Chaudhary Aashish, Jhaveri Sankhesh J, Sanchez Alvaro, Avila Lisa S, Martin Kenneth M, Vacanti Allison, Hanwell Marcus D, Schroeder Will
IEEE Comput Graph Appl. 2019 Jan-Feb;39(1):26-43. doi: 10.1109/MCG.2018.2880818.
The visualization toolkit (VTK) is a popular cross-platform, open source toolkit for scientific and medical data visualization, processing, and analysis. It supports a wide variety of data formats, algorithms, and rendering techniques for both polygonal and volumetric data. In particular, VTK's volume rendering module has long provided a comprehensive set of features such as plane clipping, color and opacity transfer functions, lighting, and other controls needed for visualization. However, due to VTK's legacy OpenGL backend and its reliance on a deprecated API, the system did not take advantage of the latest improvements in graphics hardware or the flexibility of a programmable pipeline. Additionally, this dependence on an antiquated pipeline posed restrictions when running on emerging computing platforms, thereby limiting its overall applicability. In response to these shortcomings, the VTK community developed a new and improved volume rendering module, which not only provides a modern graphics processing unit-based implementation, but also augments its capabilities with new features such as fast volume clipping, gradient-magnitude-based opacity modulation, render to texture, and hardware-based volume picking.
可视化工具包（VTK）是一个广受欢迎的跨平台开源工具包，用于科学和医学数据的可视化、处理及分析。它支持多种数据格式、算法以及针对多边形和体数据的渲染技术。特别是，VTK的体绘制模块长期以来提供了一套全面的功能，如平面裁剪、颜色和不透明度传递函数、光照以及可视化所需的其他控制。然而，由于VTK传统的OpenGL后端及其对已弃用API的依赖，该系统未能利用图形硬件的最新改进或可编程管线的灵活性。此外，这种对过时管线的依赖在新兴计算平台上运行时带来了限制，从而限制了其整体适用性。为应对这些缺点，VTK社区开发了一个新的、改进的体绘制模块，它不仅提供基于现代图形处理单元的实现，还通过快速体裁剪、基于梯度幅度的不透明度调制、渲染到纹理以及基于硬件的体拾取等新功能增强了其能力。
