Running VTK on a system with OpenGL version 1.1 or less

Support
1

Hello, I first posted about this issue in Stack Overflow:

I am working on a project that uses QT and VTK. It works in several machines without any problems (including Mac OS). I tried to run it on a Surface Pro X and have been having issues with the OpenGL context. VTK throws the following error:

vtkGenericOpenGLRenderWindow (0CAD3408): GLEW could not be initialized: Missing GL version

The Microsoft website states that “Games and apps won’t work if they use a version of OpenGL greater than 1.1” for the Surface Pro X. Has anyone encountered this issue before elsewhere? Thanks in advanced.

2

Maybe you can try building VTK with a software renderer, such as Mesa. It may make VTK too slow, though. Also, the x86 emulation layer on the X only supports 32-bit applications. So, you cannot do much on this computer anyway. I would recommend to get a regular Surface Pro instead.

3

Indeed, mesa is the only way here.

4

If you’re willing to downgrade to an older VTK version, up until version 8.1.2 VTK supported the “OpenGL” backend (option VTK_RENDER_BACKEND) which only required OpenGL version 1.1. Surface Pro X has an ARM processor, right? Never tried this on that architecture, though, so no guarantees it will work!

5

Thank you all for the responses. Since I just got the Surface X, I went and returned it. For what I need, I better use the Surface 7 instead.

6

Hi I am having what I think is a similar issue. I have tried many things - too many to list. I have given up on Anaconda and gone for e fresh install running Python from the command prompt. So far I have found that :
VTK v9 wheel will not install under Python 3.9 so have installed Python 3.8

Running a simple example I get :

2020-11-06 17:14:33.758 ( 0.313s) [ ]vtkWin32OpenGLRenderWin:635 ERR| vtkWin32OpenGLRenderWindow (0000020DA5C81D40): failed to get wglChoosePixelFormatARB
2020-11-06 17:14:33.790 ( 0.345s) [ ]vtkWin32OpenGLRenderWin:713 ERR| vtkWin32OpenGLRenderWindow (0000020DA5C81D40): failed to get valid pixel format.
2020-11-06 17:14:33.802 ( 0.357s) [ ]vtkOpenGLRenderWindow.c:569 ERR| vtkWin32OpenGLRenderWindow (0000020DA5C81D40): GLEW could not be initialized: Missing GL version

This message is now very familiar to me !! but what does it mean ?

Following this link I installed PyOpenGL 3.1.5 and PyOpenGL-accelerate 3.1.5.

Same issue ! Do I conclude that my graphics card is incompatible ? How can I check and what can I do to fix that ??

What can I do to move on ? What other information do I need to supply ?

Thank in anticipation - Jerry

7

Are you using OpenGL 1.1 ? if not your problem is different. Please open your own thread.