From: Axel Kohlmeyer (akohlmey_at_gmail.com)
Date: Fri Feb 15 2013 - 09:43:11 CST

On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 3:57 PM, Sabine Reisser <sabine.reisser_at_kit.edu> wrote:
> Dear VMD users and developers,

dear sabine,

> I'm trying to generate a nice picture of a molecule (in licorice) within its
> transparent electrostatic potential surface (surf, material diffuse). I'm
> using the GLSL render mode, and the surface generally looks nice and smooth.
> I've played with the opacity settings in tk console using
> material change opacity Diffuse "..."
> but the molecule inside the surface generally disappears when I take an
> opacity value higher than 0.5. I can still see the surface and it's
> transparent, but it's empty. This problem appears only in GLSL render mode.
>
> Also, the surface in GLSL mode looks stainy if the opacity is below 1
> (independent of the material). I suppose this is because of light reflection
> and shadows inside the molecule, but I would rather get rid of it.
>
> It would be great if somebody could comment on these issues.

sounds like you would be better off using angle modulated transparency mode.
there is a check button on the materials dialog for it.
check out some of the images and movies here:
https://sites.google.com/site/akohlmey/images-and-movies

axel.

>
> Thanks for reading!
>
> Cheers
> Sabine
>

--
Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer  akohlmey_at_gmail.com  http://goo.gl/1wk0
International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste. Italy.