The latest release of VMD (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) brings many advances that help researchers prepare, analyze, and visualize molecular simulations. The new QwikMD plugin (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) streamlines key simulation preparation and analysis tasks, and guides users in the creation of reusable simulation workflows and protocols. VMD now includes several advanced features for parallel analysis and visualization of cellular-scale simulations, as reported here (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), and here (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster). VMD 1.9.3 strengthens collaboration between experimental and computational biologists by supporting a broader range of experimental density map image formats, such as those used in cryo-electron tomography. Many updated plugins are included in VMD 1.9.3, including tools for analysis of free energy perturbation simulations (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), MDFF hybrid structure fitting (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), ffTK force field parameterization (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), and normal mode analysis (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster). VMD 1.9.3 adds support for new hardware and operating system platforms including IBM OpenPOWER (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) (ORNL Summit), a variety of GPU-accelerated ARM SoCs (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), the Amazon AWS EC2 cloud (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), and most recently, the Intel Xeon Phi Knight's Landing many-core CPU (TACC Stampede 2, Argonne Theta). The VMD 1.9.3 release adds stunning graphics produced using interactive ray tracing using the latest multi-core CPUs and GPU accelerators, enabling 360-degree panoramic movie rendering for VR headsets, as reported here (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster), and here (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster). Interactive ray tracing makes the task of getting a molecular image "just right" much easier than ever before; it also enables rendering of spectacular movies for communication of scientific results. A VR movie rendering tutorial (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) assists users with the steps required in rendering and encoding VR movies for upload to YouTube for display using VR headsets such as Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, and GearVR. More details about VMD 1.9.3 features can be found here (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster).
