Key Features in CrystalMaker 8.2

1. Display

• Colour Red/Blue Stereo. Coloured 3D stereo models can now be viewed "out-of-the-screen" using red/blue spectacles. This is in addition to the bold greyscale and black-and-white red/blue stereo options; simply choose Stereo Red/Blue from the Rendering menu, and leave the colour mode set to Colour.

  Please note that when using Red/Blue Colour Stereo, you may wish to edit some of the colours in your plot - specifically, colours with hues close to pure red or pure cyan (since these are cut out by the right-, and left- lenses, respectively). For best results, choose colours with hues that are intermediate between red and cyan, i.e., the colour ranges orange-green and indigo-blue.

• High-Contrast Red/Blue Stereo. CrystalMaker 8.2 provides even more spectacular 3D imaging, using a new high-contrast rendering model to give crisper, and even more tangible stereo graphics in the "Greyscale" rendering mode.

• Accelerated Background Graphics. CrystalMaker 8.2 uses a highly-efficient mechanism for combining high-resolution background graphics (pictures or gradients) with your structural model, allowing faster manipulation than ever before.

  You can drag-and-drop a high-resolution graphics file (in any supported format, including PNG, TIFF and JPEG) into the graphics pane, for use as a background picture. In previous versions of the program, performance could suffer if the background picture was very large. CrystalMaker 8.2 provides performance that is orders of magnitude faster.

• Comprehensive New Background Gradients. CrystalMaker 8.2 provides extensive new gradient shading options. Two brand new options - radial and reflected - plus new angle and scaling parameters, give professional-level control to your model display.

  The Background pane of the Model Options window now includes slider controls for adjusting gradient angle and scale - options which are available for each of the four new gradient types: Linear, Reflected, Radial and Diamond.

  Note that the old "Up" and "Down" options are now replaced by the "Linear" option, which gives you full control over the gradient direction and scale. The old "inwards" and "outwards" options are replaced by the new "Diamond" option, and correspond to a 45° rotation.

  Gradients can be scaled and rotated, using the slider controls provided in the Background pane of the Model Options window. In addition, gradient starting- and ending- colours can be chosen independently of the "plain" background colour; the gradient colours can be switched, using a handy new "flip" icon.

2. Productivity

• Live Model and Rendering Controls. Starting with CrystalMaker 8.2, you can now adjust many Model and Rendering Options settings in real time - including reflectance settings, illumination direction, background shading and much more.

  Simply hold down the option/alt key as you click a button or adjust a slider control in the Model Options or Rendering Options windows.

• Drag-and-drop thumbnail disposal. Overview thumbnails can now be removed simply by dragging them outside the Overview pane.

3. Miscellaneous Features

• Automatic image-pair alignment for 3D viewing. In Red/blue stereo and stereo-pair plots, the displayed view direction now bisects the angle between the left- and right-hand images. (Previously, the right-hand image corresponded to the displayed view, with the left-hand image rotated by the stereo-separation angle.)

• Background-greyscale conversion. Colour background pictures are now converted to greyscale when switching into the Greyscale rendering mode (Rendering > Greyscale), which is particularly useful when using the new high-contrast greyscale Red/Blue Stereo imaging. When switching back into the Colour rendering mode, the background picture reverts to a full-colour version.

• Background pane updates. Adding a background picture to an open structure, via drag-and-drop into the Graphics pane, now causes the Background pane of the Model Options window to be updated.

• Double-arrow textboxes. Textboxes with double arrows or lines are now displayed correctly when printed or exported at high resolution. In earlier versions of the program, the arrow/line was drawn passing across any text.

• GEP removal button. The Remove button in the Symmetry Options dialog is now correctly enabled or disabled, depending on whether or not a GEP row is selected.

• Black-and-white dashed-line stick display. Black-and-White plots now show dashed-line bonds correctly at all times. In previous versions, the dashes could become obscured if the background colour was not set to pure white.