VTK/Examples/Cxx/Utilities/ZBuffer

ZBuffer.cxx

// This demo creates depth map for a polydata instance by extracting
// exact ZBuffer values.
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>

#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkXMLPolyDataReader.h>
#include <vtkBMPWriter.h>
#include <vtkWindowToImageFilter.h>
#include <vtkImageShiftScale.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  if (argc < 3)
    {
      std::cout << "Usage: " << argv[0]
                << " input(.vtp) output(.bmp)"
                << std::endl;
      return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renWin =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> interactor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkXMLPolyDataReader> fileReader =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkXMLPolyDataReader>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkWindowToImageFilter> filter =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkWindowToImageFilter>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkBMPWriter> imageWriter =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkBMPWriter>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkImageShiftScale> scale =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkImageShiftScale>::New();
        
  // Read .vtp file
  fileReader->SetFileName(argv[1]);

  //Build visualization enviroment
  mapper->SetInputConnection(fileReader->GetOutputPort());
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);
  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renWin->AddRenderer(renderer);
  interactor->SetRenderWindow(renWin);
  renWin->Render();
  
  // Create Depth Map
  filter->SetInput(renWin);
  filter->SetMagnification(1);
  filter->SetInputBufferTypeToZBuffer();        //Extract z buffer value

  scale->SetOutputScalarTypeToUnsignedChar();
  scale->SetInputConnection(filter->GetOutputPort());
  scale->SetShift(0);
  scale->SetScale(-255);

  // Write depth map as a .bmp image
  imageWriter->SetFileName(argv[2]);
  imageWriter->SetInputConnection(scale->GetOutputPort());
  imageWriter->Write();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Please try the new VTKExamples website.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

PROJECT(ZBuffer)

find_package(VTK REQUIRED)
include(${VTK_USE_FILE})

add_executable(ZBuffer MACOSX_BUNDLE ZBuffer.cxx)

if(VTK_LIBRARIES)
  target_link_libraries(ZBuffer ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else()
  target_link_libraries(ZBuffer vtkHybrid vtkWidgets)
endif()

Download and Build ZBuffer

Click here to download ZBuffer. and its CMakeLists.txt file.

Once the tarball ZBuffer.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

cd ZBuffer/build 

• If VTK is installed:

cmake ..

• If VTK is not installed but compiled on your system, you will need to specify the path to your VTK build:

cmake -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/home/me/vtk_build ..

Build the project:

make

and run it:

./ZBuffer

WINDOWS USERS PLEASE NOTE: Be sure to add the VTK bin directory to your path. This will resolve the VTK dll's at run time.