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r11 - 11 Jul 2008 - 16:35:02 - EvanBolligYou are here: TWiki >  Computing Web > VisCluster > VislabStatus > VisLabMenu > VislabPowerWall

FSU VizWall? FAQ

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0722782.

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SCS VisLab:

"Introduction to Scientific Visualization Using the FSU 3D Projection System"

About On March 28, 2008 the School of Computational Science held a one hour Tech Session titled "Introduction to Scientific Visualization Using the FSU 3D Projection System". The session was intended to introduce Faculty and Students throughout the FSU campus to the NSF funded Stereo Wall in room 499 of Dirac Science Library. The provided slides represent a subset of what was shown--about half of the hour was dedicated to demos of stereo in applications, movie generation and playback.
Slides The slides are attached to this page. Or you can also find them here.

Stereo in OpenGL? Applications

Pre-Existing Binaries (Source Unavailable)

Problem Is it possible to run ANY OpenGL? application in Stereo if I do not have the source code?
Solution No. At least not yet. Some groups are attempting to develop general wrappers that will enable stereo from any application, but at this time nothing is release quality. However, if the pre-existing application was designed with stereo in mind, it may only require a special configuration option to enable it. See the application documentation for details.

Pre-Existing Binaries (Source Available)

Problem How do I modify an existing application to enable stereo?
Solution What you need to do is modify your application source so it takes advantage of "Quad Buffered OpenGL?" (feature limited to high-end graphics cards). See this fantastic tutorial for two methods of achieving stereo in your application (with example source code too!).

New Software Under Developement

Problem What do I need to do to get my application to run in stereo on the wall?
Solution See this fantastic tutorial for two methods of achieving stereo in your application (with example source code too!).

Enabling Stereo in commercial Software

Amira

Problem Enabling Stereo mode in Amira.
Solution 1 Launch Amira using the Amira_StereoMode shortcut found under Start->Programs->Amira4.1.1->Amira_StereoMode
Solution 2 In the command prompt type "viewer setStereo -m 0 -b 0.70 0.20"
This tells Amira to use Quad-Buffered OpenGL? ("-m 0") for Stereo with Zero Parallax Ballance ("-b 0.70") and Eye Separation (0.20) optimized for the SCS PowerWall?. (Note: Anything in the range 0.2 and 0.35 looks great for the Eye Separation. Increasing to 0.35 will start to introduce "ghosting" (multiple images), but it will also bring the image out of the screen the most.)
Solution 3 When Amira is open click the sunglasses icon in the center of the main window. Then click the check marks and move the sliders to correspond to the settings in Solution 2.

Avizo

Problem Enabling Stereo mode in Avizo.
Solution 1 Launch Avizo using the Avizo_StereoMode shortcut found under Start->Programs->Mercury->Avizo->Avizo_StereoMode
Solution 2 In the command prompt type "viewer setStereo -m 0 -b 0.70 0.20"
This tells Avizo to use Quad-Buffered OpenGL? ("-m 0") for Stereo with Zero Parallax Ballance ("-b 0.70") and Eye Separation (0.20) optimized for the SCS PowerWall?. (Note: Anything in the range 0.2 and 0.35 looks great for the Eye Separation. Increasing to 0.35 will start to introduce "ghosting" (multiple images), but it will also bring the image out of the screen the most.)
Solution 3 When Avizo is open click the sunglasses icon in the center of the main window. Then click the check marks and move the sliders to correspond to the settings in Solution 2.

ParaView?

Problem Enabling Stereo mode in ParaView?.
Solution From the command line, execute ParaView? with the "--stereo" flag. This will enable CrystalEyes? stereo.

Stereoscopic Player

Problem Enabling Stereo mode in Stereoscopic Player.
Solution 1) Launch Stereoscopic player.
2) Open your movie file
3) Click the sunglasses icon.
4) Double click the center of the movie window (where movie is playing) to scale to full screen.
NOTE: Stereoscopic player only performs Quad-Buffered OpenGL? rendering in fullscreen mode.

VisIt?

Problem Enabling Stereo mode in VisIt?.
Solution From the command line, execute VisIt? with the "-stereo" flag. This will enable CrystalEyes? stereo.

