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Useful stuff and more

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ELSA GLADIAC

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EN

Useful stuff and more

Apart from the ELSA drivers, the ELSA CD also contains additional programs
and utilities for use with the 

ELSA GLADIAC

, a selection of which we will

introduce here.  Information about other programs can be taken from the
README files on the CD.

The Multimedia Player

Until now, a variety of programs for playing CDs, videos and other media was
available under Multimedia in the Accessories folder of the Windows start
menu.  These have now been succeeded by the Microsoft Multimedia Player.
It handles the most common multimedia formats, all under one common user
interface—regardless of whether the data is coming from the Internet or the
local hard disk.  The Multimedia Player is responsible for the playback of
RealAudio and RealVideo, as well as WAV, AVI and Quicktime files.

After the installation, the file extensions of media files are permanently
associated with the Multimedia Player.  You can thus double-click the media
files in the Windows Explorer or My Computer folder to conveniently launch
the Player and start the playback.

Video playback or Internet live radio: The 
Microsoft Multimedia Player handles all 
common multimedia formats.

21663_DE_0300.book Seite 19 Montag, 10. April 2000 12:22 12

Summary of Contents for GLADIAC

Page 1: ...EN GLADIAC TM 21663_DE_0300 book Seite 1 Montag 10 April 2000 12 22 12 ...

Page 2: ...to the worldwide ISO 9001 standard in certificate number 09 100 5069 issued on June 15 1998 Declarations of conformity and certificates in as far as they were available at the time of publication can be found in the the appendix of this documentation Trademarks Windows Windows NT and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc The ...

Page 3: ...ams are described and you will find detailed information about 3D acceleration ELSA products are subject to continual further development It is therefore possible that the information printed in this manual is not current in all respects The README files on the GLADIAC CD contain the latest information about updates Our online services www elsa com are available to you around the clock should you ...

Page 4: ... hardware and software drivers is described in full in the Installation Guide which accompanies this manual You should refer to that document before attempting to install your board and before reading this manual 21663_DE_0300 book Seite 4 Montag 10 April 2000 12 22 12 ...

Page 5: ...13 쎲 Useful stuff and more 19 The Multimedia Player 19 ELSA WINman Suite 20 Fine tuning for performance freaks 20 Overclocking 21 ELSAinfo 22 쎲 Graphics know how 23 3D graphics representation 23 The 3D pipeline 23 3D interfaces 26 What APIs are available 26 Direct 3D 26 OpenGL 27 Color palettes TrueColor and gray scales 28 VGA 28 DirectColor 29 VESA DDC Display Data Channel 29 DDC2B 30 DDC2AB 30 쎲...

Page 6: ... Ports on the graphics board 32 The VGA D shell socket 32 쎲 Appendix 33 CE conformity and FCC radiation standard 33 Declarations of conformity 34 Warranty conditions 35 쎲 Glossary 37 쎲 Index 43 21663_DE_0300 book Seite 6 Montag 10 April 2000 12 22 12 ...

Page 7: ...el pipelines and per pixel shading for even greater realism 쎲 High definition picture high performance with up to 2048x1536 pixels over 16 million colors and refresh rates of 200Hz provide an astounding picture ideal for 19 to 24 monitors 쎲 ELSA SmartRefresh and ELSA SmartResolution ensure optimized monitor use by providing the ability to modify resolution and refresh rate separately 쎲 Supports th...

Page 8: ...otice The current scope of delivery is described on our web site What hardware do I need 쎲 Computer Minimum requirements are a Celeron 300 Pentium II 300 or AMD K6 300 processor 쎲 Bus The GLADIAC is available as an AGP version Your computer must have an AGP bus 쎲 Monitor The GLADIAC works with the standard IBM VGA compatible horizontal scan frequency of 31 5 kHz while booting and in DOS operation ...

Page 9: ...the setup program on the Gladiac CD will not start automatically It can be found and started manually from the root directory of the CD and is called SETUP EXE The greater part of the installation is automated ELSA setup detects the installed operating system and ELSA graphics board s First of all select the language for the installation and then the components you wish to install The right settin...

