9.4#

Released on 2024-11-22.

VTK 9.4.0 Release Notes#

Changes made since VTK 9.3.1 include the following.

New Features#

Annotation#

  • 💥 New vtkPolarAxesActor2D avaialble for drawing a polar axes overlay.

    polar-axes2d

DataModel#

  • 💥 New vtkImplicitArray template class brings memory efficiency to vtk data array applications. Author’s note

  • The new vtkAnnulus implicit function represents an infinite annulus (two co-axial cylinders). Author’s note

  • 💥 VTK now supports higher order Galerkin cells via a new data object vtkCellGrid. Author’s note

    cell-grid-non-isoparametric

ExecutionModel#

  • New information keys added to allow filters to execute without any prior temporal access for in-situ visualization. Author’s note

Filters#

  • New vtkAppendPartitionedDataSetCollection class to append multiple partitioned dataset collections into a single partioned dataset collection. Author’s note

  • New vtkCriticalTime filter to generate time step values based on user-specified threshold criteria. Author’s note

  • vtkForceStaticMesh is a new filter that allows assigning varying dataset attributes on a static geometry. Author’s note

  • 💥 New filters vtkForEach and vtkEndFor allow logical pipeline execution over a vtkExecutionRange. Author’s note

  • VTK now supports spatio-temporal harmonics data generation. Author’s note

    Default Harmonics Source

  • vtkHyperTreeGrid dataset is now supported by a broader range of filters:

    • The vtkRandomAttribute generator now supports HTGs as input.

    • The vtkGenerateIds filter replaces the vtkIdFilter and now support vtkHyperTreeGrid in addition to vtkDataSet. The vtkIdFilter is now deprecated.

    • The dedicated vtkHyperTreeGridGenerateProcessIds filter has been added to generate process IDs.

    • The dedicated vtkHyperTreeGridGenerateGlobalIds filter has been added to generate global IDs.

  • Feature edges detection is now supported for vtkHyperTreeGrid datasets via the new vtkHyperTreeGridFeatureEdges filter.

  • vtkHyperTreeGridProbeFilter obtained a UseImplicitArray option that makes the filter use indexed arrays to lower memory consumption, albeit with higher computational cost.

  • New vtkDataObjectMeshCache allows storing and reusing vtkDataSet and subclasses. Author’s note

  • New vtkTemporalSmoothingFilter averages input scalar values over a temporal window.

  • Introduced vtkBatch that provides multithreading to improve vtkAlgorithm performance. Author’s note

  • A new vtkGoldenBallSource algorithm has been added to create a solid tetrahedralized ball. Author’s note

Interaction#

  • The vtkRenderWindowInteractor::InteractorManagesTheEventLoop flag can be used to integrate a VTK interactive application within an external event loop. Author’s note

  • vtkBoxRepresentation has a new SetCorners/GetCorners to control 3D coordinate bounds of the vtkBoxWidget.

  • Using the option RectangularShape on the vtkFinitePlaneRepresentation for the vtkFinitePlaneWidget, the widget stays rectangular when moving the two control points.

  • The vtkCaptionRepresentation can now be sized using a configurable API SetFit. The two options available to the user are VTK_FIT_TO_BORDER and VTK_FIT_TO_TEXT.

  • The new vtkImplicitConeWidget represents an infinite cone parameterized by an axis, and angle between the sides of the cone and its axis, and an origin point.

I/O#

  • New vtkBTSReader for reading Engys’ HELYX and ELEMENTS format data.Author’s note

  • New vtkERFReader can be used to read ERF HDF5 files into a VTK application. Author’s note

  • New vtkFDSReader for reading data produced by Fire Dynamics Simulator. Author’s note

  • The vtkXdmfReader now supports arbitary polyhedra cell types. Author’s note

  • vtkCGNSReader is a new reader for CGNS files produced by the CONVERGE CFD (*.cgns).

  • vtkHDFWriter is a new writer that supports most VTK datasets including temporal and composite data to the VTKHDF file format. Author’s note

  • The new vtkAlembicExporter exports the current view to the Alembic file format “.abc” file. Author’s note

  • The vtkFLUENTReader is now also able to read FLUENT mesh files (*.msh).

Python#

  • 💥 VTK now supports a more pythonic style object construction via property arguments. Author’s note

  • 💥 The pythonic API support is also extended to connecting pipelines. Author’s note

  • In dataset_adapter, CompositeDataset can now access GlobalData, i.e. the FieldData of its root.

  • VTK now provides wheels using EGL for rendering available from the VTK Package Registry.

  • VTK now provides Python 3.13 wheels available from PyPI and the VTK Package Registry.

