¶Are there any known issues and limitations?
BioSpring has many options, and many of them can be combined. However, few such combinations are thoroughly tested, so you can easily run into a case that has not been explicitly tested, and raise an error.
¶What to do, when more performance is needed?
Very large and complicated systems can consume a lot of CPU/GPU resources, especially for real-time applications. BioSpring in particular can utilize multiple processors and cores by multithreading its calculation tasks. Since the coupling between simulation and visualization is done via the network, you can run the BioSpring simulation part on the best available computer. The visualization must then “only” receive the network IP address of this computer instead of the default address 127.0.0.1 localhost.
¶Can I use BioSpring in Virtual Reality?
Yes, you can! Technically, it is not that difficult and we have experimented a lot with this option. You can set up UnityMol on your virtual reality headset and then connect to the BioSpring simulation running either on the same computer or elsewhere on the network.
- launch UnityMol-VR on Windows (such VR headsets are currently only supported on windows) with almost exactly the same inputs as usual
- start BioSpring on the computer of your choice
- Connect to the BioSpring simulation in UnityMol-VR by entering entering the IP address of the simulation in the corresponding field of the IMD user interface