Virtual Reality Toolset for Material Science: NOMAD VR Tools.

We describe a free-software virtual reality system which provides material scientists with a tool to more easily study simulations of chemical systems at the atomic and molecular levels, and which is compatible with the NOMAD infrastructure (an international, open repository which is developing advanced analysis techniques and contains millions of materials). The system runs on multiple virtual reality hardware, from CAVE-like (CAVE TM is a trademark of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. We use the term CAVE to denote the both the original system at Illinois and the multitude of variants developed by multiple organizations.) to phone-based. Informal talks with non-domain experts showed positive responses, and a user study was used to confirm the usefulness of the new system by domain experts.