  • Added a new AddUserPythonPath static method for vtkPythonInterpreter that can be used to add user python paths.

Rendering#

  • 💥 New ANARI rendering backend available via the vtkRenderingANARI module. Author’s note

  • VTK now loads the appropriate OpenGL library at runtime using glad and no longer provides the VTK::opengl module. Author’s note

  • New ability to choose graphics backend preference for WebGPU via SetBackendType.Author’s note

  • The vtkCellGridMapper now supports hardware selection to pick actors mapping vtkCellGrid datasets. The selection nodes provide additional properties like type of cell selected.

  • 💥 VTK now supports OpenGL tessellation shaders. Author’s note

  • VTK now renders vtkCellGrid instances with upto quadratic geometry using dynamic distance-based tessellation shaders.

    quadratic-vtkcellgrid-tessellation

  • The new vtkOpenGLLowMemoryPolyDataMapper is the default factory override for vtkPolyDataMapper when VTK_OPENGL_USE_GLES=ON.

  • vtkArrayRenderer is a new mapper to prototype OpenGL shader code using vtkDataArray bound to texture buffers. Author’s note

  • A new alternative tone mapping method has been added to vtkToneMappingPass based on the reference implementation of Khronos PBR Neutral.

  • 💥 New compute shader API allows offloading work from the CPU to the GPU using webGPU compute shaders.

  • The new vtkWebGPUComputeFrustumCuller culls actors to the camera frustum using webGPU compute shaders.

  • The new vtkWebGPUComputeOcclusionCuller uses the compute API for hierarchical two-pass occlusion culling. Author’s note

  • The new vtkWebGPUComputePointCloudMapper is a webGPU compute shader implementation based on the paper from Shütz et. al..

  • 💥 VTK now supports zSpace Inspire devices via the new vtkZSpaceWin32RenderWindow and vtkZSpaceGenericRenderWindow.

Testing#

  • 💥 New image testing framework using the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM). Author’s note

ThirdParty#

  • New VTK::catalyst module added to support Catalyst directly. Author’s note

VR#

  • VTK now supports a collaboration mode when rendering across multiple CAVE systems. Author’s note

  • VTK OpenXR module supports depth information to allow hologram stability on augmented reality devices like Microsoft Hololens 2.

  • VTK now supports basic rendering of controller models under OpenXR. Author’s note

WebAssembly#

  • 💥 The new vtkWebAssemblyOpenGLRenderWindow and vtkWebAssemblyRenderWindowInteractor use Emscripten HTML5 API for event handling bringing in wasm64 and web-worker support.

  • You can now enable 64-bit in VTK wasm build with the VTK_WEBASSEMBLY_64_BIT CMake option.

  • You can now enable multithreading in VTK wasm build with the VTK_WEBASSEMBLY_THREADS option.

  • The new vtkRemoteInteractionAdapter maps vtk-js interaction events to vtk in the form of a json-formatted string applied to vtkRenderer.

Wrapping#

  • VTK now auto generates (de)serialization code in C++ for classes annotated by the VTK_MARSHALAUTO wrapping hint.

  • The new vtkObjectManager class allows applications to track the state of marshallable classes.

Changes#

Build#

  • ABI mangling using inline namespace in VTK has matured with better guards and a CI build to catch issues. :warning: BREAKING_CHANGES Author’s note

  • ‼️ Some function-like macros now require trailing semi-colons. Author’s note

  • vtkThreadedTaskQueue and vtkThreadedCallbackQueue have been moved from the Parallel/Core module to the Common/Core module to stay consistent with other SMP related tools.

  • The _vtk_module_depfile_args internal command is now available to compute add_custom_command(DEPFILE) arguments based on the CMake version and generator.

  • The _vtk_module_add_file_set internal API has been added to add file sets to targets in a CMake-version portable way.

  • The vtk_module_build API has learned a new USE_FILE_SETS API to control the usage of file sets for projects that are not yet ready to use them.

  • The vtk_module_link CMake module API learned the NO_KIT_EXPORT_IF_SHARED argument to prevent exporting of mentions of imported targets coming from a vtk_module_find_package(PRIVATE_IF_SHARED) call.

  • The vtk_object_factory_configure CMake API now supports an INITIAL_CODE_FILE argument to avoid having to get arbitrary source through CMake’s argument parser.

  • vtkVersionQuick header now has a new VTK_EPOCH_VERSION macro defined as the actual VTK_BUILD_VERSION value for release-track development.

