VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Tue Aug 17 2010 - 09:39:58 CDT

Hi,
  What I think you didn't grasp from my previous email is that none of the
different methods that I described can be played by freely available movie
player software. At present, only custom-written software can play such
movies, and so far as I know, nobody has made modifications to the commonly
used movie players to enable these capabilities yet. Also, of the various
methods I described, playing two independent movie streams is actually
by far the most technically challenging due to the need to drive two
separate decoders, and to maintain synchronization, frame counts, etc.
When you get access to the 3D projector then you can start looking at
what software is available to you, and you can feel free to contact us
to ask about rendering from VMD in whatever format your movie
encoder/player software will support.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 12:43:35PM +0200, Daniel Hornburg wrote:
> Hi thanks for your suggestions!
>
> I have not yet access to the 3D projectors and the corresponding software.
> As far as I know the technology I am going to use will use 2 projectors and
> shutter glasses. Therefore I think two separate video streams each for one
> projector will be the best solution. Because in the stereo view both
> perspectives are displayed correctly I was wondering whether one can easily
> first extract one and then the other perspective of the molecule. If that is
> not the case would it be sufficient to just turn the molecule for some
> degrees and that’s it? I am not certain about it.
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu [mailto:owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu] Im Auftrag von
> John Stone
> Gesendet: Montag, 16. August 2010 18:20
> An: Axel Kohlmeyer
> Cc: Daniel Hornburg; vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> Betreff: Re: vmd-l: VMD 3D movies rendering
>
> Hi,
> The issue with making movies for 3D projectors is that there currently
> isn't a low-cost encoding mechanism for this type of media.
>
> There are a bunch of competing proprietary solutions, but nothing that you
> can reliably use with off-the-shelf software.
> I do occasional consulting for a business that develops various production
> tools for Hollywood, and one of the tools I helped develop previously was a
> 3D movie player that works with the standard digital files that the movie
> industry uses. All of the code I wrote was 100% custom because there still
> really aren't any widely-adopted standards other than for Blu-Ray. The most
> common free/low-cost methods are currently:
> - encode 3D as two separate movie bitstreams
> - encode 3D as a single movie bitstream, using above-below image
> formatting
> - encode 3D as a single movie bitstream, using side-by-side image
> formatting
> - encode 3D as a single movie bitstream, using frame-sequential formatting
>
> All of these require special player software...
>
> The new Blu-Ray 3D format uses H.264/AVC with multiview video coding.
> So far as I know, there are currently no free or inexpensive MVC-capable
> movie encoders in existence. Most of these things currently cost >= $5,000
> last I checked. At present, the only way to do 3D movies is to either use
> expensive commercial encoders and players, or roll-your-own with your own
> custom player.
>
> Cheers,
> John Stone
> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:40:36AM -0400, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
> > hello daniel,
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 6:07 AM, Daniel Hornburg <Hleinad_at_gmx.de> wrote:
> > > Hello everybody!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I am using vmd for visualization of trajectories. Since the ray
> > > tracing movies are quite nice and I have the opportunity to use a
> > > polarized 3D system I would like to produce high resolution movies
> > > suited for 3D visualization (real time is not an opportunity due to
> > > slow rendering of my system).
> > >
> > > However when I choose stereo views like side by side and start
> > > rendering I only get pictures of a single view.
> >
> > yes. that is how it works. the stereo display settings only affect the
> > OpenGL output drivers.
> >
> > > Does anyone of you have created movies for 3D projectors and may help
> me?
> >
> > i have been thinking about it and may give it a shot for a demo at the
> > GTC'10 conference (if there is time). the question is not so much
> > about rendering (you can easily render the left and right eye images
> > separately), but about compression and playback. what kind of encoding
> > would you want to use and what player software would you want to use?
> > there are no widely accepted standards so you'd have to use some kind
> > of proprietary solution or implement one yourself.
> >
> > cheers,
> > axel.
> >
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot!
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Daniel
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer    akohlmey_at_gmail.com
> > http://sites.google.com/site/akohlmey/
> >
> > Institute for Computational Molecular Science Temple University,
> > Philadelphia PA, USA.
>
> --
> NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics Beckman
> Institute for Advanced Science and Technology University of Illinois, 405 N.
> Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078
> 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078