VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Dec 06 2004 - 12:42:59 CST

Jerry,
  Thanks for the info. VMD disables GLSL on the 64-bit NVidia drivers
because NVidia is returning a NULL pointer for one of the required GLSL
function pointers as queried by VMD. The 32-bit version of their driver
doesn't have that problem, which is why GLSL runs on the 32-bit version
of VMD on NVidia cards. Hopefully they'll fix the problem. When they
do, VMD will enable GLSL in 64-bit mode once the drivers work properly.
The code used for 64-bit and 32-bit versions is identical.

  John

On Mon, Dec 06, 2004 at 11:56:12AM -0600, Jerry Ebalunode wrote:
> Hi all,
> The first beta version of vmd 1.8.3 works well on both linux ia32 and amd64
> platforms for all features I have tested since the last build I made of this
> release. Also, it seems Nvidia, has got there act together in their latest
> linux driver release (aka. 66.29 release) , which now features better GLSL
> support for both 32 bit and amd 64 platforms, when compared to 61.11 or 61.06
> linux driver release. However, current amd 64 builds of vmd tend to disable
> GLSL support, even though the drivers seem to be much more stable.
> Fortunately, since I can simulataneously run 32bit or 64 bit binaries on my
> workstation, with the 66.29 drivers also supporting opengl programs whether
> 32/64bit, I just installed the 32 bit linux version of VMD to get my GLSL
> working.
>
>
>
>
> On Sunday 05 December 2004 10:44 pm, John Stone wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Those of you interested in testing VMD 1.8.3 and providing
> > feedback can download VMD 1.8.3 beta 1 from the VMD web site.
> > I've built test binaries for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux, 32/64-bit Solaris,
> > 32-bit MacOS X, and 32-bit Windows, all available here:
> > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/alpha/
> >
> > There are various minor things I'm still finishing up before release,
> > but this build should be very representative of the final version.
> >
> > The main things still in flux at this point are Python-related
> > updates and changes, a few last bits pertaining to OpenGL programmable
> > shading, and two or three very small feature requests I may still
> > have an opportunity to implement prior to release assuming new bugs
> > don't crop up with further testing.
> >
> > I'm particularly interested in getting feedback on the stability
> > of the new version on video boards that support OpenGL programmable
> > shading (see the new Display->Rendermode->GLSL option in the GUI),
> > and how well the AMD64 build works for those of you with Opteron,
> > Athlon64, or recent Intel chips running 64-bit Linux.
> >
> > I'm going to be out of town at a meeting for the next week, so I won't
> > have much opportunity to respond to email, but if you have an opportunity
> > to test the new version, I would very much appreciate any commentary, as
> > this will help me decide how to spend my efforts preparing VMD 1.8.3 for
> > final release.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > John Stone
> > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> --
> Jerry Ebalunode
> Ph.D. Candidate
> RM 402F Houston Science Center
> Phone: 713-743-8367
> Dept. of Biology and Biochemistry
> University of Houston
> 4800 Calhoun Road
> Houston, TX 77204
>
> "No trees were killed in the posting of this message. However a large number
> of electrons were terribly inconvenienced..."
> Marcos Topete 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
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Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078