Video - Servodata
Contents
1. ico 14 ELSA video settings 15 MEO A 15 The video picture on the computer 15 How does the video image get onto the computer monitor 17 Brei dE CS RE 17 What A a 17 Whatis 18 The computer display on TV video 18 Useful stuff and more eere cerro 21 The Multimedia ero disc 21 A A 22 a a AAA sh 27 Searching for td 24 Neat meetingsl PENA 24 MainActor the principal 25 ELSA ERAZOR AAA O 25 a AAA e 26 A 26 Fine tuning for performance freaks 27 All about graphics iii annene 29 3D graphics representation dias 29 A A 29 o 31 What APIS are available A 32 DY CCEA m 32 E A 33 Color Palettes TrueColor and Gray 33 ON 33 A ee eeii lai 34 VESA DDC Display Data Channel sss 34 EL PH 35 ME KE 35 A Eran oN 35 Composite ICI2. 8 0 A 32 OpenGL 27 33 47 ELSA ERAZOR El Index P Single roca 48 Page ias 47 A 35 PU DiS 47 SeVIBBl th 47 E A tt 27 T Pong Saging den 48 AAA a 40 esselation 29 48 Pointsampling n 30 p jest Serene cc tdi 29 48 Primitive ade tender 30 47 Prod lied 2 Texture Mapping 30 A 30 R A etches 33 34 48 A E 39 47 Ray tracing 31 O 34 47 VESA t oboe 48 VESA DDG 39 Refresh rate 47 33 NA 30 47 22 E sanu 47 VBAM 18 Retained mode MEME PM RC DIM C D E S W Sean tlie n utate net Li E Md AG WPM 22 A 31 47 Z Shutter dias SOS sectaria ral t does 47 A a dte itte 48 ELSA ERAZOR III
3. 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 Normal textures sel dom contain more than 256 colors The first 15 bits of a 16 bit wide color representation are reserved for the colors 5 5 5 R G B Information concerning the transparency of the texture is car ried in the alpha channel The last bit is reserved for this information Finally a distinction is made in MIP mapping between bilinear and trilinear filtering Bilin ear filtering interpolates between two pixels of two textures trilinear filtering interpolates between four pixels for each of two textures 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 In bump mapping the texture is additionally assigned height informa tion which allows very realistic three dimensional effects to be created All about graphics 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 val ues or by using transparent pixels of the same color which are overlaid over adja cent pixels Shading Shading takes account of the effects created by different light sources on the 3D object and provide for a very realistic
4. Appendix Appendix DOC Declaration of Conformity ELSA AG ERAZOR Ill Tested To Comply With FCC Standards FOR HOME OR OFFICE USE Compliance Information Statement Declaration of Conformity Procedure Responsible Party ELSA Inc Address 2231 Calle De Luna Santa Clara CA 95054 USA Phone 1 408 919 9100 Type of Equipment Graphics Board Model Name ERAZOR III A32 ViVo 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 fe Aachen April 14 1999 Peter Wieninger VP Engineering ELSA AG Germany ELSH ELSA ERAZOR III Appendix Warranty conditions The ELSA AG warranty valid as of June 01 1998 is given to purchasers of ELSA products in addition to the warranty conditions provided by law and in accordance with the following conditions 1 a b c d 2 Warranty coverage The warranty covers the equipment delivered and all its parts Parts will at our sole discretion be replaced or repaired free of charge if despite proven proper handling and adherence to the operat ing instructions these
5. has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful inter ference in a residential installation FIFO method first in first out a system used in batch processing and queues in which the first signal to arrive is processed first Fixed frequency monitor A monitor that can only be operated at a specific resolution and refresh rate Flat shading Shading Flipping The image generated in the back buffer is displayed Frame buffer Part of the graphics memory in which the image next to be displayed on the screen is generated In addition transparency effects are calculated in the frame buffer Front buffer is the name for the visible image page in 4double buffering ELSA ERAZOR III Geometrical transformation The position of the object in space is determined from the observer s point of view Gouraud shading Shading Graphics accelerator refers to a graphics accelerator board i e a board particularly suited for graphics intensive user environ ments HighColor designates a 15 bpp or 16 bpp bits per pixel graphics mode i e 32 768 or 65 536 colors Horizontal frequency The horizontal fre quency scan frequency of a monitor in kHz This value must be set in accordance with the operating limits of the monitor otherwise the monitor m
6. 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 ERAZOR L After installing the drivers You can select the possible settings for Color palette Font size Resolution and Dis play 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 Win 31 dows NT 4 0 in your system manual ELSA ERAZOR No Video HO Video what s in what s out Video what s in what s out This section is relevant only for those boards equipped for video functionality You can check if this is the case with your board by looking at the connectors on the mounting bracket of the ELSA ERAZOR III If your board is fitted with a VGA connector only then you unfortunately cannot make use of the functions described here The ELSA ERAZOR Ill has a video socket to which you connect the composite video adapter cable supplied The sockets on the composite video adapter cable allow you to connect three video sources and two output devices Exciting new possibilities are opened up under Windows 98 and Wind
7. SVHS C method separate the Y and the C ELSA ERAZOR All about graphics signals wile recording When transferring the signal to television or a video recorder you should use the Hosiden connector or an S VHS compatible Scart cable if possible IEEE 1394 This format also known as FireWire is a special case It is the best solution in terms of quality as it is a digital process This development was a joint Apple and Sony initia tive for transmitting digital video information The video data are transmitted directly as they are produced line by line The throughput for IEEE 1394 is currently 100 Mbps Transfer rates of 200 and 400 Mbps are already in sight Video formats compressors at work Recording videos on your hard disk can quickly take up a great deal of its capacity The amount of space required depends directly on the resolution and on the data format The Video for Windows driver support the formats RGB16 and YVU9 Especially noteworthy is the video compression technique developed by ELSA RGB16 This data format works in RGB color space 5 bits pixel are required for each of the three color components red green and blue and another 1 bit pixel is required for the filling This means that a total of 16 bits pixel or 2 bytes pixel are required for storing one frame of video The color resolution of RGB16 pictures is similar to RealColor under Win dows The advantage of RGB16 is that this format can be d
8. can also select the page number from the keyboard Simply type in the numbers to start the search You don t only have to search for a certain page number You can also click on any other text appearing on screen and the browser will display the first page it finds which con tains the text you selected O Neat meetings You will find Microsoft s NetMeeting conferencing program on the WINNERware CD The following list is a short summary With NetMeeting you can for instance Call up anyone over a network or through a modem Carry on conversations over the Internet See the people you call up using a modem or network Work in one application with others application sharing Use the whiteboard to draw during an online conference Send written messages in chat mode Set up a call link so that others can call you from your webpages Send files to all the participants in a conference Your picture could be shown in video here and the remote site here You can connect a video camera to the video input of the ELSA ERAZOR IIl The picture can be shown in a Microsoft NetMeeting conference ELSA ERAZOR III dr Useful stuff and more 1 9 The F1 key or the menu command calls up NetMeeting s online help You will find more information about the program here MainActor the principal performer You will find MainActor on the CD The program consists of three modules with which you are able to
