From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2014 - 13:42:21 CST

Norman,
  Thanks for the note. The depth of field focal blur effect
will work fine on any size structure if the aperature (f/stop number)
and focal distance are set appropriately. It is easiest to adjust
these parameters while using the interactive ray tracer, since you can
see the effects of changing parameters immediately.

That said, it is critically important to note that depth-of-field is
currently only available when rendering with a perspective projection.

If you're using orthographic projection, the depth of field effect will
be disabled in both Tachyon and in the GPU-accelerated TachyonL-OptiX
renderers in VMD.

Thanks for noting about OptiX working for you over ssh now. Did you have
to change anything on your end, or just running the new VMD version
solved the problem?? If just running the new version solved the problem,
this may be due to the newer version of the OptiX library that's linked into
the latest test builds.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 09:32:21AM +0100, Norman Geist wrote:
> Hey John,
>
> The 1st thing that came to my mind when I tried the interactive Tachyon was:
> "Cool" ;D
> I didn't really understood how the depth-of-field blur is supposed to work,
> maybe it only shows effect
> on rather large systems which actually have a particular physical depth.
>
> Away from that, using Optix via ssh now also works for us.
>
> Norman Geist.
>
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu [mailto:owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu] Im
> > Auftrag von John Stone
> > Gesendet: Donnerstag, 13. November 2014 07:22
> > An: vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > Betreff: vmd-l: Re: Need testers: VMD 1.9.2 w/ interactive GPU ray
> > tracing w/ AO, depth of field, etc.
> >
> > Hi,
> > I've posted another updated test version of VMD with the
> > interactive GPU-accelerated ray tracer. The new version adds
> > support for depth-of-field effects (see new items at the bottom of the
> > "Display Settings" menu), and many other improvements:
> > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/alpha/optix/
> >
> > I will be posting new example images with depth of field and
> > other features tomorrow as I get a chance.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > John Stone
> > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 11:33:12AM -0500, John Stone wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > Since VMD 1.9.2 beta 1 was released, I have been working
> > > hard on making the first version of a new interactive GPU ray
> > > tracing feature available before VMD 1.9.2 ships. I have had
> > > a small group of people testing the code up until now, but I
> > > think it's time to get feedback from a broader range of users,
> > > particularly since several hundred people have already been
> > > downloading and testing the previous VMD beta version that
> > > includes the batch-only version of the GPU ray tracer.
> > >
> > > The new VMD build _REQUIRES_ the latest NVIDIA driver versions.
> > > You MUST be running NVIDIA driver version 344.xx or later otherwise
> > > you will not be able to use new GPU ray tracer.
> > > Best results will be obtained on GPUs that contain several gigabytes
> > > of GPU memory. GPUs with 4GB of memory are in the sweet spot where
> > > you can render even fairly large scenes without running out of
> > memory.
> > >
> > > The reward for going through the trouble to update to the latest
> > > driver version is that this new version of VMD can do real-time
> > > interactive ray tracing for large molecular scenes, at rates of
> > > 20 to 60 frames per second, even when sophisticated rendering
> > > effects such as ambient occlusion light or depth of field are
> > > enabled, by virtue of the use of a progressive rendering approach
> > > that refines the image when the view orientation is not changing.
> > >
> > > The new interactive GPU ray tracer is currently listed in the VMD
> > > File|Render menu as "TachyonL-OptiX (live real-time GPU display)".
> > >
> > > The interactive ray tracer will open a new graphics display window,
> > > which uses similar control keys to the main VMD graphics display,
> > > and it also supports the use of the SpaceNavigator input devices.
> > >
> > > I have posted a 64-bit Linux VMD test build for RHEL 5.x systems,
> > > and I'm writing initial documentation for it here:
> > > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/alpha/optix/
> > >
> > > The new VMD test version also supports depth-of-field rendering in
> > > the standard CPU versions Tachyon, and POV-Ray.
> > >
> > > I would appreciate feedback users have when they begin testing
> > > the new features. I will be updating the documentation as
> > > questions, problems, and solutions arise.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > John Stone
> > > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > >
> > > --
> > > 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/
> >
> > --
> > 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/
>
>
> ---
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-- 
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/