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A comment on The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy VII in 1996. Parent comment

Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by samstave on Thursday April 07, 2022 @03:40PM (#30949429)
Fun fact, the O2 had an 'optional' expansion port that was an additional ~$1,000 or so... but the thing is, ALL the O2s had this port - it was that if you paid for it, they popped the plastic cover off the case to reveal the port...
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Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by bri3d on Thursday April 07, 2022 @04:41PM (#30950085)
I'm not so sure about this, I've owned a lot of O2s.

The only blocking plates on the rear cover of an O2 usually cover the spot where the Flat Panel Adapter or Dual Monitor board goes, and it's not installed by default, or the spot where a PCI card would go, which, well, it's a PCI card.

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Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by p_l on Thursday April 07, 2022 @03:55PM (#30949599)
Which expansion port are you talking about?
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Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by samstave on Thursday April 07, 2022 @04:05PM (#30949714)
I cant recall what the port was... A serial port? I cant recall - but just that it was on all O2s and it was just knocking out the plastic cover to get access to it.
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Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by spitfire on Thursday April 07, 2022 @04:39PM (#30950064)
One of the video ports. I think digital video port.

The base model supported audio and "moose cam" (A webcam, in 1996!). If you paid extra you got video.

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Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by bri3d on Thursday April 07, 2022 @06:40PM (#30951179)
Oh, this was the SDI hack, but it needed a separate port expander - it was more involved than just removing a plate.

You could buy the base AV1 "analog" video I/O card and then plug an SDI expansion breakout board (I think the Miranda VIVO was the most popular) into the webcam port, instead of buying the much more expensive AV2 "digital" video I/O card.

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Re:The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy V... by p_l on Thursday April 07, 2022 @05:23PM (#30950494)
There were two video options you could buy, with analog and digital versions, plus there were special parts to provide alternative options for display outs (by default it had sgi-style 13W3 only)
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