[vtkusers] VTK web service

[Chris Want]

Scott J. Pearson wrote:
> We're looking to display our VTK data on the web, with interactive
> functions. One obvious option is VRML. We've also thought about writing a
> VTK plugin (does such a thing already exist?). A final option would be to
> render pngs server-side, but I'm not sure if this is possible without a
> window. Does anybody have experience in such matters?

Hi Scott,

I've done that last option for some web stuff, and
it is indeed possible. You have to make sure the
VTK_OPENGL_HAS_OSMESA setting is on when building
vtk. The creation of the render window looks something
like this:

   vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow *renWin = vtkXOpenGLRenderWindow::New();
   renWin->OffScreenRenderingOn();

And of course, you don't want to use any interactors with
the window.

Regards,
Chris

-- 
Chris Want
Research Computing Support
Computing & Network Services
University of Alberta
Tel: 1-780-492-9418