VAPOR v3.9.2

What's Changed

• In 3.9.2, VAPOR's Linux installer is now bundled as an AppImage which should work on most if not all Linux distributions. Once downloaded, the .AppImage file can be run from anywhere on your computer, including a USB drive. To run VAPOR's command line tools, simply run the .AppImage followed by the tool you need and the arguments for that tool. Launch the .AppImage with the --help flag for a full list of options.
• Issue3520 by @sgpearse in #3521
• change default interpolation order by @shaomeng in #3523
• Fix renderer list right click menu for particles by @StasJ in #3528
• Fix moving particle domain support and single particle crash by @StasJ in #3529
• Flow cleanup, Google Test by @shaomeng in #3539
• Improve particle renderer performance 12,500x by @StasJ in #3541
• Fix variable selector empty option and clean python api Conda build linker warnings by @StasJ in #3557
• fix a mutex use in ptr_cache by @shaomeng in #3555
• Universal Linux Installer by @sgpearse in #3554
• Fix typos/documentation by @StasJ in #3553
• fix broken windows build by @sgpearse in #3562
• Particle dynamic size by @StasJ in #3550
• Migrate smoke tests to Ubuntu20 by @sgpearse in #3565
• Fix conda x86 and linux builds and fix 3.9 example util by @StasJ in #3568
• Fix #3527 memory error by @StasJ in #3572
• Fix UnstructuredGrid2D broken by @StasJ in #3571

Full Changelog: v3.9.1...v3.9.2

Weekly

Weekly installers are untested an may not be stable. Built with commit 51c42ba on 02_04_24 (DD-MM-YY)

VAPOR v3.9.1

What's Changed

• Fix #3429: Jupyter kernel dies when it can't find data by @StasJ in #3435
• Fix #3440: Moving domain bug by @StasJ in #3445
• Python API Flow output incomplete #3448 by @StasJ in #3450
• Fix Casper CAM/Gaussian dataset viz empty by @StasJ in #3469
• Clean/fix remaining render regression test issues by @StasJ in #3479
• Issue3465 - Adds rules to build SUSE installer and SUSE 3rd party libraries by @sgpearse in #3468
• Fix #3328 Box manipulators broken on WRF data by @StasJ in #3476
• Fix Moving domains: Domain does not move with only Image Renderer active #3459 by @StasJ in #3478
• Add cross compilation rules for macos arm64/x86 and optimize circleci/config.yml by @sgpearse in #3484
• Fix issue3403 - reinstate smoke tests on SUSE by @sgpearse in #3491
• Re-enable OSPRay clipping volumes by @StasJ in #3499
• Fix Particle Lighting seems weird #3214 by @StasJ in #3490
• Fix Provide the user an option to specify absolute/relative paths for datasets #3420 by @StasJ in #3493
• Provide an advanced option in flow advection to use a fixed, user provided step size. by @shaomeng in #3505
• fix ubuntu20 build by @sgpearse in #3512

Full Changelog: v3.9.0...v3.9.1

VAPOR 3.9.0

Vapor 3.9.0 is now live and includes the enhancements and fixed issues below. Several significant enhancements have been added including an improved UI for Vapor's "renderer table", support for moving domains, and updated third party libraries. PythonAPI documentation and examples have been added, and changes to Vapor's session file format now make it easier to share sessions with colleagues. Thank you to everyone who has suggested new features and reported bugs in the past months. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to increase the frequency of our release cycle.

Watch the release video:

New Enhancements
3399 - Relative, not absolute paths in VAPOR session files
3394 - Python API support ZFP compressed data
3392 - Colorbar font and background color controls
3344 - Refactor renderer list GUI
3307 - Third party library updates
3258 - Add Lighting panel to Flow rendering Appearance option
433 - Support for moving domains

