9.3#

Released on 2023-11-09.

9.3.0 Release Notes#

Changes made since VTK 9.2.0 include the following.

Changes {#changes}#

Build {#build}#

  • Compile fixes for C++20 builds with gcc11.

  • Apply /utf-8 option for MSVC builds for standardization.

  • Headers vtkBlockSortHelper.h from VTK::RenderingVolume and vtkDIYKdTreeUtilities.h from VTK::FiltersParallelDIY2 are now installed.

  • The vtk-config.cmake CMake package no longer permits unknown components to be listed and will report them as not found. This helps ensure the usability VTK::Component when VTK_Component_FOUND is set.

  • The vtk_encode_string CMake API now supports the ABI_MANGLE_SYMBOL_BEGIN, ABI_MANGLE_SYMBOL_END, and ABI_MANGLE_HEADER arguments to specify a mangling mechanism. Previously (where mangling was supported), it was hard-coded to VTK’s own mangling decisions.

  • Updated the vendored fmt library has been to 10.1.1.

    • The vendored fmt library has been updated to 10.1.1 to aid with C++17 compatibility.

Charts {#charts}#

  • Uniformize the vtkPlot API for color setters/getter, in order to fit the API of vtkPen and vtkBrush. Methods using floating point parameters (e.g. vtkPlot::SetColor(double r, double g, double b)) are now suffixed with F to avoid confusion with equivalent functions using unsigned chars. The former ones are marked as deprecated.

  • vtkChartParallelCoordinates’s default selection behavior has been simplified. Multiple selection is no longer supported in SELECTION_DEFAULT.

Core {#core}#

  • OSPRay has been disabled for older x86_64 processors which do not support SSE4.1.

  • Removed hidden private dependency of CommonCore on CommonDataModel.

  • Nested parallelism has been disabled by default for all backends except TBB, which should improve performance. Enabling nested parallelism is still possible when sub-task are coarse enough, using the SetNestedParallelism method or a LocalScope.

  • Improved vtkSMPTools STDThread backend. A common, global, thread pool is now shared between all SMP calls, so they no longer create threads.

Data {#data}#

  • vtkPolyLine::Clip improved to generate polylines whenever possible.

  • vtkCompositeDataSet::ShallowCopy now does an actual shallow copy up to array pointers.

  • Fixed calculation of vtkPyramid centroid.

Filters {#filters}#

  • VTK’s interruption method has been updated to use CheckAbort. CheckAbort will check the current filter’s AbortExecute flag as well as any upstream filter’s AbortExecute flag. If any are set, the filter will output empty data and tell downstream filters to abort as well. Currently, vtkContourGrid, vtkClipDataSet, vtkShrinkFilter, and vtkRTAnalyticSource.

  • vtkmContour’s ComputeScalars parameter has been fixed to behave like vtkContourFilter.

  • vtkExtractCells has been relocated from Filters/Extraction to Filters/Core.

  • vtkTemporalDataSetCache now deep copies data by default.

  • Fix SIGSEGV on vtkCompositeDataProbeFilter.

    • vtkDataSetAttributesFieldList::vtkInternals.NumberOfInputs was initialized to be -1, which causes UnionFieldList to pass wrong argument to PreExtendForUnion. It is now fixed to be 0.

  • Add ComponentName in vtkImageAlgorithm and subclasses.

    • All vtkImageAlgorithm subclasses will now respect and pass on the component names associated with data arrays that their processing.

Geovis {#geovis}#

  • Moved vtkCompassWidget and vtkCompassRepresentation from Geovis/Core to Interaction/Widgets.

Interaction {#interaction}#

  • vtkSelectPolyData now passes cell data attributes to the selected and unselected outputs.

  • Output support fixed for vtkSelectPolyData when GenerateSelectionScalars is enabled.

I/O {#io}#

  • vtkPLYReader changed to use new vtkResourceStream IO.

    • vtkPLY::get_ascii_item signature changed from void(const char*, int, int*, unsigned int*, double*) to void(vtkResourceParser*, int, int*, unsigned int*, double*)

    • vtkPLY::ply_read signature changed from PlyFile*(std::istream*, int*, char***) to PlyFile*(vtkResourceStream*, int*, char***)

    • vtkPLY::get_words signature changed from void(std::istream* is, std::vector<char*>* words, char line_words[], char orig_line[]) to void(vtkResourceParser* is, std::vector<char*>* words, char line_words[], char orig_line[])

  • vtkPIOReader::GetTimeDataArray now returns nullptr when the index is out-of-range.

  • CGNS fixed compilation with HDF5 1.12.

  • vtkSTLReader fixed to not consume new lines erroneously.

  • Fix UT record support in vtkDICOMParser

    • Previously, vtkDICOMParser failed to parse DICOM files with UT records due to incorrectly reading their length field. This has now been fixed.

  • Fix for reading binary XML files > 2Gb on Windows.

    • Fix an error encountered when reading binary format XML files on Windows - a missing define for Expat caused the offset used reading the position in the file to be limited to 2Gb. Fix the define, and add a check when using external Expat that the necessary feature, XML_LARGE_SIZE, is enabled.

Python {#python}#

  • OSMesa VTK wheels are now provided. These are available on VTK’s official channels (the VTK repository’s Python index and vtk.org), but not PyPI because OSMesa conflicts with other OpenGL packages.

  • The numpy adapter (util.numpy_support) converts numpy.int8 arrays to vtkSignedCharArray rather than vtkCharArray, to ensure that signedness is preserved by the conversion.

Rendering {#rendering}#

  • Fix wireframe render shading issues for some GPUs.

  • VTK previously exported a lot of its shader strings from its libraries. Now only those that are available through installed headers are available. These include:

    • vtkTextureObjectVS from VTK::RenderingOpenGL2

    • vtkCompositeZPassFS from VTK::RenderingParallel

  • Volume label mapping improved to properly index upto 256 labels each with their own color, opacity and gradient transfer functions.

System {#system}#

  • vtkExecutableRunner’s argument splitting system has been overhauled. There are now 2 modes to execute a command using the ExecuteInSystemShell flag:

    • When ExecuteInSystemShell is true (default), the class will execute the given command in the system shell, leaving the actual argument split to the shell.

    • When ExecuteInSystemShell is false, you will have to split the command and its arguments yourself using the new AddArgument API.

