VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 14 2003 - 13:07:58 CST

Dear VMD-L,
  Since Andy isn't subscribed to VMD-L the spam blocker ate his message,
here's his response regarding the simultaneous use of antialiasing and
stereo on the NVidia drivers. Andy, thanks for the note.

  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

----- Forwarded message from Andy Ritger <ARitger_at_nvidia.com> -----

From: Andy Ritger <ARitger_at_nvidia.com>
To: Karsten Suhre <Karsten.Suhre_at_igs.cnrs-mrs.fr>
Cc: linux-bugs <linux-bugs_at_exchange.nvidia.com>, johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu,
   magnus_at_thp.uni-duisburg.de, vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 12:28:42 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: problems with stereo display on NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL

Hi Karsten.

That is correct: the NVIDIA Linux driver does not currently expose
any multisample stereo visuals, due to the severe video memory
requirements of each of those two features.

It's the responsibility of applications to query what visuals are
available on a given X screen, what capabilities each of those
visuals have, and to select a visual with the desired capabilities.
It sounds like John is going to update vmd to more appropriately
handle this situation, which is the right solution.

As graphics cards with larger amounts of video memory become more
prevalent (and thus the combination of these two features more
practical), we'll investigate exposing multisample stereo visuals
in a future NVIDIA Linux driver release.

Thank you for the feature request.

I apologize for the inconvenience,
- Andy Ritger

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Karsten Suhre wrote:

