VTK 5.0 Released

VTK 5.0 was released in January 2006. This is a major release with significant changes from the previous version. Highlights include the following:

• The execution pipeline was overhauled, as described in the “VTK 5.0 Pipeline Architecture” article included in this newsletter.
• A higher-order adaptor framework was developed.
• Support for hierarchical data sets was added, including AMR and multi-block data sets.
• With the expiration of the Marching Cubes patent, the Patented kit has been removed and the Marching Cubes classes have been integrated in the Graphics kit.
• New interpolators have been added (including quaternions).
• Volume rendering performance for vtkImageData has been improved with the addition of space leaping.
• Unstructured grid volume rendering has been added.
• Support for animation was added.