9. channel through which a DDC capable monitor can send its technical data to the graphics board DirectColor Generic term for TrueColor RealColor and HighColor The value that is stored in the video RAM is not translated but transferred directly to the D A converter This means that the full color information must be saved for each pixel Double buffering means that there are two display buffers This means that the next image can be drawn in the page of the display buffer which is initially invisible This image will be displayed once it is ready and the next image will be prepared in the other page of the buffer Animations and games can be made to look more realistic with this technique than with simple single buffer ELSA ERAZOR III LE Glossary DPMS Abbreviation of VESA Display Power Management Signaling This standard allows an energy saving operation of monitors in sev eral steps The graphics boards described in this manual support VESA DPMS DRAM Abbreviation of Dynamic Random Access Memory Volatile memory for read and write operations EDO RAM Abbreviation for Extended Data Output Random Access Memory Hyper Page Mode EDO RAM is very common on graphics boards as the most recently used data persist in memory A number of read accesses to sim ilar data occur during the generation of an image so that use of EDO RAM gives a signifi cant speed advantage FCC compliance means that a device
10. completed this image is then passed to the front buffer in a process known as flipping The next image will only ever be displayed once the image drawing process 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 fops a very important value for 3D applications A cinema film runs at 24 fps 3D interfaces Software interfaces including 3D interfaces are known as APIs Application Program Interface The question is what are these interfaces used for and how do they work ELSA ERAZOR III All about graphics In simple terms They make developers work easier The methods by which the various interfaces function are comparable In the past it was necessary 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 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 manufac turers during development and optimized for the hardware 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 ha
11. confusing the input sockets because of the different shapes of the composite video and S Video plugs Make sure that you do not mix up the input and output sockets on the composite video adapter cable when connecting the video camera The video input on the ELSA ERAZOR Ill is compatible with Video for Windows Thus any application that supports this standards should work ELSA ERAZOR ELSA video settings Once you have connected the video source started your computer and loaded Windows click on the ELSA symbol in the task bar in the bottom right of the screen and select the Video Capture Format gt Start command from the dialog box Video Capture Source Now you should specify which video source you wish to use on the ELSA Video Capture Properties tab The color correction options allow you to adapt the input signal This covers brightness contrast color image sharpness and hue The setting for the hue however is only effective for NTSC input signals ELSA Video Capture Properties The color correction affects the video image only not the whole Source Format If don t want it in it s Connector got to stay out Bide off je cet qe screen by this motto when 2 100097 deciding which video int s ideo amp cene connector is to be used and the connector s video standard A p Video Standard 11111 11 Select PA
12. overall impression Here too there are different methods which are more or less processor intensive Flat shading assigns a color value to each polygon This results in a mosaic like jagged representation which demands only a short processing time n 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 a very gentle color transition even with fewer polygons than are required for flat shading The Phong shading method additionally takes a normal vector of reflectivity into consideration when interpolating An even more realistic impression 15 gener ated by the representation of reflections and mirror images Certain applications use ray tracing methods This is a very computer intensive and time consuming process in which each individual pixel and its reflection in 3D space is calculated The frame buffer The finished image will not be written to the frame buffer until this complex se quence 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 This prevents the process of image drawing being visible The duplicate storage method is also known as double buffering Flipping Display on the monitor The content of the front buffer is displayed on the monitor When the drawing process in the back buffer is
13. 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 pur chase price to the buyer in exchange to the defective product Operating manuals and possibly sup plied software are excluded from the warranty Material and service 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 re placement of defective parts in order to bring the equipment up to the current technical state This does not result in any additional charge for the customer A legal claim to this service does not ex ist Warranty period The warranty period for ELSA products is six years Excepted from this warranty period are ELSA color monitors 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 a b c d 4 Warranty procedure If defects appear during the warranty period the warranty claims must be made immediately at the
14. pixel Here 8 bits are available for each color component 256 levels resulting in 16 7 million different color hues There are more colors available than pixels on the screen 1 3 million pixels at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 VESA DDC Display Data Channel The Display Data Channel provides a serial data channel between the monitor and the graphics board as long as both support DDC and the monitor cable includes the addi tional DDC wire This feature allows the monitor data to be sent automatically to the graphics board e g name type max horizontal frequency timing definitions etc or even for the graphics board to send instruction to the monitor There are various standards DDC2B and DDC2AB ELSA ERAZOR III O All about graphics DDC2B A bi directional data channel based on the 12 access bus protocol is used for the com munication 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 brightness sim
15. you can run the SETUP EXE from the CD s root directory The CD setup recognizes the operating system and the ELSA graphics board Based on this information the program displays the driver and the selection of software supported All of these programs are on the W NNERware CD pioanpaneni s yos rd inel li obser e coanppesents pas Be rel 4 Mil Y Mers List of software which can Peden E 4 dake be installed ELSA WIKHER 2000 re rura t d Descrip The ELSA yl gader bomi a ba ict LL Information about the ent ries listed MEE Epro dis alan TED K Bach Cav The right settings Our tip is Invest a little time at this stage and you won t regret it Take your time to set up your system just right Your eyes will thank you for it and you are guaranteed to have more fun in front of your screen ELSA ERAZOR Dn After installing the drivers 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 What value should set for my display refresh rate To help you find the answers to these questions this chapter has been divided according to the operating systems available Just look for the section about the operati
16. A Inc Sonnenweg 11 2231 Calle De Luna D 52070 Aachen Santa Clara CA 95054 Germany USA Aachen April 1999 No 21610 0499 O Preface Thank you for placing your trust in this ELSA product With the ELSA ERAZOR Ill you have selected a graphics board which was designed as entry product for professional CAD and visualization The graphics processor on the board ensures high speed generation of on screen graphics making this board ideal for advanced CAD and visualization applications as well as for fast animation ELSA prod ucts are subject to the highest of standards in production and quality control which are the foundation for consistently high product quality ELSA ERAZOR III 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 or how is the board upgraded The accompanying ELSA utility programs are described and you will find detailed information about 3D acceleration Changes to this manual 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 Current 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 Look for information in the a
