GLoria DCC.book
Contents
1. 21 4 1 1 From the VGA signal to the TV 81 21 4 1 2 What kind of device can be 7 21 4 1 3 Direct connection of S video devices 22 4 1 4 Connecting TV devices with the adapter cable 23 5 Graphics nnn 25 5 1 3D graphics representation 25 30 0 usi s oto ne mde mation bald 25 5 2 SL 4 sos er reor aem Sri tto Bou cays te Ragas Sos 2 5 2 1 What APIs are esses 2 SPAM de RM EM ee 28 5 2 3 The andes o teres decente ds atas 29 5 2 4 Color palettes TrueColor and gray scales 29 5 2 tg t te ege ede et 30 ELSA GLoria 57 08 DirectColob as ri sto tres tet he btts S etn 30 5 2 7 DDC Display Data 31 5 2 83DDU2B ta dn ros ots 31 52 9 DDC2AB tro 85 testes m rl a es daos 31 6 T chnicald ta rr nik Ra ERI MOX 33 6 1 Characteristics of the graphics board 33 6 2 ELSA graphics board 5 33 8 3 Portson the graphics2. ws wie ne eee eee bb toe 34 6 3 1 The VGA D shell socket 34 6 3 2 The TV 35 5 33 The 35 T Appendbpc scio Iure ur FU der SURE RAS 37 7 1 CE conformity and FCC radiation 37 73 1 European Council toe ee ee PETERS 37 7 2 Federal Communications Commission 38 7 3 Warranty conditions for 39 7 4 Warranty conditions for North 40 8 Glossary LEUR IRR PRO RR REX IER SN Ren 43 9 idek EE 49 ELSA GLoria Introduction 1 Introduction Extremely fast reliable and optimised for 3D Studio MAX from Discreet with these properties the FLSA Gloria DCC is the ideal tool for the profes sional use of the world s most popular software for digital content creation 1 1 Highlights of the ELSA GLoria DCC ELSA workstation performance for 3D Studio MAX 4 NVIDIA Quadro DCC processor Over 3 2 billion texture mapping pixels per second Memory bandwidth 7 3 GB per second 350 MHz RAMDAC 64 MB ultra fast DDR SDRAM unified memory Analog or digital monitor connection TV out connection Application drivers for 3D Studio MAX Support via Internet and hotline Six yea
3. 22 48 25 48 o 0 Texture mapping 26 ee ena 29 46 Transformation 40 Trilinear 48 _ 29 30 48 Page 27 46 21 22 22 no 21 POIDS a scite mt 46 cete toties oen 21 Phong shading 46 47 Point sampling 26 ov zoo eee 46 Ma 40 PRIMITIVE x eicere 26 46 VESA DDE c eee 31 33 Products supplied 7 30 VGA signal 21 o R Viewing pyramid 48 RAMDAC nct 33 47 Rasterization 25 BealColor cu ce tte 47 Warranty conditions for Europe 39 Refresh rate 47 Warranty conditions for Rendering 25 47 North America 40 HesalUflOrids 11 2 es 48 SNAGING 25 47 Z DUTTBE ette 48 SINQIE 47 Sphere environment mapping 47 Stenell DUPER caeco
4. In linear mapping a new color value is interpolated from the adjacent pixels or texels of a texture This gives better results than point sampling as the hard boundary between the coarse pixels is blurred O The MIP mapping method stores a large number of enlargement stages for the texture The depth information of a primitive is then used to determine which enlargement stages of the texture will be used in drawing Information concerning the transparency of the tex ture is carried in the alpha channel Finally a distinction is made in MIP mapping between bilinear and trilinear filtering Bilinear filter ing interpolates between two pixels of two textures trilinear filtering interpolates between four pixels for each of two textures O Bump mapping introduces a new dimension Relief or raised textures can only be generated with the other methods in two dimensions using light and shadow effects The staircase effect is corrected by anti aliasing This is either done by interpolating mixed pixels in which a new color value is computed from two adjacent color values The frame buffer The finished image will not be written to the frame buffer until this com plex sequence of steps is completed The frame buffer is made up of front and back buffer The back buffer acts as a buffer page in which the next image to be displayed is built up The front buffer is the memory area ELSA GLoria Graphics know how 27 0 5
5. The DVI interface The combined Digital Visual Interface DVI provides a high speed digital con nection for digital monitors and also supports the connection of analog mon itors DVI enbles hot plug amp play and is also display technology independent Combined DVI enables Loss free digital transfer from PC to monitor Digital and analog support in a single connector Plug amp play using hot plug detection EDID and DDC2B The combined connector includes 29 signal contacts divided into a digital section consisting of three rows of eight contacts and an analog section con sisting of five contacts for analog signals The interface accomodates 12 or 24 pin DVI plug connector or a new type of analog plug connector that uses four additional pins plus a ground plane plug to maintain constant impedance for the analog RGB signals ELSA GLoria aed Technical data A connector can only be inserted into the DVI interface It cannot be plugged into the analog interface Likewise an analog plug connector cannot be inserted into a interface without the supplied DVI VGA adapter Pin assignment The ELSA GLoria DCC offers the 2 following assigment via 29 9 pin port 8 01 17 24 8 5 Pin Signal assignment Pin Signal assignment 1 TMDS Data 2 13 TMDS Data 3 2 TMDS Data 24 4 5 V Power 3 TMDS Data 2 4 Shield 5 Grou
6. sorted blending which gives a perfect impression of transpar ency even where there are any number of transparent objects in the scene b Fog Normally no fogging is displayed in Working View mode However ELSA MAXtreme also supports 3D Studio s standard fogging This means that atan early stage one gets a realistic impression of a fogged scene Animated too of course Installation Ensure that 3D Studio MAX VIZ has not been started ELSA GLoria Useful stuff and more 2 Insert ELSA Gloria DCC CD into the CD ROM drive and start the Setup EXE program from the directory your CD drive normally D M pps WMAXtreme The program guides you through each step of the installation Read the instructions carefully and answer and confirm each of the questions Further information on this special driver can be found in the README TXT file in the directory on the ELSA GLoria DCC CD ELSA GLoria 20 Useful stuff and more ELSA GLoria TV out interface 4 41 4 1 1 4 1 2 TV out interface This chapter describes the possibilities available with the TV out adapter One interface many possibilities The TV out interface enables a whole new range of uses for the ELSA Gloria DCC Here are some tips and ideas to get you started With your television you can O finally experience the real action of the games A sound card will make your game playing a multimedi
7. The image prepared in the Bump mapping is displayed Bump mapping technique that pro vides textures with depth information which can be applied to display relief or embossed structures Bus system A system of parallel con ductors for transferring data between indi vidual system components especially to expansion cards such as ISA gt flip ping and gt AGP bus Chrominance Color information in the transfer of video signals Clipping Reduces the number of gt Primitives to be calculated All primitives outside the limits of the screen 2D or out side of the Viewing pyramid 3D are clipped or removed Cube environment mapping n order to represent realistic and undistorted re flections of the environment onto an ob ject six gt Textures are viewed as the sur faces of a cube The textures show the en vironment from the perspective of the ob ject This gives the impression that the environment is being reflected by the ob ject CEM is an extension of sphere envi ronment mapping The advantage of CEM is that no new textures need to be calcu lated when the observer s point of view changes and the texture is not distorted D A converter Digital analog convert er A signal converter that converts digital input to analog output ELSA GLoria DCC DDC Abbreviation for Display Data Channel A special data channel through which a DDC capable monitor can send it
8. ory Solid state memory that can be read from only S video Or S VHS A method of trans ferring video data signals where the sig nals for gt Chrominance and Lumi nance are separated This results in im proved image quality SDRAM Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory These memory chips are based on standard DRAMs gt DRAM but are fast enough to permit data access at the clock speed of the Bus system This eliminates the wait states typical of DRAMs They consist of two separate Glossary 47 memory ranges with one preparing data for access while the other is actually still being accessed Shading The shading of curved areas to make them appear as realistic as possi ble To do so the curved areas are divided into many small triangles The three most important 3D shading methods differ by how the color gradients within the trian gles are represented Flat shading The tri angles are colored uniformly Gouraud shading The color gradient is determined by the interpolation of the corner color val ues Phong shading The color gradient is determined by the interpolation of the nor mal vector plus the calculation of the light incidence for each pixel These shading methods are not supported directly in the standard OpenGL API Single buffer Unlike the gt Double buffer where there is doubled display memory single buffer mode does not al low access to the next prepared image
