Raster3D molecular graphics package

[Ethan A Merritt]

In a recent post Charles Lesburg asked about availability of the 
Raster3D package.  I had been planning to announce availability 
of a new version of Raster3D soon anyway, and this seems as good
an excuse as any.  

As noted below, this version is in beta-test.
That means there may be bugs, but for a limited time only I
might actually fix them if you report them to me nicely :-).
Actually what it mostly means is that I have tested it on
a DECstation under Ultrix and on an Iris Indigo.  I haven't
had a chance yet to test it on other platforms, but will soon.

The "official" (but as always unsupported) Version 2.0 will
probably also contain updated versions of some additional
ancillary programs from the earlier UBC version which we
haven't finished testing fully.

I append below pieces of the general README file from the ftp
distribution;  more detailed info on Version 2.0 is also available
in a README file on the ftp site.

				Ethan A Merritt
				merritt at u.washington.edu

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				RASTER3D

PROGRAM:
	Raster3D is a set of tools for generating high quality raster 
	images of proteins or other molecules. The core program renders 
	spheres, triangles, and cylinders with specular highlighting,
	Phong shading, and shadowing using an efficient Z-buffer algorithm. 
	Ancillary programs process atomic coordinates from Brookhaven PDB 
	files into rendering descriptions for pictures composed of ribbons, 
	space-filling atoms, bonds, ball+stick, etc.  
        Raster3D can also be used to render pictures composed in
        Per Kraulis' MOLSCRIPT program in glorious 3D with highlights,
	shadowing, etc. 
	Output is to pixel image files with 24 bits of color information 
	per pixel.

AVAILABILITY:
	Raster3d is freely available but unsupported. 
	Version 2.0 is currently in beta-test, 
	please see README.2.0.beta for further information.

AUTHORS:
	originally written by David J. Bacon and Wayne F. Anderson;
	extensions, revisions, modifications, ancillary programs by
	Mark Israel, Stephen Samuel, Michael Murphy, Albert Berghuis, 
	and Ethan A Merritt

SOURCE:
	anonymous ftp site:	stanzi.bchem.washington.edu   (128.95.12.38)

	contact:		Ethan A Merritt
				Dept of Biological Structure SM-20
				University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195
				merritt at u.washington.edu

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