17. Dco tuta ettet 25 SVHS uei enc a 25 UNNE RIS 36 Video formats compressors at 36 A TC ec 36 Qi CT 36 ELSA COMES SION rado 37 dal ere 39 Characteristics of the graphics board 39 ELSA graphics board addresses 39 Ports on the graphics board roda 40 The VGA D shell socket tt da IS 40 ee ENT 41 DOC Declaration of Conformity iodo 41 Warranty conditions aci 42 AE AAA aaaea b knee 45 O A A 49 ELSA ERAZOR Introduction Introduction The ELSA ERAZOR Ill is available with or without video function This manual describes both versions Parts within the manual which refer to video functions are marked accord ingly ELSA ERAZOR III highlights New NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 graphics processor The raw power of 32MB of synchronous video memory plus up to 128 MB of AGP texture space Pixel clock frequency up to 300 MHz Optional video in and out version for video capture internet video and games on the big screen for Windows 98 and Windows 95 Two independent 3D rendering pipelines for maximum performance Product support via ELSA LocalWeb and Internet WWW site Six year warranty This board complies with the CE and FCC rules Video in Video recording Full screen fo
18. ELSA ERAZOR 1999 ELSA AG Aachen Germany While the information in this manual has been compiled with great care it may not be deemed an assur ance of product characteristics ELSA shall be liable only to the degree specified in the terms of sale and delivery The reproduction and distribution of the documentation and software supplied with this product and the use of its contents is subject to written authorization from ELSA ELSA is DIN EN ISO 9001 certified The accredited TUV CERT certification authority has confirmed ELSA conformity to the worldwide ISO 9001 standard in certificate number 09 100 5069 issued on June 15 1998 This product incorporates copyright protection technology that is protected by method claims of certain U S patents and other intellectual property rights owned by Macrovision Corporation and other right owners Use of this copyright protection technology must be authorized by Macrovision Corporation and is intended for home and other limited viewing uses only unless otherwise authorized by Macrovision Corporation Reverse engineering or disassembly is prohibited Trademarks Windows Windows NT and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp All other names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The ELSA logo is a registered trademark of ELSA AG Subject to change without notice No liability for technical errors or omissions ELSA AG ELS
19. L NTSC or SECAM as your video standard PAL 15 the normal video standard in Europe The manual for your video recorder or video camera can help if you have any queries Select which video input you wish to be active from the Connection option group For example you can connect a video recorder to each of the two composite inputs In2 video and In3 video and a video camera to the S VHS input In1 S Video Clicking on the rel evant input determines which video source sends your signal to the ELSA ERAZOR ELSA ERAZOR III ELSA video settings Video Capture Format Clicking on the Format tab brings up a selection of possible video resolutions Select the resolution you require for video display and recording and confirm your settings by clicking OK You can select the resolu tions supported for display Source Format on a television from this Resoktion _ p Data format window RGB 16 bit YVUS 9 bit Turn the picture upside down if you want to AD Mitton horizontal Abbrechen How does the video image get onto the computer monitor The WINNERware CD has programs you can use to display the video image One partic ularly exciting application when the video camera is connected is to use Microsoft Net Meeting 20 You can set up conferences over a TCP IP network or a telephone connection which will also send video information For example
20. a 31 45 Back face culling etie rait 30 sb TP ETE 39 45 Bump Mapping 30 45 39 45 C CHROMA ANCE eate nho soto ct toes 39 45 Ie cl ale eee Guerin ee Lacan 45 Color palettes ET RT 33 Color TUNING tin 19 oP NTE aT 32 Composite video 2 30 Composite video adapter cable 12 D a O 40 A e 45 Declaration of Conformity 41 A 33 Direc Uncle 27 Mt ere it 34 45 cte atate Rt et 32 rte ue ie 39 AAA A 45 46 DRAMI ta oe 46 Index E deo tet b 46 ELSA Ba dianas 22 F A ed 3 46 A 30 Flat shading ds 31 46 47 E EE 31 46 Frame buffer adi 31 46 Front buffer cose N 31 46 G Geometrical transformation 29 46 Gouraud shading e 31 47 A bc aste 33 H Hardware description 39 34 46 Horizontal frequency 46 0 AGO 39 Immediate mode 32 Interpolation coses 46 n 39 RO iia ts 39 L bey el tt A 35 M MEMON ecco cet neta 39 Memory addresses 39 MIP mapping ac 30 46 A A 22 82
21. ade in double buffering between the front buffer and the back buffer The image change between the front buffer and the back buffer is synchronized in tearing Tesselation The objects for 3D calculations are divided up into polygons triangles in tes selation The vertices color and if required transparency values are determined for the tri angles Textures Wrapping a bitmap around an object including perspective correction for example wallpaper on a wall or a wood texture ELSA ERAZOR III on furniture Even a video can be used as a tex ture map TrueColor Graphics mode with 16 7 million colors 24 or 32 hits per pixel In this mode the color information saved in the display memory is not translated by a look up table but passed directly to the D A converter This means that the full color information must be saved for each pixel VESA Abbreviation of Video Electronics Standards Association A consortium for the standardization of computer graphics VRAM Abbreviation for video RAM Mem ory chip for fast graphics boards Z buffer 3D depth information position in the third dimension for each pixel Index SCN ING cer ter aces 30 45 SUIS cca dte dia ntt ie 29 45 BL SEEING E 27 A A ett PES 39 AB nte eoe Dt cc MO ME 45 AMAS Mes 45 Alpha blending Stones opas 45 Anal abu 31 PI eee ase ee seni tud a acil 31 B Daba i
22. are aligned in perspective as seen from the observer s point of view Back face culling This process computes hidden surfaces resulting from the observation perspective chosen Any object having an invisible front surface is omitted 3D clipping In this process each polygon is checked to determine whether it is partially or fully invisible The invisible faces or parts of objects will be removed Scaling on the screen The above steps are now calculated for three dimen sional space using normalized coordinates The on screen image coordinates will only now be computed Rendering At this stage the 3D scene is filled with color shades and textures are applied Different processes and methods are also applied here ELSA ERAZOR III 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 tex tures are computed 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 n linear mapping a new color value is interpolated from the adjacent pixels or telexes of a texture This gives better results than point sampling as the hard boundary between the coarse pixels is blurred The
23. chically the immediate mode is also known as the low level mode The programming interface level is close to the hardware level and permits the programmer direct access to special functions in the hardware component concerned The retained mode high level mode makes it possible for example to load a defined 3D object with textures into a Windows application Here it can be manipulated and moved using simple API commands Translation takes place in real time without the need to know the technical structure of the object ELSA ERAZOR III O O All about graphics For further information see the Internet WWW site http www microsoft com OpenGL Following its success in gaining a good reputation amongst professionals using CAD CAM programs OpenGL is now increasingly penetrating the PC market OpenGL is plat form 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 descrip tions can then be taken directly from the list resulting in very high performance How ever If objects need to be manipulated frequently the display list will have to be generated again from new In this case the speed advantage is lost OpenGL 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 som
24. create sophisticated video productions The sequencer MainActor sequencer is a professional video sequencer that allows you to produce vid eos with sound animations titles and videoclips Additional effects and filters give you the ability to easy manipulate your video material Pee MERGE IS LEE fer 9 0 ELSA ERAZOR Useful stuff and more The video editor MainActor sequencer allows you to load edit and playback any animations images and sounds you can also convert these to a wide variety of formats Edited projects may be stored as new animations or images EFT den Es te Bem wej Haj xti He SA Leissa maja iru Seanad Gira Wer wem ieee i dE Pra It is easy to start using MainActor thanks to its comprehensive online cerva edu LM help i mmus um boue id LI imen jr tap ip The Viewer MainView is the external player for MainActor It is used if you only wish to playback vid eos without having to load them into MainActor MainView can also be called from other programs Open MainActor s online help by pressing F1 or selecting Help from the menu bar You Ley will find more information about the program here ELSA ERAZOR III Useful s
