VMD-L Mailing List

From: Axel Kohlmeyer (akohlmey_at_gmail.com)
Date: Thu Sep 29 2011 - 08:22:26 CDT

On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 9:15 AM, Thomas Bishop <bishop_at_latech.edu> wrote:
> Axel and any other VMD'ers
>
> The lines I read about static images may only apply to the "cachemode
> option". see excerpt from manual below.

tom,

you are worrying over a _very_ minor issue before you
are addressing the main problem: how to interface
VMD with the wall itself. unless you have figured out
how the wall is exposed to the machine running VMD
and what operating system you have/want to use,
i would not worry about this and there is very little
advice that can be given.

> Is there a short "howto" for VMD on tiled display walls someplace?
> or do I just need to go do-it myself?

tiled displays can be set up very differently,
so there is no general advice possible.

axel.

>
> Thanks
> TOm
>
> • Cachemode – The Cachemode toggle controls whether or not VMD uses a
> display list caching
> mechanism to accelerate rendering of static geometry. This feature can be
> extremely beneficial
> for achieving good interactive display performance on tiled display walls,
> and for remote
> display over a network. Caching cannot be performed while animating
> trajectories, so the
> performance benefit is only possible interactive rotation and zooming of
> static molecular
> structures.
>
>
>
>
> On 09/28/2011 07:46 PM, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
>>
>> dear tom,
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:43 PM, Thomas Bishop<bishop_at_latech.edu>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear VMD,
>>>
>>> I have access to a display wall. I haven't tried to use it yet but a
>>> quick
>>> skim of manual says I can't do
>>> trajectory animations but only rotations etc...(if I read it correclty)
>>
>> why not?
>>
>>
>>> What if instead of a single trajectory  or molecular image displayed
>>> across the entire wall , I want to display results from an ensemble of
>>> calculations... say
>>> I have a tiled display wall of 16 monitors and I have 16 simulations
>>> each w/ nearly identical molecs and trajectory data but DIFF simulations.
>>>
>>> Is there a simple way to control separate instances of VMD (one for each
>>> monitor ) w/ a single GUI s.t the rotations, animations, selections in
>>> one are used for all instances?
>>
>> that really depends on how you address the individual screens.
>> with X11 one do some pretty nifty manipulations via "xprop" or
>> the "wm" command that comes with Tk. i'm using a hack like
>> that to have the VMD OpenGL window reflect the name to the
>> current "top" molecule.
>>
>> http://sites.google.com/site/akohlmey/random-hacks/vmd-initialization-scripts#TOC-Molecule-Name-in-Window-Title
>>
>> similar things can be done to remove "decorations" and go fullscreen
>> or change position and geometry. in part this is also available as
>> part of the native "menu" and "display" commands in VMD.
>>
>> however, there is something to be said about having one
>> huge VMD display. we recently managed to hook up
>> three projectors to project on a cylindrical screen for
>> doing interactive MD with VMD. however that requires
>> special software and a hacked VMD version that can
>> account for the overlap of the projectors and the distortion
>> due to the bent screen.
>>
>> http://sites.google.com/site/akohlmey/news-and-announcements/vmdmulti-projectoroutputforinteractivemd
>> now if only stereo would have worked, too.
>> (VMD the GPUs were set up for it, but one of
>> the projectors had a firmware issue).
>>
>> cheers,
>>    axel.
>>
>>> Think campbell's soup&   andy warhol meet VMD.
>>>
>>> THanks
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *******************************
>>>   Thomas C. Bishop
>>>    Tel: 318-257-5209
>>>    Fax: 318-257-3823
>>> http://dna.engr.latech.edu
>>> ********************************
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> *******************************
>   Thomas C. Bishop
>    Tel: 318-257-5209
>    Fax: 318-257-3823
> http://dna.engr.latech.edu
> ********************************
>
> 

-- 
Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer
akohlmey_at_gmail.com  http://goo.gl/1wk0
Institute for Computational Molecular Science
Temple University, Philadelphia PA, USA.