> Dear linux-bugs_at_nvidia.com readers!
>
> Having bought most recently a NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL board and running it
> under SuSE Linux 8.1 with the most recent NVidia drivers I encountered the
> impossibility to run the molecular visualization tool VMD in stereo mode
> (which was the reason for which I bought the board initially).
>
> Having submitted this problem to the VMD mailing list, it seems that this
> problem is due to the fact that NVidia Linux drivers cannot supply both
> stereo and multisample antialiasing at the same time, and that there is no
> option to favor stereo instead of antialiasing (see e-mail exchange on the
> VMD-list below for details).
>
> Can you confirm this analysis, or is there a parameter for the driver that we
> do not know of (I found an environment variable __GL_FSAA_MODE somewhere in
> the documentation, but setting this parameter to zero - of course before
> starting X and testing its correct setting inside an X-window - did not solve
> the problem)?
>
> Thank you very much in advance for any suggestion,
>
> kind regards, Karsten Suhre.
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
>
> Subject: Re: stereo display on NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL
> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 17:14:06 -0600
> From: John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu>
> To: Magnus Kreth <magnus_at_thp.uni-duisburg.de>
> Cc: vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> Hi,
> Judging from your glxinfo output your results are exactly what I would
> expect. VMD is finding visuals with multisample antialiasing, but since the
> NVidia drivers cannot supply both stereo and multisample antialiasing at the
> same time, the particular sequence in which VMD queries results in finding
> antialiasing, but not stereo. I'm going to build you guys another VMD
> binary that favors stereo instead of antialiasing, that should cure the
> problem, though you will still only be able to have one or the other. (hint,
> email linux-bugs_at_nvidia.com and tell them you want to see future drivers
> support both stereo and multisample antialiasing at the same time... :-)
>
> I'll let you guys know when I have a binary for you to try. I'm in the
> middle of updating VMD to Tcl 8.4, so that's held me up for a few days.
>
> Thanks,
> John Stone
> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 04:32:28PM +0100, Magnus Kreth wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > first, I'd like to say a big thank you for your efforts. VMD really is a
> > great piece of software.
> >
> > We use a PC with a NVidia Quadro4 900XGL graphics adapter. After installing
> > the drivers released by NVidia in Sep. 2002 we succeeded to use the
> > Quadbuffered OpenGL stereo feature in most of our applications including
> > PyMOL. However, VMD still does not like our configuration. Attached is the
> > output of "glxinfo -t". I'm not an expert, but to me it looks like their
> > are plenty of visuals with stereo support. Nonetheless, the output of VMD
> > does not contain STEREO in the list of OpenGL extensions. Starting VMD
> > gives the same output as reported by K. Suhre.
> >
> > Am Dienstag, 7. Januar 2003 16:42 schrieb John Stone:
> > > Dear Karsten,
> > > The fact that you don't get "STEREO" in the list of OpenGL extensions
> > > indicates that your card can't do both stereo and multisample
> > > antialiasing simultaneously. You might see if you can make changes to the
> > > NVidia environment variables to disable antialiasing, that should free up
> > > enough video memory to allow you to use stereo. VMD is a bit trickier
> > > than programs like O, in that it wants a number of OpenGL extensions,
> > > some of which are mutually exclusive. In the case of the NVidia drivers
> > > on Linux, it can end up with antialiasing but not stereo as a result of
> > > the way the NVidia drivers are written presently. If you're unable to
> > > force the NVidia driver to disable antialiasing in favor of stereo, let
> > > me know and I can give you a version that'll give stereo higher priority
> > > than antialiasing.
> >
> > I tried to disable antialiasing by "export __GL_FSAA_MODE=0" prior to
> > starting VMD as written in the file README in the NVidia driver package.
> > This does not help. It doesn't even change VMD's output upon startup which
> > still contains "MSAA(4)" (which means multi-sample antialiasing?).
> >
> > Any further help to get stereo working would be very much appreciated.
> >
> > > Thanks,
> > > John Stone
> > > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >
> > Thank you!
> >
> > Magnus Kreth
> >
> > > On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 12:32:22PM +0100, Karsten Suhre wrote:
> > > > Hello!
> > > >
> > > > I am trying to get VMD (latest version) running in stereo mode using an
> > > > NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL graphics card under SuSE Linux 8.1 using the
> > > > latest NVIDIA driver.
> > > >
> > > > My card should be working properly in quad-buffered mode, since I can
> > > > view stereo images using O correctly.
> > > >
> > > > When I start VMD, I get the following messages:
> > > >
> > > > Info) OpenGL renderer: Quadro4 750 XGL/PCI/3DNOW!
> > > > Info) Features: STENCIL MSAA(4) RN MTX TCM
> > > > Info) Textures: 2-D (4096x4096), 3-D (512x512x512), Multitexture (4)
> > > >
> > > > However, when I try to switch to "CrystallEyes" in the Display
> > > > pull-Down menu, I only obtain two separate pictures of my molecule (one
> > > > above the other, as without a stereo board).
> > > >
> > > > Am I missing something (e.g. setting some environment variable)???
> > > >
> > > > Thank you very much for any suggestion,
> > > >
> > > > Kind regards,
> > > >
> > > > Karsten Suhre.
> >
> > name of display: :0.0
> > display: :0 screen: 0
> > direct rendering: Yes
> > server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
> > server glx version string: 1.2
> > server glx extensions:
> > GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
> > GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_ARB_multisample
> > client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
> > client glx version string: 1.2
> > client glx extensions:
> > GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info,
> > GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
> > GLX_SGIX_swap_group, GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
> > GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
> > GLX extensions:
> > GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
> > GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_ARB_get_proc_address
> > OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
> > OpenGL renderer string: Quadro4 900 XGL/PCI/SSE2
> > OpenGL version string: 1.3.1 NVIDIA 31.23
> > OpenGL extensions:
> > GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample,
> > GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
> > GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
> > GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
> > GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_S3_s3tc,
> > GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
> > GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array,
> > GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,
> > GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_paletted_texture, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
> > GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
> > GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs,
> > GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_texture3D,
> > GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp,
> > GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
> > GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,
> > GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod,
> > GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_vertex_array,
> > GL_EXT_vertex_weighting, GL_HP_occlusion_test,
> > GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_KTX_buffer_region,
> > GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color, GL_NV_evaluators,
> > GL_NV_fence,
> > GL_NV_fog_distance, GL_NV_light_max_exponent,
> > GL_NV_multisample_filter_hint, GL_NV_occlusion_query,
> > GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil, GL_NV_point_sprite,
> > GL_NV_register_combiners, GL_NV_register_combiners2,
> > GL_NV_texgen_reflection,
> > GL_NV_texture_compression_vtc, GL_NV_texture_env_combine4,
> > GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_texture_shader, GL_NV_texture_shader2,
> > GL_NV_vertex_array_range, GL_NV_vertex_array_range2,
> > GL_NV_vertex_program, GL_NV_vertex_program1_1, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap,
> > GL_SGIS_multitexture, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIX_depth_texture,
> > GL_SGIX_shadow
> > glu version: 1.3
> > glu extensions:
> > GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess
> >
> > Vis Vis Visual Trans buff lev render DB ste r g b a aux dep ste
> > accum buffers MS MS ID Depth Type parent size el type reo sz
> > sz sz sz buf th ncl r g b a num bufs
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >------------------------- 0x21 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8
> > 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x22 24 DirectColor 0
> > 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0
> > 0x23 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 1 8 8 8 0 0 24 8
> > 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x24 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8
> > 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x25 24 TrueColor 0 32
> > 0 rgba 1 1 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x26
> > 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16
> > 16 16 16 0 0 0x27 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 1 8 8
> > 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x28 24 TrueColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 0 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x29 24
> > TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 1 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x2a 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8
> > 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2b 24 TrueColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 1 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2c 24
> > TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x2d 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 1 8 8 8
> > 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2e 24 TrueColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x2f 24
> > TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 1 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x30 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8
> > 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x31 24 TrueColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 0 1 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x32 24
> > TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x33 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8
> > 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x34 24 TrueColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x35 24
> > TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x36 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8
> > 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x37 24 TrueColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x38 24
> > TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x39 24 TrueColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8
> > 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x3a 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 1 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x3b 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x3c 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 1 8 8 8
> > 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x3d 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 0 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x3e 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 1 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x3f 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8
> > 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x40 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 0 1 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x41 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x42 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 1 8 8 8
> > 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x43 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x44 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 1 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x45 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8
> > 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x46 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 0 1 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x47 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 0 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x48 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 0 1 8 8 8
> > 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x49 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x4a 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x4b 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8
> > 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x4c 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x4d 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 24 8 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0 0x4e 24 DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8
> > 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x4f 24 DirectColor 0 32 0
> > rgba 1 0 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 0x50 24
> > DirectColor 0 32 0 rgba 1 0 8 8 8 8 0 16 0 16 16
> > 16 16 0 0
>
> --
> NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
>

----- End forwarded message ----- 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078