Subject: Announce: VMD 1.7.1b1 test version is available...

From: John Stone <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 00:10:22 -0600

Dear CCL,
  We have just built a test version, VMD 1.7.1b1, that we'd
like to get user feedback on.  This new version includes
several new features that required changes to our graphics code,
so that's one of the major items I'd like feedback on.  If people
have any trouble running this version on their graphics boards, please
let us know.  This is the first version of VMD to use the 
texture mapping hardware on the graphics accelerators, specifically
it now makes use of 3-D texturing in support of new volumetric data
display for potential maps, isosurfaces, EDM files, etc.  Those
people wishing to try out these new features with some of the 
early scripts we've got for reading volumetric data files should 
feel free to email us.  

You can download VMD 1.7.1b1 from:
  http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Development/Download/download.cgi?PackageName=VMD

The full list of features and improvements in this test version 
is included below.

Thanks,
  John Stone
  [email-masked]

What's new in VMD 1.7.1?
------------------------
  New Features
    o New volume rendering features including isosurface display,
      volume slicing with support for hardware accelerated 3-D 
      texture mapping, and a Tcl volume data loader interface.
    o Support for scanline-interleaved stereoscopic rendering for 
      hardware such as the Eye3D stereo glasses and decoders.

  General Improvements and Bug Fixes
    o Multi-level OpenGL stipple-based "screen door" transparency.  Now
      implements varying levels of transparency.
    o Improved support for WireGL cluster-based rendering and tiled display
      walls.
    o The IMD code now closes down active socket connections more 
      carefully, allowing the kernel to complete any in-progress
      write operations before closing the socket.
    o Tachyon scene export improved with new camera parameters for 
      matched perspective views with VMD.
    o POV-Ray scene export improved with new camera parameters and
      support for orthographic views, shadow control, and matched 
      perspective camera views.
    o Replaced DNA example molecule with a better one.
    o H-bond shown in the H-bond rep are now pickable.
    o Added code to read the unit cell data from Charmm trajectory files.
    o Improved robustness and error handling when reading Raster3D 
      scene files.  Fixed Raster3D file reading crash.
    o Eliminated atom selection and Tcl related memory leaks 
    Fixed PRs: 168, 170, 171, 172

  User Interface Changes
    o Users can select either FLTK or Tk file browsers according to
      their personal preference.  Some people prefer the Windows-like
      function of the Tk browsers, while others like the filename 
      completion of the FLTK file browser.  This is configured by setting
      the VMDFILECHOOSER environment variable. 
    o Reverted behavior of the edit form old "-1" index use.

  User Documentation Updates
    o Updated the betacolor example script included in the docs for 
      new versions of VMD.
    o Updated the animation scripts in the script library for new
      versions of VMD.
    o Improved index entries pertaining to lighting and shading.

-- 
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: [email-masked]                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078