9. ANY IMP MERCHA TION TO ABOVE THE MPL ABILI THE PRO THE PRO OT ED 2 OMMU DB OME 51 TIAL INC ARISING OUT OF OR LOSS OF PROF EQUIPME GRA ELSA OR THE LIKE FOR DA THIS LIM The warranty a FOREGOING INCLUD TY AND ESS HALL CREATE ATES DO HE ABOVE EXCLUSIO OTWITH SHALL NOT UNDE DUCT DUCT RRANT ULTS OF USE OF THE PRODUCT ACCURACY RELIABILITY S BY ELSA OR ELSA S AUTHORIZED CATIO EA STAND IDENTA T OR LIHOOD LIED WA W W WARRANTIES ARE LL LL OR BE UNINT AKE A OR WARRANTY OR OT ALLOW TH MAY NOT NG ER A L IND CAUSED BY PROPERTY OR ELSA DEALERS OR AUTHORIZED REPR OF SUCH DAMAGES OCCURRI AGES EXCESS OF 1 TED WARRANT NG WITHOUT NESS FOR A PARTIC EET CUSTOMER S REQU TERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE FURTHER ONS REGARDING TATIO OR OTHERWISE DEALERS OR CREASE THE SCOPE OF WARRANTIES THEREFORE ULAR PURPOSE ELSA DOES 5 OR THAT T Y REPRESENT RE YTHING TO TH ANY CIRCUMSTA i Accident abuse misapplication mishandling alteration elec incompatible hardware or software improper installation or op aging while the Product is in the possession of the purchaser ii The purchaser s failure to follow operating mainte
10. On board memory 64 MB DDR SDRAM BIOS 64 Flash BIOS with VBE 3 0 support Bus system AGP 1x 2x Ax AGP 4x is only supported by certain mainboard types such as Intel 820 Intel 840 and Intel 850 VESA DDC DDC2B ELSA graphics board addresses The ELSA graphics boards are 10096 IBM VGA compatible and occupy the same memory area and specific addresses in the 1 0 range The memory range above 1 is automatically assigned through the PCI BIOS interface If you come across any address conflicts try to modify the 1 0 address of the expansion board causing the conflict The addresses of the ELSA graphics boards cannot be changed The ELSA graphics board also requires an inter rupt IRQ which is free This may have to be reserved in the computer s BIOS For help with this theme refer to the manual for your mainboard To ensure that your system functions properly the addresses and ranges occupied by the ELSA graphics board must not be accessed simultaneously by other hardware components The following addresses are assigned 1 0 addresses Standard VGA 1 0 3B0 3DF Memory addresses Video RAM A0000 BFFFF ELSA GLoria Technical data Video BIOS ROM C0000 C7FFF 6 3 Ports on the graphics board 6 3 1 The VGA D shell socket combined digital analog connector socket 29 pin TV out interface VGA D shell socket connector socket 15 pin Pin assignments Pin oS w
11. angle to the viewer Un like other methods such as gt Bilinear fil tering gt Trilinear filtering anisotropic Glossary 43 0 filtering takes into account that such sur faces require a greater number of texture pixels for a clean display than surfaces that are perpendicular to the viewer This especially enhances the legibility of text on angled planes Star Wars text Anti aliasing Methods for the reduc tion of gt Aliasing effects API Application Programming Interface Software interfaces that provide applica tions with complete packages of func tions The most important 3D APIs are gt Direct3D and gt OpenGL Back buffer A portion of the graphics memory that is used to construct the im age that is to appear on the monitor next The back buffer is also used to calculate transparency effects Back face culling Leaving out invisi ble areas Bilinear filtering this case weighted average is calculated from four neighboring Pixels Texels 2x2 matrix BIOS Abbreviation for basic input out put system A code stored in the comput er s memory ROM which carries out the self test and various other functions when the system is started Blitting Traditional method for Buf fer swapping the contents of the Bump mapping is copied to the Front buffer slower than Page flipping ELSA GLoria 44 Glossary Buffer swapping
12. area and Refresh Frequency from this dialog box The available selection is determined by the ELSA driver you have installed You should always check the configuration you have selected by clicking on the Test button You will find further information on how to customize your graphics settings under Windows NT 4 0 in your system manual Lo ELSA GLoria EIN After installing the drivers ELSA GLoria Useful stuff and more 15 3 31 Useful stuff and more In addition to the ELSA drivers the ELSA GLoria DCC CD also contains addi tional programs and utilities for use with the ELSA GLoria DCC a selection of which we will introduce here Information about other programs can be taken from the README files on the CD OpenGL API application settings in Windows NT The OpenGL API application settings are automatically installed when you install the ELSA driver To access these settings press the right mouse button on the desktop and click on Properties The Display Properties window appears select the GLoria tab and click on Additional Properties near the bottom of the window A further Additional ELSA GLoria DCC Properties window appears select the Custom OpenGL Applications Setting drop down list near the bottom of the window to optimize the OpenGL API for any of the programs listed or alternatively select the parameters you desire Utilize the context s
13. have successfully completed the steps described in the Installation Guide your ELSA driver is integrated into your computer system with installed drivers If the autostart function for your CD ROM drive under Win dows has been switched off the setup program on the FLSA Gloria DCC CD will not start automatically It can be found and started manually from the root directory of the CD and is called Autorun EXE The greater part of the installation is automated ELSA setup detects the installed operating system and ELSA graphics board s The right settings After installing the drivers the display is set to the lowest values namely 640 480 resolution with 256 colors and 60 Hz refresh rate Your first task is to increase all these values to a more comfortable level especially the refresh rate which is best set to at least 75 Hz to avoid flickering Our tip is Invest a little time at this stage and you won t regret it Take the time to optimally tune your combination of monitor and graphics board Your eyes will thank you for it and you are guaranteed to have more fun in front of your screen To set up your system properly the following questions should be answered What is the maximum resolution can set on my system Which color depth do want to use How high should the refresh rate be set ELSA GLoria 10 After installing the drivers 2 2 1 What are your options ES The tables below show the maxim
14. saved for each pixel The meanings of the terms TrueColor and HighColor can be confused as they are not always used unambiguously HighColor HighColor usually describes a 16 bit wide graphics mode while TrueColor should only be used for the more professional 24 bit mode or 32 bit mode Most common R G B 5 6 5 e g XGA and 6 6 4 e g 1860 5 6 5 means that 5 bits are used for each of red and blue and 6 bits are used for green In the case of 6 6 4 6 bits are used for red and green and 4 bits for blue Both ways of assigning the bits correspond to the color sensitivity of the human eye this is highest for green and lowest for blue 65 536 different colors can be displayed TrueColor The TrueColor mode is more complex using 24 bits per pixel Here 8 bits are available for each color component 256 levels resulting in 16 7 million dif ferent color hues There are more colors available than pixels on the screen 1 3 million pixels at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 ELSA GLoria DCC Graphics know how ED 5 2 7 5 2 8 5 2 9 O VESA DDC Display Data Channel The Display Data Channel provides a serial data channel between the moni tor and the graphics board as long as both support DDC and the monitor cable includes the additional DDC wire An extended monitor cable is used This feature allows the monitor data to be sent automatically to the graphics board e g name type max horizontal frequency timin
