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Lukas Marsalek (Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany)
The main challenge in molecular visualization is the accurate and intuitive, yet interactive three-dimensional representation of biological systems. For high accuracy and quality, ray tracers are usually the method of choice; although these traditionally take minutes to hours for high-quality results. In a collaborative effort of Bioinformatics and Computer Graphics, we have recently managed to bring cutting-edge graphics technology into molecular visualization. First, the integration of real-time CPU-based polygonal ray tracing techniques, provided by the RTfact library, into the versatile molecular viewer and modeller BALLView, leads to a tremendous synergy and allows for employing advanced effects, such as realistic shadows and reflections, on structural representations of molecular systems in real-time. In addition, the use of GPU-based volume ray tracing allows to display scalar data sets (like EM-densities) with unprecedented quality, speed, and adaptability. For both techniques, BALLView's intuitive user interface allows even non-expert users to gain new insights into their data, and to easily create publication-quality images or movies.