Page 10: ... 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 many DTP or CAD workstations 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...

Page 11: ...nitor data the program will automatically detect which settings are possible and which are not This means for instance that it is impossible for you to select an incorrect refresh rate which might damage your monitor 햲 Click on Start then select Settings 왘 Control Panel 햳 You will find the Display icon in the Control Panel When you start this program you are shown a dialog box where you can modify...

Page 12: ... monitor manufacturers and monitor models If your manufacturer is present click on the entry and then select your model If your monitor is not listed there are two options One option is to select the _Standard monitor from the list of manufacturers and then select the highest permitted resolution If you are not sure select a lower resolution to be safe A second option requires information about th...

Page 13: ... rate ELSA SmartRefresh and ELSA SmartResolution Click the Details button in the Settings to open a dialog where you can adjust the refresh rates and video timings individually In addition you can change the resolution in steps of 32 pixels The graphics mode fine tuning tool is especially for screens in portrait or wide angle format or with the 4 3 aspect ratio In such cases it is clearly advantag...

Page 14: ...st of all configurable combinations of resolution color depth and refresh rate The values in the list depend on the capabilities of the monitor and graphics board Select the desired combination and confirm by pressing OK 햶 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 con...

Page 15: ... the icon for Display Double click on this symbol to open the window with its various tabs Click on the Settings tab You can select the possible settings for Color palette Font size Resolution and Display 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 butt...

Page 16: ...After installing the drivers ELSA GLADIAC 18 EN 21663_DE_0300 book Seite 18 Montag 10 April 2000 12 22 12 ...

Page 17: ...t Multimedia Player It handles the most common multimedia formats all under one common user interface regardless of whether the data is coming from the Internet or the local hard disk The Multimedia Player is responsible for the playback of RealAudio and RealVideo as well as WAV AVI and Quicktime files After the installation the file extensions of media files are permanently associated with the Mu...

Page 18: ... bypass the indirect route to the tools through the Control Panel This program is loaded automatically at system startup If you do not want the WINman Suite to load at startup you can disable this option in the WINman Suite menu If you want to load the program later you can call it up by selecting Start 왘 Programs 왘 ELSAware 왘 WINman Suite Fine tuning for performance freaks After installing the EL...

Page 19: ...escriptions here are too cryptic just take a look at the glossary in this manual or use the comprehensive help system Simply click on the question mark at the top right hand corner of the dialog window and then click on the item in question If you accidentally dump your system into the crawler lane just click on the emergency button Restore Defaults The standard settings will be called into action...

Page 20: ...t your graphics board you will find information about your computer system the DirectX and OpenGL driver versions and the ELSA software you have installed This information provides a basis for generating a report that can be of use in case you require support This collection of information provides the ELSA Support with all the information they need to guarantee you fast and relevant help 21663_DE...

Page 21: ...the 3D pipeline in which the mathematical calculations for its representation in space and perspective on the monitor are carried out What happens in detail 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 an...

Page 22: ...overall impression Here too there are different methods which are more or less processor intensive 쑗 Flat shading assigns a color value to each polygon This results in a faceted representation which requires only short computation times 쑗 In Gouraud shading all the vertices of the polygons are assigned a color value The remaining pixel information for the polygon is interpolated This method gives ...

Page 23: ...nt pixels 쎲 The frame buffer The finished image will not be written to the frame buffer until this complex 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 where the image that appears on the monitor is located This prevents the process of...

Page 24: ...re available There are a good dozen more or less commonly found 3D APIs However in recent years two formats have established themselves as the favorites Direct 3D and OpenGL ELSA graphics boards support these commonly found 3D interfaces The functional differences between the interfaces are slight Your ELSA GLADIAC supports the following APIs Direct 3D As a development of Mode X and DirectDraw und...

Page 25: ...ionals using CAD CAM programs OpenGL is now increasingly penetrating the PC market OpenGL 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 frequ...

Page 26: ...mpletely different 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 disadvantage Only 256 colors can be displayed simultaneously from a palette of 262 144 ...

Page 27: ...ed 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 c...

Page 28: ... 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 brightness similar to ACCESS bus Modern monitors and graphics boards no...

