#THIRD PARTY DRIVERS
22 messages in this thread
Most of the 24x cards, if not all, will come with a driver for 3D
Studio and for Windows. You will need a 24 bit paint program to see
files in 24 bit color, more than likely, other than in 3DS by doing a
rendering.
I have yet to find a card manufacturer that brings a driver
for 3D Studio. While you may see AUTOCAD drivers, you won't see any
drivers that are custom made for 3D Studio. I want a driver that will
let see my 24-bit rendering RIGHT IN 3D Studio, like the old TARGA
cards do. I want to do it with a modern 24-bit VGA card.
So, lets try this again…does anyone make custom drivers for
3D Studio, that will allow full 24-bit visualization, as well as the
faster screen redraws, etc? Sounds like a non-existent driver to me.
Phil:
Vibrant Graphics and Panacea are two companies that do exactly what you
want. Neither is non-existant!
Greg Pyros
I meant the driver was non-existant. Well, O.K., we'll check it out.
Nothing in the Panacea demo info box made any mention of 24-bit VGA rendering
within 3D-Studio, which is a primary consideration within the proposal I'm
putting together for my company. I don't want to have to dedicate a machine
with a two monitor setup (Targa and Vista cards don't like VGA cards on their
turf), which just unecessarily adds to the overall expense, and complication,
of the set-up.
the genoa cards come with 3studio and autocad drivers that work very well in 24
bit color.
sherwood
Thanks, I'll look into the Genoa series.
Sherwood, I have a genoa VLB card on another machine here on my network. I
noticed it had a 3DS driver but havn't tried it yet because of that dongle
thing. How do you like it and would it be worth my while to experiment with
it? That machine is really set up for doing DB and spreadsheets (only 8 meg
RAM) so it would be just an experiment.
as long as i have had the genoa so far no problems , just great 24 bit
pictures. really beats the the cost of a targa + plus if you just want to see
your results on 24 bit. now thats on the monitor NTSC/and RGB is another
complete animal here. but for rendering stations that go to the vga its a nice
way to see 24 bit and its farely accurate as far as i can tell for rgb/ntsc
i like to do my modeling and quick check of materials on these cards vs. the
targa/vista card for speed, and then check the final result onthe vista cards
befor i go to tape. it saves a a lot on investment on a complete
rendering/modeling station if your just getting in the ballpark type of thing.
its late and i have been up since 4 this mouning on a job so if my english is
is bad its because i'm running on reserve for a while.<g>
sherwood
Thanks for the low down. I might give it a try some day.
Phil:
>> Targa and Vista cards don't like VGA cards on their turf which just
>> unecessarily adds to the overall expense, and complication, of the set-up.
Actually, it is easier to set up either card as a two monitor system (no
option on the Vista, there's no pass-through). They work great that way!
And it's the only way to get out frame-by-frame to tape without some
complications and loss of quality.
I haven't personally used Panacea, but the Vibrant drivers (and I'm sure the
Panacea, also) allow most cards that have 24 bit capabilities to use them
within 3D Studio.
Greg Pyros
Sounds cool. I made the comment about the Targa and Vista boards
because we have some old machines at work with these cards, and they don't want
to see anything other than a CGA card for the second monitor. Thanks for your
reply.
I'm using the Panacea driver and like it a lot. It seems pretty much bug free.
It doesn't allow 24 bit in the VGA renderer (RCPADI) while maintaining 8 Bit in
the Materials Editor(RCPADI) which, I think is required. I understand from
ChrisE (Panacea) that they are working on that limitation. I believe if you
set the Materials editor to VGA(default) then you can set the renderer RCPADI
to 24 bit without affecting the materials editor but then it defaults to
320X200 which IMHO is too low rez.
Don,
You certainly should be able to use 24bit render and 8bit display/me. When the
1st & 2nd configurations come up, choose the same resolution (we currently
require that your resolution for 3D Editor & Materials Editor remain the same).
On the third configuration, it should say stuff about render resolutions.
Choose the 24bit resolution and everything should be OK. Make sure you set the
MAIN-DISPLAY, MATERIAL-DISPLAY, and RENDER-DISPLAY all to RCPADI.
Let me know if you have any more problems.
-Chris
Panacea
Don,
Which Genoa VLB card do you have?
We have a little program we like to call ProRes 3DS that I think you
would love.