25. deo recorder s Scart connector must be connected with the composite input of the ELSA ERAZOR III Example video signal processing with ELSA ERAZOR III Antenna signal Cable or TV picture in the Video Capture window on the computer monitor ELSA ERAZOR Video out Unlike a computer monitor a television set is not able to process the VGA signal from a graphics board Comparing the 15 pin output for the monitor with a coaxial antenna cable makes it immediately clear that the signals are handled in fundamentally different ways The ELSA ERAZOR Ill is equipped with its own translator chip which converts VGA sig nals for the television This signal can of course be used by other devices such as projec tors with a video input or a video camera The right connection The video socket is on the mounting bracket of the ELSA ERAZOR Ill Plug the composite video adapter cable into this video socket 36 One for all The composite video adapter cable The composite video adapter cable supplied with the board provides everything you need Video in and video out connections First plug the wide connector with the VIDEO ELSA ERAZOR III Video what s in what s out socket in to the ELSA ERAZOR Ill Five cables come out of this plug Each cable is cov ered by a sleeve marked with the assignment of the various sockets IN 2 video composite video FBAS IN 3 video composite video FBAS OUT video composit
26. e 330 routines of OpenGL provide software developers access to these graphics capabilities For further information see the Internet WWW site http www sgi com Color Palettes TrueColor and Gray Scales Common graphics modes are listed in the following table Not all graphics modes are available on the ELSA ERAZOR boards Colors Graphics mode bpp bpg from palette Max gray levels VGA 0x12 4 6 6 6 16 of 262 144 16 VGA 0x13 8 6 6 6 256 0 262 144 64 Standard 8 6 6 6 256 of 262 144 64 8 6 6 6 256 of 16 7 million 256 HighColor 15 54545 32 768 32 16 6464 65 536 16 16 54645 65 536 32 TrueColor 24 8848 16 7 million 256 32 86181848 16 7 million 256 bpp bits per pixel bpg bits per gun VGA In VGA graphics adapters the digital color information stored in the video memory 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 ana log signals on just three lines plus sync lines The original color values are converted into completely different values by means of a translation table The value stored in the ELSA ERAZOR III All about graphics 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 s
27. e 640 horizontal by 480 vertical pixels 640 x 480 RGB Color information is saved in the Red Green Blue color format ROM Abbreviation of Read Only Memory semiconductor memory that can only be read and not written to S Video or S VHS Signal transmission of video information where the signals for chrominance and luminance are sepa rated This results in a higher picture quality Shading Shading or rendering is a way to define the colors on curved surfaces in order to give an object a natural appearance To achieve this the surfaces are subdivided into many small triangles The three most impor tant 3D shading methods differ in the algorithm used to apply colors to these triangles Flat shading the triangles are uniformly col ored Gouraud shading The color shades on a trian gle are calculated by interpolating the vertex colors resulting in a smooth appearance of the surface Phong shading the color shades on a triangle are calculated by interpolating the normal vec tor Shutter glasses Goggles which use stereo scopic LCD projection of 3D scenery to give the observer a strong impression of space ELSA ERAZOR III VLA Glossary Single buffer By contrast with double buff ering where the image buffer is duplicated the single buffering mode 15 not able to access the next image which has already been calculated This means that animations will run jerkily Tearing A distinction is m
28. e as an AGP version Your computer must have an AGP bus Monitor The ERAZOR works with the standard IBM VGA compatible horizontal scan frequency of 31 5 kHz while booting and in DOS operation Introduction CE conformity and FCC radiation standard CE 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 elec tromagnetic compatibility 89 336 EEC according to EN 55022 class B FCC 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 CE and FCC These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against radio frequency inter ference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy It may interfere with to radio communications if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions However there is no guarantee that interfer ence 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 follow ing measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the distance between this equipment and the receiver Connect the equipm
29. e video FBAS OUT S Video S VHS IN 1 S Video S VHS Plug for connecting to the output VIDEO on the ELSA ERAZOR III 15 pin D sub plug When connecting a device to the composite video adapter cable you need only consider the following What kind of device do want to attach nput device e g a video camera Qutput device e g a video recorder What connections are there on the device S VHS Y C and or Composite video FBAS Use the 5 5 connection for preference if the device has both an S VHS connection and a composite video connection Composite video connector socket on the composite video adapter cable S Video connector socket on the composite 7 video adapter cable 606 ELSA ERAZOR PA Video what s in what s out Connection to a TV set You can connect any normal television to the ELSA ERAZOR Look in the operating instructions for your television to find out what video standards it supports PAL or NTSC devices it depends on the model can be connected to the ELSA ERAZOR III ELSA ERAZOR III ELSA video settings ELSA video settings Besides the ELSA video settings which allow a very detailed configuration for video in and video out you should take a look at the ELSA VideoControl This tool is a very con venient solution for the centralized control over the video in and video out functions Vid
30. ed without having to restart your system ly abi ELSA Sota Once saved the settings can be easily Dre Strib A recalled the individual 3D configurations Mod ti acne Cantar Font for your games can be found in the PA k ma aat Al Himan ELSA WiNman Suite PER Lied af Eli Experimentation pays Give your combatant a little extra zip and optimize his chances against the competition If the descriptions here are too cryptic just take a look at the glossary in this manual or use the comprehensive help system Simply click on the ques tion 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 ELSA ERAZOR III Useful stuff and more ELSA ERAZOR All about graphics All about graphics This is the chapter where we really get stuck in Anyone who wants to know more about graphics especially in connection with the ELSA ERAZOR H will finde a whole load of technical stuff right here 3D graphics representation Today it is considered de rigeur to know all about 3D Your curiosity will be aroused as soon as you experience the first visual wizardry generated 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 w
31. ent 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 changes or modifications to the unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for i Caution to the user The Federal Communications Commission warns the user that compliance could void the user s authority to operate the equipment ELSA ERAZOR Introduction ELSA ERAZOR III After installing the drivers 5 After installing the drivers In this chapter you will find descriptions of where you can find the software for operating your ELSA graphics board the performance characteristics of your graphics board and how you can most effectively tuning for the combination of monitor and ELSA gra phics board Software installation from the CD The ELSA graphics board is normally supplied with software a CD ROM You will find all the utilities described in this manual on the WINNERware CD unless they are a com ponent of the operating system Once you have successfully completed the steps described in the Installation Guide your ELSA ERAZOR Ill is integrated into your computer system with installed drivers In this way you have very likely come to know the program ELSA CD setup This program should start automatically after inserting your WINNEAware CD but if not then
