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    Video Hardware

    1. Before You Start

    2. Online Hardware Guides

    3. nVidia TNT Cards

    4. ATI Rage 128

    5. 3Dfx

    6. Permedia 2

    7. AccelECLIPSE (AGP)

    Return to the main FAQ page for more questions and answers.

      

    1. Before You Start

    This is an FAQ section about problems between J3D and video cards. We are in no way recommending any card over any other. If you ask us questions in this regard we will simply ignore them. We aim to document known problems so that if you come across them you should be able to fix it or at least see what others have experienced.

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    2. Online Hardware Guides

    The following sites should be your starting place when you want to find out information about video cards, performance reviews etc.

    Tom's Hardware Guide
    Eric's Fast Graphics
    Wicked PC
    www.sharkyextreme.com
    PCVelocity

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    3. nVidia TNT Cards

    There are a number of cards based on the TNT chips. All of them appear to be suffering from a problem that appears to be driver related because the same behaviour has been noted in non Java3D base apps.

    The main problem is the implementation of the extensions to OpenGL in the video drivers. Early model drivers were core OpenGL implementation only. Java 3D checks for the availability of extensions and uses them if they are. As newer drivers are released, new buggy implementations of the extensions are used, causing the problems to appear when you update drivers.

    Java 3D v1.1.2 contains a number of fixes that have eliminated the known TNT problems. Prior to 1.1.2, the following would produce the problem:

    Run the ObjLoad demo that comes with J3D using the ConicWorld. Note that the cone only displays the front face (triangular shape). This is generalised to only showing faces almost directly facing the camera. The bug appears to be in the triangular strip implementation in the OpenGL driver. This bug appears in all video cards using the TNT chip, including the reference driver.

    You should update to Java 3D v1.1.2; however, the following card specific workarounds are available for earlier versions of Java 3D:

    STB Velocity 4400

    I'm not sure of the reason for this, but I've found if you create the cone and then call cone.setAppearance( new Appearance() ) the whole cone is drawn (works on all occurances of this problem I've run into)
    (reported by Chad Zalkin     chadz@webmart.net )

    STB have a FAQ on their card and problems that can be found at:

    http://www.stb.com/tech/faqs/v4400faq.html

    Frederic Gillet ( fog1@xbind.com ) reports that the following combination works without any problems:

    Standard drivers from the CD-ROM (Velocity 4400 AGP) that reads "Version 1.10" The actual version number of the driver can be found under: Control Panel | display | settings | display type | driver information: and gives the following information Version numbers: 1310, 4.0.0
    He notes that the last TNT Dentonator drivers gave problems with textures so he reverted back to the original drivers.

    Diamond Viper 550

    I am pleased to say that I have managed to solve the problems by using an *older* version of Diamond's drivers!

    The drivers I am now using are 4.10.01.0220, filename 550220.exe, which I obtained from Diamond's European web site. If people have trouble finding them, let me know and I'll pass them on.

    There are still a few inconsistencies, e.g. the presence of a background image seems to stop hardware acceleration; hopefully this will be addressed in a future release of Java3D.
    (reported by Glenn Proctor gproctor@info.bt.co.uk )

    Creative Labs

    Setting No traingstrip option works. Known that this does _not_ work on Viper 550.

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    4. ATI Rage 128

    No information yet.

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    5. 3Dfx

    3Dfx cards based on the Voodoo chipset can run accelarated J3D applications, despite being full screen oriented. Jonathan Williams (ehannenwill@cc.curtin.edu.au ) supplies the following HOWTO:

    1. Get the 3DFX Voodoo1/2 OpenGL Beta 2.1 Drivers (From http://www.3dfx.com/docs/opengl_beta/opengl_beta.html)
    2. Download opengl2.exe
    3. Run/Unzip the opengl2.exe file
    4. Running a Java3D application. Hello3D is a good start. (this is for comparision later, and to check the OpenGL Java3D install is working okay).
    5. Copy the 3dfxopengl.dll file from the 3dfx distribution to your jdk1.2beta4\bin (I haven't got RC1 yet, but I expect the procedure is identical) directory.
    6. Rename 3dfxopendl.dll to opengl32.dll
    7. Try the Hello3D application again.
    8. It might take a brief moment to load
    9. If it's not disabled, you'll see the spinning 3dfx logo - as the system switches to fullscreen.
    10. You'll see the Java3D application in fullscreen, accelerated glory.

    If you'd like to see textures running, try the TextureText application. That works fine as well... And I've tried this under both 95 and NT without any hassles. I've also tried the majority of the Java3D examples, and they all work fine for my configuratation - Remember, Java3D and the 3dfx OpenGL drivers are still both beta so your individual millage may vary.

    Obviously, you'll need the OpenGL version of Java3D to get this working. If you have the DirectX version, do not install over the top, as this will cause problems. Uninstall it first, then install the OpenGL version over the top - The usual disclaimers apply. Also, be forewarned that this is a memory hog - I suspect there is a memory leak somewhere (There also seems to be a link between this and the use of jpg textures - I haven't had time to experiment with this enough).

    Another minor note, my applications have an quit keystroke, and I use a little utility to stop people alt-tabbing away from the 3D Window. The sample applications don't have this facility so you'll have to alt-tab once (which should select the console you started the application from) and hit ctrl-c. That should let you exit without any dramas.

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    6. Permedia 2

    Various reports of dropping of texture maps leaving blank grey objects. Nothing confirmed. No solutions yet available.

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    7. AccelECLIPSE (AGP)

    Polygons are clipped and filled incorrectly. Not minor errors, but large flashes and spikes appear out of all the polygons. The Java 3D team says this is related to the use of Open GL Vertex Arrays on the AccelEclipse.

    We had a similar problem on the Diamond FireGL 4000s, which use the same chipset. They fixed it in subsequent driver releases. (reported by Brian Knep brian@nearlife.com )

    No solutions have been reported.

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