Microsoft KB Archive/165357

= Microsoft Knowledge Base =

INFO: Using Channel Drivers Remotely
Last reviewed: March 18, 1997

Article ID: Q165357

The information in this article applies to:


 * Softimage 3D for IRIX, versions 3.5, 3.51
 * Softimage 3D for Windows NT, versions 3.01, 3.51

SUMMARY
Consider the following information when trying to use channel drivers remotely:

In order to use a channel driver remotely, you must have a local .cus file and a local exe file. When SOFTIMAGE 3D (SI3D) asks the driver to output the number, name, and types of DOF, it calls a local driver, not a remote driver. Therefore, if you wish to use the display of an NT platform and a driver that is only compiled on SGI, it will not work.

The requirement to have a local version of the driver is actually not just to pass on custom data, but to act as a mediator between the remote client and local session of SI3D. After dealing with dialog data it acts as a generic channel driver server. This does mean that you need to have that local version - to port to NT, you need to replicate the dialog handling code in your local driver, which eliminates porting the main body. When the local driver encounters the CDK_driverInit, it then becomes a server, making it unnecessary to implement anything after that (in your local version).

Another option is to use the generic listen channel driver, which is available on both platforms. You can manually start the driver broadcasting on the remote machine (see release notes for more details), and then listen in with the listen driver on the local one. However, you lose the DOF names and autodetectionof number etc., but it does give you more options.

Executables for drivers with .drv files (the "old" alternative to .cus files) should only be required on the remote machine, since all the configuration information is contained in the .drv file, and no communication with the driver is required until a channel run actually starts.

If the drivers were written on SGI, and you only intend to use them as SGI remote drivers with SOFT running on an NT machine, you can create "stub" drivers of the same name for NT. Stub drivers pass on the custom dialog information, so you can comment-out all the "real" setup and communication with devices.