DataModel#

  • Some of the vtkDataSet subclasses now make use of vtkStructuredPoints, vtkStructuredCells to improve vtk performance. Author’s note

  • You can now force a value type for the ValueRange of a generic data array and access the pointer via ValueRange::data(). This allows dynamic type casting for unknown vtkDataArray types.

  • vtkDataArray tuple access can now allows for 64-bit integer data via SetIntegerTuple/GetIntegerTuple. Author’s note

  • vtkCellArray default storage type is now configurable at runtime via SetDefaultStorageIs64Bit().

Filters#

  • The vtkHyperTreeGridThreshold now exposes a SetMemoryStrategy method for choosing the structure of its output in memory. Author’s note

  • More vtkAbstractTransform subclasses ported to use vtkSMPTools acceleration. Author’s note

  • You can now use the input array magnitude values for thresholding data with vtkThreshold by setting the component mode - SetComponentModeToUseSelected.

  • The vtkDecimatePolylineFilter has been refactored to use a strategy pattern for decimation. Author’s note

I/O#

  • vtkHDFReader now supports composite datasets like vtkPartitionedDataSetCollection, vtkMultiBlockDataSet and temporal overlappingAMR based on user specified parameters.

  • The vtkHDFReader and vtkIOSSReader gained a new caching parameter to enable/disable caching temporal data from time-series datasets.

  • vtkFidesReader has a new CreateSharedPoints parameter to create shared points at the interface between blocks of uniform grids. It can also choose which arrays to load.

  • The vtkFLUENTReader introduced loading zones from the FLUENT .msh files. :warning: BREAKING_CHANGES Author’s note

  • vtkXMLWriterBase subclasses can now choose to write TimeValue field data with SetWriteTimeValues().

  • vtkCityGMLReader::SetField methods allow setting texture paths or material colors for polydata in a multiblock dataset.

  • The vtkADIOS2VTXReader has improved error reporting and build changes. Author’s note

  • Added support for AMReX-based simulation codes to pass data to ParaView Catalyst. Author’s note

  • vtkCesium3DTilesReader has been extended support additional features. :warning: BREAKING_CHANGES Author’s note

  • vtkGLTFExporter now has a configurable API for whether to export NaN color or not.

Rendering#

  • vtkOpenGLPolyDataMapper2D now supports custom uniforms set using the vtkShaderProperty for a vtkActor2D.

  • One can now specify vtkImageData geometry (origin, spacing, axis directions) from a 4x4 matrix using the new ApplyIndexToPhysicalMatrix and ApplyPhysicalToIndexMatrix methods.

  • vtkWebAssemblyRenderWindowInteractor and vtkSDL2OpenGLRenderWindow classes now support hi-dpi screens.

  • The vtkUnstructuredGridGeometryFilter::MatchBoundariesIgnoringCellOrder option allows disabling interior faces of different order cells in polyhedral meshes. Author’s note

  • vtkWebGPURenderWindow supports switching power preference via PreferHighPerformanceAdapter()/PreferLowPowerAdapter().

  • vtkXWebGPURenderWindow is now the default factory override for vtkRenderWindow when using the experimental WebGPU backend on Linux desktops.

  • vtkShaderProgram now supports OpenGL compute shaders.

  • SDL2 has been disabled by default and new WebAssembly classes are recommended. Author’s note

  • vtkExtractSelection can now skip hidden points/cells using the TestGhostArrays option. It has also been fixed to work for vtkUniformGridAMR subclasses.

  • vtkScalarBarActor now supports a vtkPiecewiseFunction as a scalar opacity function in addition to the color lookup table.

  • vtkOpenGLRenderWindow now allows to blit the depth buffer as well as set the depth buffer bit size of render buffers for working in external OpenGL context environments.

Wrapping#

  • VTK’s wrapping tools now support depfile output via the -MF flag.

  • vtkWrap_WarnEmpty is now available to warn when empty bindings are generated.

Fixes/improvements#

Accelerators#

Annotation#

  • vtkAxisActor2D’s tick and label positioning has been improved.

Build#

  • Optional dependencies now have better logic for detecting the usability of external optional dependencies.

  • Building packages against static VTK libraries with the MSVC compiler no longer fails due to a missing symbol for vtkSMPToolsImpl::IsParallelScope.

Charts#

  • vtkChartLegend can now specify the anchor point in normalized point coordinates to preserve across chart resizes.

Core#

  • New vtkSMPTools::GetEstimatedDefaultNumberOfThreads available to introspect the default number of threads that SMP tasks will use.

  • vtkStringToken has been moved to a third-party library (ThirdParty/token). Author’s note

DataModel#

  • vtkCone now exposes getters and setters for its axis and origin parameters.

  • Fixed normal computation in the vtkCell::GetFace method for 3D cells.