Third Party {#third-party}#

  • VTK’s vendored zlib library has been updated to 1.2.13.

  • VTK’s vendored fmt library has been updated to 9.1.0.

  • VTK’s vendored ioss library has been updated to the 2022-10-14 release.

  • VTK’s vendored libtiff library has been updated to 4.6.0. The new version fixes a number of CVEs.

  • VTK’s vendored netcdf library has been updated to 4.9.2.

  • VTK’s vendored mpi4py library has been updated to 3.1.4.

  • VTK’s vendored expat library has been updated to 2.4.8.

  • VTK’s vendored libxml2 library has been updated to 2.10.1.

  • VTK’s vendored PDAL library has been updated to 2.1.

  • Added fix for Proj compatibility with windows.h with the VTK STRICT definition.

New Features {#new-features}#

ABI Namespace {#abi-namespace}#

  • VTK is now wrapped in a customizable inline namespace (VTK_ABI_NAMESPACE). To wrap code in the ABI namespace use VTK_ABI_NAMESPACE_BEGIN and VTK_ABI_NAMESPACE_END. This change means you can now link different versions of VTK into the same runtime without generating conflicts between VTK symbols. Note: this does not prevent conflicts with third-part symbol (including VTK-m).

  • Where to put namespaces:

    • Around classes, functions, variables, typedefs (optional).

    • Inner most named namespaces, there is no need to use the ABI namespace inside of an anonymous namespace.

      • ABI namespace should never be around a named namespace.

    • Forward declarations of classes/functions/variables/typedefs require ABI namespace if their implementation/declarion was inside the ABI namespace.

  • Where not to put namespace:

    • Do not namespace around non-exported classes/functions/variables/typedefs (usually found in tests).

    • Do not namespace around main functions.

    • Python bindings cannot be namespaced.

    • Most Utilities are not namespaced, including vtksys/vtkmeta/ksys.

    • It doesn’t hurt anything, but it is not required to namespace symbols that are compiled into a driver (such as Wrapping Tools).

  • Some VTK modules have C interfaces that cannot be mangled:

    • VTK::CommonCore (GetVTKVersion)

    • VTK::IOXML (Provides a C API, vtkXMLWriterC_-)

    • VTK::WrappingPythonCore (Python Wrapping cannot have mangling)

  • Thirdpary Libraries and their VTK module wrappers do not have mangling:

    • VTK::metaio

    • VTK::xdmf2

    • VTK::vpic

    • All C libraries (ie. HDF5, netCDF, etc.)

  • VTKm CUDA Accelerators do not get mangled:

    • VTK::AcceleratorsVTKmCore

    • VTK::AcceleratorsVTKmDataModel

    • VTK::AcceleratorsVTKmFilters

Build {#build}#

  • VTK_LOGGING_TIME_PRECISION can be used to change the precision of loguru timing output (when VTK_ENABLE_LOGGING is ON).

  • VTK_ZSPACE_USE_COMPAT_SDK can be used to control runtime search for zSpace Core Compatibility libraries. Default is ON, disabling the search.

  • VTK_GENERATE_SPDX can be used to generate SPDX files for each VTK module. Default is OFF. The generation of SPDX files is considered experimental.

  • Added VTK_USE_FUTURE_BOOL configure-time variable. The codebase contains many variables typed as int that really should be bool. But changing them breaks backwards compatibility, and so a vtkTypeBool typedef was introduced which is defined to either int or bool depending on the new VTK_USE_FUTURE_BOOL configure-time variable. This allows for the piecemeal changing of many int variables to vtkTypeBool.

Charts {#charts}#

  • vtkChartParallelCoordinates now has a chart legend which can be toggled with the SetShowLegend method. This legend can be customized using the vtkChartLegend API.

  • vtkPlotParallelCoordinates now has the option to set a preconfigured color array using SetColorModeToDefault.

  • Fixed bug where calling vtkPlotBar.GetLookupTable caused a segmentation fault when no data had been plotted.

  • You can now set an array name for the vtkPlotHistogram2D. This allows you to set an array that is not scalar, ie. an array with a number of components greater than 1.

Core {#core}#

  • vtkMath::GetPointAlongLine can be used to compute a point along a line defined by two points and an offset.

  • vtkValueFromString is a new low-level function that converts a string to an integer, a floating-point value or a boolean. vtkValueFromString is faster than standard library functions such as the std::strto* function family.

  • VTK now provides a way to obtain type names at compile time in the Common/Core/vtkTypeName.h header:

    #include "vtkTypeName.h"

// ...
std::string typeName = vtk::TypeName<vtkImageData>();
std::cout << typeName << std::endl;

  • The vtkStringToken class introduces a utility for hashing strings at either compile or run-time and using the resulting integers as tokens. Additional utilities regarding compile-time hashing have also been added:

    • vtkStringManager holds strings hashed at runtime. This makes it possible for the string-token class to return the original string to you in some cases. Because the manager holds a map from string-hash to string, only a single copy of the string is stored no matter how many copies of the token exist.

    • Added new vtk::literals namespace for creating hashes and tokens at compile time.

      • ""_hash - returns a 32-bit integer hash of the given string.

      • ""_token - returns a vtkStringToken instance of the given string. Note that because the hash is computed during compilation, you may not call the token’s Data() method to retrieve the string unless it is inserted at run time by some other code.

    • Since hashing is performed at build time, the following example is possible:

      #include "vtkStringToken.h"
using namespace vtk::literals;
vtkStringToken t;
switch (t.GetId())
{
  case "foo"_hash: foo(); break;
  case "bar"_hash: bar(); break;
  default: vtkErrorMacro("Unknown token " << t.Data()); break;
}

  • VTK now provides a way to iterate over a class and all its ancestor types (as long as they inherit vtkObjectBase and use the vtkTypeMacro() to define Superclass type-aliases). The vtk::ParentClasses<T>::enumerate() function will invoke a functor you pass on T and each superclass of T. This is used by a new vtk::Inheritance<T>() function that inserts the name of each class inherited by T into a container you pass to it. See Common/Core/Testing/Cxx/TestInherits for example usage.

  • vtkThreadedCallbackQueue can be used to run functions in the background on different threads. Use the Push method to add functions to the queue. The Push method returns a vtkSmartPointer<vtkThreadedCallbackQueue::vtkSharedFutureBase>, which lets users synchronize tasks.

