vtk-pure-rs

A pure Rust reimplementation of VTK 9.6 (The Visualization Toolkit). Translated from the C++ VTK 9.6.0 source (Kitware/VTK@00f9418c). Not an FFI binding — a ground-up Rust implementation of VTK's core concepts.

~300K lines of Rust | 5184 features | 575+ tests | 22 I/O formats | wgpu rendering

Most functions tested to give the same output as C++ version. But see TODO.md for some that are not; example files needed to do full testing

A few features have not been included; contact if interested in these

Performance vs VTK C++ 9.6

Benchmarked 141 operations against VTK C++ 9.6. On average 17% faster than C++ (0.83x ratio).

Biggest wins: signed_distance (32x), poly_data_distance (36x), boolean_union (6x), normals (10x), reflect (11x), shrink_large (10x), connectivity_large (7x), surface_nets (7x).

Uses Arc<Vec<T>> copy-on-write storage for zero-copy clone (matching VTK's ShallowCopy semantics), target-cpu=native, and rayon parallelism for flying edges.

Test Coverage

• 575 tests (434 validation + 141 performance)
• 366/396 (92%) non-extra features tested against VTK C++ reference output
• 30 features remain untested (exotic I/O, GPU, HyperTreeGrid, Reeb graph internals) — see TODO.md

Quick Start

use vtk_pure_rs::data::*;
use vtk_pure_rs::filters::core::sources::sphere::{sphere, SphereParams};

let mesh = sphere(&SphereParams::default());
println!("points: {}, cells: {}", mesh.points.len(), mesh.polys.num_cells());

[dependencies]
vtk-pure-rs = "0.2"

Build Times

The heavy filter modules (filters-image 3000+ modules, filters-mesh 800+ modules) are feature-gated so they don't compile unless you need them.

Feature Counts

See FEATURES.md for the full annotated feature list.

Module Structure

vtk_pure_rs::types      Scalar, ScalarType, CellType, VtkError, BoundingBox, math, color
vtk_pure_rs::data       PolyData, ImageData, UnstructuredGrid, DataArray, CellArray, KdTree, ...
vtk_pure_rs::filters    Sources (64+350), processing (4000+), pipeline, convert, topology
vtk_pure_rs::io         22 formats: VTK, STL, OBJ, PLY, XML, glTF, OFF, DXF, GeoJSON, CSV, ...
vtk_pure_rs::render     Camera, Scene, Actor, Material, Light, ColorMap (15 presets), ...
vtk_pure_rs::render_wgpu  wgpu GPU backend: MSAA, PBR, shadows, SSAO, bloom, volume rendering

Data Structures

Geometry Sources (64 base + 350 extra)

sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, plane, arrow, disk, line, torus, helix, ellipsoid, capsule, geodesic_sphere, icosphere, superquadric, platonic_solid, frustum, spring, grid, text_3d, wavelet, mobius, klein_bottle, trefoil_knot, boy_surface, seashell, terrain, gear, star, and 30+ more.

Extra sources (behind sources-extra feature): airplane, amphora, castle_tower, dna_helix, lighthouse, rocket, space_station, wind_turbine, and 340+ more architectural/scientific/artistic models.

I/O Formats (22)

*Video requires ffmpeg feature. HDF5-based formats (Exodus, CGNS, NetCDF, MINC, AMR) available via io-hdf5 feature with system libhdf5-dev. GDAL (GeoTIFF, Shapefile) via io-gdal feature with system libgdal-dev.

Rendering

wgpu-based GPU rendering (behind render-wgpu feature):

• Blinn-Phong and Cook-Torrance PBR shading
• Shadow mapping with 3x3 PCF
• Screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO)
• Bloom post-processing
• Depth-of-field
• GPU volume rendering (ray marching)
• Stereo rendering (side-by-side, anaglyph, top/bottom)
• Multi-viewport split-screen
• Silhouette edges, wireframe, point rendering
• 15 color map presets (jet, viridis, plasma, inferno, etc.)
• Scalar bar, axes widget, axes cube, annotations
• GPU color-ID picking
• LOD, instanced glyphs, clip planes (6 max)
• Fog (linear, exponential)
• Offscreen rendering, PPM/BMP/TGA screenshot export
• CPU ray tracer and Monte Carlo path tracer
• TrueType font rendering (feature-gated truetype)

Examples

cargo run --example triangle        # basic PolyData + render window
cargo run --example shapes          # sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, arrow
cargo run --example isosurface      # marching cubes on gyroid
cargo run --example scalar_colors   # elevation + colormap visualization
cargo run --example showcase        # PBR, transparency, axes, scalar bar
cargo run --example pipeline_demo   # filter pipeline + multi-format I/O
cargo run --example volume          # GPU volume rendering

Design Principles

• Copy-on-write storage — Arc<Vec<T>> in DataArray/CellArray gives zero-copy clone with automatic CoW on mutation, matching VTK's ShallowCopy semantics
• Enum-based type erasure — AnyDataArray is an enum, not Box<dyn Trait>
• Traits over inheritance — DataObject and DataSet traits replace class hierarchies
• Filters as functions — plain fn(&PolyData) -> PolyData, composable without a pipeline
• Pipeline optional — Pipeline struct available for lazy evaluation + caching when needed
• Feature-gated heavy deps — image/mesh filters, ffmpeg, hdf5, gdal, fontdue are all optional
• Native CPU targeting — .cargo/config.toml sets target-cpu=native for optimal SIMD

Feature Flags

[dependencies]
vtk-pure-rs = "0.2"                                          # core filters only
vtk-pure-rs = { version = "0.2", features = ["filters-all"] } # all filters (excl. GPU)
vtk-pure-rs = { version = "0.2", features = ["full"] }        # everything

# Individual filter groups:
vtk-pure-rs = { version = "0.2", features = [
    "filters-smooth",      # smoothing filters
    "filters-transform",   # transform/warp/mirror/extrude
    "filters-subdivide",   # subdivision surfaces
    "filters-cell",        # cell operations
    "filters-boolean",     # boolean mesh operations
    "filters-distance",    # distance/collision/hausdorff
    "filters-image",       # 3000+ image processing filters [heavy]
    "filters-mesh",        # 800+ mesh processing filters [heavy]
    "sources-extra",       # 350 extra geometry sources
    "io-all",              # all 22 I/O formats
    "render-wgpu",         # wgpu GPU rendering
    "parallel",            # MPI-ready parallel ops
    "truetype",            # TrueType font rendering
] }