VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 10 2018 - 10:29:37 CDT

Hi,
  I already mentioned this in a separate email, but since I'm getting a
LOT of emails asking about when VMD will be available with RTX support,
I wanted to update the various VMD-L threads on the topic with the latest
information I currently have.

I've been testing pre-production RTX GPU hardware and RTX-enabled OptiX
and driver software since early August.

I have learned that there have been some unforeseen delays in the availability
of publicly available versions of some of the RTX software components that
VMD requires. As a result, the availability of an RTX-enabled VMD looks
like it will be delayed until early 2019 when final drivers will
become publicly available.

I am now planning on releasing the non-RTX VMD 1.9.4 builds after a
short beta testing period. Once the NVIDIA RTX software components
can be made publicly available, I will then release RTX-enabled
VMD 1.9.4 builds and/or a new version of VMD that adds further RTX features
beyond what I have built-into VMD 1.9.4 today. The VMD 1.9.4 source code
already contains RTX support, so my expectation is that as soon as
NVIDIA makes the software components publicy available, anyone would
be able to build RTX-enabled VMD binaries from the source.

Best regards,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 10:02:42AM -0500, John Stone wrote:
> Hi,
> Yes, I have already completed rewriting the necessary parts of VMD
> to support RTX hardware-accelerated ray tracing a few weeks ago.
> VMD was one of the first applications to support RTX, as announced
> by NVIDIA at Siggraph (search for "VMD" in about the middle of the page):
> https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2018/08/13/turing-industry-support/
>
> At this point I'm waiting for the required NVIDIA software libraries
> to come out of NDA, which is taking a little longer than had originally
> been expected. I'm testing the latest version of the code now to ensure
> that VMD is ready to ship with RTX support as soon as NVIDIA releases
> the new version of OptiX.
>
> Best,
> John
>
> On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 10:12:41AM -0400, Giacomo Fiorin wrote:
> > [1]https://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/30200.html
> > On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 6:52 AM Stefan Doerr <[2]stefdoerr_at_gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > Hi, was just wondering if VMD will take advantage of the new RTX GPUs of
> > NVIDIA for real time ray tracing. Would that affect as well real time
> > ambient occlusion?
> > Greetings,Â
> > Stefan
> >
> > --
> > Giacomo Fiorin
> > Associate Professor of Research, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
> > Contractor, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
> > [3]http://goo.gl/Q3TBQU
> > [4]https://github.com/giacomofiorin
> >
> > References
> >
> > Visible links
> > 1. https://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/30200.html
> > 2. mailto:stefdoerr_at_gmail.com
> > 3. http://goo.gl/Q3TBQU
> > 4. https://github.com/giacomofiorin
>
> --
> 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/