(slaps hand up head …) Just realized after several months that having all the bells and whistles on while running recipes was slowing me down. Some AD colleagues on group chat this morning confirmed and suggested EVERYTHING POSSIBLE needs to be shut down under the view page while running a script:
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Uncheck everything ("Dark background" probably doesn't cost much ;-)
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Color: probably doesn't matter but I'm using "Rainbow" which shows the #1 - to - last AA order of the chain as red-to-blue, which is sort of cute
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View protein: "Line" was recommended by a knowledgeable ADer
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View Sidechains: "Don't Show (Fast)" – this is the biggie
Another ADer suggested the above advice should be posted in letters of fire for all new folders. I'm presently running a version of Quake and the durn'd thing is spinning about four times faster than before. Sure wish someone had clued me in at the start, maybe a one liner needs to be added, say, right near the top of the Recipe home page http://fold.it/portal/recipes (and by the way, there seems to be very little general documentation about using recipes on either fold.it or the wiki, or am I missing something?)
Of course note your favourite view options for hand-to-hand combat before you strip down for recipe running. There's also a handy "Default view options" at the bottom left of the view screen to get back to something reasonable.
Attached is a screen shot of what my new stripped down screen looks like with above settings.
A good idea is to move the protein away from the field of view- not seeing the protein means that the GUI does not have to draw it.
I wrote a wiki page back in March which gave some tips like you ask for:
http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/Getting_to_the_top_in_Foldit
Perhaps it needs improvement?
Your 2nd bullet point is what I was missing out on: "Make your scripts run faster. Turn off graphic features such as "show bonds" and "view sidechains". Run the foldit window minimized when you aren't there."
There's lots of things a folder needs to "Get To The Starting Gate," and you've got some of them listed, while others are available in various places in the Wiki and on the fold.it site. Still others are mainly learn-by-doing. So in response to your question I'd say your effort and others like it need expansion.
Sounds like you are just the man for the job - a wiki page giving tips about scripts and with links to other wiki pages you think are useful. I agree that there is not enough written on the subject and that new people often struggle.
We could post a sticky in the Forum with useful tips for new players that have completed the intro levels.
We don't want to add more to the current sticky (http://fold.it/portal/node/988864) because Foldit is scary enough already as a new player that we don't want to bombard people with too much information, but a recipe FAQ seems very necessary.
Perhaps this info
could be posted in the wiki under spmm's excellent new section, foldit 101 - or at least linked from there…
Hi, I've added some more info to the 101 Cookbook page including details rav provided thanks rav.
I don't think that dragging the protein off screen has any effect so have not included it.
http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/101_-_Cookbook
+1, thanks spmm :-)
beta helix, would it be worthwhile to add something like:
More info:
(link to) Foldit 101 – Cookbook
under the OPTIONS list at the top of the Recipes home page?
http://fold.it/portal/recipes
Cheers, John McLeod (aka gramps)
thanks everyone, this is perfect!
We'll add a link to this FAQ at the top of the Recipes Page.