32. eo in If you have installed the ELSA WiNman Suite and the Display DirectX Settings ELSA Video In Out Utility an ELSA icon will appear in uit iS the task bar at the bottom right of your screen 7 A Display Video Out gt click on this icon opens up a dialog box from which you morae Aena can call up the commands for the video settings videoviewer 2 video input for the ELSA ERAZOR Ill can be defined and Info about WINman Suite Info about ELSA v Load at Startup adjusted using the ELSA video settings You can set the following options C00013GB The connector Video Capture Source The video standard Video Capture Source The resolution of the video recording Video Capture Format A preview window for the signal at the video input Video and videotext viewer If you have connected a video input device to the ELSA ERAZOR Ill you will need to change your settings under Video capture Format and Video capture Source The video picture on the computer monitor It may be enticing to record video material but We must remind you that copyright protected material must not be copied or duplicated without permission ELSA accepts no responsibility for copyright violations You can connect any normal video camera or any video device to the graphics board Connect the video output on the device to the suitable socket in the composite video adapter cable Their is no risk of
33. ery 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 ap plies This is also applicable if the purchaser s domicile is not known at the 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 ELSA ERAZOR III Appendix ELSA ERAZOR III Glossary 3D Three dimensional 3D clipping Process in geometric trans formation in which invisible surfaces or parts of a 3D object are removed 3D pipeline Sum of all steps required for the representation of virtual 3D scene on the moni tor These include tesselation geometri cal transformation and rendering AGP stands for Accelerated Graphics Port and 15 a further development by INTEL based on the PCI bus The AGP bus provides a greater bandwidth for data transmission and communi cates directly with main memory The bus 15 primarily intended for 3D graphics boards Aliasing the familiar staircase effect Jagged transitions are often formed between adjacent pixel
34. f the on screen image ELSA ERAZOR ELSA video settings ELSA ERAZOR III Ley Useful stuff and more Useful stuff and more Apart from the ELSA drivers the WINNERware CD also contains additional programs and utilities for use with the ELSA ERAZOR Ill a selection of which we will intorduce 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 the playback of 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 com mon 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 Video playback or Internet live radio The Microsoft Multimedia Player handles all common multimedia formats 25 play_rbn ra Windows Media Pla Ea File View Play Favorites Go Help my Showcase Ef n m 144 44 b g Bia Show Clip Th es Entertainment Inc e Playing 00 05 01 18 03 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 M
35. he PCI BIOS interface If you come across any address conflicts try to modify the address of the expansion board causing the conflict The addresses of the ELSA graphics boards cannot be changed The ERAZOR III 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 hardware compo nents The following addresses are assigned 1 0 addresses Standard VGA 1 0 3B0 3DF Memory addresses Video RAM A0000 BFFFF Video BIOS ROM C0000 C7FFF ELSA ERAZOR Technical data Ports on the graphics board VGA D shell socket Monitor connection socket 15 pin VIDEO D sub plug Connector for the composite video adapter cable 15 pin The VGA D shell socket Pin assignment Connection Signal Connection 1 Red 9 2 Green 10 3 Blue 11 4 Monitor IDO 12 5 DDC ground 13 6 Red ground 14 7 Green ground 15 8 Blue ground 00000 0000 Signal 5V Sync ground Monitor ID2 Bidirectional data SDA DDC1 2B Horizontal synchronization Vertical synchronization Data timing SCL DDC2B The ELSA ERAZOR Ill issues analog signals in accordance with the requirements of Guideline RS 170 The synchronization information is sent separately ELSA ERAZOR III
36. ideo output This function is particularly helpful if for example you would like to continue to work in Mainactor while maintaining control of the full image on the television With the Full button you can switch the video image on your monitor to full image mode Control section Anyone who has ever operated a videocassette or cassette recorder will immediately understand this section The video control buttons are self explanatory We will con sciously leave a documentation gap with the exception to note that the button automatically rewinds Videotext is also interesting If you click the fl button an additional videotext window appears If the preview window remains black the error could lie with the cable connections In any case check to see which video input the television tuner is con nected to and whether that input has been activated as a video source In order to receive videotext you must have a television or satellite tuner connected to one of the video inputs The HTML button allows the videotext page to be stored as an HTML file You deter mine the directory yourself the files will be stored there under the sender name and a serial number ELSA ERAZOR 4 Useful stuff and more Searching for information Operating the browser can be learned quickly First and most important your videotext session can be fully controlled with the mouse Double click on the page number you wish to view You
37. ight be damaged in extreme cases Horizontal scan frequency The horizontal scan frequency of a monitor in kHz This value must be set in accordance with the operating limits of the monitor otherwise the monitor might be damaged in extreme cases Interpolation A video image must be stretched or shrunk in order to fit into the dis play window If pixels are simply multiplied for example a block of four equally colored pixels represents the original pixel aliasing effects blocks and stairs will occur This can be avoided by interpolation procedures using average colors for inserted pixels Horizontal interpolation is relatively easy to perform since the pixels are drawn to the screen in lines Vertical interpolation is more difficult and requires a complete pixel line to be buffered MIP mapping mapping a number of textures are assigned to an object depending on distance The representation of the object becomes more detailed as the observer approaches the object Multifrequency Multisync monitor A monitor that can be operated at various hori zontal scan frequencies or that automatically adapts itself to different video signals resolu tions OpenGL 3D software interface 3D API E g implemented in Windows NT and avail able for Windows 95 Based on Iris GL from Sil icon Graphics and licensed from Microsoft Page Flipping The image generated in the back buffer is displayed PCI b
38. ilar to ACCESS bus Modern monitors and graphics boards no longer use this standard The pin assignment of the VGA D shell socket can be found in the chapter Technical data Video signal formats There are two common standards for the transmission of video signals Composite video and S video The IEEE 1394 format is currently supported only by Sony equipment The monitor and graphics board communicate on three color channels The color infor mation is split into three color signals for red green and blue RGB Video information for a television on the other hand only makes a distinction between monochrome and color information luminance and chrominance Composite video Composite video also known as FBAS packs the luminance and chrominance infor mation in a single signal In this way all the information required for a video image can be transmitted over a single cable This method is a great benefit for transmissions from a television transmitter But this method also has clear disadvantages regarding signal quality The nesting of luminescence Y and chrominance C is imprecise and leads to errors in the video image S VHS The solution to the disadvantages of composite video format is clear S VHS or Y C offers the answer the separation of the Y and C signals The cost of having the second cable necessary to implement this is more than compensated for by the enhanced image quality Video cameras that use the Hi 8 or
