Photorealistic image generation of molecular structure on PC screen using the ray-tracing technique

J Mol Graph. 1992 Dec;10(4):218-21, 227-8. doi: 10.1016/0263-7855(92)80071-k.

Abstract

A PC version of three-dimensional molecular graphics package has been developed to run under MS-DOS environment on IBM PC-compatible computers equipped with a VGA graphics board. The program consists of two parts: a menu-driven interactive system module in EGA mode, and a ray-tracing module in VGA mode. In the 256-color VGA mode, ray-tracing images are represented with a 4-color map, with 64 levels for each color: 32 levels of illuminance and 32 levels of saturation. Molecular structure can be analyzed along various directions with various light sources. Ray-tracing images are also represented in a 16-color EGA mode with the half-toning method, which can display 76 gray levels for each color. To obtain good photo-realistic images in an efficient way, we have used two light sources, with an intensity ratio of 7:3, which are located in front of the top right and bottom left corners of the screen.

MeSH terms

  • Carboxypeptidases / chemistry
  • Carboxypeptidases / ultrastructure
  • Carboxypeptidases A
  • Computer Graphics*
  • Microcomputers
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Molecular Structure*
  • Protein Conformation
  • Software

Substances

  • Carboxypeptidases
  • Carboxypeptidases A