A hybrid visualization system for molecular models

Nowadays, 3D visualization is part of our everyday lives and remains an important tool for understanding complex structures, dynamic simulations, and research discoveries. In the meantime, the complexity of the visualization often requires specific hardware, including visualization clusters, as well as dedicated software tools. Several efforts, such as WebGL and remote visualization, have been pushing visualization to the web browser. However, technical limitations have constrained the adoption of web browsers as a means of rendering 3D datasets. To surpass these limitations, prospective action has been recently initiated with the development of a web application based on two innovative technologies: WebGL and ParaViewWeb. This application combines the benefits of local and remote rendering, therefore allowing a user to visualize small to massive 3D molecular datasets on a large number of devices. To demonstrate this approach a prototype has been developed, and in this paper we present the hybrid architecture of the proposed system, the initial implementation experiment, and a comparison with current technologies. Finally, we discuss the future work and potential improvements of the application.