[Paraview] Client server volume rendering problem in 4.1 and 4.2RC1

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Ron,

Here's a fix that makes ParaView use remote-rendering irrespective of
remote-rendering threshold when volume rendering:

http://review.source.kitware.com/#/t/4672

It'd be great if you could give it a try to confirm that it works.

Thanks
Utkarsh

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Utkarsh Ayachit
<utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com> wrote:
> Ron,
>
> Those are good observations. I has been on my todo list to clean up
> the remote-local rendering issue. I want ParaView to automatically
> switch to remote rendering, if possible when volume rendering. I'll
> see what I can do for that. The volume rendering code is currently
> being revamped. I'd expect better "smart" rendering in near future.
>
> Utkarsh
>
> On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 6:29 AM,  <ronald.fowler at stfc.ac.uk> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> A post by Robert Atwood in June mentioned a problem with client server
>> volume visualisation in PV4.1, and I have also seen problems in this case
>> both on Linux and Windows systems.
>>
>>
>>
>> Fixes (0014794 and 0014792) have been added to 4.2RC1 which allow correct
>> rendering of the wavelet test case. I tried this on a Windows 7 system and
>> works ok for 4.2RC1, but not for 4.1.
>>
>>
>>
>> However I think that the remote/local render problem for volume
>> visualisation is really very confusing and needs to be improved. After
>> spending more time then I should with it, I conclude that (again on windows
>> 7 64 bit):
>>
>> (1)    Volume rendering only works if done on the remote server, not the
>> local on (as acknowledged in a tracker ticket, though I have not seen it
>> documented elsewhere).
>>
>> (2)    For 4.1 to do this correctly for just a volume image this seems to
>> need settings of “remote render threshold” ticked and “0 Mbytes” selected.
>> It will work for cases when >0 Mbytes is selected, if there is also another
>> object displayed (e.g. an isosurface). This led me to think an additional
>> surface was always needed to see the volume, which is not the case.
>>
>> (3)    For 4.2RC1 the interface to settings has changed and there is no
>> longer a tick box. Instead the slider for remote local render size has a
>> much greater range. This should be set to zero to force remote render for
>> volume views. It also works for non-zero values less than the size of the
>> volume data, e.g. 4Mbytes for a 256^3 volume. This setting did not seem work
>> for 4.1 to force a remote rendering of just volume data.
>>
>>
>>
>> I think it would be useful if at least the tool tips in the settings panel
>> suggested how to make client server volume rendering work. It would also be
>> useful if a warning message were displayed when trying (and failing) to do a
>> local volume render in client server mode.
>>
>>
>>
>> Another problem that has been observed is that the “smart” option for volume
>> rendering is not necessarily that smart when the server nodes have no GPUs
>> and the client does. This was on a Linux 64 bit system with 4.1.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Ron fowler
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Scanned by iCritical.
>>
>>
>>
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