Data {#data}#

  • Added vtkImplicitArray template class that implements a read-only vtkGenericDataArray interface which transforms an implicit function mapping integers to values into a practically zero cost vtkDataArray. This is helpful in cases where one needs to attach data to data sets and memory efficiency is paramount.

    • Additional backends have been added in the vtkImplicitArray framework:

      • vtkAffineArray that gets constructed with a slope and intercept and then returns values linearly depending on the queried index.

      • vtkCompositeArray that takes an std::vector<vtkDataArray*> at construction and returns values as if the list has been concatenated into one array.

      • vtkConstantArray that gets constructed with a given value and then returns that same value regardless of the index queried.

      • vtkStdFunctionArray which uses a std::function<ValueType(int)> backend capable of covering almost any function one might want to use.

      • vtkIndexedArray that takes an indexing array (either vtkIdList or vtkDataArray) and a base vtkDataArray at construction and returns values indirected using the indexing array to give access to a shuffled array without the memory cost.

    • Read more about vtkImplicitArrays here.

  • ProcessIds data array is now accessible directly from vtkDataSetAttributes just like any other data array (e.g GlobalIds or Normals).

  • Added vtkCellGrid. It exists to support finite element techniques using novel function spaces, which violate vtkDataSet’s assumptions – especially discontinuous Galerkin (DG) elements.

  • vtkPolyhedronUtilities added to support polyhedron decomposition into tetrahedra. Improves downstream filter results (e.g. contours) on polyhedrons with concave faces.

  • Added new vtkPolyhedron::TriangulateFaces method.

  • Added new vtkStaticFaceHashLinksTemplate templated class that can be used to group faces of an unstructured grid and eliminates duplicates.

  • Added vtkHyperTreeGridGeometricLocator which is a geometric locator for vtkHyperTreeGrid datasets.

  • vtkHyperTreeGrid has a new type of cursor, called unlimited cursors. vtkHyperTreeGridNonOrientedUnlimitedMooreSuperCursor and vtkHyperTreeGridNonOrientedUnlimitedGeometryCursor have been added.

  • vtkDataSet::GetCellNumberOfFaces can be used to get the number of faces in a given cell.

  • vtkBoundingBox::ComputeBounds added to compute the bounds for a set of points. This is used for the GetCellBounds method in vtkUnstructuredGrid, vtkPolyData, and vtkExplicitStructuredGrid.

  • Added vtkCompositeDataSet::CompositeShallowCopy which shallow copies up to dataset pointers only.

  • Add new vtkNonLinearCell::StableClip method and vtkQuadraticTetra::StableClip implementation. The goal of this clip is to only decompose a cell if its actually clipped, otherwise keep the non-linear cell in its entirety. Note: this clipping approach will lead to topological holes between decomposed cells and the remaining non-linear cells.

  • vtkPolyData::BuildCells has been multithreaded.

  • Improved performance of vtkUnstructuredGrid’s IsCellBoundary/GetCellNeighbors methods.

  • Improved stability of vtkCellLocator::FindClosestPointWithinRadius.

  • Fix ResampleWithDataSet with an HTG source using MPI.

    • In previous versions, distributed HTG where incorrectly resampled, which could led to the apparition of undesired NaN values in the output. Now, the ResampleWithDataset filter works as expected for distributed HTG.

  • Fix HyperTree iterator in ExtractElements method.

    • This branch fixes a bug when using Hover On Cell on a composite HTG Hercule base. The indexes used in the ExtractElements method in order to sanitize the output HTG can be wrong for some bases. One need to use the appropriate HyperTreeGridIterator to get correct indexes.

Documentation {#documentation}#

  • The VTK documentation has undergone a major update and consolidation to enhance its usefulness for developers. The /Documentation/docs directory now contains the contents and configuration for the Sphinx-based website, published on the ReadTheDocs platform at https://docs.vtk.org. This consolidates all existing documentation for VTK, including the newly added list of supported data formats, API of all VTK public CMake modules, the VTK formats specification (previously part of vtk-examples), and the general information about the VTK project. Software process and conventions documentation has also been moved from docs.google.com to the new website.

  • In addition to the documentation website, two new resources have been introduced: the VTK book, which hosts the markdown version of the VTK book at https://book.vtk.org and VTK examples at https://examples.vtk.org, which contain many examples with redirects put in place to ensure the previous URL remains functional. Many other updates to the documentation have also been made, including improved documentation structure, removal of obsolete documents, and addition of imported third-party projects to the developer guide. VTK documentation now follows a versioning system and is actively maintained alongside the code.

  • Contributions and feedback are welcome for all three websites to ensure that the VTK documentation remains up-to-date.

  • Next steps

    • The next steps for the VTK documentation project include setting up a versioning system for docs, doxygen, and the book. Work is also underway to include a description of each Modules (as well as a README.md file) in docs.vtk.org. And there are plans to explore the possibility of using merge request previews for the documentation so that contributors don’t have to compile it themselves.

    • For examples.vtk.org, the plan is to consolidate examples from VTK and vtk-examples.

    • Pages on the mediawiki site will be marked as deprecated, and a link to docs.vtk.org will be included.

    • These efforts will help ensure that VTK documentation remains user-friendly and accessible to all developers.

Filters {#filters}#

  • Added Filters/GeometryPreview module which include filters for creating a preview of the geomertry of a dataset. Current GeometryPreview filters are:

    • vtkPointSetToOctreeImageFilter, used to convert a vtkPointSet into an image with a number of points per cell target and an unsigned char octree cell array.

    • vtkOctreeImageToPointSetFilter, used to convert an image with an unsigned char octree cell array to a vtkPointSet.

    • vtkPointSetStreamer, used to stream points as buckets.

  • vtkImageReslice now supports oriented images, and can reslice an image into a new orientation via the new SetOutputDirection() method.

  • vtkDistancePolyDataFilter can now output directions in conjunction with the (signed/unsigned) distances. This is enabled using ComputeDirection (default:off).

  • vtkVortexCore now outputs 2 extra arrays, vorticity and vorticity_magnitude.

  • vtkQuadricDecimation has the following changes:

    • Added new MapPointData property to which maps input point data to its decimated output.

