For molecular modelers, understanding spatial relationships and depth can often be a challenge, especially when working with intricate structures like proteins or large molecular assemblies. Ambient occlusion, a rendering effect in the SAMSON platform, can significantly enhance the perception of depth, making molecular visualization much clearer and more accurate for critical tasks such as structural analysis and presentations.
What is Ambient Occlusion?
Ambient occlusion simulates how light behaves in real-world environments by making deeper or less accessible regions appear darker. This effect creates a subtle shading that significantly improves depth perception in molecular structures. In SAMSON, you can choose between two types of ambient occlusion:
- Screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO): This is a quick and efficient approximation of ambient occlusion. It works well for interactive, real-time applications and provides an excellent improvement in depth perception. However, it is sensitive to the distance to the camera.
- Object-space ambient occlusion (OSAO): This offers a more realistic rendering of ambient occlusion but is slower to compute. For most workflows, SSAO is sufficient and offers a good balance between efficiency and quality.
How to Activate and Adjust Ambient Occlusion in SAMSON?
You can enable and manage ambient occlusion settings through the following options in SAMSON:
- Switching SSAO on/off quickly in Visualization > Options.
- For more detailed adjustments, head to the Rendering > Ambient occlusion section in the Preferences panel. Here, you can fine-tune the parameters to suit your visualization needs.
See The Difference!
To illustrate the power of ambient occlusion, here is the Ribbons visual model of the 1AF6 molecule without any ambient occlusion applied:
Now, here is the same structure with SSAO enabled. Notice the enhanced perception of depth and the clarity of the molecular structure:
When to Use Ambient Occlusion?
Ambient occlusion is particularly useful when you are:
- Presenting molecular models to colleagues or larger audiences, as it makes the structure easier to comprehend visually.
- Working on structural analyses that require an accurate perception of depth and spatial relationships.
- Preparing high-quality renders to include in publications or visual reports.
Additionally, since SSAO is faster to compute than OSAO, it is highly recommended for real-time interactions in the viewport.
Tap Into SAMSON’s Full Documentation
The tweaks and enhancements you can achieve through ambient occlusion go a long way toward creating not just better visualizations but deeper understanding. Whether you need a quick, efficient boost (SSAO) or hyper-detailed depth rendering (OSAO), SAMSON provides a robust toolset to help you excel. Explore the full ambient occlusion settings and other rendering options in the official documentation at https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/rendering-effects/.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at SAMSON Connect.