RE: [PyMOL] "ray" doubts

[DeLano, W. <wa...@su...>]

Ricardo,

  Yes, ray makes a huge difference in quality.  You get true specular
reflections (not just OpenGL interpolations), you get perfectly round
spheres, you get shadows, you get clean transparent surfaces (without
artifacts), and you get better depth-cue fogging (although with light
backgrounds you'll probably want to set ray_trace_fog to 0).

  It renders all objects in the scene except for labels (which it is
incapable of handling at present).

  Yes, you need to render (ray-trace) again after the image is rotated.
(If you rotate an object, the shadows move). =20

  Most of the figures you see in the top journals are generated using
Molscript and Raster3D (or PovScript and PovRay) using a process very
similar to the "ray" command.  PyMOL simply makes creation of such
figures much easier since you only need one program and you get to
preview the exact image before-hand (set orthoscopic=3D0 to get a
pixel-for-pixel match between OpenGL and the ray tracer).

 =20
Cheers,
Warren


--
mailto:wa...@su...
Warren L. DeLano, Ph.D.

> From: Ricardo Aparicio [mailto:apa...@if...]
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> Dear PyMol users,
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> as stated in the manual, command
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>  "ray" creates a ray traced image of the current frame. This
>    can take some time (up to several minutes, depending on image
>    complexity).
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> My question is:
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> - is it necessary? Does it make great difference in the final=20
> quality of
> figures published (in the case of a paper)?
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> - does it renderize(?) all the active objects in the screen?
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> - after finished ray process, if the image is rotated, is it necessary
> to renderize again (I think no, just to confirm)
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> Many thanks,
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> Ricardo Aparicio
> PhD Student - USP=20
> Sao Paulo - Brazil
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