    • Added regularization mode. This is enabled by setting vtkQuadricDecimation::SetRegularize(true) and vtkQuadricDecimation::SetRegularization(value) where value is the standard deviation used in the Gaussian distribution.

  • vtkHyperTreeGridGradient has added support for vector fields. The resulting gradient has 3 times the number of components as the input field. Additionally, vorticity, divergence and Q-Criterion can now be computed.

  • vtkHyperTreeGridContour now has 2 contour strategies in the 3D case: the former behavior called USE_VOXELS, and the new USE_DECOMPOSED_POLYHEDRA which can produce better contour results when the generated dual cells used for contouring appear to be concave. Note: USE_DECOMPOSED_POLYHEDRA is much slower than the former strategy.

  • vtkExtractCells has new flags PassThroughCellIds and OutputPointsPrecision.

  • vtkProbeFilter has new flag SnapToCellWithClosestPoint which can be used with vtkPointSet inputs to snap the probe points to the cell with the closest point.

  • vtkPlaneCutter has new flags OutputPointsPrecision and MergePoints.

  • vtkPCANormalEstimation has two new search modes used for the selection of neighbor points: KNN and RADIUS.

  • Various optimizations for vtkGeometryFilter:

    • Significant memory reduction (x5) with the introduction of vtkStaticFaceHashLinksTemplate.

    • Significant speedup (x100) for vtkGeometryFilter’s conversion of vtkUnstructuredGrid to vtkPolyData if the vtkUnstructuredGrid has only either vertices, or lines, or polys, or strips.

  • Improved performance of vtkResampleToImage.

  • Improved performance of vtkDistancePolyDataFilter.

  • Improved performance of vtkFrustumSelector.

  • Improved performance of vtkExtractSelection.

  • Improved memory performance for vtkCellDataToPointData.

  • Added more VTK-m accelerated filter overrides. If the VTK::AcceleratorsVTKmFilters is enabled and the CMake option VTK_ENABLE_VTKM_OVERRIDES is ON, the following filters will be overridden:

    • vtkGradientFilter -> vtkmGradient

    • vtkTableBasedClipDataSet -> vtkmClip

    • vtkCutter -> vtkmSlice

    • vtkThreshold -> vtkmThreshold

    • vtkCellDataToPointData -> vtkmAverageToPoints

    • vtkPointDataToCellData -> vtkmAverageToCells

  • The following filter components have been multithreaded:

    • vtkRectilinearGrid::GetPoints

    • vtkExtractCells

    • vtkExtractSelection::ExtractSelectedCells

    • vtkExtractSelection::ExtractSelectionPoints

    • vtkExtractGeometry

    • vtkPolyDataNormals

    • vtkProbeFilter::ProbeEmptyPoints

    • vtkTableBasedClipDataSet

    • vtkThreshold

  • New filter vtkHyperTreeGridPProbeFilter can be used to probe a vtkHyperTreeGrid using vtkDataSet.

  • New filter vtkFieldDataToDataSetAttribute provides a way to efficiently pass FieldData single-value arrays to other AttributeData. This is useful for composite data, where FieldData can be used to store a single scalar, varying at block level only. Moving this scalar, for instance, to PointData, allows to use it in your pipeline.

  • New filter vtkTensorPrincipalInvariants computes principal values and vectors from 2D and 3D symmetric tensors.

  • The new vtkYieldCriteria filter computes different yield criteria from given 2D or 3D symmetric tensors. Available yield criteria currently include:

    • Tresca criterion

    • Von Mises criterion

  • Added support for vtkHyperTreeGrid with vtkValueSelector, vtkLocationSelector and vtkFrustumSelector. The selections generate can also now be extracted with the vtkExtractSelection filter.

  • Added HyperTreeGridToUnstructuredGrid boolean flag to vtkExtractSelection filter to control whether to output an unstructured grid (when true) or a hyper try grid (when false, the default).

  • Fix vtkHyperTreeGridAxisClip when insideout is true.

  • The vtkHyperTreeGridGeometry filter now provides PassThroughCellIds (default false) to pass through original cell IDs from the input vtkHyperTreeGrid to the output vtkPolyData.

  • Added support for vtkHyperTreeGrid resampling with vtkResampleWithDataSet and vtkPResampleWithDataSet filters.

  • vtkPolyDataToUnstructuredGrid is a new multithreaded filter that converts
    vtkPolyData to vtkUnstructuredGrid.

  • Added vtkAttributeDataToTableFilter filter to VTK from ParaView. It serves to turn a data object into a table by shallow copying its attributes into row data. This replaces vtkDataObjectToTable, which has been deprecated.

  • vtkBoundaryMeshQuality filter added to compute quality metrics for boundary meshes.

  • vtkGenerateProcessIds filter added to generate process ids for both PointData and CellData, and store it via ProcessIds attribute. This filter replaces vtkProcessIdScalars, which has been deprecated.

  • Added PointDataWeighingStrategy option to vtkCleanUnstructuredGrid for choosing how to collapse point data. Previously, when merging duplicate points, the point with the lowest index had its data transported to the merged output point. With this new option, you can now choose between:

    • vtkCleanUnstructuredGrid::FIRST_POINT (for backwards compatibility): where the point with the lowest index in the input gets the ownership of the merged point.

    • vtkCleanUnstructuredGrid::AVERAGING: where the data on the merged output point is the number average of the input points.

    • vtkCleanUnstructuredGrid::SPATIAL_DENSITY: where the merged point data is averaged using a partition of the volumes in the cells attached to each point being merged.

  • vtkTableFFT no longer adds or squeezes certain arrays, like those starting with vtk, when the input and the output have a different size.

  • vtkTableFFT now supports complex valued FFTs.

  • Added hemispherical capping support along with texture coordinates for vtkCylinderSource to replace the vtkCapsuleSource which has now been deprecated.

  • vtkClipClosedSurface now provides the ability to clip on the reverse side of the clipping planes and also provides the new triangulated geometry created by clipping as a second output.

I/O {#io}#

  • VTK now supports URI parsing, resolution and loading through the two new classes vtkURI and vtkURILoader. URI support as been implemented to enable resource stream support in readers that need to access multiple resources. For more information about URI usage and loading, please refer to the vtkURILoader documentation.

  • vtkResourceStream added as customizable replacement for standard istreams. Added vtkFileResourceStream and vtkMemoryResourceStream implementations.