15. translator operating between the hardware and the software The specification of standard definitions was the precondition for the proper function of these translation routines These definitions are implemented by the hardware manufacturers during development and optimized for the hard ware concerned Developers can implement complex procedures relatively easily by using these definitions They can use a uniform command set when programming and do not need to know the characteristics specific to the hardware What APIs are available There are a good dozen more less commonly found 3D APIs However in recent years two formats have established themselves as the favorites Direct 3D and OpenGL API ELSA graphics boards support these commonly ELSA GLoria 28 Graphics know how 5 2 2 found 3D interfaces The functional differences between the interfaces are slight Your ELSA GLoria DCC supports the following APls DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a suite of multimedia APIs that are built into Microsoft Windows operating systems DirectX provides a standard development plat form for PCs by enabling software developers to access specialized hardware features without having to write hardware specific code DirectX offers a single set of APIs application programming interfaces that provides improved access to the advanced features of high performance hardware such as 3 D graphics acceleration chips and sound cards T
16. will appear too hard T Automatically apply these settings at startup Color correction affects the processing of image information on the graphics board i e before the signal reaches the monitor thus permitting a targeted adjustment of the midrange brightness As a result you can then take advan tage of the full contrast and brightness ranges of your monitor Tools for 3D Studio MAX VIZ You can achieve significantly improved working speeds and ergonomics with the drivers and extensions for 3D Studio MAX ELSA MAXtreme ELSA offers a special driver for 3D Studio MAX and VIZ The optimization of the ELSA driver lets you reach higher display speeds and thus is indispens able for the FLSA Gloria DCC 3D Studio MAX and VIZ are powerful applications for modeling rendering visualizing and animating 3D objects The software package includes two standard graphics drivers to be used alternatively with differing performance characteristics a HEIDI driver software Z buffer SZB and an OpenGL API driver for hardware acceleration ELSA is the only manufacturer of graphics boards to have developed an opti mized solution to increase user productivity and fully exploit existing perfor mance reserves ELSA MAXtreme is a special driver for 3D Studio MAX VIZ ELSA GLoria 18 Useful stuff and more which makes the most of the special features of the ELSA Gloria and ELSA Synergy graphics boards It off
17. 08 961 4600 Type of Equipment Graphics Board Model Name GLoria DDC This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules Operation is subject to the following two conditions 1 this device may not cause harmful interference and 2 this device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation See user manual instructions if interference to radio reception is suspected On behalf of the manufacturer importer this declaration is submitted by Of Stefan Kriebel VP Engineering ELSA AG Germany Aachen May 29 2001 ELSA Gloria DCC GLoria DCC Appendix EXD 7 3 Warranty conditions for Europe The ELSA AG warranty is given to purchasers of ELSA products in addition to the warranty con ditions provided by law and in accordance with the following conditions a b d 2 Warranty coverage The warranty covers the equipment delivered and all its parts Parts will at our sole discre tion be replaced or repaired free of charge if despite proven proper handling and adhe rence to the operating instructions these parts became defective due to fabrication and or material defects Also we reserve the right to replace the defective product by a successor product or repay the original purchase price to the buyer in exchange to the defective pro duct Operating manuals and possibly supplied software are excluded from the warranty Material and ser
18. 1 5 1 1 Graphics know how This is the chapter where we really get stuck in Anyone who wants to know more about graphics especially in connection with the ELSA GLoria DCC will find a whole load of technical stuff right here 3D graphics representation Today it is considered a basic requirement to know all about 3D Your curios ity will be aroused as soon as you experience the first visual wizardry gener ated by your new graphics board Two features of the 3D display will leap out at you it s both realistic and fast The amount of work required here is known only to the processor but we will describe it in detail to you below The 3D pipeline What actually happens when a monitor displays a 3D object The data describing the 3D object are passed through what is known as the 3D pipe line in which the mathematical calculations for its representation in space and perspective on the monitor are carried out What happens in detail mm Geometrical mem transformation x mem Display on Object data iE the monitor Rendering Start The object data The pipeline starts at the object The object description is made up of the data points The basic geometric primitive is the triangle The corner points of the object s triangles are described using coordinate points x y and z where the 7 value represents the depth information Depending on the display rep resentation these points are assigned additional data regarding m
19. 2 5 2 1 where the image that appears on the monitor is located This prevents the process of image drawing being visible The duplicate storage method is also known as double buffering Buffer swapping Display on the monitor Two possibilities exist for transferring a completed image from the back to the front buffer and thus to the display The obvious method is to copy the contents to the front buffer one byte at a time a process known as blitting Page flipping is significantly faster in this case the content of the buffer is not rewritten the addresses of the front and back buffers are simply exchanged As a result only tiny data volumes are transferred The buffer swapping will only ever be performed once the image drawing pro cess in the back buffer is completed This procedure should be repeated at least 20 times a second to give a smooth representation of 3D scenarios In this context we speak of frames per second fps This is a very important value especially for 3D applications A cinema film runs at 24 fps 3D interfaces Software interfaces including 3D interfaces are known as APIs Application Programming Interface The question is what these interfaces are used for and how they work In simple terms They make developers work easier In the past it was nec essary to address the various hardware components directly in programming if you wanted to exploit their capabilities to the full The APIs are a kind of
20. CEMENT OF TICIPATORY PROFITS EVEN IF IVES HAVE BEE SHALL NOT BE RESPO E PRODUCT E OTHER THAN THE ORIG ON FOR WHOM IT WAS PURCHASED AS A APPRISED OF SIBLE NAL ELSA GLoria 42 Appendix ELSA GLoria Glossary 3D Three dimensional 3D clipping A process within geomet ric transformation in which invisible areas or portions of a 3D object are removed 3DNow Extended command set used by AMD in the K6 2 K6 3 and K7 proces sors 21 additional commands are intend ed above all to accelerate the floating point operations that are especially impor tant for 3D games 3D pipeline The sum of all steps re quired in displaying an imaginary 3D sce nario on the monitor Included in this are Geometrical transformation and Re fresh rate AGP bus Abbreviation for Accelerated Graphics Port a relatively new interface standard within the PC platform Graphics boards take advantage of its high transfer rates for the display of 3D and full motion video sequences Aliasing The well known staircase ef fect There is often a jagged transition be tween adjacent pixels when displaying slanted or curved lines The rough transi tions can be smoothed using anti aliasing Alpha blending Supplementary information per pixel for generating transparent material Anisotropic filtering Method de signed to reduce texture aliasing effects on surfaces at an
21. Dk annata aA 28 44 DirectColor ir ke 30 44 DirectDraw 44 Double buffering 44 Fats c Ace Rat 47 SIGMA ii ctt irme 23 TO ctae 37 45 Filtering o ct E hte 26 Hat shading 26 45 47 Frame 26 45 Front buffer 45 Full scene anti aliasing 45 Geometrical transformation 45 Gouraud shading 26 45 47 Graphics accelerator 45 Grey SCALES tenth 29 H HizB sigral 21 High 30 45 Horizontal frequency 45 46 5 avete teda Mud 46 L 48 LUMINANCE 46 ELSA GLoria 50 Index SEVIOBO aceto ote sten 47 33 S video 21 Memory addresses 33 S video 510 22 Mini DIN 22 System requirements 7 MIP Map PING ote es 26 46 Systemanforderungen 7 46 8 eT 48 Tesselation 5 ttt 48
