VMD-L Mailing List

From: Axel Kohlmeyer (akohlmey_at_cmm.chem.upenn.edu)
Date: Mon Sep 10 2007 - 09:28:37 CDT

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007, Roland Schmucki wrote:

RS> Hi!
RS>
RS> I would like to use "GLSL rendering mode" but it seems that the settings
RS> are not alright.
RS> How to set the environment variable VMDGLSLVERBOSE to get more information?

hi roland,

setting environment variables for VMD is done like any other
(shell) environment variable is set on a unix-oid machine.
please have a look at a unix tutorial if the abridged examples
below don't help you, or the nomenclature is not clear.

if you have a bourne shell (most likely on a linux machine):
VMDGLSLVERBOSE=1 ; export VMDGLSLVERBOSE
or if you have a c-shell:
setenv VMDGLSLVERBOSE 1

you can also set it only temporarily for the vmd invocation
(this is portable across shells and recommended for this case):

env VMDGLSLVERBOSE=1 vmd

RS> Here is the output when starting VMD:
RS> Info) VMD for LINUX, version 1.8.6 (April 6, 2007)
RS> Info) Multithreading available, 2 CPUs detected.
RS> Info) Free system memory: 1222MB (60%)
RS> Info) OpenGL renderer: GeForce FX 5500/AGP/SSE2

my memory is a bit hazy and you'll probably get a
more authoritative answer from john, but if i remember
correctly, this graphics chipset does not support
full(!) GLSL at all, due to hardware limitations.
the driver itself seems to work. i'm using that version
successfully with a QuadroFX 4500 and with a GeForce 7800
on 64-bit and 32-bit linux, respectively.

cheers,
   axel.

RS> Info) Features: STENCIL MSAA(4) MDE CVA MTX PP PS GLSL(OVF)
RS> Warning) GPU driver failed to compile shader:
RS> Warning) /home/roland/VMD/LIB/shaders/vmd
RS> Warning) This GPU/driver is buggy, or doesn't fully implement GLSL.
RS> Warning) Set environment variable VMDGLSLVERBOSE for more info.
RS> Info) GLSL rendering mode is NOT available.
RS> Info) Textures: 2-D (4096x4096), 3-D (512x512x512), Multitexture (4)
RS> 

-- 
=======================================================================
Axel Kohlmeyer   akohlmey_at_cmm.chem.upenn.edu   http://www.cmm.upenn.edu
   Center for Molecular Modeling   --   University of Pennsylvania
Department of Chemistry, 231 S.34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323
tel: 1-215-898-1582,  fax: 1-215-573-6233,  office-tel: 1-215-898-5425
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If you make something idiot-proof, the universe creates a better idiot.