Fixed Issues
3439 - Broken CentOS installer
3432 - Windows build is currently broken
3431 - MacOS and Ubuntu installers broken
3426 - Installer builds broken
3424 - Zenodo authors are incorrect
3421 - Python Engine not issuing error reports
3408 - Changing projection string with active renderers crashes vapor
3407 - OpenGL log is displayed as an error in Jupyter
3397 - Vapor's online documentation page for vapor.session is empty
3393 - SetHDF5PluginPath clobbers user environment
3390 - Python animation video writer does not honor framerate parameter
3389 - Vapor does not handle session files with relative dataset paths
3372 - Pathline render bug
3366 - Verify documentation links
3368 - Python documentation missing
3365 - Visualizer default view has partial domain
3361 - Flow streamlines give incorrect time information when written to file
3350 - Docstring missing from vapor modules
3334 - 3D grids in XArray are not supported
3333 - XArray axes are swapped compared to Vapor convention
3123 - VAPOR Python examples in Jupyter Notebook gallery form
2973 - Python scripts saved in session files only usable with data sets they were created with

New Contributors
@grosa1 made their first contribution in #3379

Full Changelog: 3.8.0...3.9.0

Vapor 3.8.1

March 28, 2023

Vapor 3.8.1 is now live and includes the enhancements and fixed issues below. Further documentation for Vapor's scriptable PythonAPI has been added as and can be found here. Stay tuned for upcoming tutorials on this new API and please reach out to us on our forum if you have any questions.

New Enhancements
3312 - Graphics Memory Detection

Fixed Issues
3345 - Python API direct parameter access not working
3343 -​ ​Python Renderer class missing global opacity controls
3335 -​ ​Bad documentation page
3325 -​ Flow: Pathlines seem to never stop advecting
3318 -​ Flow deltaT calculation on mostly zero fields​
3315​ - Python API documentation overhaul
3313 - Bundle libxinerama in Ubuntu 22
3311 -​ ​Journal article should be cited
3306 -​ ZFP compressed NetCDF files do NOT open with VAPOR 3.7.0
3305 -​ Trajectory trace files have a time precision of 1 second, the time of subsecond trajectory data is truncated
​3304​ - Documentation is wrong about the vector field multiplier
3296 -​ ​Python API instructions for M1 build
3290 -​ Python help() needs to be added to readTheDocs
3293 - Deleting a Python variable plotted in a renderer causes Vapor to crash
3277 - Mismatched default origins between the Wireframe and TwoDData renderers
3268 - M1 build crashes with isosurfaces
3253 - Particle Length Scale changes direction rather than length
3162 - Height mapped variables on 2D grids
3148 -​ ​Contributor's Guide documentation for building and installing Python API
3060 -​ Closing Visualizer with multiple datasets breaks navigation controls
3359 -​ anaconda.org installer currently broken​

Vapor 3.8.0

Jan 10, 2023

New Enhancements
3157 - Jupyter Notebook Widgets + conda recipe for easy Python API installation

conda create -n vapor python=3.9
conda activate vapor
conda install -c conda-forge -c ncar-vapor vapor

3230 - Allow user to load and save camera viewpoint as a file

Bug fixes
3280 - VAPOR 3.7 crashes on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
3257 - VAPOR crashes when run through Rosetta (x86 emulation) on arm64 based M1 Macbook. Missing library?
3250 - Particles jump with reduced Y extents
3246 - Particle renderer does not work without selecting velocity variables
3244 - Particles disappear when "Enable 3D Geometry" Disabled
3243 - Crash in UnstructuredGrid3D
3094 - Mess up smoke test headers won't break build

Vapor 3.7.0

Vapor can now be scripted with its Python API. Now you can configure a session in Vapor’s GUI with your preferred renderers, then use Python to generate still frames or movies in ways that are difficult if not impossible to do without a script.

3.7 also introduces new enhanced rendering for visualization of Lagrangian particle tracking, the display of dataset metadata, and 93 other enhancements and bug fixes.

Turn on Vapor’s notice board (under Preferences) to get updates on upcoming video tutorials on these new features, and upcoming in-person tutorials.

Thanks!