22. ELSA 2001 ELSA AG Aachen Germany While the information in this manual has been compiled with great care it may not be deemed an assurance of product characteris The reprod ics ELSA shall be liable only to the degree specified in the terms of sale and delivery ction and distribution of the documentation and software supplied with this product and the use of its contents is subject to written authorization from ELSA We reserve the right to make any alterations that arise as the result of tech nical development ELSA is DI EN ISO 9001 certified The accredited T V CERT certification authority has confirmed ELSA conformity to the worldwide ISO 9001 standard in certificate number 09 100 5069 issued on June 15 1998 You can find all declarations and approvals for the products as long as they were available at the time of publication in the append Trademarks Windows ix of this documentation or on the ELSA website at www elsa com Windows NT and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc The ELSA logo is a registered trademark of ELSA All other names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trade marks of their respective owners Subject to change without notice liability for technical errors or omissions ELSA Inc ELSA AG 1630 Zanker Road Sonnenweg 11 San Jose CA 95112 52070 Aachen USA Ger
23. M Signal red green blue not assigned ground red ground green ground blue ground Pin Li I H B enm amp 8 0 0 09 0 8 7 6 0 6 09 2 0 Signal 5V sync ground not assigned bidirectional data SDA DDC2 horizontal synchronization vertical synchronization data clock SCL DDC2 The FLSA Gloria DCC issues analog signals in accordance with the require ments of directive RS 170 The synchronization information is sent sepa ELSA GLoria Technical data 6 3 2 6 3 3 rately If your monitor supports the switching of input impedance the 775 Ohm setting 752 should be chosen for the R G and B video inputs and the 2 kOhm setting 2 should be set for the sync inputs You should not try other switch settings at the sync inputs unless your monitor expects a sync level that differs from that of most common monitors and does not pro duce a stabile image In some cases the switch settings are labeled only with Low and High If this is the case either you can look up the Ohm values for the switch settings in the user manual provided with your monitor or you can try both settings to see which one produces a stabile image in all of the graphic display modes you require The TV out interface 4 3 2 1 Pin assignments Pin Signal Pin Signal 1 GND mass Y 3 GND mass C 2 Y intensity luminance 4 C color chrominance
24. VGA 0x13 8 64646 256 of 262 144 64 Standard 8 64646 256 of 262 144 64 8 64646 256 of 16 7 million 256 HighColor 16 54645 65 536 32 TrueColor 24 84048 16 7 million 256 32 84848 16 7 million 256 bpp bits per pixel bpg bits per gun ELSA GLoria 30 Graphics know how 5 2 5 5 2 6 VGA In VGA graphics boards the digital color information stored in the video mem ory 4 bits for 16 colors or 8 bits for 256 colors is converted into a digital 18 bit value in the graphics adapter in a CLUT ColorLookUpTable The 3 x 6 bits are converted separately for R G B red green blue in the RAMDAC D A converter and transferred to the monitor as analog signals on just three lines plus sync lines The original color values are converted into completely dif ferent values by means of a translation table The value stored in the video memory is thus not a color value but only a pointer to a table in which the actual color value is found The advantage of this method Only 8 bits need to be stored for each pixel although the color values are 18 bits wide the dis advantage Only 256 colors can be displayed simultaneously from a palette of 262 144 possible colors DirectColor The situation is different in the case of DirectColor TrueColor and HighColor In this case the value stored in the video memory is not translated but is passed directly to the D A converter This means that the full color informa tion must be
25. a pleasure O enjoy the DVD films in full view professional projector with video input O brings your games and DVD films to the screen You will really have a movie theater in your living room O displays your presentations in large format for a large group of inter ested viewers With your video recorder you can O record games sequences as video Your heroic campaign against the Orcs can be preserved for posterity on video tape Or incorporate some digital specials into your tape of your family From the VGA signal to the TV signal Unlike a computer monitor a television set is not able to process the VGA sig nals from a graphics board This is obvious if the 15 pin monitor output on the back of the graphics board is compared with a TV antenna cable The signals travel in fundamentally different ways The TV out interface of the ELSA GLoria DCC is thus equipped with its own interpreter a chip which converts VGA signals for the television This TV signal is of course also rec ognized by other devices such as a projector with TV signal input or a video recorder What kind of device can be attached You can connect any standard TV or video device to the TV out interface for the ELSA GLoria DCC The TV output works in accordance with the S video standard Modern devices with an S video interface compatible to Hi 8 sig ELSA GLoria 22 TV out interface nal can therefore be connected to the TV out interfa
26. ard ELSA GLoria Contents T Introduction 5 25 40 54 28 ner oa DEG was Row rU pa sie eia 7 1 1 Highlights of the FLSA Gloria 7 TA What S tN DOX 17 alsace m erbe ni 7 1 3 What hardware do 7 2 After installing the lt 9 2 1 Software installation from the 0 9 22 otek Reh AUN res 9 2 2 1 What are Options C Cm 0 2 2 2 What is best for what situation 10 2 3 Changing the 55 e ret e rfr ht d 11 23 1 WINDOWS 20002 tectae eto tet Spank T 11 2 3 2 Windows NT etre utl peer ee s dita 12 3 Useful stuff and 15 3 1 OpenGL API application settings in Windows 15 3 2 OpenGL application settings in Windows 2000 16 3 95 COlOr COMECHON soot Mada ca ee ree leyes ek NEU Wee 17 3 4 Tools for 3D Studio 7 17 ELSA WAXING Ret Me 17 A TV out interface 2 Doo o brute 21 4 1 One interface many possibilities
27. aterial texture special effects and much more As a result an enormous amount of data is sent into the pipeline RenderingRasterization At this stage the 3D scene is filled with color shades and textures are applied Different processes and methods are also applied here Shading Shading takes account of the effects created by different light sources on the 3D object and provide for a very realistic overall ELSA GLoria 26 Graphics know how impression Here too there are different methods which are more less processor intensive Flat shading assigns a color value to each polygon This results in a faceted representation which requires only short computation times In Gouraud shading all the vertices of the polygons are assigned a color value The remaining pixel information for the polygon is inter polated This method gives a very gentle color transition even with fewer polygons than are required for flat shading Texture mapping At this stage the 3D object undergoes a sort of face lift The materials and textures are assigned Different methods are used here to make the textures appear realistic even when enlarged or reduced As a first step the textures are computed O Point sampling is the simplest method A pixel by pixel comparison is made between the texture template and the surface to be filled This method leads to a very coarse representation especially when enlarged
28. ce Older devices often have only a composite input also referred to as an FBAS input An adapter cable is included so that you can also connect these devices to the TV out interface The best choice for devices that have both an S video and a composite input is the modern S video connection This will give you a better display quality The TV out interface can generate signals conforming to the PAL and NTSC standards Refer to the operating instructions for your television or video device to find out what signal standards it supports 4 1 3 Direct connection of S video devices Devices with S video input can be connected directly to the TV output Use an S video cable with two mini DIN connectors These cables can be obtained form any dealer pd Television S video cable with mini DIN 7 connectors 1 3 Video ELSA GLoria DCC with TV out interface Projector ELSA GLoria DCC TV out interface 4 1 4 Connecting TV devices with the adapter cable To connect TV devices with composite or FBAS input use the adapter cable CR included with your ELSA GLoria DCC Cinch socket for devices with composite input 9 Television Mini DIN connector for connecting the TV out i interface of the Video ELSA GLoria DCC Projector with video input ELSA GLoria 24 TV out interface ELSA GLoria Graphics know how 5 5
