3D Viewer on 64-bit system

[Richard Kollmar]

Dear All:

I am having trouble getting the ImageJ 3D Viewer to work in a 64-bit  
environment. The plugin works beautifully in various 32-bit  
environments (Windows XP, OS X Leopard, or Ubuntu), but I have large  
image stacks and need more memory. Also, the plugin worked fine with  
these stacks on someone else's computer under 64-bit Vista, but I  
don't have access to that setup anymore. I run it from Fiji, so Java3D  
etc. should be installed properly.

I'd be most grateful for suggestions, especially if someone has this  
plugin running in a similar environment:
- Motherboard Intel D975XBX "BadAxe"
- Processor Intel Core 2 Duo
- Memory 8 GB RAM
- Graphics Card ATI FireGL V5200

64-bit operating systems I have tried:

- Windows 7 RC with built-in FireGL driver (no Windows 7 drivers from  
ATI yet): plugin opens and processes the stack (judging from the  
progress bar), but fails to display an image in the plugin window  
within a reasonable time frame. The task manger suggests that it is  
frozen.

- Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope: no OpenGL-capable driver available  
(ATI dropped support for the V5200, the open-source drivers aren't 3D-
capable, and older ATI drivers are incompatible).

- Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex: plugin processes the stack; displays an  
image that can be rotated, translated, etc.; exports .obj files.  
However, clicking on the plugin's menu bar causes the image to be  
blanked out; while animation is running, the dropdown menus flicker on  
and off; and recording a 360deg rotation gives mostly blank frames.

- My Macs max out at 1-2 GB RAM, so 64-bit OS X is not an option.

Based on googling and the occasional error message, I suspect that the  
graphics-card driver has an OpenGL or Java3D problem. However, I have  
not found any specific suggestions, and both graphics drivers and Java  
are an enigma to me.

Since the plugin works under 64-bit Vista, I could buy a license;  
however, I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars to find out  
that this particular graphics card doesn't work, and I have not other  
use for Vista.

Thanks for any help or troubleshooting ideas,

Richard
--
Richard Kollmar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dpt. of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and
    Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
427A Burrill Hall
407 S. Goodwin Ave., MC-114
Urbana, IL 61801
Tel. [phone]
FAX [phone]

[Benjamin Schmid-2]

Hi Richard,

> I am having trouble getting the ImageJ 3D Viewer to work in a 64-bit  
> environment. The plugin works beautifully in various 32-bit environments
> (Windows XP, OS X Leopard, or Ubuntu), but I have large image stacks and
> need more memory. Also, the plugin worked fine with these stacks on
> someone else's computer under 64-bit Vista, but I don't have access to
> that setup anymore. I run it from Fiji, so Java3D etc. should be
> installed properly.
>
> I'd be most grateful for suggestions, especially if someone has this  
> plugin running in a similar environment:
> - Motherboard Intel D975XBX "BadAxe"
> - Processor Intel Core 2 Duo
> - Memory 8 GB RAM
> - Graphics Card ATI FireGL V5200
>
> 64-bit operating systems I have tried:
>
> - Windows 7 RC with built-in FireGL driver (no Windows 7 drivers from  
> ATI yet): plugin opens and processes the stack (judging from the  
> progress bar), but fails to display an image in the plugin window within
> a reasonable time frame. The task manger suggests that it is frozen.
>
> - Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope: no OpenGL-capable driver available (ATI
> dropped support for the V5200, the open-source drivers aren't 3D-
> capable, and older ATI drivers are incompatible).
>
> - Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex: plugin processes the stack; displays an  
> image that can be rotated, translated, etc.; exports .obj files.  
> However, clicking on the plugin's menu bar causes the image to be  
> blanked out; while animation is running, the dropdown menus flicker on  
> and off; and recording a 360deg rotation gives mostly blank frames.
>
> - My Macs max out at 1-2 GB RAM, so 64-bit OS X is not an option.
>
> Based on googling and the occasional error message, I suspect that the  
> graphics-card driver has an OpenGL or Java3D problem. However, I have  
> not found any specific suggestions, and both graphics drivers and Java  
> are an enigma to me.
>
> Since the plugin works under 64-bit Vista, I could buy a license;  
> however, I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars to find out that
> this particular graphics card doesn't work, and I have not other use for
> Vista.

Since there are no appropriate drivers for Windows 7 RC and Ubuntu 9.04,
it makes probably not much sense to follow these up further.

So for Ubuntu 8.10, could you post the output of ->Help->Java3D
Properties?

Also, are you using a recent version of the 3D Viewer? I made some
changes regarding animation and recording, which is now already quite
some time ago, but could maybe make a difference.

All in all, I assume you are right that the problem is caused by
the graphics driver. I just did some googling and found some info
about proprietary ATI drivers. In case you haven't seen it, you
might want to give it a try. The firegl v5200 driver for 64bit
was updated very recently, I realized:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.25.18.html

I guess that this driver should work on both ubuntu versions.

Best,
Bene

[Richard Kollmar]

Dear Bene:

Excellent suggestions; I'm on the road until Monday and will test them as soon as I get back to the
lab.

Incidentally, the graphics card that had worked for me on someone else's 64-bit system had been
an NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 with a price of about $2,000. You do very nice and heavy-duty
reconstructions, renderings, and animations for a living. What types of graphics cards do you (or
other list members) use? Are workstation cards with their optimized drivers worth the premium
over a fast gaming card for ImageJ 3D work? The only review on the subject I could find was at
tomshardware.com; the benefits seemed to vary a lot with the specific application and not linearly
related to price, clock speed, memory size, or other properties.

Thanks a lot,

Richard