  • vtkResourceParser added as a high-performance formatted input parser. vtkResourceParser parses strings, floats, integers and booleans from any vtkResourceStream. Most std::istream common features have equivalent methods in vtkResourceParser, making migration mostly trivial.

  • Added vtkPLYReader, vtkGLTFReader and vtkOBJReader support for reading from vtkResourceStream.

  • vtkMemoryResourceStream can now own a streamed buffer, meaning you can free the source buffer after setting it. You can now set source buffer as a std::string, a std::vector or a vtkBuffer*.

  • Added vtkNek5000Reader to support NEK5000 data format.

  • Added vtkOpenVDBReader in the IOOpenVDB module read to .vdb files.

  • Added vtkIOSSWriter writer for the Exodus file format implemented using the IOSS library. Input can be vtkPartitionedDataSetCollection, vtkPartitionedDataSet or vtkDataSet. vtkIOSSWriter can be executed in parallel.

  • Added support for higher-order Lagrange cells with vtkIOSSReader.

  • vtkIOSSReader now supports mixed-order, 12-node wedge elements.

  • Added flag ReadAllFilesToDetermineStructure to vtkIOSSReader which toggles reading all files or only reading the first file to determine mesh structure.

  • Added vtkNetCDFUGRIDReader support for reading 2D meshes from NetCDF UGRID files.

  • VTKHDF’s major version has been incremented to 2 due to the following additions:

    • Added VTKHDF support for both static and transient vtkPolyData files. The metadata schematic for how transient data is read is shown below (first image).

    • Added VTKHDF support for transient ImageData and UnstructuredGrid data. The metadata schematic for how transient data is read is shown below (second image).

    • Specific documentation related to the evolution of the VTKHDF format can be found here.

  • Added ANSYS Fluent CFF Reader (Common Fluid Format) into its own dedicated module VTK::IOFLUENTCFF, which currently supports the new vtkFLUENTCFFReader. See further documentation here.

  • Added vtkNumberToString::SetHighExponent and vtkNumberToString::SetLowExponent to control the exponent range for scientific or fixed notation.

  • Fixed reading fault on vector fields with vtkXMLHyperTreeGridReader.

  • Added support for mixed cell unstructured grids in vtkConduitSource. See ValidateMeshTypeMixed and ValidateMeshTypeMixed2D tests in IO/CatalystConduit/Testing/Cxx/TestConduitSource.cxx for more details.

  • vtkDataObjectToConduit now supports polygons, vtkPolyData and mixed shapes vtkUnstructuredGrid topologies.

poly data hdf schema schema

  • Add vtkMPICommunicator support for MPI message lengths > MAX_INT, which can now occur in MPI 4.X and later.

  • Added vtkMPICommunicator::NoBlockSend method that allows for dynamic MPI types.

  • Fixed bugs in vtkMPICommunicator::Test* and vtkMPICommunicator::Wait* that prevented them from being called repeatedly.

  • vtkIOSSReader can now merge entity blocks into a single block for the exodus format using the flag MergeExodusEntityBlocks which is off by default. This is useful e.g. for cases where the entity blocks just represent different cell types but they actually describe the same block.

  • Incorrect vtkEnSightWriter output has been fixed for VTK_POLYGON, VTK_WEDGE, VTK_QUADRATIC_WEDGE, VTK_QUADRATIC_EDGE or VTK_CONVEX_POINT_SET cell types. Support for VTK_POLYHEDRON has also been added.

  • Added flag WriteNodeIDs to vtkEnSightWriter, which toggles writing node and element IDs to the EnSight data. This makes the output geometry file significantly smaller.

  • Added property SizeAverageCellToPoint to vtkOpenFOAMReader that allows the user to weigh the cell point averaging operation by cell size.

Interaction {#interaction}#

  • Add support for removing intermediate layers with vtkExpandMarkedElements. Added boolean flags RemoveSeed and RemoveIntermediateLayers. Using these flags will remove their respective layers, keeping only the final expansion layer. This functionality has been extended for use in vtkSelectionSource and vtkSelector.

  • vtkAppendSelection SetColorArray, SetInputColor and GetInputColor methods added to associate colors to selections which are used to generate a color array.

  • vtkCameras can now be oriented with the vtkCamera3DWidget and its representation vtkCamera3DRepresentation. The representation allows you to move the camera position, target position, to rotate the view up and to update its view angle. See example:

camera widget example

  • Added vtk3DCursorWidget and vtk3DCursorRepresentation to track mouse in a scene. The 3D cursor follows the mouse and is placed on the surface of the actor’s scene. Note: this behavior does not currently support volumes.

  • Added SetForce3DArcPlacement API to vtkAngleRepresentation2D which allows users to force correct the 3D placement of arcs that may be misalligned.

  • Moved vtkCompassWidget and vtkCompassRepresentation from Geovis/Core to Interaction/Widgets. Previously these classes were in a non-working state, but have been fixed with the following changes:

    • vtkSliderRepresentation and subclasses: Fixes were applied to correctly calculate the local coordinate for the slider position. They also now honor their Visibility parameter.

    • In vtkCompassWidget you can now adjust the update TimerDuration, TiltSpeed and DistanceSpeed when clicking on the slider end caps.

  • Added standardized color setters (SetForegroundColor, SetHandleColor and SetInteractionColor) to several widgets used by ParaView. These widgets include vtkBoxRepresentation, vtkCurveRepresentation, vtkLineRepresentation, vtkSphereRepresentation, vtkImplicitCylinderRepresentation, vtkImplicitPlaneRepresentation, vtkDisplaySizedImplicitPlaneRepresentation and vtkPointHandleRepresentation3D. Description of added methods: The intended use of these colors is as follows:

    Color

    Description

    HandleColor

    Widget handles that are available to interact with via click+drag.

    InteractionColor

    Widget handles the user is interacting with (via a click+drag) or hovering over.

    ForegroundColor

    Widget elements meant to contrast with the background and which are not interactive.

  • Added vtkOrientationWidget and its representation vtkOrientationRepresentation which are used to rotate any actor. The appearance of widget controls are customizable through the representation. See examples:

orientation widget demonstration orientation widget representations

Math {#math}#

  • Add GetOctaveFrequencyRange computation to vtkFFT which gets lower/upper frequencies of octaves. Parameters include octaveSubdivision, from which you can choose one-third, half, or full octave frequency ranges (default is full) as well as baseTwo which toggles between base 2 and base 10 power (default is base 2).