39. irectly understood by Win dows The disadvantage is the large amount of storage space required With a resolution of 320x240 pixels a single picture takes up 150 kilobytes and with a resolu tion of 640x480 pixels four times the capacity or 600 KB per image is required YVU9 YVUS requires less space with 9 bits pixel This format works in YVU color space and provides 256 gray shades per pixel in comparison with just 32 gray shades with RGB16 The compression of these files is achieved by reducing the color resolution The human eye is more sensitive to differences in brightness than to differences in color which means that the compressed YVU images are qualitatively no different to those which are not compressed A YVU9 picture at 320x240 resolution takes up about 84 KB YVUS picture with a resolution of 640x480 pixels requires four times the capacity or 336 KB per image When processing YVU9 video you should use the MainActor program Other video pro cessing programs frequently do not support this format ELSA ERAZOR III All about graphics ELSA compression The ELSA video compression technique reduces the data quantity even further A special process stores just 3 to 5 bits per pixel Like YVU9 the ELSA video compression works in YVU color space The compression rate depends on the type of images being com pressed Images clean of interference can be better compressed than noisy ones Large unchanging areas unifor
40. latest within a period of 7 days In the case of any externally visible damage arising from transport e g damage to the housing the transport company representative and ELSA should be informed immediately On discovery of dam age which 15 not externally visible the transport company and ELSA are to be immediately informed in writing at the latest within 7 days of delivery Transport to and from the location where the warranty claim is accepted and or the repaired device is exchanged is at the purchaser s own risk and cost Warranty claims are only valid if the original purchase receipt is returned with the device Suspension of the warranty All warranty claims will be deemed invalid a b ELSA ERAZOR if the device is damaged or destroyed as a result of acts of nature or by environmental influences moisture electric shock dust etc if the device was stored or operated under conditions not in compliance with the technical specifi cations c d e f g h 5 Appendix f if the damage occurred due to incorrect handling especially to non observance of the system de scription and the operating instructions f if the device was opened repaired or modified by persons not authorized by ELSA f if the device shows any kind of mechanical damage f 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
41. ll circum stances The general rule is that a refresh rate of 73 Hz meets the minimum ergonomic ELSA ERAZOR III After installing the drivers requirements The resolution to be selected also depends on the capabilities of your mon itor 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 16 800 600 1024 768 1024 768 19 17 5 18 1 1024 768 1280 1024 1152 864 20 21 19 20 1024 768 1600 1200 1280 x 1024 24 21 22 5 1600 x 1000 1920 x 1200 1600 x 1000 Changing the resolution You set the resolution of your graphics board in the Control Panel under Windows Windows 95 and Windows 98 The En Settings are automatically integrated into the Control Panel during the instal lation of the WiNman Suite You can use these Settings to tweak your graphics system for the best performance The Settings provide some great features Once you have specified the graphics board model and the monitor data the program will automat ically 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 D Click on Start then select Settings gt Control Panel 2 You will find the Display icon in the Control Panel When you start this program yo
42. m brightness and low color variation also enable a better com pressed than with complex images A frame with 320x240 pixels compressed with the ELSA technique takes up about 48 KB A frame with 640x480 pixels generally reaches a higher rate of compression than with 320x240 pixels and takes up approximately 120 KB Your computer carries out the ELSA video compression in real time while you record the video Utilizing the ELSA compression presents you with several advantages you can record videos at a higher frame rate you can record videos in higher resolutions the drop rate is lower and you can record longer video sequences on hard disk than is possible without data compression ELSA ERAZOR All about graphics ELSA ERAZOR III Technical data Technical data Those of you with a technical bent will find more detailed information regarding the ELSA ERAZOR Ill in this chapter All interfaces and their assignments are described in detail Characteristics of the graphics board ELSA ERAZOR III Graphics processor RIVA 2 by nVidia RAMDAC pixel timing 300MHz On board memory 16 32 with over 1 6 GB s bandwidth BIOS Flash BIOS with VBE 3 0 Support Bus system AGP 2x 4x VESA DDC DDC2B ELSA graphics board addresses The ELSA graphics boards are 100 IBM VGA compatible and occupy the same memory area and specific addresses in the 1 0 range The memory range above 1 is automat ically assigned through t
43. ng system you use All the information you need is here and all the software you need if not already a part of your operating system is on the WINNERware CD What are your options The tables below show the maximum possible resolutions for the ELSA graphics board Note that these resolutions cannot be achieved under all operating conditions Max Refresh Rate Hz Color depth 256 colors 8bit HighColor 16bit TrueColor 24 bit 32 bit 1920 x 1200 90 15 1600 x 1200 60 160 60 90 60 90 1280 x 1024 60 160 60 120 60 120 1152 x 864 60 160 60 160 60 160 1024 x 768 60 160 60 160 60 160 800 x 600 60 160 60 160 60 160 640x 480 60 160 60 160 60 160 HighColor 65 536 colors TrueColor 16 7 million colors What makes sense There are some basic ground rules for you to follow when setting up your graphics sys tem On the one hand there are the ergonomic guidelines although nowadays these are met by most systems and on the other hand there are limitations inherent to your sys tem 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 many DTP or CAD workstations We recommend that games and normal Windows applications are operated in HighColor with 65 536 colors More Pixels more fun This is an opinion which is widespread but which is not entirely true under a
44. o in section Up to three external input signals can be managed with ELSA VideoControl In addition itis possible to play files in AVI format or the new motion JPEG process MJPEG as well as any other format for which the appropriate codec is installed in your system Also since DVD support is gaining more interest in addition to a drive an installed DVD decoder such as ELSAmovie 15 a prerequisite to playing DVD videos For video inputs 1 3 the 2D cross hairs enable the adjustment of color saturation as well as brightness and contrast Using the sliders you can change the level of the signal for the audio input ELSA ERAZOR Useful stuff and more Record section In the record mode you can choose between and Single In Video mode a switch is made to full image as soon as the Record button is activated and the recording is made in MJPEG format A small tip A 90 minute film with VHS quality fills less than 3GB of hard drive space with this compression process The sliders belong to the Timed and Wcam buttons If Timed is active you can define the recording duration with the help of the slider The selected time is displayed in the monitor window The Wcam function enables you to store an individual image every x seconds The position of the slider determines the point in time You can choose between 1 second or 1 hour Video out section With a click on the Vonly button you move the signal to v
45. ork 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 pipeline in which the mathematical calculations for its representation in space and perspective on the monitor are carried out What happens in detail Display Object data Tesselation PY Geometrical WWW Rendering m viva ix transformation Eee Start The object data The pipeline starts at the object The object description is made up of the data points Tesselation In the first step the object is broken down into a number of polygons or triangles The vertices of the triangles are described by coordinate points x y and 7 with the 7 value containing the depth information Depending on the representation these vertices also contain information concerning the material and texture The volume of data to be pro cessed increases enormously because of this conversion of the image information Geometrical transformation This part of the 3D pipeline is very processor intensive as all the calculations for the 3D scene are carried out at this stage Simplified it comprises of the following steps ELSA ERAZOR All about graphics Illumination The illumination of the scene by different light sources is calculated Transformation In transformation the objects
