Architecture

The code can run in several modes: single threaded, multithreaded and in multiple processes

Single threaded mode

This mode becomes active when setting the environment variable VTKFIG_MULTITHREADED to 0.

All code runs under the current user thread. Rendering and interaction events are processed within the calls to vtkfig::Frame::Show resp. vtkfig::Frame::Interact. Outside of these calls, the user interface is not responsive.

Multi threaded mode

This mode is active by default or when setting the environment variable VTKFIG_MULTITHREADED to 1.

vtkfig spawns a rendering thread which issues all commands necessary to set up and interact with vtk rendering pipelines. At the same time, all interaction events are processed in this thread. State updates from the user thread are handeld via mutex locks.

Multi process mode

This mode is activated when starting an executable using vtkfig via vtkfig-exec like this:

$ vtkfig-exec host example-command

For more elaborate information, see vtkfig::internals::Client::ExecHelp.

host can be localhost or another network host. example-command is run on this host. In this case, the rendering thread of example-command sends all rendering information through the network to the computer running vtkfig-exec, and rendering is performed on its screen.