Module System {#module-system}#

  • Added vtk_module_wrap_python(HEADERS_DESTINATION) argument. This argument adds a header into the install tree that initializes the builtin module table for statically built Python modules. This header had not been installed previously.

Python {#python}#

  • Added ModernizePythonImports.py script that parse Python scripts and replaces “import vtk” with module specific imports for performance.

  • vtkDataObject’s now support pickling by the Python pickle module.

    • To use this new feature in python, you must first run:

      import vtkmodules.util.pickle_support

    • Once you have imported the module the pickling of data objects is straightforward:

      from vtkmodules.vtkFiltersSources import vtkSphereSource
import vtkmodules.util.pickle_support
import pickle

sphereSrc = vtkSphereSource()
sphereSrc.Update()

pickled = pickle.dumps(sphereSrc.GetOutput())
unpickled = pickle.loads(pickled)

print(unpickled)

  • Python 3.12 wheels are now provided for the following platforms:

    • Linux x86_64

    • Linux x86_64 (with OSMesa)

    • macOS x86_64

    • macOS arm64

    • Windows x86_64

    • Windows x86_64 (with OSMesa)

Qt {#qt}#

  • Added minimal Qt/VTK example application MinimalQtVTKApp.

  • QML integration support has been upgraded to allow a vtkRenderWindow per QQuick item.

  • Added custom cursor methods to QVTKOpenGLStereoWidget and QVTKOpenGLNativeWidget that get/set the cursor shape.

Rendering {#rendering}#

  • Added VTK_USE_WIN32_OPENGL option to disable Win32 API in VTK::RenderingOpenGL2 on Windows. This enables OSMesa support on Windows.

  • Improved performance of vtkTupleInterpolator.

  • Added new module providing zSpace support to VTK, implementing render window, interactor style, camera, etc. Supports both the “Core zSpace API” (legacy) and the “Core Compatibility zSpace API” (latest).

  • vtkAxisActor2D labels now use UseFontSizeFromProperty, which was formerly used exclusively by the title.

  • vtkImageResliceMapper now fully supports oriented images, in the same manner as vtkImageSliceMapper. This allows the display of arbitrary oblique slices of oriented images, including those where the orientation matrix has a negative determinant.

  • Improved performance and consistency of vtkRenderWindowInteractor::ProcessEvents across all platforms.

  • vtkCompositePolyDataMapper can now color separate blocks with different scalar arrays. To use this functionality, turn on ScalarVisibility and select a ScalarMode and/or a ColorMode.

  • Improved performance of vtkContext2D for rendering large numbers of points.

  • vtkCompositePolyDataMapper can now use separate lookup tables and interpolation modes for different blocks in a composite dataset. You can override lookup table and other related attributes like scalar interpolation and scalar ranges. Refer to vtkMapper documentation. Here’s a summary:

    • ScalarVisibility: True/False

    • UseLookupTableScalarRange: When true, the mapper shall import the range from the lookup table.

    • InterpolateScalarsBeforeMapping: Applies when mesh is colored using point scalars. This flag decides whether point colors are sampled using texture maps instead of interpolating colors on the GPU after scalars are mapped to colors.

    • ColorMode: Specifies whether to map scalars to colors or directly use the scalars as RGB(A) values.

    • ScalarRange: Specifies a range of scalars for color mapping.

    • LookupTable: Specifies a lookup table.

  • vtkCompositePolyDataMapper in VTK::RenderingCore has been improved to efficiently render large datasets. It now performs as well as vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2 in the VTK::RenderingOpenGL2 module, which has now been deprecated. This refactor has significantly impacted the following VTK modules:

    • vtkCompositePolyDataMapper now has an API similar to vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2.

    • vtkCompositeSurfaceLICMapper derives vtkCompositePolyDataMapper instead of vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2.

    • The OSPRay module uses vtkCompositePolyDataMapper instead of vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2.

    • vtkVtkJSSceneGraphSerializer uses vtkCompositePolyDataMapper instead of vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2.

  • Added new vtkOpenGLES30PolyDataMapper supports polydata and composite dataset rendering with OpenGL ES 3.0. If VTK was configured with VTK_OPENGL_USE_GLES=ON, this mapper is an override for vtkPolyDataMapper.

  • Fixed vtkSurfaceLICMapper crash when rendering lines as tubes or points as spheres.

  • vtkTextureObject can now be used to create texture buffers on all OpenGL implementations that support 2D textures.

  • Fixed vtkCamera CAVE bugs for head tracking and volume rendering.

  • Fixed compositing artifacts when volume rendering in parallel with the OSPRay raycaster. This fix adds a new VolumeSamplingRate parameter to vtkOSPRayRendererNode.

  • vtkPolarAxesActor has a number of new features.

    • Radial/polar axes and arc ticks are now customizable. SetRequestedNumberOfRadialAxes, SetRequestedDeltaAngleRadialAxes, SetArcTickMatchesRadialAxes, SetRequestedNumberOfPolarAxes, SetRequestedDeltaAnglePolarAxes, SetArcTickMatchesPolarAxes, SetDeltaAngleMajor, and SetDeltaAngleMinor are all new methods.

    • Tick size is now computed as a ratio of maximum radius by default. You can specify a value for this ratio using SetTickRatioRadiusSize, default is 0.02.

    • You can now change polar arcs resolution per degree. See SetPolarArcResolutionPerDegree, default is 0.2.

    • Text offsets are now customizable with SetPolarTitleOffset, SetRadialTitleOffset, SetPolarLabelOffset and SetPolarExponentOffset.

  • vtkMultiVolume now supports RGBA volume inputs in a similar way to the existing single-input volume rendering. When turning off the IndependentComponent flag of the vtkVolumeProperty and providing 4-components to the mapper values are interpreted as RGBA.

  • Added new gradient background modes. You can select from various gradient background modes with vtkViewport::SetGradientMode. The following modes are available:

    • VTK_GRADIENT_VERTICAL Background color is used at the bottom, Background2 color is used at the top.

    • VTK_GRADIENT_HORIZONTAL Background color on the left, Background2 color on the right.

