[Jmol-developers] povray changes & observations

[mth <mt...@mt...>]

I changed the povray code to use the changes I have made to screen scaling
calculations. It now uses the molecule center and radius to the outermost
atom to define the scaling.

There are a couple of scaling factors which are used in the povray code
that I don't understand. One looks legitimate (magnitude squared). The
other looks like a fudge factor (0.7). Based upon the testing I did, I
think they should be removed. The images are larger without these scaling
factors. It worked fine on the few molecules which I tried.

Nevertheless, I left them in since I don't understand them.

Q: Is there anybody who is familiar with this code (or with the math, or
with povray) who could explain it to me?

Separately, I observed that molecules rendered in povray do not look
exactly the same as they do in jmol. The atoms in the background seem to
be in slightly different positions. I assume that the difference is that
povray does a more accurate job of calculating perspective.

Miguel