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OffScreenRendering

vtk-examples/Cxx/Utilities/OffScreenRendering

Description

This example renders a scene directly to a file without displaying a window. You must turn on VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA in the VTK advanced build configuration.

Question

If you have a question about this example, please use the VTK Discourse Forum

Code

OffScreenRendering.cxx

#include <vtkVersion.h>
#if VTK_MAJOR_VERSION >= 6
int main(int, char* argv[])
{
  std::cout << argv[0] << " requires VTK 5.10 or earlier. This VTK version is "
            << vtkVersion::GetVTKVersion() << std::endl;
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
#else
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkGraphicsFactory.h>
#include <vtkImagingFactory.h>
#include <vtkPNGWriter.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>
#include <vtkWindowToImageFilter.h>

int main(int, char*[])
{
  // Setup offscreen rendering
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkGraphicsFactory> graphics_factory =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkGraphicsFactory>::New();
  graphics_factory->SetOffScreenOnlyMode(1);
  graphics_factory->SetUseMesaClasses(1);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkImagingFactory> imaging_factory =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkImagingFactory>::New();
  imaging_factory->SetUseMesaClasses(1);

  // Create a sphere
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource>::New();

  // Create a mapper and actor
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  mapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor = vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);

  // A renderer and render window
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->SetOffScreenRendering(1);
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);

  // Add the actors to the scene
  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(1, 1, 1); // Background color white

  renderWindow->Render();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkWindowToImageFilter> windowToImageFilter =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkWindowToImageFilter>::New();
  windowToImageFilter->SetInput(renderWindow);
  windowToImageFilter->Update();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPNGWriter> writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkPNGWriter>::New();
  writer->SetFileName("screenshot.png");
  writer->SetInputConnection(windowToImageFilter->GetOutputPort());
  writer->Write();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
#endif

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12 FATAL_ERROR)

project(OffScreenRendering)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  CommonCore
  CommonDataModel
  FiltersSources
  IOImage
  InteractionStyle
  RenderingContextOpenGL2
  RenderingCore
  RenderingFreeType
  RenderingGL2PSOpenGL2
  RenderingOpenGL2
)

if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message(FATAL_ERROR "OffScreenRendering: Unable to find the VTK build folder.")
endif()

# Prevent a "command line is too long" failure in Windows.
set(CMAKE_NINJA_FORCE_RESPONSE_FILE "ON" CACHE BOOL "Force Ninja to use response files.")
add_executable(OffScreenRendering MACOSX_BUNDLE OffScreenRendering.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(OffScreenRendering PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
)
# vtk_module_autoinit is needed
vtk_module_autoinit(
  TARGETS OffScreenRendering
  MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
)

Download and Build OffScreenRendering

Click here to download OffScreenRendering and its CMakeLists.txt file. Once the tarball OffScreenRendering.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

cd OffScreenRendering/build

If VTK is installed:

cmake ..

If VTK is not installed but compiled on your system, you will need to specify the path to your VTK build:

cmake -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/home/me/vtk_build ..

Build the project:

make

and run it:

./OffScreenRendering

WINDOWS USERS

Be sure to add the VTK bin directory to your path. This will resolve the VTK dll's at run time.