VTK 7.0.0 Enters Release Candidate Stage
December 17, 2015
The VTK development team is happy to announce that VTK 7.0 has entered
the release candidate stage!
You can find the source, data, and vtkpython binary packages here:
http://www.vtk.org/download/#
Please try this version of VTK and report any issues to the list or the bug tracker so that we can try to address them before VTK 7.0.0 final. The official release notes will be available when final is out in the next few weeks. In the meantime this is what to expect.
The big news is that the OpenGL"new" backend is now the default and that VTK is for the first time compatible with Python 3.
Other new functionality includes:
– the introduction of the Flying Edges SMP optimized (very fast) isocontour filter
– a new and improved vtkPUnstructuredGridG
– allow the Python Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) for multithreaded Python routines
– offscreen rendering through EGL now supported
Improvements to existing functionality includes:
– optimizations to the Contingency Statistics class which provides a significant performance boost when using only integer or floating point data
– improved MPAS file handling including including arbitrary vertical dimensions and more general attribute reading
– modernize depth sorting code. In tests the improved depth sort is 2 to 3x faster than before.
– fixes to the ExodusWriter, especially when handling side sets and node set data.
– updates to the PLY Writer
Some of the changes that affect building and using VTK in applications include:
– the OpenGL2 backend requires newer rendering capabilities than its predecessor
– QtWebKit is no longer part of the Qt build group and thus easier to do without
– vtkStreamer and related classes are deprecated; use vtkStreamTracer instead.
– remove vtkFreeTypeUtilities
– a new option (when building with newer CMake) to build with C++11 support
– add support for Visual Studio 2015
– Java 1.6 is now the minimum version that is tested; 1.5 may not work
– remove support for OSX10.5 Leopard and the Carbon (OSX9 compatibility layer) API
– remove support for gcc 4.1
And many bug fixes across the codebase.
We hope you enjoy this release of VTK! As always, contact Kitware and the mailing lists for assistance.
The new vtkPUnstructuredGridGhostCells absolutely rocks! I tested it with a model of 328 millions hexahedra, using 64 MPI tasks. This is a much improved setup over D3. Great job Joachim!