The current version of Plaque Simulator is intended for a PowerMac G3 or G4 computer running MacOS 9.1. A MacOS X version will be released about the 3rd quarter of 2001. Plaque Simulator will also run nicely on nearly any MacOS compatible computer that has a PCI bus and that can run MacOS 8.5 or greater.

Post 1999 models such as the "blue & white" G3s, G4s (both PCI and AGP versions), iMac DV and CDRW models, recent Powerbook G3s and Ti Powerbook G4s all ship with adequate OEM 3D acceleration. If you have an older Mac or compatible (with PCI bus) that did not originally ship with an OEM 3D accelerated video card you will need to get a retail version. Any retail ATI PCI card for Macintosh with a Rage-Pro, Rage-128, Radeon or nVidia 3D accelerator chip should work. We used the ATI Nexus series in our older systems, and currently use ATI Radeon cards. The accelerators greatly improve 3D performance. Versions of Plaque Simulator prior to 4.1 also run very slowly on older Nubus Macs with an FPU such as PowerPC 601s, 68040s and some 68030/68882 combinations by using an enhanced version of my old 2.x 3D renderer but this is not recommended (some features are not supported) and support for older 680x0 and Nubus hardware was dropped at version 4.0.7.

The development system is currently a 512MB, 500MHz, PowerMac G4 with a retail 32MB ATI Radeon AGP 3D video card and an Initio SCSI card. I am running MacOS 9.1, Quickdraw3D 1.6, OpenGL 1.2.1 and Quicktime 5.0.1. Peripherals include an Apple 21" display (1152x870), HP-4C SCSI and UMAX 2200 USB flatbed scanners, an Ariston USB hub, an NEC CCD video camera with S video output mounted above a portable light table, an ixTV PCI card video digitizer, an XLR8 Interview USB Video Capture device, a Dazzle Hollywood (Firewire) DV-Bridge, a Plexwriter 8/20 SCSI CDR, various USB floppy disk drives, Epson 740 and 1270 USB printers, and several workgroup class HP and Tektronix laser printers on an ethernet network. Plaque Simulator also works pretty well on my 1999 PowerbookG3 (bronze keyboard) with 192MB RAM and MacOS 9.1, and even better on the new 2001 iBooks and Powerbook G4s.

Hardware requirements:
  • CPU: PowerPC 200MHz minimum (400MHz or faster recommended) G3, G4, G4 Cube, Powerbook G3, Ti Powerbook G4, iMac DV, iMac CDRW. Many early PCI bus models such as the 8500, 8600, 9500, 9600, and MacOS compatibles such as the PCP PowerTower Pros, etc... can be upgraded with G3 and ATI 3D cards. Plaque Simulator 4.0.7 and earlier also work with reduced capabilities on a few old 68040 systems running MacOS 8.1.

  • RAM: 64MB minimum (128MB or greater recommended).

  • OS: MacOS 8.5 minimum, with updates to Quicktime and OpenGL for full capability (MacOS 9.1 recommended).

  • Monitor: 15 inch diag. minimum multisync (17 inch diag. or greater recommended).

  • 2D video: 24 bit color at 832x624 (1024x768 or greater recommended).

  • 3D video: Quickdraw3D 1.6, OpenGL 1.2, Quicktime 4.1 and a 3D accelerator. (ATI Radeon recommended).

  • CT image digitizer: Any Mac compatible image digitizing system. My "home-brew" (but now obsolete) system was originally assembled in the late 1980s and consists of an NEC color CCD camera with a macro focusing lens mounted over a portable light table. It is currently connected to the S video input of an ixTV PCI card video digitizer in my G4 tower. The camera and light table are illustrated on the right. Other options for CT images include using a megapixel digital camera such as the Nikon 900 series with a light table or radiograph view box, a "high-quality" flatbed scanner with transparency option, or you could simply import DICOM format images directly from your CT or MRI scanner over a network. Plaque Simulator imports most DICOM images directly and a commercial grade DICOM importer for Quicktime is available from Escape Information Services.

  • Fundus photo digitizer: Any Mac compatible SCSI or USB flatbed scanner such as those from UMAX, HP, Epson or Microtek capable of 200 dpi, 32bit (or greater) color scanning. These typically cost less than $300.

  • Tablet: Plaque Simulator supports graphics tablets such as the Wacom USB Intuos series. You can use the tablet & stylus in lieu of a mouse to operate the entire the program if you wish. You can also digitize fundus photos and hardcopy retinal diagrams from the tablet.
Mac hardware




digitizer




Wacom Intuos tablet

NOTE: Older SCSI devices can be used with current generation computers if you install an internal PCI SCSI card such as the Initio Bluenote. Serial port devices such as digitizer tablets and cameras require an internal serial port adapter such as the Griffin gPort or a USB to serial adapter such as the Keyspan USA-28x. A Compact Flash card reader is also useful for transferring images from a digital camera.

IMPORTANT: OpenGL for Macintosh is required. You can add OpenGL at no cost to any version of MacOS 8. It is installed automatically with MacOS 9. To get the very latest & greatest version of Mac OpenGL you should properly go to: http://asu.info.apple.com/ and search for "OpenGL". MacOS 9.1 installs OpenGL 1.2.1. The latest retail ATI drivers can be found at http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/drivers.html. For OEM 3D cards search Apple's web site for their latest drivers.

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