29. ed by unsuitable software hardware installation or operation ELSA reserves the right to charge the purchaser for the resulting testing costs 6 a b 7 4 Additional regulations The above conditions define the complete scope of ELSA s legal liability The warranty gives no entitlement to additional claims such as any refund in full or in part Compensation claims regardless of the legal basis are excluded This does not apply if e g injury to persons or damage to private property are specifically covered by the product lia bility law or in cases of intentional act or culpable negligence Claims for compensation of lost profits indirect or consequential detriments are excluded ELSA is not liable for lost data or retrieval of lost data in cases of slight and ordinary negli gence In the case that the intentional or culpable negligence of ELSA employees has caused a loss of data ELSA will be liable for those costs typical to the recovery of data where periodic security data back ups have been made The warranty is valid only for the first purchaser and is not transferable The court of jurisdiction is located in Aachen Germany in the case that the purchaser is a merchant If the purchaser does not have a court of jurisdiction in the Federal Republic of Germany or if he moves his domicile out of Germany after conclusion of the contract ELSA s court of jurisdiction applies This is also applicable if the purchaser s do
30. efresh rate The values in the list depend on the capabil ities of the monitor and graphics board Select the desired combination and confirm by pressing OK 5 When finished click Apply to check the new settings You are then given the option of selecting or canceling the chosen settings If you are satisfied with the new combination confirm your selection by pressing OK You will find further information on how to customize your graphics settings under Windows 2000 in your system manual Windows NT 4 0 The settings for the graphics driver are included in the Control Panel under Windows NT 4 0 Use the command sequence Start gt Settings gt Control Panel to call the dialog window where you should find the icon for Display Double click on this symbol to open the window with its various tabs Click on the Settings tab ELSA GLoria After installing the drivers 13 The Settings tab has all the options for Display Properties HE setting up the graphics board for your Background Screen Saver Appearance ELSA GLoia DCC 658 ColorConection Plus _ Settings monitor CR Color Palette _ Desktop Area us hh 1024 by 768 pixels Eont Size Refresh Frequency Small Fonts 5 100 Hertz List All Modes Test Display Type You can select the possible settings for Color Palette Font Size Desktop
31. el of a gt Texture Texture The overlaying of a surface with a texture with correction for perspec tive such as a wood grain or the drawing of a wall with wallpaper in a perspective view Videos too can be used as a tex ture Transformation amp Lighting T amp L Us ing T amp L the main computer processor is freed up from the consuming task of com puting geometric calculations This com ELSA GLoria DCC 48 Glossary putational process which includes all of the coordinates of a 3D object during rota tion shifting scaling and color is taken over by the graphics board processor Trilinear filtering This is a mixture of mapping and Bilinear filtering TrueColor graphic display mode with max 16 7 million colors i e a color depth of 24 or 32 bits per pixel VESA Abbreviation for Video Electron ics Standards Association consortium for standardizing computer graphics Viewing pyramid Designation for the part of a 3D space located within the view er s field of vision VRAM Abbreviation for Video RAM module for upgrading the memory on a graphics board to display higher resolu tions and color depths Z biasing gt DDR SDRAM method for the correct display of various objects with the same depth coordinates A typical ex ample is the display of a shadow on a wall both objects have the same Z depth coor dinates but the shadow must appear on t
32. em 47 47 Super sampling 45 SUDDOFE Asati ae 7 ELSA GLoria
33. ensitive help for an explanation of the various settings Please note that you must not have the program running that you want to optimize e g 3D Studio MAX when choosing the application settings Additional ELSA GLoria DCC Properties 2 In the Custom OpenGL Applications Set Devico Selecion 3DAniasroSes OpenGL Settings Desktop Utilities ting drop down list you can determine the desired 3D parameters for each appli Qo m Performance and Compatibility Options cation us A list containing the most common appli Allow the dual planes extension to use local video memory 5 0 fast linear mipmap inear filtering cations allows you to quickly set the opti Defaut color depthfottentres Use colrdenth mum configuration Please note that the Butter fipping mode optimized settings are silent That d On by defuit Enable buffer regio Is 1 4 means that OpenGL is optimized Use upto 5 2 MB of system memory for textures in PCI mode although you see no changes to the per EAR Custom OpenGL Applications Setting formance and compatability options zi OpenGL Settings tab Bestoe Defaut rea 010 ELSA GLoria 3 2 Useful stuff and more Press F1 or click on the Help button to call up the online help The online help has more detailed information on the application
34. ers many improvements over standard drivers and thus considerable increases in performance and productivity when used with these applications Features and benefits By developing a driver tailored to 3D Studio MAX and 3D Studio VIZ ELSA s software developers have laid the foundation for further optimization and new functions which will be available only ELSA Gloria and ELSA Synergy graphics accelerators in the future By using ELSA MAXtreme many effects which would otherwise not be visi ble until the final video rendering stage can be displayed during the creative phase in working view These include a Transparency Normally transparent objects are displayed in 3D Studio MAX VIZ by stippled clouds of varying densities stippled or screen door process This shows to an extent whether an object is transparent or not and how translucent it is Even so the visual impression it gives is not one of a transparent object ELSA MAXtreme allows you to select CD Whether transparent objects are at all displayed in a transparent way non transparent display of transparent objects is of course particularly fast 2 Whether to use the standard method described above Whether transparent objects are actually displayed as transparent i e by blending the transparent object s color with the color of the objects located behind them A further improvement is spatial sorting of transparent objects before they are displayed
35. es Use desktop color depth Enable optimized settings are silent That Butefippinamode esed means that the OpenGL is optimized a although you see no changes to the Use upto 5 MB of system memory for textures in mode formance and compatability options in 1 1 Custom OpenGL Applications Setting the OpenGL Settings tab zi Restore Defaults Cancel 2040 ELSA GLoria Useful stuff and more 3 3 3 4 3 4 1 Color Correction ELSA ECOMO 19 99 and ELSA GLoria DCC Propertie 2x General Adapter Monitor Troubleshooting Color Management GS ELSA GLoia DCC 659 Device Selection Color Correction The Color Correction application permits the optimal adjustment of the color and brightness of your monitor Active Color Channet The midrange tones of photographs or s game scenes often appear too dark due to technically inevitable non linearities in gnus the brightness of CRT screens or as a m 10 result of a variety of image compression algorithms Attempts to compensate 1 these errors using the brightness and trast controls generally available on mon a itors usually results in overall worsening of the display quality Generally the brighter parts of the image will be washed out or the image as a whole
36. f your monitor The table below is a guide to the resolutions you might select Monitor Typical Minimum Maximum Ergonomic size image size resolution resolution resolution 17 15 5 16 0 800 600 1024 768 1024 768 197 17 5 18 1 1024 x 768 1280 1024 1152 864 20 21 19 0 20 0 1024 x 768 1600 1200 1280 1024 24 21 0 22 0 1600 1000 1920 1200 1600 1000 Changing the resolution Windows 2000 The settings for the graphics driver are included in the Control Panel under Windows 2000 Use the command sequence Start gt Settings gt Control Panel to call the dialog window where you should find the icon for Display Double click on this symbol to open the window with its various tabs ELSA GLoria 12 After installing the drivers Lo The Settings tab has all the options for x setting up the graphics board for your Backanund Screen Saver Anpesance Web Ettei Selina monitor Display ELSA 19H99 on ELSA GLoria DCC More 1280 by 1024 pixels Screen area Less Troubleshoot Advanced Click on the Settings tab 2 Click Advanced in the Settings dialog 3 Select the Adapter tab in the dialog that opens A button labeled List all Modes is located in the lower part of the win dow Click it to view a list of all configurable combinations of resolution color depth and r
