The collected works of Ryan Fox - Page 4

commodorejohn wrote: Probably gonna throw OpenBSD on it and hook it up to a SANE-supported SCSI scanner I got from the recycle center a while back - should be a little nicer than my current scanning solution, a Win9x-only SCSI-over-parallel-port scanner hooked up to a PIII laptop.

It might be a good idea to stay away from OpenBSD, especially if you plan on using any X Windows system. Even if hardware is supported
doesn't mean that its perfect at all. It displays , but its so dreadfully slow and unresponsive that you wished you stuck with the command line.
I tried running OpenBSD on sun blade 2K dual 1200 with xvr1200 graphics and 2GB ram and it sucked worse than running it with OpenSXCE.
So I reverted back to Solaris 10.u5
Though I think in your case you might be better off running an older version of Solaris, Say 5.8 or at most 5.9
you could compile, or grab what you need from OpenCSW or BlastWave ( http://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/solaris/blastwav ... sparc/5.8/ )

Just a quick note. Timidity seems to load , but reports a module issue when trying to load midi files. Need to check if i compiled Timidity correctly , but OPL/SB/Adlib emulation works as well. better than nothing i suppose

Heck if I were you I'd spend some cash on a pure sinewave inverter, big enough to power such a unit , some deep cycle gel batteries and a garage roof full of 200/400W solar panels XD Run it off grid

its a pity that most of these end up in a landfill I recently found an Octane2 r14 500 v6 that i need to revive
Nice find!

vishnu wrote: The official Alias training guide "Learning Maya 6: Rendering" says, on page 246, "The Hardware Renderer will allow you to output features like shadows, per-pixel Specular Highlights, Bump Maps, and reflections for materials," but according to this page "Maya Hardware Renderer is not supported on IRIX."

Confirmed this a while ago on IR3 graphics on an Onyx 2 Deskside. AT least IR3 is still 'usable' for modeling projects

In most cases serial output will tell you exactly what the situation is. In most cases the motherboard is to blame, but from experience, try re-seating CPU 0, use electronic cleaner and a can of compressed air to clean out the CPU contact strip. NO CPU 0, no beep, nothing

I was exposed to a 4D 310 VGX in a design firm many many years ago. First SGI was able to get my hands on was a Indigo 2 R4k with solid impact graphics... These days I still use my Onyx Desksides for modeling elements and or portions of scenes

You can add the Onyx R12K 400 and R14K 500's IR2,IR3 etc to the list as well. Maya 5-6.5 performs very well on these machines. I still actively use mine for modeling low polygon characters and or objects before taking them over to a PC running ZBrush etc

tingo wrote: Yes, I really should try to hook up a serial console, and try to reseat the cpu. Hopefully, I will find time for it in the near future.

A good cleaning could get it running. Revived a SB1k dual 750 that way

AT least its not a baked apple like those older 17 inch G4's

Awesome work btw Still use my Onyx2 for rendering stills and modeling at the office

ultra-coriolis wrote: Hi all!

I have Sun Blade 1000 and want to make a maximum upgrade of this machine.

1) what is the differences between graphic cards - XVR-600, XVR-1000, XVR-2000?

2) is it right that Blade 1000 could use two UltraSPARC III Cu 1200 MHz simultaneously?

3) what type of memory and what is the maximum amount of RAM?

thanks.

The XVR1000 uses a custom chipset developed by Sun and has some drawbacks regarding OpenGL features
some features or extensions are emulated in software so performance in some applications can be severely
crippled.
Performance is sub par in blender compared to the WildCat based XVR600 and XVR1200


The XVR 600 has roughly half the processing abilities than the XVR1200, to sum it up the XVR 1200 is basically
two 600's on a single card with dual DVI and frame lock.. RAM configuration details are as follows:
32 Mbytes of SDRAM display list memory
256 Mbytes of texture memory
128 Mbytes of frame buffer memory
The XVR600:
32 Mbytes of DDR display list memory
32 Mbytes of texture memory
64 Mbytes of frame buffer memory

However...
to get the best out of the XVR1200 a simple mod is required to install it in the 66mhz pci-x slot (last and bottom end pci-x slot) on the Blade 1000/2000.
It requires you to remove the fan assembly and the frame lock/sync portion of the card.