  • vtkCell triangulation api was refactored to improve performance and reduce code redundancy. Author’s note

  • vtkPolygon triangulation implementation has been improved. Author’s note

  • Multiple improvements to VTK’s polyhedral cell storage. Author’s note

Filters#

  • vtkUnstructuredGrid::InsertFace is improved slightly by avoiding duplicate point searches.

  • The vtkConduitSource has been updated to use vtkDataObject API and it has been improved to output field data at the leaf level of the vtkPartitionedDataSet.

  • Fixed vtkMergeArrays for temporal data.

  • Improved the vtkOrientPolyData seed face cell selection algorithm.

  • vtkReflectionFilter supports the VTK_PIXEL cell type.

  • Fixed scaling error in vtkWindowdSincPolyDataFilter. Author’s note

  • vtkGhostCellsGenerator can now generate points/cells global and process ids.

  • vtkIntegrateAttributes has been multithreaded using vtkSMPTools.

  • vtkRedistributeDataSetFilter was refactored for better modularity. :warning: BREAKING_CHANGES Author’s note

  • Optimized vtkUnstructuredGridGeometryFilter for higher order as well as degenerate cells. Author’s note

  • Refactored vtkPolyDataNormals for better code concurrency. Author’s note

  • vtkDataSetSurfaceFilter now supports non-linear cells for the subdivision algorithm.

I/O#

  • vtkDelimitedTextReader has a much lower memory consumtion overhead and gained performance improvements. Author’s note

  • vtkEnsightGoldCombinedReader and vtkEnsightSOSGoldReader have been rewritten for better overall functionality. Author’s note

  • The vtkFDSReader now correctly supports reading slice & boundaries files (.sf & .bf), for both point and cell-centered data.

  • vtkIOSSReader has been fixed for 21-node wedge and 18-node pyramid cells. It has also been refactored for performance improvements and code readability.

Interaction#

  • Multiple improvements have been made to the multi-touch event based gesture handling in VTK. :warning: BREAKING_CHANGES Author’s note

Python#

Rendering#

  • vtkShadowMapBakerPass exposes setters and getters for ExponentialConstant used in the exponential shadow maps algorithm for shadow rendering.

  • Fixed rendering lines as tubes without lighting with the vtkOpenGLPolyDataMapper.

  • Scalar coloring has been fixed for the vtkCompositePolyDataMapper.

  • Ensure that the vtkHardwarePicker returns the ID from the closest node.

  • Fixed blending issues with the vtkOrderIndependentTranslucentPass.

  • vtkLegendScaleActor improvements. Author’s note

  • On Linux (and any platform that uses GLX for OpenGL), VTK will now ask for GLX_CONTEXT_PROFILE_MASK_ARB and GLX_CONTEXT_CORE_PROFILE_BIT_ARB when creating a rendering context.

  • Infinite floor plane support in VTK via vtkSkybox. Author’s note

System#

  • vtkSocket can now bind to any user-specified address to restrict interfaces the vtkServerSocket can be accessed from.

VR#

  • Improved head-mounted display tracking in vtkVRRenderWindow. Author’s note

  • Add explicit support for PHYSICAL and WORLD coordinate systems via the 4x4 matrix - PhysicalToWorldMatrix.

Deprecations/Removals#

  • Python 3.6 and 3.7 are end-of-life. VTK 9.4 dropped official support for it from CI and wheel builds.

The following APIs were deprecated in 9.2 or earlier and are now removed:

  • vtkObjectBase’s Register is no longer virtual. To control register counting/garbage collecting behavior override vtkObjectBase::UsesGarbageCollector instead. The following classes have been changed to meet this requirement:

    • vtkInformationKey

    • vtkGarbageCollectorImpl

  • vtkOpenFOAMReader::SetDecomposePolyhedra has been removed.

  • vtkCriticalSection has been removed (use std::mutex instead).

  • vtkHierarchicalBoxDataIterator class removed. Use vtkUniformGridAMRDataIterator instead.

  • vtkHyperTreeCursor class removed. Use other Hyper Tree Grid cursors instead.

  • The following classes have been removed in favor of vtkExtractSelection:

    • vtkExtractSelectedBlock

    • vtkExtractSelectedIds

    • vtkExtractSelectedLocations

    • vtkExtractSelectedPolyDataIds

    • vtkExtractSelectedThresholds

  • vtkCompositeInterpolatedVelocityField replaces the following classes:

    • vtkCachingInterpolatedVelocityField

    • vtkCellLocatorInterpolatedVelocityField

    • vtkInterpolatedVelocityField

  • vtkAbstractCellLocator has the following members removed for thread safety:

    • SetLazyEvaluation

    • GetLazyEvaluation

    • LazyEvaluationOn

    • LazyEvaluationOff

  • vtkCellLocator::BuildLocatorIfNeeded removed because LazyEvaluation has been deprecated.

