VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 25 2004 - 14:33:57 CDT

Konrad,
  I think I've come up with a good method for adding 24-bit RGB coloring
that avoids the problems we had in past implementations of VMD. It should
fit into the new rendering framework pretty well, and might be clean
and simple enough to implement that I could squeeze it for VMD 1.8.3.
I'll let you know when I have a prototype implemented.

  John

On Thu, Sep 30, 2004 at 10:34:26AM +0200, hinsen_at_llb.saclay.cea.fr wrote:
> On 30.09.2004, at 00:01, John Stone wrote:
>
> >I see no reason from your use-cases below why you need to specify
> >particular RGB values, since ultimately you are mapping scalar/vector
> >quantities to a continuous range of colors.
>
> In this particular example, yes. Another application might want to have
> a red arrow indicating a rotation axis, or a green sphere indicating
> something else.
>
> I know that such cases could be handled as well in some way, but my
> problem is not "how can I do this or that in a VMD script", but "how
> can I map an existing API for 3D graphics to a VMD script". The API is
> there (see
> http://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/ScientificPython/ScientificPythonManual/
> Scientific_42.html), with lots of code that uses it, and with multiple
> backends: VRML, VMD, PyMOL, VPython, and PovRay (not published yet
> because it is quite incomplete). And that API uses RGB color
> specifications. All I can do is either find a way to implement this API
> in terms of VMD 1.8 scripts, or drop VMD support for versions after
> 1.6. I'd hate to drop VMD because it's the backend that I use most,
> being the only one that permits both the inclusion of molecular data
> and high-quality rendering output.
>
> >I'm trying to give you ways of accomplishing your goal using the
> >features
> >that exist in the version available right now, since you presumably
> >need to make this picture right now.
>
> No, I am not in a hurry. I just updated to VMD 1.8 following the
> installation of a new computer, and noticed that my graphics scripts
> don't work any more. I still have a machine with VMD 1.6 around, so I
> am still operational.
>
> Konrad. 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078