When working with complex molecular systems, scientists and educators often need to rapidly switch between different visualization styles. Whether you want a clean look for publication, an immersive rendering for an animation, or a simplified structure for functional insight, changing rendering settings manually can be time-consuming and error-prone.
SAMSON, the integrative molecular design platform, simplifies this workflow with rendering presets—a feature many users overlook, yet one that can significantly streamline visualization tasks.
What Are Rendering Presets?
Rendering presets are predefined collections of visual effects: lighting, shading, fog, ambient occlusion, shadows, and more. With just a couple clicks, you can switch the entire visual setup of your molecular scene.
For example, if you’re conducting computational drug design work and need a high-quality, photo-real rendering to present a protein-ligand interaction, you might select a “High quality” preset. On the other hand, if you need clarity over aesthetics—say, while preparing teaching materials—a “Default” or simplified style can make functional components stand out.
How to Use Rendering Presets
You can easily change the rendering preset in SAMSON using the menu:
- Go to Visualization > Presets
- Select from options like Default, High quality, or Illustrative
Each preset changes an ensemble of parameters: fog, light intensity, shadow softness, silhouette visibility, and more.
Why It Matters
Manually adjusting rendering settings for a figure can involve dozens of tweaks—ambient occlusion strength, light position, shadow intensities, and beyond. Repeating this for multiple molecules or views quickly adds up in terms of time. Presets solve this by letting you jump straight into the right mood and technical setup.
This is especially helpful when:
- Switching from a modeling session to a presentation-ready visual
- Capturing consistent screenshots across multiple projects
- Starting with a known style, and then making minor adjustments
Visualizing the Transition
Here’s a GIF showing how rendering styles change when moving between the default preset and a higher-quality preset—which includes more detailed shading and better depth cues:
Just that one change introduces ambient occlusion, softens the shadows, and improves spatial perception—a key factor in interpreting crowded molecular assemblies.
Make Rendering Work for You
Although rendering presets can be applied with a few clicks, you can also fine-tune the individual effects afterward in Visualization > Options or through Interface > Preferences. Combine presets with visual presets for representations and coloring schemes, and you can achieve powerful results in just minutes.
To learn more about managing rendering styles and visual options in SAMSON, visit the full documentation page here.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Download SAMSON at www.samson-connect.net to explore and visualize complex molecular systems.