-The Vapor Team

Primary Enhancements

• Python Scripting API
• Enhanced Particle Rendering
• Dataset metadata monitoring

Secondary Enhancements

• Support for ZFP compressed NetCDF
• Improved CPU core diagnostics
• Allowance for time units in vdccreate

Full list of enhancements and bugfixes

3255	Python API build has wrong commit hash
3246	Particle renderer does not work without selecting velocity variables
3238	WRF-rotlatlon-Alan1-d01 image renderer broken
3237	Python API segmentation violation
3236	Free GPU Ram
3235	ReadTheDocs is broken
3234	Bump version number to 3.7
3233	Confusion with Z field in 2D Barb
3223	Flow GUI and params database inconsistency
3221	Vapor no longer builds on Casper due to HDF5 library regression
3220	Geotiff image reader broken and results in core dump
3216	Particle Renderer length scale gives incorrect results
3215	Flow generating seeds failed
3213	CentOS installer fails to load data on Casper
3212	FalkoJudt data fails to load
3211	Installer version mismatch
3210	flow_example.ipynb generates numerous blank images
3209	Windows CI build broken
3205	MOM4-JinHeeYuk-ocean_salt IsoSurface and volume blank
3203	ROMS-Kauffman grid appears to be incorrectly stretched
3202	WRF-HRRR Volume and IsoSurface render nothing
3194	Can't import vapor after building and installing conda image
3193	MPAS/ThomasSchwitalla TwoDData Incorrect
3192	ROMS/jsmall no longer imports successfully
3190	Weekly build broken on Casper
3182	Infinite loop with clang-13
3179	Can't compiler lib/osgl with OpenMP enabled on OSX
3178	Windows build currently broken
3177	Python broken on Linux installers
3174	Image renderer crash on geotiff
3170	CI builds are broken on Ubuntu and CentOS
3167	Missing values that are NaNs are not supported
3158	OSX build broken on CircleCI
3156	Notifier seems to be broken
3151	Cannot build Python API on machines with AMD graphics cards
3150	Cannot build with CONDA_BUILD on OSX
3147	Vapor crashes on Ubuntu/main
3141	Ensure vapor_python package is compatible with commonly used scientific python ecosystem packages
3140	A more informative message should be generated when the mesa driver is detected
3139	Windows crash on UGRID data
3138	More extensive documentation of Params needed
3134	VAPOR doesn't properly handle dimensions of length one.
3133	Employ CI build and test systems for Python API
3130	Typo in raw2vdc
3122	VAPOR Python examples should reference canonical test data sets distributed with VAPOR
3120	VAPOR-Python getting started guide
3118	conda installation doesn't work in extant conda envionments
3117	Python API fails to build on Mac.
3115	Flow: Random Seeds with Bias: need bigger number
3114	Error while building VAPOR from source on a mac
3113	Add support for building the Python API with Conda on macOS
3092	test
3087	Flow renderer crashes on NetCDF data
3085	DC::GetAttNames() not returning global attributes
3081	Disable clang-format tests on CircleCI
3072	Upgrade our 3rd party libs
3070	Display data set metadata
3068	Advection diagnostics printed in DEBUG build
3064	Global opacity slider
3062	WRF-Fire time variable is read incorrectly
3059	Crash when calculating 2D wind speed
3056	WRF-Fire extents being misinterprited
3053	Contour renderer breaks after setting height variable
3052	Incorrect coordinate projections for some data sets
3046	Failures converting data to VDC format
3043	Vapor fails to load NetCDF-CF files with dimensionless units for axes
3022	vdccreate should accept formatted time strings
3009	Can't change size of particle glyph
2988	2DRenderer has an incorrect height offset
2978	Flow fidelity inconsistent results
2976	OpenSSL errors on CentOS
2962	vapor_wrf.py broken
2928	Need raw data to NetCDF examples
2921	expat.h not included in CentOS third party libraries
2891	Python is initialized
2874	Basic Renderer Controls needs its own page
2873	Other supported data formats section needs a table/decision tree
2860	MacOS Clang 13 now ships with OpenMP
2855	Strange behavior in one of the Table of Contents links
2840	Show the number of cores OpenMP has available to it
2816	Enable support for reading NetCDF files compressed with ZFP
2800	DVR problem on ROMS data
2777	Switch clang formatting from pre-push to pre-commit hook
2759	Use static analysis tools to detect obvious errors
2742	Particle data renderer needs documentation migrated into Sphinx
2741	Documentation needed for BOV reader
2726	Documentation: Git hooks need to be written up in sphinx
2438	parallelize hot spots
2251	Refactor: clang tidy
1894	Add scripting user interface to vapor
1353	Corrupt image renderer
1351	DataMgrUtils::GetDomainExtents and other extent accessor functions
1180	Katrina's extents change when renderers are enabled
1128	Allow arbitrary orientation of slice visualizer
800	Image Renderer: bugged image