37. g definitions etc or even for the graphics board to send instructions to the monitor There are various standards DDC2B and DDC2AB DDC2B A bi directional data channel based on the C access bus protocol is used for the communication between monitor and graphics board In the case of a standard IBM VGA compatible 15 pin monitor connector pin 12 formerly used as monitor ID bit 1 is used for data transmission SDA and the pin 15 formerly used as monitor ID bit 3 is used as transmission clock SCL The graphics board can request the short EDID information see DDC1 as well as the more comprehensive VDIF information VESA Display Identification File DDC2AB With DDC2AB additional to DDC2B the computer can send commands for controlling the monitor e g for adjusting the screen position or the bright ness similar to ACCESS bus Modern monitors and graphics boards longer use this standard The pin assignment of the VGA D shell socket can be found in the chapter Technical data ELSA GLoria 32 Graphics know how ELSA GLoria Technical data 6 6 1 6 2 Technical data Those with a technical interest will find more detailed information regarding the ELSA GLoria DCC in this chapter All interfaces and their assignments are described in detail Characteristics of the graphics board ELSA GLoria DCC Graphics processor Quadro DCC by NVIDIA RAMDAC pixel clock 350MHz
38. he wall not vice versa The included Z bias value ensures the correct display Un der OpenGL this functionality is called PolygonOffset Z buffer The 3D depth information of a pixel the position in the 3rd dimension 9 Index Numerics SD ClIPDING sain ete 43 s com 25 43 SU NOW oet tae 43 Accumulated buffers 45 Adapter cable 23 AGPIDUS oett ibn 43 Aliasing tete n 43 Alpha blending 43 Anisotropic filtering 43 Anti aliasing neu 26 AP ee sedes 27 43 B Back 26 44 Back face culling 43 Bilinear filtering 43 33 43 Blittingi ties 27 43 Buffer swapping 27 44 Bump mapping 26 44 BUS sss 33 C CE 37 ChrOMIN ANCE reves see etes 44 ClIPPING ri tae ctt tette 44 Color 29 Composite Signal 23 COMPLET ei 7 Contact assignment 34 Cube environment mapping 44 D 1 5806 rere te eee 34 G DDG sotto tate 31 44 Declaration of Conformity 39 Declaration of conformity 38 Directo
39. hese APIs control the low level functions including 2 D graphics acceleration support for input devices such as joysticks keyboards and mice and control of sound mixing and sound output Low level functions are supported by the components that make up DirectX Microsoft DirectDraw Microsoft Direct3D Microsoft DirectInput Microsoft DirectSound Microsoft Direct Play DirectShow and Microsoft DirectMusic DirectX provides a hardware abstraction layer HAL which uses software drivers to communicate between game software and computer hardware As a result developers can use DirectX to write a single version of their product without worrying about the wide range of hardware devices and configura tions in existence DirectX also provides developers with tools that help you get the best possi ble performance from the machine you re using It automatically determines the hardware capabilities of your computer and then sets the application s parameters to match With DirectX you can even run multimedia applications that require support for features your system doesn t have by simulating cer tain hardware devices through a hardware emulation layer HEL which provides software based drivers that act like hardware DirectX 8 0 The most recent version of DirectX offers updated graphics faster frame rates and support for multiplayer games It also offers better audio when run ning and displaying programs rich in multimedia element
40. ion is more complicated and requires buffered storage of the most recent image lines ISSE Extended Intel command set cur rently used in the Pentium processors 70 additional commands are intended above all to accelerate the floating point operations that are especially important for 3D games Luminance Black white information in the transfer of video signals MIP mapping MIP mapping assigns several textures with different resolutions to an object based on distance If the ob server gets closer to the object the repre sentation of the texture becomes more de tailed Extended Intel command set used by 166 MHz and higher Pentium proces sors bearing this designation 57 addition al commands accelerate especially integer operations ELSA GLoria DCC 6 Glossary Multifrequency multisync monitor A monitor that can be operated using dif ferent line frequency ranges and can ad just itself to different image signals reso lutions OpenGL 3D software interface 3D API Such as implemented in Windows NT and optionally obtainable for Windows 95 this is based on Iris GL from Silicon Graphics and is licensed by Microsoft and ELSA Page flipping In the faster Page flip ping method only the buffer addresses are exchanged The slower method gt Blit ting copies the contents of the gt Back buffer to the Front buffer PCI bus Abbreviation for peripheral compone
41. many www elsa com www elsa com Aachen June 2001 LEO Preface Thank you for placing your trust in this ELSA product With the ELSA GLoria DCC you have selected a graphics board which was designed as a product for visualisation and animation The graphics proces sor on the board ensures high speed generation of on screen graphics making this board ideal for Digital Content Creation DCC applications ELSA products are subject to the highest standards in production and quality con trol which are the foundations of consistantly high product quality About this manual This manual provides all the information you will need to get the best out of your ELSA graphics board For instance which resolution is best for which monitor The accompanying ELSA utility programs are described Changes to this manual ELSA products are subject to continual development It is therefore possible that the information printed in this manual is not current in all respects Curent information about updates can always be found in the README files on the ELSA CD If you have further questions or need additional help you can rely on our online services which are available to ELSA customers ELSA GLoria Before you read on 1 The installation of the ELSA GLoria DCC hardware and drivers is described in full in the installation guide which accompanies this manual You should refer to that document before attempting to install your bo
42. micile is not known atthe time of institution of proceedings The law of the Federal Republic of Germany is applicable The UN commercial law does not apply to dealings between ELSA and the purchaser Warranty conditions for North America ELSA S SIX YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY ELSA provides the following limited warranty to purchasers of ELSA products within States and ELSA s warranty obligations are limited to the terms set forth below 8 b ELSA GLoria he United ELSA AG and ELSA Inc jointly ELSA warrant this ELSA product and its parts jointly Product against defects in material and workmanship for a period of SIX 6 YEARS from the date of delivery of the Product by an ELSA dealer to the purchaser ELSA s entire liability and Customer s exclusive remedy will be at ELSA s sole discretion the repair replacement replacement by a successor product or refund of the original pur chase price of the Product not meeting ELSA s limited warranty if the Product is returned within the warranty period with a copy of proof of purchase such as the original purchase receipt to ELSA or ELSA s dealer ELSA will not be responsible for shipping or handling Appendix d e 9 h charges involved in shipping the Product to and from ELSA or ELSA s dealer and purchaser must prepay all shipping charges ELSA will not be responsible for replacing Product that is damaged by ifications
43. nance sto structions as set forth in the Product manual and spec so does not apply if p or repairs to persons other than ELSA or an au RRANTIES ON THE TY AND FITNESS FO EXPRESS LIM chaser has submit RODUCT INCLUDI PERIOD N LIEU OF ALL OT ON THE LATED DOCUME Y WAY EXCLUSION OF PLY TO YOU CES BE LIABLE TO RECT OR SPEC OTHER LEGAL THEORY INCL ANY MAL T INTERRUPTION OF SERVICE DA LOSS OF BUSINESS OR A ESENTAT G ELSA H AL DAMAGES HE PURCHASE PRICE TED WARRANTY SHALL NOT EXTEND T PURCHASER OF THE PRODUCT OR THE PERS 0 ANYO GIFT AND STATES THE EXCLUSIVE REMEDY HEREIN ifications ed the Product horized ELSA dealer GTHEI R A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE OF SIX 6 YEARS AS SPECIFIED HER WARRA E IMPLIED WARRANT PLIED E CONTRARY CONT RESULTING UDING BUT FUNCTION DELAY age 0 PLIE IN TER IES OT HE 0 ORAL rical current fluctuations eration or improper pack environmental in opening mod D WARRA LIMITED TIES OF DURA TIES EXPRESS OR OF MERCHANT WARRANT THAT HE OPERATION OF ORE ELSA DOES USE OR THE RE S OF THEIR COR OR WRITTEN REPRESENTATIVES A PURCHASER OT LOSS AGE TO OR ED HEREIN THIS WARRANTY ELSA ENTITIES FOR CONSEQUEN FROM BREACH OF WAR LIMITED TO DAMAGES OF DATA OR PRO REPLA
