Benchmarks
16 messages in this thread
David. I take it you are a reviewer for CADalyst… Always glad to make the
acquaintance of someone with the same mindset. I'm a Byte reviewer (when on
assignment) and have worked in the animation field since the early days of
Targa/Crystal/Topas. (Wrote the 3DS rel 1 review for last year's Byte –
April 91). Just finished up a piece for the June 92 issue and touched
briefly on the topic of local bus video also. (There's lots of LBV
standards on the horizon… I'm waiting for VESA to establish some
guidelines before I `jump in' head first with a new system).
While I've got you on-line, perhaps I might ask a question regarding 3DS
rel 2 RDPADI configurations. I've tested it with the both a Targa+ 24 and
an AT-Vista board. However, for grins, I threw in the old Targa 16 to check
out the new rdptarga.exp driver (this was mainly to verify that I could
send NTSC straight composite out at 512×482 directly to a Sony VO-5850 3/4"
VTR, thusly bypassing the RGB/NTSC encoder box). This was for readers who
don't have an encoder and pull sync directly off the Targa 16. I'm getting
all sorts of strange characters in popping up in the main 640×480 editor
display when I start 3DSr2. This method worked great in 3DSr1. (I have set
the .exp environment paths correctly… i.e. set
rdpadi=d:\3ds2\drivers\rdptarga.exp).
Any suggestions (from one and all) would be appreciated. I've also used the
trueinit Targa setup utility to change memory addresses of the T16 adapter,
but have had little success. Thanx in advance for any guidance.
BTW: Pardon my grammar and spelling in the above… I get dyslexic after
staring at a crt for 18 hours <g>. – Greg Loveria
It sounds like you've got a memory address conflict between your ADI driver
(rdptarga.exp) and your vga driver. Are you using the default vga driver
or the vesa driver (or an rcpadi driver)?
You might have to end up using QEMM386 with the nvr (no vidram) command to
move all of your vga/display memory above E000. That almost always works.
– G
Gary. Thanx for the quick reply. The current system configuration is using
a standard SpeedStar w/Tseng ET4000 chipset. I had been using Panacea's
Panamate drivers in 3DSr1 for 1024×768 rez for the RCPADI main editor
display. I thought that the drivers may have been the culprit and reedited
3DS.SET to the standard 640×480 default (without Panacea's .exp's in
memory). This particular SpeedStar is non-VBE compliant, so it's strictly
the Tseng chipset operating. (I'll be testing it with Diamond's new Stealth
using their VBE compliant BIOSes as soon as I resolve this conflict…
Er… testing 3DSr2 that is).
I'm not familar with QEMM386's nvr switch. I don't think that would be
applicable here as the svga board is vanilla (no vesa, no rcpadi drivers,
just the rdpadi driver set to use the rdptarga.exp driver). I've moved the
T16 adapter to various memory addresses with the same results). The
answer's probably pretty simple… Probably just overlooking some hardware
IRQ settings on the T16 board.
Without the T16 adapter installed (and using the Panamate drivers)
everthing works smooth as silk, so I don't think there's a conflict with
their rcpadi/rdpadi drivers and the SpeedStar. – Greg
I would still add the nvr switch to your QEMM386 "device=" statement. I
just had to do this with a Gateway 486 with a Diamond Speedstar T4K-based
VGA and a Targa+. Very similar config to yours.
Please give it a shot.
– G
Thanx Gary… That was the quickest response to a `help' msg I've ever
recieved online. <grin>. I'll give it a whirl and let you know how the nvr
suggestion worked. – Greg
I've been working at my desk all day and have been logging on to CIS
frequently as a diversion. I think the computer will be off most of
Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon…
Good luck,
– G
Greg,
Hi, I've read your articles. Good efforts, but occasionally you
blow it technically. No offense meant, hopefully none taken. I've just
noticed that I tend to view articles about subjects I'm unfamiliar with as
gospel, while I can't miss failings in those on subjects I'm intimately
familiar with.
You would appear to be running into a conflict in your Targa installation.
Since you have a VGA (for 3DS), it uses up address A000. The Targa should
be installed @ address D000 (switches 247 down – you must set the switches
on the old Targas). You should then SET TARGA=247. If you're using a
memory manager, such as QEMM386, set the page frame to E000, and exclude
the memory area D000-DFFF for the Targa.
BTW, output directly off the Targa 16 composite out isn't gonna be pretty.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin… Thanx for the thumbs up (and crtiques). Yes, I `sweat' the tech
details as much as the next writer (nothing like mass public humiliation
set in print, eh? <grin>).
I've tried the solution you mentioned (@ address D000, targa set at 247),
but haven't tried the QEMM exclude yet. I'll give it a whirl as soon as I'm
offline here. Thanx for the assist.