  • vtkCellTree::BuildLocatorIfNeeded removed because LazyEvaluation has been deprecated.

  • vtkInteractorEventRecorder::ReadEvent() has been moved to ReadEvent(const std::string&).

  • vtkHyperTreeGrid::GetNumberOfVertices deprecated in favor of GetNumberOfCells().

  • vtkVRCamera’s GetTrackingToDCMatrix removed. Use GetPhysicalToProjectionMatrix instead.

  • vtkTemporalInterpolatedVelocityField

    • SetDataSetAtTime removed, use SetMeshOverTime instead.

    • IsStatic removed, use GetMeshOverTime instead.

  • vtkParticleTracerBase

    • SetStaticMesh removed, use SetMeshOverTime instead.

    • GetStaticMesh removed, use GetMeshOverTime instead.

  • vtkTableFFT’s PrefixOutputArrays has been deprecated in favor of always keeping the output array names the same as the input.

  • vtkGeometryFilter’s SetDegree, GetDegreeMinValue, GetDegreeMaxValue, GetDegree, SetLocator, GetLocator, and CreateDefaultLocator have been removed.

  • vtkCellTypes location information has been removed:

    • SetCellTypes(vtkIdType ncells, vtkUnsignedCharArray* cellTypes, vtkIdTypeArray* cellLocations) use version SetCellTypes without cellLocations instead.

    • GetCellLocation removed.

  • vtkStaticCellLocator no longer uses Tolerance which has deprecated the UseDiagonalLengthTolerance flag.

  • vtkDescriptiveStatistics’s UnbiasedVariance, G1Skewness, and G2Kurtosis parameters have been removed. Use SampleEstimate instead.

  • vtkBorderRepresentation::SetBWActorDisplayOverlay is deprecated. Use Set BWActorDisplayOverlayEdges or SetBWActorDisplayOverlayPolygon instead.

  • vtkOSPRayRendererNode’s VolumeAnisotropy parameter has been removed.

  • vtkMeshQuality has removed the following flags:

    • Volume

    • CompatibilityMode

  • Removed _InteractionState typedef from the following classes:

    • vtkQWidgetRepresentation

    • vtkAffineRepresentation

    • vtkBalloonRepresentation

    • vtkBorderRepresentation

    • vtkButtonRepresentation

    • vtkCompassRepresentation

    • vtkContinuousValueWidgetRepresentation

    • vtkCoordinateFrameRepresentation

    • vtkCurveRepresentation

    • vtkDisplaySizedImplicitPlaneRepresentation

    • vtkFinitePlaneRepresentation

    • vtkHandleRepresentation

    • vtkImplicitCylinderRepresentation

    • vtkImplicitPlaneRepresentation

    • vtkMagnifierRepresentation

    • vtkParallelopipedRepresentation

    • vtkPointCloudRepresentation

    • vtkRectilinearWipeRepresentation

    • vtkSliderRepresentation

    • vtkVRPanelRepresentation

  • Removed _WidgetState typedef from the following classes:

    • vtkQWidgetWidget

    • vtkAffineWidget

    • vtkAxesTransformWidget

    • vtkBorderWidget

    • vtkBoxWidget2

    • vtkButtonWidget

    • vtkCameraPathWidget

    • vtkCenteredSliderWidget

    • vtkCompassWidget

    • vtkContinuousValueWidget

    • vtkCoordinateFrameWidget

    • vtkDisplaySizedImplicitPlaneWidget

    • vtkFinitePlaneWidget

    • vtkHandleWidget

    • vtkImplicitCylinderWidget

    • vtkImplicitPlaneWidget2

    • vtkLineWidget2

    • vtkMagnifierWidget

    • vtkPointCloudWidget

    • vtkPolyLineWidget

    • vtkRectilinearWipeWidget

    • vtkResliceCursorWidget

    • vtkSliderWidget

    • vtkSphereWidget2

    • vtkSplineWidget2

    • vtkTensorWidget

    • vtkVRMenuWidget

    • vtkVRPanelWidget

  • Removed _HighlightState typedef from vtkButtonRepresentation.

  • Removed _Picking_Mode typedef from vtkPointCloudRepresentation.

  • Removed _SliderShape typedef from vtkSliderRepresentation3D.

  • vtkChemistryConfigure.h has been removed.

  • vtkMFCConfigure.h has been removed.