Before revision:   The topology of the protein molecule emerges as a major determinant of the shape of the energy landscape .
After revision:  We demonstrate the method by conducting folding simulations on a number of small proteins which are commonly used for testing protein folding procedures: protein G, the SH3 domain of Src tyrosine kinase and chymotrypsin inhibitor 2. We compare our results for protein G to those obtained using parallel tempering with the same model. The topology of the protein molecule emerges as a major determinant of the shape of the energy landscape .