44. nd for 5 V 4 TMDS Data 4 16 Hot Plug Detect 5 TMDS Data 4 17 DS Data 0 6 DDC Clock 8 DS Data 0 DDC Data 9 DS Data 0 5 Data0 5 Shield 8 Analog Vertical Sync 20 TMDS Data 5 9 TMDS Data 1 21 DS Data 5 10 TMDS Data 14 22 DS Clock Shield 11 TMDS Data 1 3 Shield 23 DS Clock 12 TMDS Data 3 24 TMDS Clock C1 Analog Red C2 Analog Green C3 Analog Blue C4 Analog Horizontal Sync C5 Analog Ground analog R G amp B return TMDS Transition Minimized Differential Signalling ELSA GLoria ED 7 1 1 CE FCC CE and FCC 7 1 1 Appendix CE conformity and FCC radiation standard This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits of the European Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to electromagnetic compatibility 89 336 EEC according to EN 55022 class B This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the Federal Communications Commission FCC Rules The following procedures were applied during conformity testing These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against radio frequency interference in residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy It may interfere with radio communications if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions However there is no guarantee that inte
45. ng a much higher res olution is calculated than the one to be displayed and then reduced With the ac cumulated buffer process several views of a scene are drawn that are then com bined to a single image Geometrical transformation The po sition of the objects in space is determined based on the observer Gouraud shading gt Shading Graphics accelerator FLSA Gloria DCCis a graphics accelerator board that is especially well suited for the user environ ment that requires intense graphics HighColor Stands for a graphic display mode with 15 or 16 bit color depth per pix el 32 768 or 65 536 colors Horizontal frequency The monitor line frequency horizontal scan frequency inkHz This value must be set according to the monitor s requirements to prevent the monitor from being damaged in extreme cases ELSA GLoria Horizontal scan frequency The mon itor line frequency in kHz This value must be set according to the monitor s require ments to prevent the monitor from being damaged in extreme cases Interpolation When displayed video data must be stretched or shrunk to the correct window size If the individual pix els are simply multiplied when stretched unwanted blocks the staircase effect gt Aliasing occur This can be prevented us ing a filtering interpolation technique av eraging While horizontal interpolation is easily accomplished vertical interpolat
46. nt interconnect bus A system of parallel conductors for transferring data between individual system components especially to expansion cards Phong shading gt Shading Pixel A picture element Pixel frequency Pixel cycle frequen cy The number of drawn Pixel sec ond in MHz PolygonOffset gt Z biasing Primitive Simple polygonal geomet ric objects such as triangles In most cas es 3D landscapes are broken down into triangles RAM Abbreviation for Random Access Memory Main memory and memory ex pansion in gt VRAM or gt DRAM depend ing on the graphics board RAMDAC a graphics board RAM DAC is responsible for converting digital signals into analog signals VGA monitors can only process analog signals RealColor In general stands for a 15 or 16 bit per pixel wide graphic display mode 32 768 or 65 536 colors Refresh rate Indicates in Hz how of ten the image on the monitor is rebuilt per second Rendering The calculative process for representing 3D scenery where position and color are determined for each point in space The depth data are located in the 7 buffer while the color and size data are in the gt Frame buffer Resolution The number of pixels in both horizontal and vertical directions e g 640 horizontal x 480 vertical pixels RGB Color data stored in red green blue format ROM Abbreviation for Read Only Mem
47. om Access Memory Dynamic random access memory with direct access EDO RAM Abbreviation for Extended Data Output Random Access Memory hy per page mode EDO RAM is especially advantageous in graphics boards because the most recently required data remains held in memory Image rendering involves multiple consecutive read access of simi lar data so EDO RAM results in signifi cantly faster speeds FCC radiation standard states thatthis device has been tested and meets the requirements for digital class B devic es in accordance with section 15 of the guidelines as provided by the American Federal Communications Commission method Abbreviation for first in first out A system used in batch process ing and queues in which the first arriving signal is processed first Fixed frequency monitor monitor that can only be operated with at a specif ic resolution and refresh rate Flat shading gt Shading Glossary 45 Frame buffer Memory the graphics board containing display information es pecially the Front buffer and gt Bump mapping Front buffer Refers to the visible im age area in the case of gt Double buffer Full scene anti aliasing Describes a type of gt Anti aliasing that is applied to a complete frame Two processes are used in this form of anti aliasing Super sampling and Accumulated buffers In the case of super sampli
48. r warranty 1 2 What s in the box You will need to check that the box contains all of the following Graphics board Installation Guide Manual on CD CD ROM with installation and driver software and utilities TV out adaptor cable If any part is missing please contact your dealer ELSA reserves the right to vary the products supplied without prior notice The current scope of delivery is described on our web site 1 3 What hardware do need Computer PC preferably with a Pentium IIl or Pentium 4 or AMD Ath lon or Thunderbird and a minimum of 128 MB RAM is required ELSA GLoria Introduction Monitor The ELSA Gloria DCC works with a standard IBM VGA compat ible analog monitor with a horizontal scan frequency of at least 31 5 kHz or with a digital DVI D or DVI I monitor ELSA GLoria After installing the drivers 2 2 1 2 2 After installing the drivers In this chapter you will find descriptions of where you can find the software for operating the ELSA Gloria DCC the performance characteristics of your graphics board the most effective tuning for the combination of monitor and ELSA graph ics board Software installation from the CD The ELSA Gloria DCC is supplied with software on a CD ROM You will find all the utilities described in this manual on the ELSA GLoria DCC CD unless they are a component of the operating system Once you
49. re sulting in animation that is not smooth Sphere environment mapping gt Cube environment mapping Stencil buffer This buffer permits the color information of the Pixel to be sup plemented with further information This can be used to create stencils volumetric shadows and reflective surfaces for ex ample Strips and fans Process for the reduc tion of data volume required for complex 3D objects Strips are used for objects consisting of several parallel rows of trian gles Rather than calculating each individ ELSA GLoria ual triangle the vertices are transferred only once A fan object is used when sev eral triangles converge to a single point In this case the vertices are also trans ferred only once These processes can re duce the data volume by approximately a third Tearing there is no synchronization with the monitor when switching between images pages gt Double buffer mode areas of the images can become offset To resolve this the switching between pages is synchronized with the monitor frequen cy Wait on Vertical Blank Tesselation Tessellation subdivides objects into polygons e g triangles for 3D rendering For these primitives the corner point and color values as well as the trans parency value if necessary are deter mined Tessellation is currently performed by the application i e upstream of the 9 3D pipeline Texel Individual pix
