TheVisualHub/RoyalMD

RoyalMD is a convenience wrapper around the OpenMM ecosystem. While it attempts to lower the barrier to entry for molecular dynamics (MD) on 'portable hardware' (primarily Apple Silicon via Metal and standard GPUs), it lacks a technical moat. The core simulation engine is OpenMM, and the analysis is handled by MDTraj—both industry-standard open-source tools with significantly larger communities. With only 36 stars and 4 forks, the project has minimal traction. Its primary value proposition—ease of use for beginners—is easily displaced by official tutorials or more comprehensive GUI-based tools like PyMOL plugins or academic pipelines like BioSimSpace. Frontier labs are unlikely to compete here as they focus on generative protein design (e.g., AlphaFold3, ESM3), but the project faces high displacement risk from established scientific software suites that are consolidating the MD workflow into more robust, better-funded platforms.