    • VTK_GRADIENT_RADIAL_VIEWPORT_FARTHEST_SIDE Background color in the center, Background2 color on and beyond the circle ellipse edge. Circle/Ellipse touches all sides of the square/rectangle viewport.

    • VTK_GRADIENT_RADIAL_VIEWPORT_FARTHEST_CORNER Background color in the center, Background2 color on and beyond the circle/ ellipse edge. Circle/Ellipse touches all corners of the square/rectangle viewport. See gradient background examples:

  • Fix incorrect values from vtkOpenGLRenderWindow::GetZBufferData in OpenGL ES 3.0.

    • vtkOpenGLRenderWindow::GetZBufferData now returns the correct depth values in OpenGL ES 3.0 where the depth component is typically only 24-bit wide.

  • Fix GPU Ray Cast Volume Rendering with ModelTransformMatrix.

    • For CAVE environments, the vtkCamera class provides a ModelTransformMatrix as a means of manipulating all the objects in a scene. However, actually using this matrix effectively changes the position of the camera (or eye), which is used by the vtkOpenGLGPUVolumeRayCastMapper. This issue prevented CAVE users from interacting with volume data in the CAVE, as written up here.

      This change fixes the gpu volume rendering mapper by removing from

      developers the responsibility to pass the cameraPos uniform so that it matches the actual transformations applied to each vertex in the vertex shader. Instead, the effective eye position in dataspace is computed automatically. Furthermore, this is done on the cpu, saving a matrix/matrix multiply and several matrix/vector multiplies in the fragment shader.

  • Fix Off-axis stereo image separation issue.

    • Fix how the final transformation, T, described in “Generalized Perspective Projection” is applied when doing off-axis projection. This transform encapsulates the viewpoint offset, and should be computed using the same eye positions used to compute the rest of the projection matrix, but was inadvertently computed using the single EyePosition.

      The result of the bug was that stereo images of an object were always a fixed distance apart from each other, regardless of the objects location w.r.t. the screen, and regardless of the the eye position w.r.t. the object and screen.

      This change moves computation of the left/right eye into a new method GetStereoEyePosition() and uses that from both the projection and view transform computations.

      Also adds a test to render three disks at different locations with respect to the screen to ensure the stereo image pairs behave correctly.

  • Fix Display Attribute Inheritance For vtkOpenGLGlyph3DMapper.

    • The vtkOpenGLGlyph3DMapper can now correctly override visibility, colors, opacities and pickability of individual blocks.

vtkViewport gradient modes example

Third Party {#third-party}#

  • fast_float added as a vendored package. It is available using the VTK::fast_float module.

VTK-m {#vtk-m}#

  • VTK-m submodule has been updated to the latest release, VTK-m 2.0.0. Being a major update, it significantly breaks compatibility with the API provided by VTK-m 1.X. Thus, many changes were needed in VTK to make it compatible with VTK-m 2.0.0.

    • All VTK-m cmake targets are now prefixed with vtkm_. Exceptions have been made for vtkm::cuda and vtkm::kokkos_hip, for compatibility with external VTK-m imports.

    • VTK-m VTK module is now called vtk::vtkvtkm as opposed to vtk::vtkm.

    • vtkmlib functions that translate VTK to VTK-m data structures now respect coordinates system changes. Coordinates systems are now represented as a field inside the VTK-m dataset rather than a special/unique component.

  • The Fides library has been updated upstream to ensure compatibility with VTK-m 2.0.0. This update in upstream has been brought to VTK to enable using VTK-m 2.0.0 and Fides through VTK.

Deprecated and Removed Features {#deprecated-and-removed-features}#

Legacy {#legacy}#

The following APIs were deprecated in 9.1 or earlier and are now removed:

  • Python 2 support has been removed.

  • Threading types (use C++ std classes instead):

    • vtkSimpleConditionVariable (std::condition_variable)

    • vtkConditionVariable (std::condition_variable)

    • vtkMutexType

    • vtkSimpleMutexLock (std::mutex)

    • vtkMutexLock (std::lock_guard)

    • vtkCritSecType

    • vtkSimpleCriticalSection (std::mutex)

  • The EvaluateLocationProjectedNode method has been removed on the following classes; use EvaluateLocation instead:

    • vtkBezierCurve

    • vtkBezierHexahedron

    • vtkBezierQuadrilateral

    • vtkBezierTetra

    • vtkBezierTriangle

    • vtkBezierWedge

  • vtkBezierInterpolation::flattenSimplex has been renamed to ::FlattenSimplex

  • vtkBezierInterpolation::unflattenSimplex has been renamed to ::UnFlattenSimplex

  • vtkBezierInterpolation::deCasteljauSimplex has been renamed to ::DeCasteljauSimplex

  • vtkBezierInterpolation::deCasteljauSimplexDeriv has been renamed to ::DeCasteljauSimplexDeriv

  • vtkHigherOrderHexahedron::getEdgeCell has been renamed to ::GetEdgeCell

  • vtkHigherOrderHexahedron::getFaceCell has been renamed to ::GetFaceCell

  • vtkHigherOrderHexahedron::getInterp has been renamed to ::GetInterpolation

  • vtkHigherOrderQuadrilateral::getEdgeCell has been renamed to ::GetEdgeCell

  • vtkHigherOrderTetra::getEdgeCell has been renamed to ::GetEdgeCell

  • vtkHigherOrderTetra::getFaceCell has been renamed to ::GetFaceCell

  • vtkHigherOrderTriangle::eta has been renamed to ::Eta

  • vtkHigherOrderTriangle::deta has been renamed to ::Deta

  • vtkHigherOrderTriangle::getEdgeCell has been renamed to ::GetEdgeCell

  • vtkHigherOrderQuadrilateral::getBdyQuad has been renamed to ::GetBoundaryQuad

  • vtkHigherOrderQuadrilateral::getBdyTri has been renamed to ::GetBoundaryTri

  • vtkHigherOrderQuadrilateral::getEdgeCell has been renamed to ::GetEdgeCell

  • vtkHigherOrderQuadrilateral::getInterp has been renamed to ::GetInterpolation

  • vtkIncrementalOctreeNode::InsertPoint without numberOfNodes is removed for the variant with it