BTW: Which particular article(s) did you find errors in? I'd be interested
in the feedback (in private mail of course <grin>! – Thanx. – Greg
Greg,
Hey, I don't remember; I must read 30 mags a week. But I can still
try to publicly humiliate you <grin>! Re: a message a bit earlier, the
Targa/Vista TOPAS Animator used to list for $11,995, now $7495. The only
one close to $18K would be TOPAS RRS (Rapid Render System) which utilizes
the Truevision Horizon 860 board. That brought the list to about $21K,
depending on amount of memory on the board.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Heheh Kevin: Caught me on the * revised * pricing, eh? <grin>. Yes, I
worked with a AT&T authorized dealer about three/four years ago. At that
time (with all the bells and whistles, like flares, etc…) I seem to
recall an $18K price point; however, all I can say is, even at $7495 I
still * love * working with Topas (I didn't purchase this, the station did
and that's where I got the 8K figure from). I did get a chance to
experiment briefly with the Rapid Render system briefly at PC-Expo about
two years ago… Sweet and fast, especially for complex environmentally
mapped scenes.
Sounds like you're an authorized GSL/Truevision distributor. Are you also
an animation house? Always like to hear the various `war stories' from
other animators <grin>… – Greg
Greg,
Right, we're authorzed for Truevision, AT&T GSL, Autodesk, Agfa,
Tektronix, etc. – all stuff related to 24-bit color. Since we keep our
doors open through hardware & software sales, we try to avoid possible
conflicts. It doesn't seem fair for us to do production (competing w/our
customers) or act as consultants (since we'd likely refer to ourselves).
Instead we offer service before & after the sale (with 'sale' being the key
point). For instance, we charge for on-site time (out of our office), but
do not otherwise charge for support. I limit it to 3-6 months phone
support on quotations, but we pretty much attempt to support our customers
indefinitely. Pretty stupid, huh?
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin… I wish * more * dealers took the same tack that your group does.
Though I don;t like to admit it much, but at one point in time I had three
computer stores in the area (I was the founder, not the backer). I left on
a sore note (my `sweat-equity' percentage of the corporation contract was
re-nigged). My philosophy that I put accross to each and everyone of our
staff (30) was the customer *is king *. Period. However, management's
philosophy was ^&*&^& the customer, GTFM and forget them.
I like Anderson Consulting's philosophy: Sell specialized applications to
Fortune 1000 firms and staff the project with your own people. Seems to
work (though I hear that Anderson hires fairly `green' grads and runs them
through a short, but intensive, training period).
Anyway you look at it, retail is tough. Find a specialized niche market, be
the best and you have a chance of survival. I honestly can't see how even
the mail-order people stay afloat these days with margins well below 10
percent. – Greg
Greg:
I'm actually senior editor at CADalyst. But I do a lot of the reviews
myself. I am not as well versed on the 3D Studio side of things than on the
AutoCAD side. I am now working my way through the r2.0 tutorials. One of my
goals for the summer is to finish an animation that I've had story-boarded
for over a year now.
I'm afraid I'm not the one to answer your questions regarding the RDPADI
configurations, especially regarding the different Targa boards. The closest
thing I've got to a Targa right now is a Matrox Illuminator board. And I've
never worked with a 3/4" VTR ourside of a professional editing suite, where
a technician sat there and did all the "hard stuff." <g>
I'm trying to educate myself a bit more regarding the video side of 3DS,
with the assistance of some of the people that I know that frequent this
forum.
Hopefully, you'll get a real answer from someone here. But please, stay in
touch, since I'm always looking for writers for the magazine. I have to
admit when I don't have the answer, but we certainly do share the same
mindset. Interestingly, I didn't find that much of a speed improvement in
the local bus machines over standard ISA or EISA at the same CPU speed, at
least not in the 33MHz and 50MHz 486 machines I recently tested.
David
David:
Thanx for the reply. That's interesting regarding the local bus machines.
Personally, I haven't used one <yet> but the word on the street is that the
C&T LBV stuff is pretty hot. As always in this industry, we'll have to see
which standard gains the most acceptance. I'm looking forward to putting
one of these beasts together in the next few months or so. With so many
different implementations of LBV coming to market, it's difficult to
predict which one will take the high ground.
Yes, I too am very weak in some areas, but as the old adage goes `No one is
born knowing this stuff' <g>. The best solution I've found (as a writer in
general) is to just know which industry expert to call for the problem at
hand (in this case my RDPADI/T16 situation). Cserve seemed to be the best
forum for this issue.
I'll drop a post to you with my writing history and some articles. I truly
enjoy CADalyst. I'm very impressed with the `hands-on' and `tutorial'
approach that your magazine has. I'd be honored to have an article in your
publication. If you forsee anything in your editorial plans for future
issues that I have some expertise in, please feel free to call. – Greg
Greg:
I'll look forward to receiving your stuff. We're always looking.
David
Thanx David… It will be in the mail by the weekend. – Greg