Vapor 3.6.0

Download here :

https://github.com/NCAR/VAPOR/releases

See new features in Vapor 3.6.0 here:

https://youtu.be/Wp7ZQuI7b4c

New improvements include:
- Slice Renderers can now be arbitrarily oriented
- The Contour Renderer now supports 3D variables, and can also be arbitrarily oriented
- New Flow integration tools for data analysis along pathlines and streamlines

As well as many other reported issues from our users.

Click here to see a full list of tickets addressed in this release

• Assert when volume rendering WRF HRRR-Smoke data #3048
• Failures converting data to VDC format #3046
• Delete slice crash #3042
• Contour plane bounding box not positioned correctly #3032
• Origin cursor for slice and contour manipulator displayed in wrong location #3031
• Align view causes core dump #3030
• Make GUI for slice renderer and contour renderer consistent #3029
• VAPOR can't open HRRR-smoke data set #3025
• Image renderer causes core dump on MOM4 data #3020
• Artifacts in slice renderer kalundquist data #3018
• Vapor fails to open idealized/kalundquist #3016
• contour renderer doesn't work with some VDC data #3012
• slice renderer doesn't work with some VDC data #3011
• cf2vdc fails with various data sets #3010
• Flow renderer doesn't work with some UGRID data #3008
• Image renderer causes core dump with UGRID data #3007
• Vapor crashes on 2D NetCDF data #2985
• Can't load CAM data sets #2982
• SliceRenderer: Slice gets regenerated when colormap changes #2980
• Slice renderer red region outside extents #2977
• Image Renderer misbehaves without 2D variables #2975
• Slice crash #2971
• SliceGridAlongPlane returns incorrect grid #2969
• Regression: SliceGridAlongPlane() does not honor Box extents #2968
• Need better error messages in python interpreter #2965
• Multithreaded builds disabled on CI installer scripts #2953
• Python engine variables double free crash #2950
• Regression introduced by #2845 #2947
• Closing the main visualizer window causes vapor to crash #2946
• testDataMgr doesn't compute grid extents correctly #2944
• Sliders in FlowRendere broken #2941
• Deleting a renderer with a visualizer manipulator open causes crash #2937
• Changing flow color mapped var causes paths to break #2936
• Replacing data used by flow renderer causes crash #2935
• Double input does not allow small values in normal mode #2934
• slice renderer regression #2927
• Unable to Render Variables in VAPOR 3.5 from VDC Files Created from Raw Data #2920
• VDC version of CF NetCDF might be corrupt #2918
• cf2vdc failed to copy certain variables #2917
• Upgrade OSPRay to 2.8.0 #2913
• Attempting to import specific dataset causes crash #2908
• Slice + UGRID problem #2906
• Using QT_SCALE_FACTOR (for High-DPI Monitor) is not respected in the Visualizer Window dimensions #2900
• Problems switching barb or flow renderer between 2D and 3D variables #2899
• Restore time animation slider #2897
• Can't build VAPOR3 from scratch with Fedora 34 #2895
• Integrate scalar quantity along a stream or path line #2893
• DCCF attempts to read invalid memory #2890
• Can't correctly volume rendering UGRID data from GeoFlow #2889
• Align View dropdown is broken #2888
• automated dataset scaling incorrectly computed #2886
• Reorganize the test_apps directory and the binary files it generates #2882
• CircleCI failing on PR #2876
• Separate binary executables to different folders #2871
• Memory sanitizing #2870
• Memory Error---test_vdc #2868
• Memory Error---test_params2 #2867
• Memory Error---testGrid #2866
• Memory Error---testGrid #2865
• Test Utility Memory Error---test_ET #2864
• Smoke tests: Add flag to silence time #2858
• Particle documentation is missing from the Vapor website #2857
• Jupyter/Sphinx are not generating plots on CF Convention example pages #2854
• Crash on ROMS data #2853
• VAPOR fails to reliably identify file formats of files supplied on the command line #2844
• BOV file cannot be passed in as a command line parameter #2842
• OpenMP causing crash #2839
• 2D BOV data #2833
• Ubuntu/WRF/Isosurface problem #2832
• Bookmark crashes #2831
• DVR issue with CAM/AdamPhillips #2829
• Flow: Error performing paint event. The velocity field seems to contain only invalid values! #2828
• BOV crashes when z = 1 #2826
• VAPOR disappears upon closing notice board #2825
• Remove test messages from notifier #2823
• Flow hangs with MPAS-O #2820
• DC classes leak memory #2817
• Python: crash with bad variable name #2815
• Timestep controller is not limited to number of timesteps in currently loaded data #2812
• Casper: Segmentation fault #2810
• Windows installer? #2806
• Image renderer shows suspicious result #2804
• Image renderer shows nothing #2803
• Flow renderer crashes with MPAS-O #2802
• Isosurface hangs on MOM4 #2801
• BOV reader false alarm #2798
• BOV reader complains on legal BOV file #2797
• BOV reader claims to but not actually support INT type #2796
• BOV lacks very basic error checking #2792
• BOV reader hangs #2790
• Cannot read BOV #2789
• BOV reader crashes #2788
• On-line documentation link broken #2786
• Wireframe renderer broken with CAM data #2785
• BOV reader doesn't understand relative path names #2784
• Current pre-release installer crashes on CentOS #2760
• Contours: Allow for rendering 3D variables #2728
• Color bar shows constant value and color on non-constant variables #2723
• Provide a data reader for UGRID files #2714
• Smoke tests failing on 1D and 2D grids #2708
• transparent frame buffer on startup is disconcerting/confusing #2655
• Slice Renderer: Rotate slice #2637
• Default sampling rate for OSPRay unusable for many data sets #2449
• Wrong tool-tips for wireframe renderer #1630
• Use of asserts #1189
• Should we include Reinit() inside of the constructor? #577
• Timestep not updated when continuous playback enabled #424
• Animation: time step is not updated when playing #324