VMD

Problem Enabling Stereo mode in VMD.
Solution 1 1) Launch VMD.
2) Under the Display->Stereo menu select "CrystalEyes".
Solution 2 1) Edit your VMD State file (.vmd) and append the following lines of Tcl:
display stereo CrystalEyes?
display projection Orthographic
menu main on.
NOTE: the first line enables stereo mode, the second reduces ghosting effects and the third opens the menu to allow additional configuration of the state. *These lines are not written by VMD when you File->Save State...; you must update the state files every time you save.
2) Open the VMD State file with the "LaunchVMDState.bat" found in the VMD start menu folder.

Creating/Playing Stereo Movies

Amira

Problem How to create and play stereo movies in Amira for playback on the powerwall?
Solution Follow the instructions on our tutorial page for creating stereo movies in Amira

Maintenance

Stereo functions only on one side of wall

Problem At one point we discovered stereo was functioning correctly on one side of the wall, but to required the eyes to be inverted for correct functionality on the other side of the screen.
Solution We disconnected the DIN Connector from the graphics card on the PC Desktop and reconnected it. This was enough to tell the Cyviz XPO.3's to refresh their signals and correctly function again.
Cause We have not yet determined the cause of this problem. However, Cyviz did give us updated firmware which solved the problem.
Alternate Solution (Untested) The Cyviz engineers provided the following instructions to reboot the XPO.3's manually:
In order to reboot the xpo.3's properly, disconnect the serial cable connected to COM3 on the Netlink, and hook it up to a laptop/workstation.
Then, on the laptop/workstation, open Hyperterminal (see the attached Control_Interface_CYVIZ.pdf for communication settings) to get the XPO.3 prompt, and type the following commands; (hit enter after each and every one of them)

#3, reboot

#2, reboot

#1, reboot

This will reboot the three units in the appropriate order, and should reset any hiccups in the xpo.3 (if this is what's causing the problem). I'm a bit confused as to why resetting the projectors would do anything. Are you talking about just physically rebooting the projectors, or are you doing anything to filters etc? In case it's only the projectors, they will not have any effect on the left/right eye swapping.

Put the stereo glasses on, and look at the filters in front of the projectors (stand between the screen and the projectors, looking straight at the filters). The two upper filters should both block (or unblock), and the two lower ones should unblock (or block). Main thing is that the two uppers are the same, and that the two lower filters are opposite.
Additional Resources The Cyviz XPO User manual provides many details regarding output signals from PC (frame-sequential) and maintaining the XPO hardware via HyperTerminal? and OSD.

Projector will not power on/off from the AMX controller, but the filters slide into place when switching 2D to 3D.

Problem After working on a stereo demo, we powered off the projectors to go home for the night. 3 of the 4 projectors shut off but the 4th had to be manually shut off from the back room. Powering on the malfunctioning projector had to be done from the back room as well.
Solution The Cyviz engineer suggested:
1) make sure all IR Control ports are disabled (there are 3 per projector). Any IR source (even a fluorescent bulb that is reflecting off something "just right" can control the projectors. Use the "Menu" button to access this option. In our case the IR was not the (only) cause.
2) Power down all projectors and remove power cord to the malfunctioning one. Unscrew the four screws on the XED Card (the black rectangle with 2 inputs connected above the video input) and remove it from back of the projector. This requires a 2mm allen wrench. Re-seat the card and tighten four screws with equal tension all around. They do not need to be screwed in very tight, just a snug, balanced fit. Be mindful of the alignment with any of the steps mentioned here. Plug in the power and attempt to power on with the AMX controller. If this does not solve the problem contact Cyviz immediately.
Cause We have not yet determined the cause of this problem.
Show attachmentsHide attachments
Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
pdfpdf Control_Interface_CYVIZ.pdf manage 85.6 K 06 Feb 2008 - 22:47 EvanBollig Detailed connection information for using Hyperterminal and Netlinks
pdfpdf StereoWallIntro.pdf manage 9774.2 K 28 Mar 2008 - 20:26 EvanBollig Slides for "Introduction to Scientific Visualization Using the FSU 3D Projection System"
pdfpdf xpo_user_manual.pdf manage 660.5 K 07 Feb 2008 - 17:17 EvanBollig XPO user manual (useful details regarding output signals from PC and maintaining XPO signal splitters)
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