Molecular Visualization with UCSF Chimera:
Question & Answer Session
- New features in Chimera 1.7:
- Improved graphics
- performance increase for newer video cards
- higher default frame rate for smoother motions
- glossy lighting
- interactive shadows
- New tools
- PDB2PQR - assignment of atomic partial charges and radii
- APBS - continuum electrostatics calculation
- AutoDock Vina - molecular docking
- Model/Refine Loops - interface to Modeller
- Notepad - save user-entered descriptive text with sessions
- New image/movie features
- export in HTML/WebGL format for interactive web viewing
- Animation tool for creating simple movies
- Future directions:
- Chimera 2.0 - web- and desktop-based application
- Web-based application using modern web standards (HTML5, JavaScript, WebGL)
- Desktop-based application using modern cross-platform toolkits (Qt, OpenGL)
- Performance from parallelization (threads, GPU)
- Integration with web services (databases, computation, storage)
- interface to cloud computing infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services
- Access to extensive computational resources
- Minimize cost for hardware setup and maintenance
- Pre-made system images for common tasks (molecular dynamics, virtual screening)
- What is a feature you would like to see in Chimera?
- Tell us now
- Mail suggestions to chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu later