[vtkusers] Off screen rendering Linux, OpenGL accelerated

[Anton Deguet]

Hello,

I would like to know if there is an easy way to render off screen on  
Linux (X) with OpenGL (NVidia accelerated).
My code looks like:

   vtkRenderWindow *pOffScreenRenderWindow =  
vtkOpenGLRenderWindow::New();
   pOffScreenRenderWindow->OffScreenRenderingOn();

This works on Windows (at least XP, VS 2008, VTK 5.2) and Mac OS  
(10.5, gcc 4, VTK 5.0).  I tried all kind of combinations on Linux  
(CentOS, Ubuntu 8.04, VTK 5.0, 5.2, 5.3) and it fails.

Is there any reason this doesn't work?  Is there a magic method to  
call or build configuration needed?


Anton


PS: I also did a bit of research and found the class  
vtkXOpenGLOffScreenRenderWindow (http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/ 
VTK_Classes).  With some minor updates I got this class to compile and  
run on Linux 64 (amd) with VTK 5.2.  The method ReportCapabilities()  
lists NVIDIA as the OpenGL vendor.  It would be nice if whatever is  
implemented in this external class could make it to VTK.

---
Anton Deguet, Research Engineer, ERC-CISST/LCSR, Johns Hopkins  
University
e-mail: anton.deguet at jhu.edu, iChat: anton.deguet at mac.com
office phone: 410-516-5261, cell phone: 410-790-0456
JHU, LCSR, CSEB 137b, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218,  
USA