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Beyond the core capabilities of VMD, several additional features may
be selectively included or excluded from the program by specifying
the proper keywords to the configure script and then recompiling. As
well, for some core features of VMD, a single value from a list
of several possible options must be selected. This helps reduce
the size of the resulting executable for users who have no need for
certain options, and allows VMD to be compiled on architectures
for which certain options are not available (due, for example, to a
missing library or a hardware limitation). The following arguments to
the configure script select these optional components; where
multiple names are given in a list separated by `or' symbols (|), only ONE of the items in that list should be given.
- OPENGL | MESA | NOGRAPHICS (default=OPENGL)
This option determines which 3D graphics rendering library to use.
OPENGL indicates to use the OpenGL library on all workstations with
support for hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering.
Finally, if for some reason no graphics capabilities are desired in the
program at all (perhaps if VMD is to be compiled to act only as a filter
between PDB files and image files), NOGRAPHICS indicates to not
include any graphics display capabilities at all.
- FLTK | NOGUI (default=FLTK)
This option determines which GUI library should be used by VMD, if any.
VMD uses several separate user interface components, including the text
console interface and the graphical user interface (GUI).
If no GUI is possible or desired, specifying NOGUI will not include
any GUI library at all in VMD, and all VMD actions will have to be
performed via text commands.
- TCL | NOTCL (default=NOTCL)
Tcl is a script parser and interpreter language which provides the capability to have interpreted scripts including control loops, variable substitution, function and procedure calls, and many other features. If the Tcl library is installed already on your system, VMD can use this library to parse and interpret text command scripts. Specifying the TCL option configures VMD to compile with this feature. If the Tcl library is not available on your system, NOTCL should be specified, which indicates for VMD to parse all text commands itself.
- REMOTE | NOREMOTE (default=NOREMOTE)
This option specifies to include (exclude) the capability to display
and control molecular dynamics simulations running on remote
supercomputers or workstations. This is a key feature for VMD, and
the inclusion of this option is strongly encouraged. However, the
option to exclude it from the final executable is available for users
who have no need or interest in directly visualizing molecular dynamics
simulations, or who wish to use VMD for some other preferred
visualization feature.
- VRPN | NOVRPN (default=NOVRPN)
Indicates to have VMD use (or not use) the VRPN Tracker library developed
at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill to access external
3D pointer devices. If VRPN is specified, the VRPN
Tracker library will be linked with VMD, and the program will be able
to use external spatial tracking devices such as a Polhemus Fastrak as
a 3D pointer. Combined with some form of
3D display equipment such as a stereo projector, this
provides a complete 3D environment for one or possibly
several researchers. However, such equipment is not available for all
users, and the Tracker library is not available on all OS types, so
support for using the VRPN library may be omitted.
- CAVE | NOCAVE (default=NOCAVE)
The CAVE is a 3D display environment developed by the
Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. VMD supports the use of the CAVE as
a display device; VMD also supports the use of a CAVE-controlled
spatial tracker as an input/control device when the CAVE is used for
graphical display (similar, but distinct from, the use of the VRPN
Tracker library for working with other spatial tracking equipment).
If the CAVE option is specified, VMD will include the
capability to display molecules in a CAVE, and will link with the
CAVE library which must be available in the lib directory for the target operating system. Some notes about the CAVE option:
- The CAVE option is currently only available for SGI
workstations, and uses the OpenGL library.
This option implies the OpenGL option.
- Even if the CAVE option is included, VMD can still
function normally using the workstation monitor as the display
device. A command-line switch is then used to specify which display
device to use.
- Of course, this option is only useful for users with access
to a CAVE system, of which there are admittedly very few. Please
contact the VMD authors for information on who to contact about
questions on CAVE access and design.
- EXTERNAL | NOEXTERNAL (default=NOEXTERNAL)
An experimental capability of VMD is to use an external program for generation of text commands, which are then sent via PVM routines to VMD for execution. The EXTERNAL option enables this capability, and requires that PVM 3.3 or more recent be installed on your system. It is suggested not to use this option unless you know what you're doing.
- DEBUG | NODEBUG (default=NODEBUG)
VMD optionally may contain specific code to print debugging messages
to the console during execution, for testing and development. If this
code is included (by specifying the DEBUG option), user commands
are available to turn on or off the printing of these messages, and to
set the level of detail for the debugging output. However, VMD runs
excruciatingly slow when this debugging code is included, so
it is recommended to exclude it unless a specific
problem is encountered that requires debugging output. By
default, the DEBUG option is turned off, and the debugging code
in VMD is commented out when the program is compiled. This option
is mutually exclusive with the OPTIMIZE option described next.
Including the DEBUG option also indicates to use the -g
flag to the compiler to include necessary symbolic debugger
information.
- OPTIMIZE | NOOPTIMIZE (default=NOOPTIMIZE)
If OPTIMIZE is specified, all files are compiled with the -O
optimization flag. If it is not specified, all files will be
compiled with the -g flag, which includes symbolic debugger
data in the executable. OPTIMIZE is mutually exclusive with the DEBUG option.
- MAKE | NOMAKE (default=NOMAKE)
After configuration is complete, and a new Makefile has been
generated and copied to the proper directories, the configure
script will change to the src directory and execute a ``make''
command if directed. If this is done, no files are checked out, only
a recompilation is done. If MAKE is specified, this automatic
execution of a make command is done; if NOMAKE is specified,
the make command is not executed, instead a warning message is issued
and the configuration script completes.
- SILENT | NOSILENT (default=SILENT)
Determines whether make commands are echoed to the screen as they are executed (NOSILENT), or whether they are hidden (SILENT).
- ALL
Same as OPENGL FLTK TCL REMOTE CAVE VRPN OPTIMIZE.
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