46. ows 95 with the board s video capabilities especially the video in function Signal interchange an overview Below we will show you just how open the ELSA ERAZOR Ill is to all sides Video In Computer with ELSA Video Out ERAZOR III Video camera p cimus L3 Television i Laser disk recorder Video recorder Eu E ws 1 77 Video vus player m Loy The illustration shows you on the left the input devices which can be connected to the graphics board Your ELSA graphics board has three inputs two of these are composite video inputs and one is a S VHS input The board is capable of processing the PAL NTSC and SECAM video standards On the right you see the devices capable of displaying the VGA signal from the computer You can send the content of the computer screen through the video out sockets to a tele vision a video recorder or a projector You can operate your ELSA ERAZOR with a monitor and a TV simultaneously ELSA ERAZOR Video what s in what s out Video in Before the ELSA ERAZOR Ill can react the signals must be clear It is of no use if you try to connect the antenna to the ELSA ERAZOR III The antenna s HF signal transmits infor mation for several channels and not a simple unambiguous video signal as required by the ELSA ERAZOR III f you wish to display a TV picture on your monitor then you cannot simply take the antenna output of your video recorder Instead the vi
47. 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 caused by unsuitable soft ware hardware installation or operation ELSA reserves the right to charge the purchaser for the result ing testing costs 6 a b c d f g h 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 Com pensation 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 liability law or in cas es 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 negligence 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 recov
48. ppendix Advice and Help In very urgent cases the ELSA Hotline can be reached under the following number 1 800272 6131 or from outside the USA 1 408 919 9100 O Before you read on The installation of the ELSA ERAZOR IlI hardware and software drivers is described in full in the Installation Guide which accompanies this manual You should refer to that docu ment before attempting to install your board and before reading this manual Contents Introduction al Coc ets 1 FLSA RAZOR IO a le e tt 1 A A A A 1 NN 1 RS A A A 2 What hardware do need atienda 2 CE conformity and FCC radiation standard stand a 3 After installing the drivers esee nennen nnns 5 Software installation from the suo oe tsi oo ctt te oben 5 5 What are your OMMONS new ius 6 What makes sense e Dn 6 Changing the resolution e co Mn 7 Windows 95 and Windows BO atenas esto 7 AS 9 Video what s in what s out 11 Signal interchange an EVI esta csset tag ode P dg etis trata put 11 O PENNE ONSE tape NR 12 bes A A 12 The rr HERO BCLLO Leste oss A 12 One for all The composite video adapter 12
49. r PAL NTSC Video editing with bundled Main Actor software including animated GIF and MPEG2 export Internet videoconferencing with bundled NetMeeting software Comfortable videotext and teletext display TV tuner required e g VCR Three independent video inputs 1 x S Video 2 x composite for VCR satellite tuner and camera Video out Play games on the big TV screen Record games and applications to VCR Render animation previews directly to the VCR Edit video directly on the TV High quality output with 10bit DAC and flicker filter Two simultaneous video outputs 1 x S Video 1 x composite ELSA ERAZOR III Introduction What s in the box You will notice if your graphics board is missing But you need to check that the box con tained all of the following Graphics board Installation Guide User Manual CD ROM with installation and driver software and utilities CD ROM with Direct3D demo programs Only with video equipped graphics boards Adapter for video in and video out If any part is missing please contact your dealer ELSA reserves the right to vary the prod ucts supplied without prior notice What hardware do need ELSA ERAZOR Computer Minimum requirements are a Pentium 166 or compatible The ERAZOR Ill only really comes to life if your computer has a Pentium II or compatible processor or even better Less muscular processors will not get the best out of the board Bus The ERAZOR Ill is availabl
50. r heroic campaign against the Orcs can be preserved for posterity on video tape Or incorporate some digital specials into your tape of your family The computer display on TV video What you see on your computer monitor can also be displayed on video TV or via a video beamer The entire screen or even just a part of it the active window of any application for example QD Click on the ELSA symbol in the task bar and use Display Video Out to call the dialog for the Video Out web inte EES Video Dui pm Vider ranas windows C Zum PAL Espa O KEUS E D EA 2 Next check if the video output is active ELSA ERAZOR III ELSA video settings 3 Now check the video standard Depending on the standard you require activate either PAL or NTSC 4 Under Connector select the video input type be it composite or S Video Should a black and white image appear on your TV call the Video Out dialog and click on Color Tuning In the Color Tuning window move the slider left or right to adjust the color carrier frequency until a colorful and stable picture is seen on your TV now you should see your monitor display on the video device In the Source area field you will see several options for the deciding which part of the image should be dis played Under Settings and Adjustment you can further optimize the quality size and position o
51. rdware What APIs are 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 The decisive questions for the user concern extensi bility flexibility and possible portability to existing applications Direct 3D As a development of Mode X and DirectDraw under Windows 3 1x Direct 3D is a branch of the DirectX multimedia family which was developed directly for Windows 95 to accel erate the slow 3D display characteristics of the operating system Direct 3D is based on Microsoft s Common Object Model COM which is also used as the foundation to OLE technology Object Linking and Embedding Direct 3D cooperates with Direct Draw in two dimensional display A typical situation would be for instance rendering a 3D object while Direct Draw is placing a two dimensional background bitmap Microsoft claims to have corrected some of the weaknesses of the old version in the most recent version 5 0 Immediate mode and retained mode As can be assumed from the two terms immediate mode is a programming mode that is close to the hardware Retained mode on the other hand is a programming mode that is largely predefined through API interface What does this mean in detail Looking at the two systems hierar
52. s in the representation of diago nals or curves These jaggies can be smoothed out by anti aliasing Alpha blending Additional information for each pixel for creating transparent materials Back buffer 15 the name for the image region built up in the background in the frame buffer during double buffering Back face culling Method used to calcu late the hidden faces of a 3D object BIOS Abbreviation of Basic Input Output System A program code in the read only mem ory ROM of a computer which performs the self test and several other functions during sys tem startup Bump mapping Process by which textures are assigned depth information which allows the display of relief or raised structures Glossary Bus system A system of parallel data lines for the transfer of information between indi vidual system components especially to expansion boards e g PCI bus Chrominance Color information in the video signal Clipping parts of polygons invisible to the representation are determined in clipping These parts are then not displayed D A converter Digital Analog converter A signal converter which converts a digital input signal to an analog output signal DCC Digital Content Creation DCC is the computer based production of professional visualizations and animations for the field of digital media and the entertainment industry DDC stands for Display Data Channel A special data
