The RasMol set solvent command is used to control the behavior of the RasMol dots command. Depending upon the value of the solvent parameter, the dots command either generates a Van der Waal's or a solvent acessible surface around the currently selected set of atoms. Changing this parameter automatically resets the value of the RasMol radius parameter. The command set solvent false, the default value, indicates that a Van der Waal's surface should be generated and resets the value of radius to zero. The RasMol set specular command enables and disables the display of specular highlights on solid objects drawn by RasMol.
Specular highlights appear as white reflections of the light source on the surface of the object.
The current RasMol implementation uses an approximation function to generate this highlight. The specular highlights on the surfaces of solid objects may be altered by using the specular reflection coefficient, which is altered using the RasMol set specpower command. The specpower parameter determines the shininess of solid objects rendered by RasMol. This value, between 0 and 100, adjusts the reflection coeffient used in specular highlight calculations. The specular highlights are enabled and disabled by the RasMol set specular command.