â Â Molecular Dynamics', J. Molec. Graphics 1996, 14.1, 33-38.
> Info) -------------------------------------------------------------
> Info) Multithreading available, 8 CPUs detected.
> Info) Free system memory: 2047MB (100%)
> Info) OpenGL renderer: Quadro FX 5800/PCIe/SSE2
> Info)Â Â Features: STENCIL STEREO MDE CVA MTX NPOT PP PS GLSL(OVFG)
> Info)Â Â Full GLSL rendering mode is available.
> Info)Â Â Textures: 2-D (8192x8192), 3-D (2048x2048x2048), Multitexture
> (4)
> Info) Spaceball driver not installed. Spaceball interface disabled.
> Info) No joysticks found. Joystick interface disabled.
> Info) Dynamically loaded 75 plugins in directory:
> Info) C:/Program Files (x86)/University of
> Illinois/VMD/plugins/WIN32/molfile
>
> References
>
> Visible links
> 1. http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
> 2. mailto:vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu 

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