53. t of manufacturers and then select the resolution you wish to work with A second option requires information about the technical specifications for your monitor Consult your monitor manual to ensure that you have the correct information Click on Change in the Monitor type database window In addition to the information regard ELSA ERAZOR III After installing the drivers n ing the monitor manufacturer and the model designation you will have to enter the fre quency ranges for the horizontal and vertical scan frequencies and specify the diagonal size of your monitor Monitor manufacturer If your monitor type is not listed in the monitors database you can enter the gt Monitor model name monitor manufacturer and model type here The most important information is the maximal horizontal scan rate min mas o T o kHz limits of horizontal scan frequency o S o Hz limits of vertical refresh rate The vertical and horizontal frequency ranges and the diagonal size of the Nominal CRT diagonal size in inches or centimeters screen are the important settings o inch fo or visible screen area in centimeter fo x 0 cm C00005 GB Check your entries for the image frequencies carefully as otherwise you might damage your monitor Look these up in your monitor manual or consult the monitor manufacturer Windows NT 4 0 The settings for the graphics driver are included in the Control Panel under Windows
54. tored 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 possible colors DirectColor The situation is different in the case of DirectColor TrueColor RealColor and HighColor In this case the value stored in the video memory 15 not translated but is passed directly to the D A converter This means that the full color information must be saved for each pixel The meanings of the terms RealColor TrueColor and HighColor can be confused as they are not always used unambiguously HighColor and RealColor HighColor and RealColor usually describe a 15 or 16 bit wide graphics mode while True Color should only be used for the more professional 24 bit mode or 32 bit mode 15 bits provide 5 bits each for the red green and blue values resulting in 32 levels per RGB component and thus 32 768 32 x 32 x 32 different color hues The 16 bit graphics modes are organized differently Most common are R G B 5 6 5 e g XGA and 6 6 4 e g i860 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
55. tuff and more 74 Fine tuning for performance freaks After installing the ELSA graphics drivers under Windows 95 and Windows 98 you will find a new tab in the Display Properties The 3D Settings LES I Proparhaa Did ee a Patience Nh Misra D EXE Sakmrgn Parvrrancan ap abd Enable og hable Enable castum video 2 Enable miran dba E p ho sonia Kor Si pc The question mark provides the answers Click on this symbol and then on the area of the dialog about which you want more information Directa pro Antone ly vedi dto mpreag read biae T inen Direct Tenes Heus H ME rd cyte remy nduren Duon Dac range There s more Click on this button for additional dialog windows Because Windows 98 allows the operation of multiple graphics boards the 3D Settings for the Erazor are to be found in another location Under Display Properties select in turn Settings gt Advanced gt 3D Settings These settings let you set up the optimal games performance on your system In most cases you don t need to adjust anything Once in while if you see display errors screen or if there are problems with the speed you can adjust the Direct3D or settings The settings which are optimal for any game can saved under an Identifiable name and quickly recall
56. u are shown a dialog box where you can modified the display settings ELSA ERAZOR Dn After installing the drivers Q 3 Here you should click on the Ea Settings tab ELSA Settings has all the options al perenne for setting up the graphics board Die for your monitor i Konda Theo m AS Coo Rabe visible Foro Tu Windows 95 ELSA TAATOA M Windows 98 Under Windows 98 you can reach the Settings by selecting the Settings tab and then clicking on the Advanced It is important to carry out the following settings or checks step by step the monitor type Scherne Data Set Monitor the resolution of the monitor 152x864 32bpp 80Hz ELSA ECOMO 21H95 2 Image Scheme Data Set and Color Depth Refresh Rate i E the color depth E mill colors True Colo y 80 Hz v the refresh rate C00004GB Choosing the monitor If your monitor supports DDC the preset values will be displayed under Scheme If this is not the case click on Change to call up the database of monitor types You will be presented with a list of 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 lis
57. us Abbreviation of Peripheral Compo nent Interconnect Bus An advanced bus sys tem i e a system of parallel data lines to transfer information between individual system components especially to expansion boards Phong shading Shading Pixel Picture element Dot in the image Pixel frequency Pixel clock frequency number of pixels drawn per second in MHz Primitive Simple polygonal geometrical object such as a triangle 3D landscapes are generally broken down into triangles RAM Abbreviation of Random Access Mem ory Chip memory of a computer or expansion board that can be read from and written to unlike ROM Read Only Memory RAMDAC The RAMDAC converts the digital signals to analog signals on a graphics board VGA monitors are only capable of processing analog signals RealColor RealColor normally designates a 15 bpp or 16 bpp bits per pixel graphics mode i e 32 768 or 65 536 colors Refresh rate or image refresh frequency in Hz indicates how many times per second an image on the monitor is refreshed Glossary Ky Rendering Process for calculating the repre sentation of a 3D scene in which the position and color of each point in space 15 determined The depth information is held in the gt Z buffer the color and size information is held in the frame buffer Resolution The number of pixels in horizon tal and vertical direction on the screen for exampl
58. y Computer folder to conveniently launch the Player and start the playback The use of the Multimedia Player is intuitive and it includes a comprehensive help func tion to clarify questions or solve problems while working with the program ELSA ERAZOR 74 Useful stuff and more Video control deluxe With the ELSA VideoControl tool you have a program at your disposal that provides use ful functions and has an attractive interface Moreover ELSA VideoControl is constructed according to the WDM Windows Driver Model open interface standard Therefore anyone who wants to is in the position to program his own extensions or rummage around the internet to see whether someone else has already been creative O The program interface is divided into several functional sections Videoi in section Control section Video start or stop Forward backward or pause Record level control or videotext output Which video source do choose Should the input signal be adjusted Record section Video out section Which recording mode How is the video output do choose to be done In detail operation ELSA VideoControl is operated intuitively with the mouse When pressing the left mouse button you can grab the controls and change settings by moving the mouse A tip With the right mouse button you can move the sliders together and in the case of some buttons HTML or select the file directory Vide
59. you can show on the screen the video image of the participants in a conference Entire video sequences can be recorded with MainActor another program on the WINNERware CD Special formats allow linking of animated video sequences to Internet pages 22 Overwhelmed A whole new world of opportunities opens up with the video interface on the graphics board If you re too dazzled by the wealth of options available you might like to look at the tips and ideas listed below What s IN With your camera you can Hold Internet video conferences using Microsoft NetMeeting Your picture adds weight to your opinion Those taking part in the conference can see each other and the conference experience 15 more lifelike With your video recorder you can Play live video or TV on your desktop A news ticker or a video clip from your favorite tape will run in an extra window on your monitor ELSA ERAZOR III ELSA video settings Make recordings of still images or video sequences from the video recorder Using MainActor you can record and edit your valuable archive material Digital images can be manipulated as you wish What is OUT With your television you can finally experience big time games action in large format A sound card will make your games playing a multimedia pleasure check the image you have recorded on the video recorder With your video recorder you can Record games sequences as video You
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