VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 28 2006 - 10:11:21 CDT

Hi Vlad,
  The AlphaBlend mode is only available on video cards that support
the glGlobalAlphaFactorSun() OpenGL extension functions.
The OpenGL programmable shading mode (aka GLSL) is only available on
video cards that:
  a) include all of the GLSl extensions
  b) successfully compile and link at least the main
     VMD vertex and fragment shader (these are compiled by the OpenGL driver
     at runtime, and any GLSL compiler errors/warnings are emitted when
     VMD starts up...)

The messages you're seeing when you try to use the AlphaBlend or GLSL
rendering modes indicate that your video card doesn't support either mode
currently. If you have a very capable video card, then you'll want to make
sure that you've got a current video driver. If you have an older video card,
then chances are that you won't be able to use these features without
installing a newer video card. (older in this case means a card that's
a lower class board than an ATI 9800, or an nVidia GeForce 5x00, for example)
Let me know if you need more help with this.

  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 at 03:52:49PM +0200, Vlad Cojocaru wrote:
> Dear vmd users,
>
> When trying to use Display/RenderMode/GLSL or AlphaBlend I get the
> follwoing errors:
> Warning) Blended alpha transparency not available.
> Warning) OpenGL Programmable Shading not available.
>
> I noticed that with vmd 1.8.4b10. Could somebody explain to me why this
> happens? Is there an easy solution for it?
>
> Thanks
> vlad
>
> --
> Dr. Vlad Cojocaru
> EML Research gGmbH
> Molecular and Cellular Modeling Group
> Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 33
> 69118 Heidelberg, Germany
> Phone: +49-6221-533266
> Fax: +49-6221-533298
> e-mail: Vlad.Cojocaru_at_eml-r.villa-bosch.de
> http://projects.villa-bosch.de/mcm/people/cojocaru/
> 

-- 
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