3D LIVE 5/98
3D LIVE 5/98
Bericht über Mehrschirm-Lösungen unter Windows NT 4.0:
"ELSA ist darüber hinaus der einzige Anbieter unter den hier vorgestellten, der mit der GLoria-L/MX und der GLoria-XL mehrschirmfähige Karten im Angebot hat, die von der Leistung her in Richtung Profi-3D gehen."
ANIMATION MAGAZINE (USA) 9/97
"Softimage, as a power-demanding application, needs a high-end and super-fast 3D accelerator to show off its real
potential. Such accelerators have been available on SGI systems for quite some time but were unavailable for PCs when
Softimage 3D was ported into Windows NT OS. Since then, about a dozen 3D accelerators for PCs have come on the market.
The GLoria-L board, from ELSA of Germany, stands out with an admirable performance.
I installed GLoria-L in a color Pentium Pro 200 and the installation process was surprisingly fast and easy.
A clear and well-written 90-page document on GLoria-L covers every area of 3D and 2D acceleration and makes it
hard to make any error in using the board. Those of you who have pulled your hair out trying to make sense of a few
scanty pages of badly written accelerator manuals will appreciate the efforts of ELSA in providing this comprehensive
manual and other follow-up information on upgrading drivers.
A frequently asked question of Softimage users is how to configure their 3D accelerator board in order to get the most
out of its power for rendering Softimage. In GLoria-L's new 'GLoria Settings' utility, users can optimize
their settings for Softimage instantly by clicking the pre-configured 'Softimage' button. Softimage uses OpenGL
rendering. GLoria-L is fully OpenGL 1.1 compliant and has the complete API built into the hardware: therefore,
it accelerates Softimage in the hardware.
A feature I enjoyed using was the GLoria-L support for dual screen in Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0. This can double
your modeling and animation space by adding a monitor and a card. When I installed GLoria-L using its original
drivers, my interactive rendering speed in Softimage doubled. When I installed the latest GLoria-L drivers
released in April, I got 60 percent additional rendering speed which is really breathtaking! For this test, I first
changed the resolution of my display from 1024x768 (32-bit) to 1152x864 and then to 1600x1280. At 1152x864 I still had
true colors and stunning resolution. At 1600x1280 the color depth still had the effect of 32-bit true color even though
it was limited to 15 bits. If you want to build a complex model or animation in Softimage, this resolution will show
you amazing detail.
GLoria-L includes a dedicated geometry chip, GLINT Delta, and the powerful GLINT 500TX, both from 3Dlabs of
California. These two advanced chips and the ELSA acceleration chipset and software create the power of GLoria-L
which renders up to 500,000 texture-mapped and anti-aliased polygons per second. GLoria-L interactive rendering
support is not limited to Silicon Graphics OpenGL, but also supports Autodesk's Heidi, Microsoft's Direct3D and Apple's
QuickDraw 3D Rave. A heart-warming aspect of ELSA is that, instead of coming out with a new board every other month, as
many companies do, the ELSA engineers keep on improving the GLoria-L drivers and accompanying software. Another
important issue for computer artists using a new product is the technical support behind it. I checked this out and
found ELSA's tech support team quite responsive and helpful.
My best efforts in trying to crash my system with GLoria-L while processing complex rendering tasks in Softimage
failed."
Digital Magic (USA) 8/97
"ELSA's Glorious GLoria-L"
"ELSA's GLoria-L (like her little sister, the GLoria-M, and a newer big niece, the GLoria-L/MX)
is designed to cover all of the bases with a combination of well conceived and implemented hardware features, coupled
with a dizzying array of drivers that make the board work with most of the 3D software available on the Windows/95/NT
platforms."
"Installation of the GLoria-L in the Quantex box went without a hitch. Documentation is a single manual
that reads in German on one end and English on the other, but was surprisingly thorough. I opened the box, unplugged
the existing VGA card, and replaced it with the GLoria-L card. Software installation for Windows NT was handled
neatly by choosing the GLoria-L driver from the supplied CD-ROM while in the Windows NT display control panel.
Surprisingly, everything worked the first time."
"Once you've chosen the GLoria-L driver within 3D Studio Max and restarted the program, you'll notice a
number of very dramatic changes. Smooth-shaded previews with highlights render as quickly as wireframes did without
the card. I was able to play back entire full-screen animations in smooth-shaded mode and in real time, something that
would be impossible without the hardware."
"The ELSA card sets itself apart with with a down-to-earth price and a wide range of software support, including
DirectX, DirectDraw, and Direct3D. The POWERdraft drivers for MicroStation, for example, are supposed to speed
redraws by 30 to 40 times (although I didn't test this).
For some users, a more important feature of the board's power is the capability to trade speed for rendering quality
in 3D apps. Smooth, highlighted shading, with texture mapping and transparency, all become part of the minimum acceptable
preview standard. I quickly found myself keeping at least a perspective window open in smooth preview mode most of the
time.
Additionally, texture mapping and transparency, which are usually not displayed in preview renderings, display
cleanly, without excessive jitter or popping. This is due to the bilinear texture mapping supported by the card."