Full Changelog: 3.5.0...3.6.0

Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent user survey. Your feedback is what drove what we have now with version 3.6. Stay tuned for news on 3.7, where Vapor may become scriptable.

As always, please engage us on our forum below.

https://vapor.discourse.group/

Thank you!

-The Vapor Team

Vapor 3.5.0

Vapor’s release cycle is accelerating, and now 3.5.0 is live. New improvements include:

• New particle data reader: Data Collection Particles (DCP)

• New raw data reader: Brick of Values (BOV)

• Easily, and visually save your state with the new bookmarking feature

• Further improvements that streamline Vapor’s GUI

• Faster data access with OpenMP

As well as many other reported issues, including the 1/4 canvas bug on BigSur. Thanks to users ViggoHanst and Fortran for reporting this.

Thank you to everyone who has helped steer us by filling out our survey for 3.6 features. The survey is still live, so please fill it out if you have 5 minutes.

Please engage us on our forum.

Thank you!

-The Vapor Team

Vapor 3.4.0

Version 3.4 is Vapor's first usability-focused release. See some of what's changed in the following demo:

Major usability improvements include:

• Improved algorithm for the Flow renderer's random seeding bias variable
• Data-independent settings (e.g. Cache size) can now be modified before data is loaded
• Restructuring of Vapor's top-level tabs
• New and improved Colorbars
• Improved functionality of the Geometry tab
• Better space management of the Renderer Table

Other notable issues include:

• Addition of clang-format linter, and git pre-push hook
• Fixed weekly builds on all platforms

A comprehensive list of fixes can be viewed in the 3_4_0 release milestone.