50. rference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television reception this can be determined by turning this equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the distance between this equipment and the receiver Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit other than that to which the receiver is connected Consult your dealer or an experienced radio TV technician Caution To comply with the limits for an FCC Class B computing device always use a shielded signal cable Caution to the user The Federal Communications Commission warns the user that changes or modifications to the unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user s authority to operate the equipment European Council CE The declarations of conformity for the CE standard of the European Union are available for download on the ELSA web site www elsa com download ELSA GLoria Appendix 7 2 Federal Communications Commission ELSA AG GLoria DDC Tested Comply With FCC Standards FOR HOME OR OFFICE USE Compliance Information Statement Declaration of Conformity Procedure Responsible Party ELSA Inc Address 1630 Zanker Road San J os CA 95112 USA Phone 1 4
51. s technical data to the graphics board DDR SDRAM Double Data Rate SDRAM is a further development of SDRAM memory technology While SDRAMs only provide data at the actual system clock speed DDR chips permit data to be accessed at twice the system clock speed Direct3D Software interface gt developed by Microsoft for the manipula tion and display of 3D content DirectColor Method to achieve the high resolution HighColor TrueCo lor gt RealColor graphics modes In this case the value stored in the video RAM VRAM is not translated but is passed directly to the D A converter D A converter This means that the full color information must be saved for each gt Pi xel DirectDraw Software interface gt API developed by Microsoft for the dis play of 2D content such as videos Double buffer Describes the presence of doubled display memory This permits the next image to be generated first in the invisible background Bump mapping As soon as it is completely constructed the monitor display switches to the image that has been residing in the background and the preparation of the next image be gins on the other side DPMS Abbreviation gt VESA Dis play Power Management Signaling This allows several stages of monitor power saving mode The graphics boards de scribed in this manual support VESA DPMS DRAM Abbreviation for Dynamic Ran d
52. s such as full color graphics video 3 D animation and surround sound For further information see http www microsoaft com directx ELSA GLoria Graphics know how ED 5 2 3 5 2 4 The OpenGL API Since the OpenGL API was introduced in 1992 it has grown into the industry s leading cross platform 2D and 3D graphics API and its presence continues to grow every day The OpenGL API is platform independent and makes a distinction between immediate and display list modes A display list stores specific sequences that can be recalled again later The object descriptions can then be taken directly from the list resulting in very high performance However if objects need to be manipulated frequently the display list will have to be generated again from new The OpenGL API provides a wide range of graphics features from rendering a simple geometric point line or filled polygon to the most sophisticated representations of curved surfaces with lighting and texture mapping The some 330 routines of the OpenGL API provide software devel opers access to these graphics capabilities For further information see the Internet site www sgi com software apengl Color palettes TrueColor and gray scales Common graphics modes are listed in the following table Not all graphics modes are available on the ELSA boards Graphics b b gray levels made Pp Pg VGA 0x12 4 64646 16 of 262 144 16
53. settings OpenGL API application settings in Windows 2000 Similar to Windows NT 4 0 the OpenGL API application settings are automat ically installed when you install the ELSA driver To access these settings press the right mouse button on the desktop and click on Properties The Display Properties window appears select the Settings tab and click Advanced near the bottom of the window A further window appears select the GLoria tab then Additional Prop erties near the bottom of the window Select the OpenGL Settings tab near the bottom of the window to optimize the OpenGL API for any of the programs listed or alternatively select the parameters you desire Utilize the context sensitive help for an explanation of the various settings Please note that you must not have the program running that you want to optimize e g 3D Studio MAX when choosing the application settings In the Custom OpenGL Applications Set ting drop down list you can determine DiecDSetings Overlay Contos Desktop Utites 3D Antialiasing Settings OpenGL Settings the desired 3D parameters for each appli cation C au list containing the most common appli de cations allows you to quickly set the opti dodi tener sterenn beal ideo 9 2 Use fast fitering mum configuration Please note that the Default color depth for textur
54. um possible resolutions for the ELSA graphics board Note that these resolutions cannot be achieved under all operating conditions Resolutions with Z buffering ELSA GLoria DCC Output double butfering Pixel VGA Hz DVI Hz 2048 1536 85 920 1440 97 920 1200 113 a L 920 x 1080 125 600 1200 135 0 600 1024 162 280 1024 198 75 60 280 960 200 75 60 152 864 200 75 60 a 024x 768 200 75 60 800 600 200 75 60 640 480 200 75 60 E HighColor 65 536 colors TrueColor 16 7 million colors 222 What is best for what situation There are some basic ground rules for you to follow when setting up your graphics system On the one hand there are the ergonomic guidelines al though nowadays these are met by most systems and on the other hand there are limitations inherent to your system e g your monitor The question of whether your applications need to run using large color depths perhaps even TrueColor is also important This is an important condition for DCC workstations ELSA GLoria DCC After installing the drivers 11 2 3 2 3 1 More pixels more fun This is an opinion which is widespread but which is not entirely true under all circumstances The general rule is that a refresh rate of 85Hz meets the minimum ergonomic requirements The resolution to be selected also de pends on the capabilities o
55. vice charges shall be covered by us but not shipping and handling costs involved in transport from the buyer to the service station and or to us Replaced parts become property of ELSA ELSA are authorized to carry out technical changes e g firmware updates beyond repair and replacement of defective parts in order to bring the equipment up to the current tech nical state This does not result in any additional charge for the customer A legal claim to this service does not exist Warranty period The warranty period for ELSA products is six years This period begins at the day of delivery from th e ELSA dealer Warranty services do not result in an extension of the warranty period nor do they initiate a new warranty period The warranty period for installed replacement parts ends with the warranty period of the device as a whole 3 a Warranty procedure If defects appear during the warranty period the warranty claims must be made immedia tely at the latest within a period of 7 days In the case of any externally visible damage arising from transport e g damage to the hou sing the transport company representative and ELSA should be informed immediately On discovery of damage which is not externally visible the transport company and ELSA are to warranty claims will be deemed be immediately informed in wri ing at the latest within 7 days of delivery Transport to and from the location where the warrant
56. y claim is accepted and or the repaired device is exchanged is at the pi Warranty claims are only valid Suspension of the warranty if the device is damaged or desti ences moisture electric shock if the device was stored or ope specifications if the damage occurred due to stem description and the opera if the device was opened repai if the device shows any kind of urchaser s own risk and cost if the original purchase receipt is returned with the device invalid royed as a result of acts of nature or by environmental influ dust etc ated under conditions not in compliance with the technical incorrect handling especially to non observance of the sy ing instructions ed or modified by persons not authorized by ELSA mechanical damage ELSA GLoria 0 Appendix 0 5 if in the case of an ELSA Monitor damage to the cathode ray tube CRT has been caused especially by mechanical load e g from shock to the pitch mask assembly or damage to the glass tube by strong magnetic fields near the CRT colored dots on the screen or through the permanent display of an unchanging image phosphor burnt if and in as far as the luminance of the TFT panel backlighting gradually decreases with time or if the warranty claim has not been reported in accordance with 3a or 3b Operating mistakes If it becomes apparent that the reported malfunction of the device has been caus
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