System Requirements
- Video Cards
- Voxx depends on low-cost high-performance NVIDIA GeForce and ATI Radeon graphics processors (GPUs) to perform real-time rendering of large stacks of 2D images. These processors are commonly found on many "low-cost" (typically $150-500) video boards in office and lab PCs. However, several versions of these processors have been produced since their introduction in 1999-2000, and some are better suited for volume rendering than others. Also, video boards equipped with 3D GPUs other than GeForce and Radeon (e.g. 3Dlabs) may or may not work with Voxx. For detailed information on (un)suitable graphics processors and video boards, visit our website http://nephrology.iupui.edu/imaging/voxx.
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Voxx2 should run on any PC or Mac equipped with a GeForce-based video board, although 3D (trilinear) interpolation will not work on GeForce2 or MX processors. Voxx2 should also run on Radeon-based video boards, provided that they use the 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800 or newer versions of that processor. If you plan on rendering large and/or multi-channel image stacks, or will be displaying 3D time-lapse studies (aka 4D microscopy), then you should purchase video boards equipped with lots of memory (preferably 256 MB or more) and the the fastest versions of the processors - which currently (as of March 2004) are the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and the Radeon 9800 XT. Since new processors and boards are released every year, you should check our website for information on the latest hardware.
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- Operating System
- Versions of Voxx2 are available for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, Linux, and Apple Max OS X. Make sure that you download and install the latest OpenGL driver software from NVIDIA or ATI for Windows or Linux, or from Apple for OS X. Do not use the drivers that are bundled with the video board - they are often older versions that are missing important features needed by Voxx.
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- PC Memory
- The PC memory requirements of the program depend on the number and size of the image stacks and the number of color channels per stack. The program stores either two or four copies of each voxel array in memory while reading image files. So the worst-case memory requirement is: four times the number of voxels times the number of color channels times the number of stacks in a time-lapse study, plus the amount of memory used by Voxx and the host operating system. We recommend 512 MB of PC memory for "small" (e.g. 64x512x512, 1-3 channel) image stacks, and 512-1024 MB of memory for "mid-size" (e.g. 128-256x512x512, 1-3 channel) stacks. So a PC which can be equipped with up to 1 GB of memory will handle many applications. However, if you work with larger images (e.g. 1024x1024 instead of 512x512), or are interested in working with time-lapse sequences of image stacks, then you may need a PC which can be equipped with 2-3 GB of memory. Currently, Voxx2 cannot access more than 3 GB of memory under Windows or Linux, due to the 32-bit design of Pentium processors. It is theoretically possible for an application program like Voxx2 to access more than 3 GB on an Apple G5, because the G5 uses a 64-bit PowerPC processor, but we have not tested this.
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- PC Processor
- The speed of the PC processor is not particularly critical, because voxel rendering is often limited by pixel fill rate, along with memory and (AGP) bus bandwidth. We currently run Voxx2 on PCs equipped with 1.4-3.2 GHz Pentium 4 processors, and Apple G4 and G5 systems.