[chimerax-users] Oculus quest for chimeraX?

Tue Aug 18 16:01:56 PDT 2020

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the detailed reply as always.   I tried loading 2J88 PDB and it
was just really choppy.  So much that my very strong VR legs couldn't
handle it.  It seemed like it should work - so I'm thinking that it was
probably something with the quest + link vs anything else.  Quest+Link is
usually pretty good, but it definitely reduces framerates as the GPU has to
stream in addition to handling the graphics.  Most games are super-smooth,
but it might be something with that.  If you can get your hands on one,
definitely give it a go.  I just wanted to provide a word of caution as I
was extremely excited to try it out.  I'll probably be picking up a headset
just for PC soon like the Rift S or upcoming HP headset and will definitely
give it another go.

-Jared

On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 4:37 PM Tom Goddard <goddard at sonic.net> wrote:

> Hi Jared,
>
>   That graphics card has similar speed to an Nvidia RTX 2070 and is plenty
> fast.  I'm not sure what you mean by "unstable", could mean ChimeraX VR
> crashes, does not render at all, or has slow framerate so it flickers
> badly.  ChimeraX is not like a game where all the scenes have been
> optimized and suitably simplified to guarantee a minimum rendering rate.
> It is easy to load data like molecules or maps that are beyond the
> capabilities of any graphics card to handle in VR.  But molecules less than
> 100,000 atoms and map surfaces less than maybe 10 million triangles (say
> less than 400**3 in size but really depends entirely on threshold and
> noise)  are usually ok.  Also ambient shadow lighting ("soft" or "full"
> lighting) which is casting 64 shadows will easily cause VR stutter on the
> highest end graphics card on modest data, so stick to simple lighting.
>
>   In summary ChimeraX VR isn't going to automatically work smoothly on any
> science data set you throw at it and it doesn't have tricks to
> automatically simplify your data.  So it is up to you to see when the
> complexity of your data makes rendering too slow for VR and then simplify
> the display (e.g. volume step 2).
>
> Tom
>
>
> On Aug 18, 2020, at 11:58 AM, Jared Adolf-Bryfogle <jadolfbr at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> I have tried my quest using the link cable and found it to be pretty
> unstable.
>
> Perhaps I did not meet the requirements, but it was a new PC that I built,
> with a SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 5700 XT with AMD RYZEN 7 3700X 8-Core 3.6
> GHz cpu and 16gb of RAM.   Maybe AMD cards are not optimized for it?
>
> I can play all games from Steam on high settings, so it's definitely
> something else.
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 12:23 PM Tom Goddard <goddard at sonic.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi Escarlet,
>>
>>   The Quest will not be able to run ChimeraX VR connected to a laptop
>> unless it is a very powerful video gaming laptop for instance with nvidia
>> gtx 1060 or faster graphics.   I sometimes use ChimeraX VR with an MSI GS65
>> Stealth Thin 8RF with Nvidia GTX 1070 MaxQ graphics that works fine but
>> that laptop is expensive (~$3000), noisy, and has short battery life (~2
>> hours), so I don't recommend using a laptop for VR unless portability is
>> important.  I use the laptop to give VR demonstrations outside the lab.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> On Aug 18, 2020, at 10:16 AM, Miriam Díaz Galicia <
>> miriam.diazgalicia at kaust.edu.sa> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Tom
>> Thank you very much for you reply. I was hoping it would work without the
>> need of a PC since my laptop is not so good. Anyways, your answer has been
>> very helpful.
>> Greetings
>> Escarlet
>>
>> On Tue, 18 Aug 2020, 20:12 Tom Goddard, <goddard at sonic.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Escarlet,
>>>
>>>   ChimeraX VR will not run standalone on the Oculus Quest but it will
>>> probably work with the Quest link cable connected to a PC running Windows
>>> 10 with a sufficiently powerful graphics card for PC VR (e.g. Geforce GTX
>>> 1060 or faster).  It will not run on the Quest standalone because the Quest
>>> uses the Android operating system and ChimeraX only runs on Windows, Mac
>>> and Linux operating systems.  I have not tried ChimeraX VR with a Quest
>>> with the link cable because I do not have a Quest, but all headsets that
>>> work with SteamVR have worked for me, including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift,
>>> Oculus Rift S, Vive Pro, Samsung Odyssey so I think any SteamVR compatible
>>> headset will work.  My preferred ChimeraX VR headset is currently Oculus
>>> Rift S.  But if you will be using the VR for entertainment then the Quest
>>> is a good choice.  The best performing VR headset for a PC I think is the
>>> Valve Index (based on reviews, since I do not have one) but the cost is
>>> high ($1000) and it is back-ordered for at least 8 weeks.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>> On Aug 18, 2020, at 6:45 AM, Miriam Díaz Galicia <
>>> miriam.diazgalicia at kaust.edu.sa> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear chimeraX users
>>>
>>> I would like to buy my first VR headset to use with ChimeraX. I am
>>> considering buying the Oculus quest but I would like to confirm that it
>>> will properly work for ChimeraX.
>>> Has anyone used it? or is there a better low-cost VR headset (preferably
>>> but not limited to all-in-one devices) that you can recommend to me?
>>>
>>> Thank you very much in advance,
>>> Escarlet
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> This message and its contents, including attachments are intended solely
>>> for the original recipient. If you are not the intended recipient or have
>>> received this message in error, please notify me immediately and delete
>>> this message from your computer system. Any unauthorized use or
>>> distribution is prohibited. Please consider the environment before printing
>>> this email._______________________________________________
>>> ChimeraX-users mailing list
>>> ChimeraX-users at cgl.ucsf.edu
>>> Manage subscription:
>>> https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimerax-users
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> ------------------------------
>> This message and its contents, including attachments are intended solely
>> for the original recipient. If you are not the intended recipient or have
>> received this message in error, please notify me immediately and delete
>> this message from your computer system. Any unauthorized use or
>> distribution is prohibited. Please consider the environment before printing
>> this email.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ChimeraX-users mailing list
>> ChimeraX-users at cgl.ucsf.edu
>> Manage subscription:
>> https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimerax-users
>>
> _______________________________________________
> ChimeraX-users mailing list
> ChimeraX-users at cgl.ucsf.edu
> Manage subscription:
> https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimerax-users
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimerax-users/attachments/20200818/0a397262/attachment.html>