Page 29: ...ct The addresses of the ELSA graphics boards cannot be changed The ELSA graphics board also requires an interrupt 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 ...

Page 30: ...ld 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 produce a stabile image In some cases the switch settings are labeled only with Low and High Of this is the case either you can look up the Ohm values for the switch settings in the user manual provided with y...

Page 31: ...not installed and used in accordance with the instructions However there is no guarantee that interference 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 쎲 Reorient or r...

Page 32: ...C GeForce2 GTS 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 th...

Page 33: ...onitors and ELSA videoconferencing systems with a warranty period of 3 years This period begins at the day of delivery from the 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 Warranty procedure a If defects appea...

Page 34: ...less 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 liability law or in cases of intentional act or culpable negligence c Claims for compensation of lost profits indirect or consequential detriments are excluded d ELSA is not liable for lost data or retrieval of lost data in cases of slight and ordi...

Page 35: ...ation to improve the legibility of text on angled surfaces for example In trilinear filtering the filtering action is uneven due to the stronger filtering of foreground pixels because of perspective distortion 쎲 Back buffer Describes the image area that is constructed in the background within the frame buffer during double buffering 쎲 Back face culling Leaving out invisible areas 쎲 Bilinear filter...

Page 36: ...ering Describes the presence of doubled display memory This permits the next image to be generated first in the invisible background 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 begins on the other side 쎲 DPMS Abbreviation for VESA display power management signalling This allows seve...

Page 37: ...splay mode 32 768 or 65 536 colors 쎲 Horizontal frequency The monitor line frequency horizontal scan frequency in kHz This value must be set according to the monitor s requirements to prevent the monitor from being damaged in extreme cases 쎲 Horizontal scan frequency Horizontal scan frequency monitor line frequency in kHz This value must be set according to the monitor s requirements to prevent th...

Page 38: ...equency Pixel cycle frequency The number of drawn pixels per second in MHz 쎲 Primitive element A simple polygonal geometric object such as a triangle In most cases 3D landscapes are broken down into triangles 쎲 RAM Abbreviation for Random Access Memory Main memory and memory expansion in VRAM or DRAM depending on the graphics board 쎲 RAMDAC On a graphics board RAMDAC is responsible for converting ...

Page 39: ...volume related to complex 3D objects Strips are used for objects consisting of several parallel rows of triangles Rather than calculating each individual triangle the vertices are transferred only once A fan object is used when several triangles converge to a single point In this case the vertices are also transferred only once These processes can reduce the data volume by approximately 50 쎲 Teari...

Page 40: ... A converter This means that the full color information must be saved for each pixel 쎲 VESA Abbreviation for Video Electronics Standards Association A consortium for standardizing computer graphics 쎲 VRAM Abbreviation for Video RAM A module for upgrading the memory on a graphics board to display higher resolutions and color depths 쎲 Z buffer The 3D depth information of a pixel the position in the ...

Page 41: ...vironment mapping 38 쎲 D D socket 32 DDC 29 38 Direct 3D 26 Direct3D 21 DirectColor 29 38 DirectDraw 26 DirectX 22 Double buffering 38 Driver versions 22 쎲 F Fans 41 FCC 33 38 Filtering 25 Flat Shading 24 Flat shading 39 Flipping 25 39 Frame buffer 25 39 Front buffer 25 39 Full scene anti aliasing 39 쎲 G Geometrical transformation 23 39 Gouraud shading 24 39 Graphics accelerator 39 Grey scales 28 ...

Page 42: ...or 29 40 Refresh Rate 37 Rendering 24 40 Resolution 13 Retained mode 26 쎲 S Shading 24 40 Single buffer 41 SmartRefresh 9 SmartResolution 9 Sphere environment mapping 41 Stencil buffer 41 Strips 41 Support 9 S video 40 System Requirements 10 쎲 T T buffer 41 Tearing 41 Tesselation 41 Texture 23 41 Texture mapping 24 Transformation 24 41 Trilinear filtering 41 TrueColor 28 29 41 쎲 V VESA 42 VESA DDC...

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