Exporting a Scene

File... Export Scene allows a scene in Chimera to be exported in the following formats:

POV-Ray - input for the Persistence of Vision Raytracer
RenderMan - RenderMan Interface Bytestream
VRML - Virtual Reality Markup Language
X3D (see also the command x3dsave)

POV-Ray, RenderMan, and VRML files are generated by postprocessing an initial X3D file. The conversion programs are included with Chimera but can be used separately. Executables are in the same directory as the chimera executable:

x3d2pov
x3d2RM
x3d2vrml

LIMITATIONS

X3D viewers and browser plugins are available for some platforms. However, this format is relatively new and continues to evolve. X3D does not support certain aspects of a scene:

clipping planes (global and per-model)
depth cueing
lenses
stereo
Volume Viewer displays in the solid rendering mode
normals on dot and mesh surfaces

These limitations are shared to some extent with the other formats because they are generated by postprocessing X3D files. Although X3D does not show clipping planes and depth cueing, it can contain annotations describing these features. RenderMan files incorporate such annotations and support clipping planes and depth cueing; otherwise, the limitations are the same as for X3D. POV-Ray and VRML files do not incorporate such annotations, so the limitations are the same as for X3D.

Further, VRML does not support variations in transparency within a single surface model; different surface models can have different transparencies, but for a given surface model, the transparency of its least transparent point will be used.

UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory / September 2006