Ray

DESCRIPTION

ray creates a ray-traced image of the current frame. This command is used to make high-resolution photos fit for publication. Please note, the ray command can take some time (up to several minutes, depending on image complexity and size).

USAGE

ray [width,height [,renderer [,angle [,shift ]]]

angle and shift can be used to generate matched stereo pairs

EXAMPLES

ray
ray 1024,768
ray renderer=0

PYMOL API

cmd.ray(int width,int height,int renderer=-1,float shift=0)

SETTINGS

Ray-Tracing modes

ray_trace_mode = 0: normal color

ray_trace_mode =  1: normal color + black outline

ray_trace_mode =  2: black outline only

ray_trace_mode =  3: quantized color + black outline

set ray_trace_mode, 1 # (or 2 or 3; best with "bg_color white;set antialias,2")
# These two new modes -- 2 and 3 -- are cool cartoon looking modes.

Here are the example images for the new modes

Black and White (ray_trace_mode,2); click to see full image

# Black and White Script
load /tmp/3fib.pdb;
show cartoon;
set ray_trace_mode, 2;  # black and white cartoon
bg_color white;
set antialias, 2;
ray 600,600
png /tmp/1l9l.png

Color mode (ray_trace_mode,3); click to see full image

# Color Script
load /tmp/thy_model/1l9l.pdb;
hide lines;
show cartoon;
set ray_trace_mode, 3; # color
bg_color white;
set antialias, 2;
remove resn HOH
remove resn HET
ray 600,600
png /tmp/1l9l.png

Examples

• 

  set ray_trace_mode,1

• 

  set ray_trace_mode,2

• 

  set ray_trace_mode,3

Perspective Example Images

• 

  Example with Perspective Turned Off

• 

  Example with Perspective Turned On

• 

  Example with Perspective Turned On and Field of View Set High (70).

Notes

PyMol 0.97 and prior used orthoscopic rendering -- that is, no perspective. Upon the arrival of 0.98 and later, we get perspective based rendering at a cost of a 4x decrease in render speed. If you want perspective

set orthoscopic, off

Otherwise

set orthoscopic, on

To magnify the effect of perspective on the scene,

set field_of_view, X

where 50<X<70. Default is 20. 50-70 gives a very strong perspective effect. Nb. the field of view is in Y, not X as one would expect.

Renderer

renderer = -1 is default (use value in ray_default_renderer)

renderer = 0 uses PyMOL's internal renderer

renderer = 1 uses PovRay's renderer. This is Unix-only and you must have "x-povray" in your path. It utilizes two temporary files: "tmp_pymol.pov" and "tmp_pymol.png".

Ray Tracing Stereo Images

See Stereo_Ray.

SEE ALSO

"help faster" for optimization tips with the builtin renderer. "help povray" for how to use PovRay instead of PyMOL's built-in ray-tracing engine. For high-quality photos, please also see the Antialias command.

USER Comments

How do I ray trace a publication-ready (~300dpi) image using PyMol?

This answer is in the Advanced Issues (Image Manipulation Section).