From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2018 - 09:58:44 CDT

Peter,
  The next test version of VMD has a bunch of new capabilities in it that require
video drivers that are as-yet not available to the general public. I have test drivers
but they are restricted by NDA. When the new video drivers are released to the public,
I will be posting new test builds of VMD. The current expectation I have is that
the new drivers will become available in mid-September, and then I will be able to
post the latest test builds of VMD for people to try. Although VMD will run (in a
less featureful state) without the upcoming video drivers, VMD itself is also compiled
against various shared libraries, and I'm expecting production versions of some key
shared libraries to become available contemporaneously with the video drivers.

The VMD release will follow the normal progression from alpha to beta and then a
final release, but the beta releases won't happen until sometime after the
new video drivers and associated shared libraries become publicly available.
I know everyone is getting anxious. ;-)

Best regards,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 12:40:52PM +0200, Peter Kroon wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> VMD 1.9.4a12 seems to resolve the issue :). Is there an ETA for it's
> final release?
>
> Thanks for the help!
>
>
> Peter
>
>
> On 03-08-18 16:32, Peter Kroon wrote:
> > Hi John,
> >
> >
> > I'll have a look, but my holidays are starting tomorrow, so it'll take a
> > few weeks before I get back to you.
> >
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
> > On 03-08-18 15:30, John Stone wrote:
> >> Peter,
> >> Try the test version of VMD 1.9.4 and let me know if you still
> >> observe the same phenomena.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >> John
> >>
> >> On Fri, Aug 03, 2018 at 11:17:28AM +0200, Peter Kroon wrote:
> >>> Hi John,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> no worries, well deserved holidays (and conferences) get priority :)
> >>>
> >>> The TachyonInternal does handle DoF correctly (other than the inversion
> >>> of dof_fnumber). But the problem I have there is that I can't simply
> >>> tell it to make an image at a resolution of 3kx4k.
> >>>
> >>> Scene generation for Tachyon external does work (mostly), but the
> >>> external Tachyon seems to ignore the FocalLength parameter.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Which VMD test version are you referring to exactly? I'm running 1.9.3
> >>> at the moment.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Peter
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 02-08-18 18:58, John Stone wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>> Sorry for the slow response, I'm still digging out of a pile of emails
> >>>> that accumulated while I was away from the office for a few weeks.
> >>>> Did you try using the built-in version of Tachyon I ship with VMD itself?
> >>>>
> >>>> Tachyon always had DoF, but the parameterization has changed somewhat from
> >>>> the old versions to now, and the way VMD talks to Tachyon has changed also.
> >>>>
> >>>> I haven't made the bleeding edge version of the Tachyon code available yet
> >>>> because I've been revising its API to allow it to support interactive ray
> >>>> tracing for machines that lack GPUs, and that aren't supported by OSPRay.
> >>>>
> >>>> If you have a problem that crops up with the test VMD build (and its built-in
> >>>> version of Tachyon) on the web site, then let me know and I will address it.
> >>>> If TachyonInternal works but the external does not, that may be a scene
> >>>> file generation issue (two different code paths). In any case, it should
> >>>> be easy to resolve any loose ends that may arise here.
> >>>>
> >>>> Best,
> >>>> John
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, Aug 01, 2018 at 10:48:45AM +0200, Peter Kroon wrote:
> >>>>> Hi all!
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I sent this mail earlier, but I think it got buried in everyone's
> >>>>> holidays. Does anyone who's just come back from their well-earned
> >>>>> holidays and conferences have any insights?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Peter
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 09-07-18 16:36, Peter Kroon wrote:
> >>>>>> Hello world!
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I would like to turn a VMD scene into a pretty picture. I want this
> >>>>>> picture to be high resolution (~3315x4000px), and using AO and Depth of
> >>>>>> Field. I have tried the following, continually running into issues:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1) Use Tachyon-OptiX: I can't put the desired resolution. If I do, it
> >>>>>> fails immediately with a memory error. See also
> >>>>>> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/27940.html
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 2) Use Tachyon internal: Creates a super fuzzy picture, probably because
> >>>>>> the meaning of 'Aperture' changed from 'x' to '1/x'.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 3) Use external Tachyon renderer: If I fix the 'Aperture'; and changing
> >>>>>> FocalDist to FocalLength I *almost* get the picture I want, but it seems
> >>>>>> the FocalLength option is simply ignored (see also
> >>>>>> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/15285.html). This
> >>>>>> happens with both 0.98.9 and 0.99b6.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Does anyone have anything else I can try? I build all the software from
> >>>>>> source, in case it matters.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Peter
> >>>>>>
> >>
> >
>
>

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