"The card offers a 32-bit Z-buffer, 2-bit overlay, 8-bit alpha blending, and 28 bits for fog. This adds up to
realistic-looking 'preview' renderings."
"The added speed provided by the ELSA card when used with both Max and LightWave is impressive."
3D DESIGN (USA) 7/97
"ELSA has an extensive history in the graphics card market, especially in the field of cad/CAM. However, its popularity in
the CAD market is not accidental. ELSA is one of the only a few companies that writes custom drivers for its cards that will
improve acceleration performance. When testing the GLoria-L against the other 3Dlabs-based cards tested here, the proof
was definitely in the drivers."
"It also included drivers for Windows 95 and NT that are handy when using a dual boot set up - a configuration becoming
increasingly popular with designers and animators. The card fits easily into any standard PCI slot, something you might have
trouble doing with other full length cards. The GLoria-L has a maximum resolution that tops out at a whopping 1600 x
1200 in single buffered true-color mode, and will do double buffered true-color at 1152 x 864, which is our preferred working
resolution."
"With the added benefit of the custom OpenGL and Heidi drivers, the GLoria-L was a solid performer, delivering
benchmark times on par with the rest of the cards in its category. Performance increases were seen when it was tested with
Softimage and 3DS MAX."
"The control panel for the GLoria-L is well laid out and has toggles for Softimage 3.01 and 3.51 compatibility.
The GLoria-L can also be used for dual monitor setup - just buy another graphics card and you're ready to go. Overall,
the ELSA GLoria-L is a solid performer and is well worth the price for power designers."
3D LIVE 3/97
"Die längste Erfahrung im OpenGL-Bereich auf PCs hat ELSA mit der GLoria-L umgesetzt. In der gesamtheitlichen
Betrachtung über alle Meßverfahren zeigt die GLoria-L die ausgewogensten und besten Testergebnisse im Testfeld."
"Die GLoria-L dokumentiert auch sehr deutlich, wieviel Leistung über Software-Technologie aus einer gleichwertigen
Hardware resultieren kann. Über individuell einstellbare Applikationsprofile stehen unterschiedliche Karteneinstellungen
für nahezu alle gängigen CAD- und 3D-Programme zur Verfügung. Durch sehr einfaches Anwählen in den
übersichtlichen Einstellungen werden die entsprechenden Parameter aktiviert. Die Leistungsbandbreite in Verbindung mit der
umfangreichen Treiberunterstützung ist in dem neu gesetzten Preisgefüge eine in sich geschlossene und empfehlenswerte
Grafiklösung. Der Installationsvorgang ist problemfrei, und die beiliegende Dokumentation ist ausgereift."
3D LIVE-Urteil: 83 von 100 Punkten, Testsieger
INTERACTIVITY (USA) 5/97
"For many years, ELSA has been making high-end graphics boards for the CAD industry, and their products are
still focused strongly in that direction."
"Furthermore, GLoria-L is specially optimized for 3D Studio Max, Softimage, AutoCAD, MicroStation PC 5.x,
and a raft of other CAD applications."
"ELSA is one of the few board manufacturers that builds their own drivers [...] Their drivers for Heidi and OpenGL
yield very good performance, and their drivers for CAD applications are outstanding."
PC MAGAZINE (USA) Vol.16, No.8
PC Labs-Test von 7 Hochleistungs-Grafik-Workstations: Compaq Professional Workstation 5000 mit ELSA GLoria-L:
"Hardware requirements in this market are very stringent, and Compaq has made a good start with a group of cutting-edge
components, such as its hard disk interface and graphics adapter (Ultra Wide SCSI and ELSA's GLoria-L 3-D graphics
accelerator). Choosing a graphics adapter vendor with an understanding of this market makes Compaq a realistic player more
quickly than if it had tried to build a suitable graphics card itself."
"The GLoria-L 3-D graphics controller was an excellent choice for this machine. The card - which comes with 8 MB
of DRAM for the Z-buffer and texture mapping and 8 MB of VRAM for the frame buffer and 3-D functions - is in large part
responsible for the 5000's excellent performance on our tests."
"The system's performance on rendering tests (like the AVS render test) was top-notch, and slightly better than that of
the Sun entry. Its AVS Volume Ray Tracing timing was the best of this roundup, and it wa also a standout performer on our
PhotoShop 3.0 and PageMaker measures."
MicroStation Manager (USA) 4/97
"The GLoria boards were outstanding performers, and were easy to install and configure. The midsize boards
occupy only one PCI slot, and you can have up to two GLoria boards in your system to support dual monitors. The
GLoria-L won this round of the MicroStation 3D review. It was the flat-out best performer in all testing areas."
"Complete driver software is included, which worked well to increase MicroStation performance."
PC Digest (USA) 12/96
"NSTL recommends the board for high-end OpenGL applications. However, the GLoria-L scores above average in
the InterMark benchmarks, which means that it can also work well for everyday applications."
Boot Magazine (USA) 11/96
"The GLoria line is an awesome high-performance solution for high-end cad/CAE work, computer visualization,
and 3D animation under both Windows NT® and 95. These cards are genuine workhorses."