Kyoto Visualization System (KVS) is a multi-platform, open-source C++ library for developing scientific visualization applications. KVS provides classes and interfaces for isosurface extraction, streamlines, volume rendering, image processing, and related visualization tasks.

Installation

Getting KVS

git clone https://github.com/naohisas/KVS.git
cd KVS

Installation directory

KVS is installed into the directory specified by KVS_DIR.

Linux / macOS

export KVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs
export PATH=$KVS_DIR/bin:$PATH

Windows

Variable	Value
KVS_DIR	C:\Program Files\kvs
PATH	%PATH%;%KVS_DIR%\bin

Configuration

KVS build options are mainly controlled by kvs.conf and environment variables.

kvs.conf contains feature flags such as KVS_ENABLE_OPENGL and KVS_SUPPORT_QT.

KVS_ENABLE_OPENGL     = 1
KVS_ENABLE_GLU        = 1
KVS_ENABLE_GLEW       = 0
KVS_ENABLE_OPENMP     = 0
KVS_ENABLE_DEPRECATED = 0

KVS_SUPPORT_GLUT      = 1
KVS_SUPPORT_GLFW      = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_FFMPEG    = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_OPENCV    = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_QT        = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_PYTHON    = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_MPI       = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_EGL       = 0
KVS_SUPPORT_OSMESA    = 0

Set a flag to 1 to enable the corresponding feature or support library.

Build with make

Linux / macOS

make
make install

Windows

nmake
nmake install

Common make targets

Target	Description
make or make build	Build KVS
make install	Install KVS into KVS_DIR
make clean	Remove build files
make rebuild	Clean and build again
make uninstall	Remove the installed KVS_DIR directory
make reinstall	Uninstall and install again

make build options

The following variables can be passed as environment variables or command-line variables.

KVS_CPP_STANDARD=17 make
KVS_CPP_STANDARD=17 make install

KVS_CPP=clang++ KVS_CC=clang make

On macOS, KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET can be used when a specific deployment target is required.

KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0 make
KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0 make install

If KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET is not specified, KVS does not add -mmacosx-version-min, allowing the compiler, SDK, and package manager environment to choose the default deployment target.

Build with CMake

KVS also supports CMake builds. The CMake build reads kvs.conf and Makefile.def so that it can use settings compatible with the make-based build.

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$KVS_DIR
cmake --build build -j
cmake --install build

You can also specify KVS_DIR directly.

cmake -S . -B build -DKVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs
cmake --build build -j
cmake --install build

CMake build options

CMake options can be specified with -D.

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DKVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs \
  -DKVS_CPP_STANDARD=17 \
  -DKVS_SUPPORT_QT=ON \
  -DKVS_SUPPORT_OPENCV=ON

On macOS:

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DKVS_DIR=$HOME/local/kvs \
  -DKVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0

Main build variables

Variable	make	CMake	Description
KVS_DIR	yes	yes	KVS installation prefix
KVS_CPP_STANDARD	yes	yes	C++ standard, default is 17
KVS_MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET	yes	yes	macOS deployment target
KVS_CPP	yes	yes	C++ compiler
KVS_CC	yes	partial	C compiler used by make
KVS_FC	yes	partial	Fortran compiler used by make
KVS_LD	yes	yes	Linker command
KVS_PY	yes	yes	Python executable
KVS_*_DIR	yes	yes	Root directory of an optional dependency
KVS_*_INCLUDE_PATH	yes	yes	Include path of an optional dependency
KVS_*_LIBRARY_PATH	yes	yes	Library path of an optional dependency
KVS_*_LINK_LIBRARY	yes	yes	Explicit link libraries

Examples:

KVS_GLFW_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/glfw make

cmake -S . -B build -DKVS_GLFW_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/glfw

Support packages

KVS supports optional packages through kvs.conf.

Package	Flag	Description
OpenGL	KVS_ENABLE_OPENGL	Enable OpenGL-based rendering functionality
GLU	KVS_ENABLE_GLU	Enable GLU support
GLEW	KVS_ENABLE_GLEW	Enable GLEW support
OpenMP	KVS_ENABLE_OPENMP	Enable OpenMP parallelization
Deprecated APIs	KVS_ENABLE_DEPRECATED	Enable deprecated functions and classes
CUDA	KVS_SUPPORT_CUDA	Enable CUDA support
GLUT	KVS_SUPPORT_GLUT	Build GLUT-based screen and widgets. See SupportGLUT README.
GLFW	KVS_SUPPORT_GLFW	Build GLFW-based screen and widgets. See SupportGLFW README.
FFmpeg	KVS_SUPPORT_FFMPEG	Build movie input/output support. See SupportFFmpeg README.
OpenCV	KVS_SUPPORT_OPENCV	Build OpenCV-based image/video support. See SupportOpenCV README.
Qt	KVS_SUPPORT_QT	Build Qt-based screen and widgets. See SupportQt README.
Python	KVS_SUPPORT_PYTHON	Build Python interaction support. See SupportPython README.
MPI	KVS_SUPPORT_MPI	Build MPI support. See SupportMPI README.
EGL	KVS_SUPPORT_EGL	Build GPU off-screen rendering support. See SupportEGL README.
OSMesa	KVS_SUPPORT_OSMESA	Build CPU off-screen rendering support. See SupportOSMesa README.

For package-specific settings, see the corresponding README files under Source/Support*.

After installation

The following files and directories are installed under KVS_DIR.

Path	Description
bin/	KVS tools such as kvsmake, kvscheck, kvsconv, and kvsview
include/	Header files
lib/	Static libraries
lib/cmake/	CMake package configuration files
kvs.conf	Installed KVS configuration
Makefile.def	Installed make configuration

After installation, kvsmake can be used to create example or application build files.

kvsmake -G
make

For Qt applications:

kvsmake -Q
qmake
make

Copyright

KVS is released under the BSD 3-Clause License. See LICENSE for details.

KVS/Source/Core/NanoVG uses nanovg and stb.

KVS/Source/Core/FileFormat/XML uses tinyxml.

KVS/Source/SupportMPI/Renderer/ImageCompositor uses 234Compositor.

KVS/Source/SupportFFmpeg/AvCpp uses AvCpp.

Citation

When using KVS for your research and publishing the results in papers or other works, please cite this webpage or the following paper as a reference:

Naohisa Sakamoto and Koji Koyamada, KVS: A simple and effective framework for scientific visualization, Journal of Advanced Simulation in Science and Engineering (JASSE), Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 76-95, 2015.

@article{Naohisa Sakamoto2015,
  title={KVS: A simple and effective framework for scientific visualization},
  author={Naohisa Sakamoto and Koji Koyamada},
  journal={Journal of Advanced Simulation in Science and Engineering},
  volume={2},
  number={1},
  pages={76-95},
  year={2015},
  doi={10.15748/jasse.2.76}
}