I have a SB2000 with two 1200mhz cpus and 8GB RAM, the 1000 and 2000 have exactly the same motherboard.
So using a pair of the UltraSPARC III Cu 1200 MHz CPUs should not pose an issue, just update firmware prior to swapping
them out.

As for RAM .. 16GB should be the maximum .. well .. what I've seen , but i doubt you'll have use for more than 8GB

I believe you could link these cards together, similar to some of the xvr cards

what's missing is the bracket with the two 9 pin ports. I still have mine , packed away in storage ..

Hmm have one Onyx 2 with a DIVO board. though looking for the break-out box and cables...

I mainly use my Onyx2 these days.. Mostly messing around in Maya , the odd modeling project that eventually ends up on either an Apple or windows desktop.. Looking forward to making use of the DIVO though

TeamBlackFox wrote: The original IR, for polys, 7 million textured, lighted and anti-aliased triangles per second.


The V10 and V12 has far less memory available, but they're much more practical for a workstation. As I said, thebulbguy has had his electric bill go over $1000/month at times, and he has so many systems its not even funny.

Heh my poor octanes are gathering dust.. The only Sgi workstation I still use for the occasional modeling project are the Onyx2 desk-sides.. And Irix is
like a good old used leather couch ... Its my comfort go-to zone ..

Worth every hour that you put into them. They may be slow by today's standard, but can still serve as functional terminal/light workstation.

It will be great to see it up and running some demos. Still looking for one of these classics. to restore and add to my collection

It would be great to maybe host a site providing a video / content rich experience demonstrating each of these systems. From hardware , to booting and running demos

I kept a backup of the gfb (XVR1000) Solaris 9-10 driver tarballs , including the original software...

Picked up a free SB1000 from a company that had no idea what to do with.

vishnu wrote: Dual Ultrasparc iii Cu's, nice! Those were the speed upgraded version of the original iii, which maxed out at 900 MHz. What's it got for graphics? I never had a Blade 1000, I went from an Ultra 60 straight to a Blade 2500, which I liked so much that I bought one for home...

Its got a XVR1200 card that was sitting in a 33mhz PCI slot, removed the expansion option (frame lock),two little fans, they do little to nothing.
There is more than sufficient air circulation , and I have another system with exactly the same config Same motherboard in SB1k and 2K

Hah well given that most of us dinosaurs started using computers in the mid 80's... I miss the days when things were simpler and patience was a necessity

BLAiSE wrote: Hi all!

Not a recent work (I graduated in 2009), but I used my SGI Visual Workstation 320 to create my graduation film at the university.

Parental advisory explicit content!

Now that was bloody brilliant work

I myself used to work for an animation studio but decided to join the fibre brigade and start my own ISP.
However I still on and off after hours work on an an animation project I started round 2010
Need to post pictures

Okay .. so I've been working on a project involving character animation and mo-cap (ipisoft) So basically a short animated piece in my spare time..
Time that I really don't have too much of these days

Character rigging texturing and partial animations blend-shapes, finer details such as hands ears etc all done by hand on an onyx2/octane2 v12.
Though rendering in mental ray with final gather turned out to be a pain on even a R14K quad based system. Still its pretty much fun.. Might end up
resorting to using maxwell render for the eye-candy shtuff. Stil using my serial-based Wacom UD-1218-R in photoshop/gimp

Its fantastic to see people still use their Sgi gear for animation/CAD work!

My second desk-side onyx2 is called junkyard for a reason lol

Hmm i know this topic is pretty much dead , but imagine if they went the route of the original imac? hehe, Could have been something....