  • vtkLine::Intersection3D has been replaced by vtkLine::Intersection

  • vtkPointData::NullPoint has been replaced by vtkFieldData::NullData

  • vtkSelectionNode::INDEXED_VERTICES has been removed

  • vtkReaderExecutive has been removed

  • vtkThreadMessager has been removed; use C++ std threading support instead

  • vtkPassThroughFilter has been replaced by vtkPassThrough

  • vtkXMLPPartitionedDataSetWriter has been replaced by vtkXMLPartitionedDataSetWriter

  • vtkBlueObeliskData::GetWriteMutex has been replaced by ::LockWriteMutex and ::UnlockWriteMutex

  • vtkThreshold::ThresholdByLower has been replaced by ::SetLowerThreshold or ::SetThresholdFunction

  • vtkThreshold::ThresholdByUpper has been replaced by ::SetUpperThreshold or ::SetThresholdFunction

  • vtkThreshold::ThresholdBetween has been replaced by ::SetLowerThreshold and ::SetUpperThreshold or ::SetThresholdFunction

  • vtkMultiBlockFromTimeSeriesFilter has been replaced by vtkGroupTimeStepsFilter

  • vtkDataSetGhostGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkDataSetSurfaceFilter methods ::GetUseStrips, ::SetUseStrips, ::UseStripsOn, and ::UseStripsOff have been removed

  • vtkStructuredGridGhostDataGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkUniformGridGhostDataGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkUnstructuredGridGhostCellsGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkPDataSetGhostGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkPStructuredGridGhostDataGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkPUniformGridGhostDataGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkPUnstructuredGridGhostCellsGenerator has been replaced by vtkGhostCellsGenerator

  • vtkOpenGLRenderer::HaveApplePrimitiveIdBug has been removed as no supported macOS release has the issue anymore

  • vtkOpenGLRenderWindow has removed the following methods:

    • ::GetBackLeftBuffer

    • ::GetBackRightBuffer

    • ::GetFrontLeftBuffer

    • ::GetFrontRightBuffer

    • ::GetBackBuffer

    • ::GetFrontBuffer

  • vtkOpenGLRenderWindow::GetOffScreenFramebuffer has been replaced by ::GetRenderFramebuffer

  • vtkDataEncoder::PushAndTakeReference has been replaced by ::Push

  • vtkGenericOpenGLRenderWindow::IsDrawable is removed

  • vtkIOSRenderWindow::IsDrawable is removed

  • vtkCocoaRenderWindow::IsDrawable is removed

  • vtkRenderWindow::IsDrawable is removed

  • vtkDIYUtilities::GetDataSets is replaced by vtkCompositeDataSet::GetDataSets

  • vtkCurveRepresentation::*DirectionalLine* methods have been renamed to ::*Directional*

  • vtkSimpleImageFilterExample has been removed

  • vtkExodusIIReaderPrivate::PrintData has been renamed to ::PrintSelf

  • vtkEnSightReader::ReplaceWildcards has been replaced by vtkGenericEnSightReader::ReplaceWildcardsHelper

  • vtkQtSQLDatabase::*Port has been renamed to ::*DbPort to avoid Windows SDK macro collisions

  • The vtkDataSetSurfaceFilter::GetInterpolatedPointId overload without weights has been replaced by the one with it

Charts {#charts}#

  • vtkPlot color setter/getter methods with floating point parameters are now suffixed with F. The former methods without the suffix have been deprecated. For example:

    • vtkPlot::SetColor(double r, double g, double b) has been moved to vtkPlot::SetColorF(double r, double g, double b).

Core {#core}#

  • The vtkStdString implicit conversion to const char* is deprecated. Instead, call .c_str() explicitly on the instance.

  • vtkVariant::ToX and related string parsing no longer supports [-]infinity as a valid float conversion. Only [-]inf is now supported.

Data {#data}#

  • Deprecated vtkCompositeDataSet::RecursiveShallowCopy, use vtkCompositeDataSet::ShallowCopy instead.

  • vtkUnstructuredGrid::GetCellLinks has been deprecated, vtkUnstructuredGrid::GetLinks instead.

  • vtkAbstractCellLinks::BuildLinks(vtkDataSet*) has been deprecated, use vtkAbstractCellLinks::BuildLinks() instead.

Filters {#filters}#

  • vtkDataObjectToTable is deprecated in favor of vtkAttributeDataToTableFilter, which has the same functionality.

  • vtkProcessIdScalars is deprecated in favor of vtkGenerateProcessIds. The following is a migration example:

    • Deprecated vtkProcessIdScalars code:

      vtkNew<vtkProcessIdScalars> processIdsGenerator;
processIdsGenerator->SetInputConnection(someData->GetOutputPort());
processIdsGenerator->SetScalarModeToCellData();
processIdsGenerator->Update();

vtkDataSet* pidGeneratorOutput = processIdsGenerator->GetOutput();
vtkIntArray* pidArray = vtkIntArray::SafeDownCast(pidGeneratorOutput->GetCellData()->GetArray("ProcessId"));

    • New vtkGenerateProcessIds code:

      vtkNew<vtkGenerateProcessIds> processIdsGenerator;
processIdsGenerator->SetInputConnection(someData->GetOutputPort());
processIdsGenerator->GeneratePointDataOff();
processIdsGenerator->GenerateCellDataOn();
processIdsGenerator->Update();

vtkDataSet* pidGeneratorOutput = processIdsGenerator->GetOutput();
vtkIdTypeArray* pidArray = vtkIdTypeArray::SafeDownCast(pidGeneratorOutput->GetCellData()->GetProcessIds());

  • vtkCapsuleSource is deprecated in favor of vtkCylinderSource::SetCapping(true) and vtkCylinderSource::SetCapsuleCap(true), which has the same functionality.

I/O {#io}#

  • vtkOpenFOAMReader support for polyhedral decomposition, SetDecomposePolyhedra, has been deprecated.

  • vtkNumberToString::operator() has been deprecated in favor of vtkNumberToString::Convert.

Python {#python}#

  • The VTK wheels no longer provide the VTK::PythonInterpreter module as it is unnecessary in such situations.

Rendering {#rendering}#

  • vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow::SetSizeNoXResize() has been deprecated due to structural RenderingUI changes in VTK 9.0.

  • vtkOutputWindowCleanup has been deprecated as it is no longer used.

  • vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2 has been deprecated in favor of vtkCompositePolyDataMapper following the latter’s performance improvements.

Other Changes {#other-changes}#