It is a 3rd party driver that will allow you to configure a different
resolution and color mode for each of your different displays (e.g. you could
set your main display for 1024x768x4bit, your materials display for
640x480x8bit, your RDPADI for 800x600x24bit, and your RCPADI for 640x480x16bit)
The feature that you would probably love the most is the fact that in
the main display we can give you a 30 to 40% speed increase in redraws and pans
over what you are currently using (disclaimer: this speed increase depends on
what computer, video board, and driver you have been using. Performance will
not fall below 30%).
-Rob H.
OK Robert, Let me give you an inventory:
System #1 Graphics work area( notice I didn't use the term station for fear
of tickling someone's nerve<g>):
486-66 32 meg ram wMetheus928 S3 4 meg VRAM, targa+ Diaquest DQ50p, 3DS running
panacea driver.
System#2 for database, desktop pub, spreadsheet accounting:
486-33 VLB with genoa WindowsVGA 24 Model 8500VL, 8Meg RAM
I had considered setting up system #2 to try the genoa 3DS driver just as an
experiment, not permanently. I also have a #9 GXI Level 25 which I used the
Vibrant Driver softengine ver 2.0. The driver was sent to me on a 30 day trial
last year but I stopped using it because so many problems. Somebody at Vibrant
called after 3 months and told me there was an upgrade but when he described
the new features it pertained only to Autocad. It's unfortunate but I spent
alot of money for the #9 card and never did get it working right. The dealer I
bought it from refused to take it back and then dropped the line because they
couldn't get support from #9. I removed it and the softengine drivers last
year and had been using an Orchid pro designer until recently obtaining this
Metheus card. My desired config for the Metheus is:
Main displays set to 1024x768x256 or 16 col., Materials Editor 1024x768x256,
RCPADI renderer 1024x768x24 bit, RDPADI set to targa separate screen driver.
Currently the Panacea driver can't do 24 bit at 1024×768 only 640×480 and then
I loose the picture after hitting the space bar to view. We're still looking
for the ideal driver for this setup.
Don,
<We're still looking for the ideal driver for this setup.>
Good news / Bad news <g.>
Good news – we support your video cards and we can split your main displays,
materials display and rendering display into different color depths and
resolutions.
Bad news – we do not YET support the Metheus S3 in 4 meg mode.
We are due to receive a 4 meg version of this card in house next week. After
that it shouldn't be too long before we have full (1024x768x24bit) support for
it.
You could get ProRes 3DS now and upgrade (free upgrades within 6 months after
purchase) when we get full support for the Metheus card.
As far as losing the picture after hitting the space bar, we do not have any
problems such as these.
-Rob H.
PMJI, but Vibrant Graphics makes a great driver for doing exactly what you
want. Either DL-Xpress or Pro-res will do the job for you and both of them
support just about every video card there is. Also Targa cards like VGA cards
just fine. Don't know where you heard they didn't but whoever told you was
wrong.
Dave Mennenoh
It came out of the Targa manual.
Phil:
There _are_, in fact, quite a few 24-bit VGA cards that include drivers for 3DS
(ATI and Diamond for example). Regardless, Panacea offers a driver FREE, that
is downloadable from this forum (it's a demo ACAD driver, but offers full 3DS
support). Contact Chris Edgington @Panacea 71022,342 for info — it supports
pretty much every chipset out there. Also, Vibrant's ProRes/3DS driver does the
same (may be faster for editor redraws — I can't say) for a paltry fee.
Contact Jack Bayt [Vibrant] 73110,3437 for info.
Even if a video board was weird and wasn't directly supported, it's (99.9%)
likely that it will include a VESA driver, and the above software will also
support VESA.
Dave
Phil,
You might like to call ELSA at 800-2727-ELSA and ask for information about
their WINNER 1000 and WINNER 2000 controllers. Both have memory configurations
that allow them to do true color and high color at various resolutions (up to
24 bit/pixel at 1024 and 16-bit/pixel at 1280). They also have true-color
Windows drivers.
Are these stations to run 3D Studio exclusively, with Windows, or with AutoCAD
as well?
Regards,
Tom
I want the systems to run anything we want them to. I don't want
"dedicated" systems like the ones we have now, which are real finicky about any
additions or subtractions. I want to use modern video cards in both DOS, and
Windows environment (I find it funny that you place Autocad in it's own
catagory). I'll check into the drivers you mentioned. Thanks.
Hi Phil,
Sounds good. If you have any further questions on ELSA cards, I'd be glad to
help out.
Regards,
Tom