On Apr 20, 2024, at 7:36 PM, Friedman, Simon <friedmans@umkc.edu> wrote:
I am working on mol graphics for a figure. I'm using both chimera-x and chimera. I'm trying to figure out if chimera-x has a set of functionality that chimera has. Specifically in chimera I was able to move light sources around, change intensity, shinyness etc. Also I was able to use ray tracing in the output. In chimera-x I can't find any menu for moving light sources around etc. One very cool thing that is there is the 'soft' lighting option which gives a very cool surface to the carbon atoms. So I was wondering if there were more options for messing with lighting etc in chimera-x? Thank you!
Cheers, Simon
Simon H. Friedman, Ph.D. UM Curators' Distinguished Professor Division of Pharmacology & Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Missouri, Kansas City
Hey Simon! ChimeraX does not have ray-tracing, but as you discovered with the ChimeraX "soft" lighting (sugar cube icon in the toolbar), it does have ambient-occlusion lighting simulated by multiple multidirectional light sources, which Chimera does not have. The rest of this description pertains to ChimeraX: When you try the different lighting icons in the toolbar, the corresponding command is shown in the Log. So that should help you learn some of the common options. However, there are lots more options available with the commands than are represented by toolbar icons. (1) the "lighting" command has the presets including soft, but also options for intensities, colors and directions of the directional lights (key light and fill light), depth cueing, and shadows, among many other things. There is no GUI for changing the direction interactively, however. See the "lighting" manpage and many options explained therein. It also shows pictures of the relevant icons from the toolbar. <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/lighting.html> (2) the "graphics" command has options for background color, silhouette edges (the outlines that are usually black), and triangulation fineness of atom/bond/ribbon representations, see: <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/graphics.html> (3) the "material" command has control over shininess of objects <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/material.html> I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco