NVIDIA MAXtreme User Guide

Workst ation Application for Windows

NVIDIA MAXtreme

User’s Guide

Software Release 8
User’s Guide 4th Edition
NVIDIA Corporation
December 2005

NVIDIA MAXtreme

Published by
NVIDIA Corporation
2701 San Tomas Expressway
Santa Clara, CA 95050

Copyright © 2005 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
This software may not, in whole or in part, be copied through any means, mechanical, electromechanical, or

otherwise, without the express permission of NVIDIA Corporation.
Information furnished is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, NVIDIA assumes no responsibility for the

consequences of use of such information nor for any infringement of patents or other rights of third parties, which
may result from its use. No License is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or patent rights of
NVIDIA Corporation.

Specifications mentioned in the software are subject to change without notice.
NVIDIA Corporation products are not authorized for use as critical components in life support devices or systems

without express written approval of NVIDIA Corporation.
NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, MAXtreme, and Quadro are trademarks or registered trademarks of NVIDIA

Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Autodesk, discreet, and 3ds max are trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc./Autodesk Canada Inc. in

the USA and/or other countries.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which

they are associated.

NVIDIA Corporation

NVIDIA MAXtreme User’s Guide

Table of Contents

1.Overview of NVIDIA MAXtreme

What Is NVIDIA MAXtreme? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Key Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Fog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Wireframe Viewport Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Rendered (Shaded) Viewport Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Online Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Supported Languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Online Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.Installing NVIDIA MAXtreme

Installation Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Installing NVIDIA MAXtreme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

About Installation (setup.exe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Installation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Uninstalling NVIDIA MAXtreme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.Configuring NVIDIA MAXtreme

Accessing NVIDIA MAXtreme Driver Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Auto-Configuring for Speed or Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Configuring Individual Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Explanation of Configuration Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Configuring Wireframe Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Configuring Rendered (Shaded) Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Texture Filtering Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Texture Size Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Texture Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

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NVIDIA MAXtreme User’s Guide

O

VERVIEW OF

What Is NVIDIA MAXtreme?

C HAPTER

NVIDIA MAX

TREME

The NVIDIA® MAXtreme™ Release 8 3D application driver is a tool that enhances the
productivity of the discreet
NVIDIA MAXtreme driver performs the following functions:

• Allows you to control the application’s viewport display quality and rendering speed,

• Enables a variety of rendering enhancements.

• Optimized for use with the full line of NVIDIA Quadro
You can use the NVIDIA MAXtreme 3D driver configuration dialog box to customize the

driver for display quality and speed.

Key Features

The following sections provide an overview of the key features in NVIDIA MAXtreme:

Fog

NVIDIA MAXtreme supports the rendering of Standard fog into the viewports since
version 1.01.00. You can enable this feature from the NVIDIA MAXtreme Driver
Configuration dialog box (Figure 3.1). Currently, only one Linear or Exponential Standard
Fog is supported and additional Standard Fogs and all Layered Fogs are ignored.

®

3ds max

®

8 and Autodesk

®

VIZ 2005 applications. The

®

GPU-based graphics cards.

NVIDIA Corporation 4

Overview of NVIDIA MAXtreme

Wireframe Viewport Options

• Apply antialiasing to wireframes

• Render wireframes using triangle strips

• Customize the vertex dot size

Rendered (Shaded) Viewport Options

• Apply antialiasing to edged faces

• Render using the environmental background color

• Render fogging

• Customize the vertex dot size

• Configure magnification texture filtering for quality or speed

• Configure minification texture filtering for quality or speed

• Control anisotropic texture filtering

C HAPTER 1

• Compress textures for quality or speed

• Control background texture size

• Control material texture size

Online Help

From the open 3ds max 8 or VIZ 2005 application, when you have an NVIDIA
MAXtreme Driver Configuration dialog box open, you can press F1 or click the Help
option to display information about NVIDIA MAXtreme driver features and
configuration.

NVIDIA Corporation 5

C HAPTER 1
Overview of NVIDIA MAXtreme

System Requirements

Before you can install the NVIDIA MAXtreme software, you must meet the system
requirements listed in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1

System Requirement Description

Operating system Windows® XP or Windows 2000
3ds max 8 or VIZ 2005 You must have either the 3ds max 8 or VIZ 2005 application installed on

Hard disk space You need a minimum of 2.5 MB free hard disk space
NVIDIA-based graphics card You must have a workstation graphics card based on an NVIDIA Quadro

NVIDIA display driver You need the most current NVIDIA display driver software for

System Requirements

Supported Languages

User Interface

The NVIDIA MAXtreme user interface supports the English language:

Online Help

The NVIDIA MAXtreme online Help supports the following languages:

your computer before you can install the NVIDIA MAXtreme driver.

series graphics processing unit (GPU) installed in your computer.

Windows XP/Windows 2000 installed on your computer in order to use
your NVIDIA graphics card.

English German Spanish Chinese (simplified)
French Italian Japanese Chinese (traditional)

6 NVIDIA MAXtreme User’s Guide