Hi,
We have to assemble one special PD/GEM Performance Computer and also I always got some questions about Computer best for PD performance.
I Started a Wiki which discuss dedicated PD Computers (also embedded ones). If someone has made some special hardware and/or experiences, it would be nice it will be shown there... http://puredata.info/community/projects/pdcomputer/
My questions now:
a) Quadro vs. geforce: If I want display on multiple large screens, (is there) what is the benefits of NVIDIA quadro cards to geforce (eg. 6800 SLI) on signal quality rendering benefits. ?
Which feature are most important projecting on big screens ?
b) If I do 4 projections on a big screen so they are merged to one picture, must the video be displayed in frame sync (maybe using more than one computer) from the beamer/videocard view (not the video frames as content). ?
mfg winfried
--
- ao.Univ.Prof. DI Winfried Ritsch
- ritsch@iem.at - http://iem.at/ritsch
- Institut fuer Elektronische Musik und Akustik
- University of Music and Dramatic Art Graz
- Tel. ++43-316-389-3510 (3170) Fax ++43-316-389-3171
- PGP-ID 69617A69 (see keyserver http://wwwkeys.at.gpg.net/)
--
Hey Winfried,
I've been using pd/Gem on Macs and on Linux machines. For lots of video stuff I would certainly suggest going with a Mac, dispite the extra cost. This is due to the very optimized commercial video decoders in quicktime. For a Mac I would get the best ATI card available, Radeon 9800PRO? For linux I would certainly suggest an Nvidia card, though the drivers are not free, they are 100% fully functional (for example video output on a radeon card on linux is often not possible). I've not looked into what Nvidia gfx cards are the best here.
As for professional vs comsumer graphics cards I would guess to say that the Quadro line is probably not going to help you much. I've been told that the only real difference between these cards is the amount of acceptable error in the output. For less error you pay twice as much. The gamer market has only really been pushing the consumer cards (obviously) and so I would argue these give the best value for the money.
I don't see how you can run four screens off one computer, are there 4HEAD fast openGL cards out there??? I would say you need two machines with dual-head cards. Note that two machines with dual heads is going to be way faster than one machine with 4.
A friend did an installation using pd/Gem on 3 machines, each controlling one projector. There was no noticable lack of sync between the machines, controlled via netreceive on local LAN. I don't think there is any issue with the video card rendering being in sync between the two machines, nor anyway of doing this I can think of? (some odd use of [t a a] and only rendering frames on one machine when it gets the gemchain signal from the other machine?)
Alright James and Chris, what do you pros think?
Oh and for multi-screen display check out this:
http://www.tot.sat.qc.ca/eng/lighttwist.html
LightTwist is a GPL system for correcting distortion caused by projecting on irregular surfaces, as well as matching multiple projectors into one seamless image.
Eventually (next year?) pixelTANGO (a high-level set of abstractions for pd/Gem) will be the preffered way to generate images for the lightTwist system.
Thats my opinion.
B>
Winfried Ritsch wrote:
Hi,
We have to assemble one special PD/GEM Performance Computer and also I always got some questions about Computer best for PD performance.
I Started a Wiki which discuss dedicated PD Computers (also embedded ones). If someone has made some special hardware and/or experiences, it would be nice it will be shown there... http://puredata.info/community/projects/pdcomputer/
My questions now:
a) Quadro vs. geforce: If I want display on multiple large screens, (is there) what is the benefits of NVIDIA quadro cards to geforce (eg. 6800 SLI) on signal quality rendering benefits. ?
Which feature are most important projecting on big screens ?
b) If I do 4 projections on a big screen so they are merged to one picture, must the video be displayed in frame sync (maybe using more than one computer) from the beamer/videocard view (not the video frames as content). ?
mfg winfried
hello,
I've been using pd/Gem on Macs and on Linux machines. For lots of video stuff I would certainly suggest going with a Mac, dispite the extra cost. This is due to the very optimized commercial video decoders in quicktime. For a Mac I would get the best ATI card available, Radeon 9800PRO? For linux I would certainly suggest an Nvidia card, though the drivers are not free, they are 100% fully functional (for example video output on a radeon card on linux is often not possible). I've not looked into what Nvidia gfx cards are the best here.
Thanx for the answer I put a line in the wiki for this,can you describe Mac modell and system version you used doing that please login here the page http://puredata.info/community/projects/pdcomputer/MacintoshMultiHead
As for professional vs comsumer graphics cards I would guess to say that the Quadro line is probably not going to help you much. I've been told that the only real difference between these cards is the amount of acceptable error in the output. For less error you pay twice as much. The gamer market has only really been pushing the consumer cards (obviously) and so I would argue these give the best value for the money.
The most thing I am suspect is the signal quality, is there a difference in noise floor of SVGA-Outputs and is it possible to drive long cables to projectors on a stage etc... since I never did.
I don't see how you can run four screens off one computer, are there 4HEAD fast openGL cards out there??? I would say you need two machines with dual-head cards. Note that two machines with dual heads is going to be way faster than one machine with 4.
Using PCI-Express or also Known 2 PEG Slots on a nforce4 chipset mainboard, you can drive two cards with SLI Link (I think only nvidia has this) as one with four heads... I have read never tried ?-)
LightTwist is a GPL system for correcting distortion caused by projecting
thanks, noted in wiki
mfg winfried
On Mar 1, 2005, at 6:41 AM, Winfried Ritsch wrote:
Thanx for the answer I put a line in the wiki for this,can you describe Mac modell and system version you used doing that please login here the page http://puredata.info/community/projects/pdcomputer/MacintoshMultiHead
I put some more info on that page today. I included the performance report from doktorp from earlier.
cgc
Le 28 Février 2005 11:18, B. Bogart a écrit :
I don't see how you can run four screens off one computer, are there 4HEAD fast openGL cards out there??? I would say you need two machines with dual-head cards. Note that two machines with dual heads is going to be way faster than one machine with 4.
I have an old PCI Matrox card with 4 independant G200 GPUs. Althought it's not fast, it's still good enough for 2D or simple 3D. -- Marc
On Monday 28 February 2005 11:50, Winfried Ritsch wrote:
Hi,
We have to assemble one special PD/GEM Performance Computer and also I always got some questions about Computer best for PD performance.
I Started a Wiki which discuss dedicated PD Computers (also embedded ones). If someone has made some special hardware and/or experiences, it would be nice it will be shown there... http://puredata.info/community/projects/pdcomputer/
My questions now:
a) Quadro vs. geforce: If I want display on multiple large screens, (is there) what is the benefits of NVIDIA quadro cards to geforce (eg. 6800 SLI) on signal quality rendering benefits. ?
Have you considered some of the other "workstation" class cards from 3dLabs or Appian. They need Accelerated-X from xi graphics (www.xig.com) and not standard xorg or X86free. But what I understand from their website, xi's X implementation is also very good for ATI and Matrox cards. Does anybody have any experience with that? (they claim performance massive performance gains, even beating ATI's binary drivers for windows and linux in benchmarks)
I have no experience with this stuff, Nvidia card. But I thought I should mention that there are alternatives to Nvidia chips.
Gerard
Which feature are most important projecting on big screens ?
b) If I do 4 projections on a big screen so they are merged to one picture, must the video be displayed in frame sync (maybe using more than one computer) from the beamer/videocard view (not the video frames as content). ?
mfg winfried
-
B. Bogart -
chris clepper -
Marc Lavallée -
vanDongen/Gilcher -
Winfried Ritsch