October 1, 2007
QUESTION 1:
Can you tell me where the 3Dconnexion Picture Viewer does its anti-aliasing calculations?
(1) in the CPU?
(2) in the GPU?
I am using an EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce FX 5200 video adapter with 128 MB of video memory in a Windows XP Home Edition system with 1 gigabyte of system memory.
QUESTION 2:
Anti-aliasing seems to be "off" when I am at low zoom levels, that is, when a lot of the image is on screen, and "on" when I am at higher zoom levels, that is, when a smaller portion of the image is on screen. Is this done intentionally to get a uniformly fast response when zooming and panning, since anti-aliasing requires more processing time at low zoom levels because more of the image must be processed?
QUESTION 3:
Can you provide any guidance as to the motherboard memory size and the graphics board memory size that are needed to provide the best performance with TIFF graphics files of various sizes? I appear to run out of system resources with the larger TIFF graphics files, so the VERY slow response that I am getting to the large files may be the result of insufficient system resources rather than any limitation in the 3Dconnexion Picture Viewer itself.
QUESTION 4:
The 3Dconnexion Picture Viewer seems to imitate exactly the capabilities of the Windows Fax and Picture Viewer. Does this mean that the capabilities of the 3Dconnexion Picture Viewer will never be expanded? For example, it would be helpful to have an "invert" or "negative" mode that would invert the colors, particularly for black and white images. And it would be helpful to have hotkeys for supported functions.
Is there someone specific at 3Dconnextion to whom I can write with suggestions for the enhancement of the 3Dconnexion Picture Viewer? It offers tremendous potential for Assistive Technology applications.
QUESTION 5:
Among the many software programs that you list on the 3Dconnexion web site as supporting the SpaceNavigator, can you point me to those that are two-dimensional only? Your list does not provide this information. I have downloaded and tried many of the listed programs, but this is a tedious way to find out which are two-dimensional only.
Also, would you consider adding an explanatory sentence, or two, for each supported program to provide better guidance to your customers in identifying the application programs of interest. Identifying there which are two-dimensional only and which are three-dimensional would be helpful.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.
Ronald M. Powell
To Developers of 3DConnexion Picture Viewer
Moderator: Moderators
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ronaldpowell
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:08 am
- Location: Maryland, U.S.A.
Hi ronaldpowell,
3Dconnexion Picture Viewer (or 3DxViewer for short) is built on top of Direct Draw (part of the DirectX framework). Anti-aliasing is controlled by the DirectX libraries (CPU) and the GPU driver. Where it is implemented will depend on the system. 3DxViewer tries to allocate as much memory as possible in the GPU's video memory.
We do not have specific guidance on the specs of graphic cards other than the system needs to support DirectX. We recommend customers to purchase a graphic card with as much memory as possible within their budget allowances.
We do review the feature set of our software and provide updates depending on customer acceptance and feedback. Having said that, we currently do not have any new features on the pipeline for 3DxViewer.
Some (if not most) of the 3D software listed on our web site has an environment or mode where the 3D mouse is used only to pan and zoom (2D manipulation). Just out of curiosity, why are you only interested in 2D apps?
3Dconnexion Picture Viewer (or 3DxViewer for short) is built on top of Direct Draw (part of the DirectX framework). Anti-aliasing is controlled by the DirectX libraries (CPU) and the GPU driver. Where it is implemented will depend on the system. 3DxViewer tries to allocate as much memory as possible in the GPU's video memory.
We do not have specific guidance on the specs of graphic cards other than the system needs to support DirectX. We recommend customers to purchase a graphic card with as much memory as possible within their budget allowances.
We do review the feature set of our software and provide updates depending on customer acceptance and feedback. Having said that, we currently do not have any new features on the pipeline for 3DxViewer.
Some (if not most) of the 3D software listed on our web site has an environment or mode where the 3D mouse is used only to pan and zoom (2D manipulation). Just out of curiosity, why are you only interested in 2D apps?
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ronaldpowell
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:08 am
- Location: Maryland, U.S.A.
Hi ngomes,
Thank you for your informative response. My interested in the 3Dconnextion Picture Viewer is motivated by a need of the low-vision market for a two-dimensional viewer that can magnify scanned images in an intuitive way. There is no better control device for such a viewer than the SpaceNavigator, and the 3Dconnexion has a VERY nice implementation of the SpaceNavigator. But the Picture Viewer needs a few more features to meet the minimum requirements for this new market.
If you can send me an e-mail address, I shall send you a PDF file describing this market. And I would be happy to discuss further.
And thank you for your interest.
Ronald Powell
Thank you for your informative response. My interested in the 3Dconnextion Picture Viewer is motivated by a need of the low-vision market for a two-dimensional viewer that can magnify scanned images in an intuitive way. There is no better control device for such a viewer than the SpaceNavigator, and the 3Dconnexion has a VERY nice implementation of the SpaceNavigator. But the Picture Viewer needs a few more features to meet the minimum requirements for this new market.
If you can send me an e-mail address, I shall send you a PDF file describing this market. And I would be happy to discuss further.
And thank you for your interest.
Ronald Powell