VMD-L Mailing List

From: Giacomo Fiorin (giacomo.fiorin_at_gmail.com)
Date: Mon Mar 02 2020 - 13:34:42 CST

Some addition: Josh is referring to the interactive VMD rendering (using
Snapshot, or even better OptiX/OSPRay).

But you can also render offline with Tachyon, or one of the other
ray-tracing engines supported by VMD. For example the "-res" option of the
command-line Tachyon (external tool, usually bundled with VMD) will allow
you to set a custom resolution. This way you don't need to keep VMD open,
and you could even render on a remote server with better hardware than your
laptop or workstation.

Giacomo

On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 2:18 PM Josh Vermaas <joshua.vermaas_at_gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Davood,
>
> Yes! Although somewhat indirectly. In VMD, you specify resolution in pixel
> counts with the "display resize" command. So if I wanted a 2 inch by 3 inch
> image at 600dpi, I'd issue this command: "display resize 1200 1800". Render
> as normal, and your pixel counts will be correct. Then whatever program you
> use for printing/composition then just needs to set things to the correct
> scale, since within a computer, pixels matter, not size (see
> https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/02/the-myth-of-dpi/ for a simple
> explaination). Note that for extremely large resolutions (like for journal
> covers where folks need high dpi), you may need to play some games with
> your window manager to get VMD to actually open the window to the
> resolution you want. I tend to prepare my figure first in a small window
> with the correct aspect ratio, and then when I am ready for the final
> render, move the OpenGL window mostly offscreen before issuing the command
> so that the operating system window manager doesn't try to be clever and
> limit the resolution to what my monitor can show.
>
> -Josh
>
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 11:33 AM Norouzi, Seyed <
> Davood.Norouzi_at_umassmed.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> How can I set the resolution of the rendered images in vmd?
>> Is it possible, say, to set it to 600dpi?
>>
>> Thank you in advance,
>> -Davood Norouzi
>>
>> 

-- 
Giacomo Fiorin
Associate Professor of Research, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Research collaborator, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
http://goo.gl/Q3TBQU
https://github.com/giacomofiorin