0.8.0 - Infrastructure investments and more transform improvements - 2023-07-27

Rerun is an easy-to-use visualization toolbox for computer vision and robotics.

• Python: pip install rerun-sdk
• Rust: cargo add rerun and cargo install rerun-cli
• Online demo: https://demo.rerun.io/version/0.8.0/

Overview & Highlights

• log_pinhole is now easier to use in simple cases and supports non-RDF camera coordinates. #2614
  • You only need to set focal length and optional principal point instead of setting the full 3x3 matrix.
  • There is also a new argument: camera_xyz for setting the coordinate system. The default is RDF (the old
    default). This affects the visible camera frustum, how rays are projected when hovering a 2D image, and how depth
    clouds are projected.
• The visualizer can now show coordinate arrows for all affine transforms within the view. #2577
• Linestrips and oriented bounding boxes can now be logged via batch APIs in python.
  • See: log_linestrips_2d, log_linestrips_3d, #2822 and log_obbs #2823
• Rust users that build their own Viewer applications can now add fully custom Space Views. Find more information here.
• New optional flush_timeout specifies how long Rerun will wait if a TCP stream is disconnected during a flush. #2821
  • In Rust, RecordingStream::connect now requires flush_timeout specified as an Option<Duration>.
    • To keep default behavior, this can be specified using the rerun::default_flush_time() helper.
  • In Python flush_init_sec is now an optional argument to rr.connect()
• In Rust, the RecordingStream now offers a stateful time API, similar to the Python APIs. #2506
  • You can now call set_time_sequence, set_time_seconds, and set_time_nanos directly on the RecordingStream,
    which will set the time for all subsequent logs using that stream.
  • This can be used as an alternative to the the previous MsgSender::with_time APIs.
• The Rerun SDK now defaults to 8ms long microbatches instead of 50ms. This makes the default behavior more suitable
  for use-cases like real-time video feeds. #2220
  • Check out the microbatching docs for more information
    on fine-tuning the micro-batching behavior.
• The web viewer now incremental loads .rrd files when streaming over HTTP. #2412

Ongoing Refactors

• There have been a number of significant internal changes going on during this release with little visible impact.
  This work will land across future releases, but is highlighted here since much of it is visible through the
  changelog.
  • The layout of the Viewer is now controlled by a Blueprint datastore. In the future this will allow for direct API
    control of the layout and configuration of the Viewer. A very early prototype of this functionality is available
    via the rerun.experimental module in Python.
  • An entirely new code-generation framework has been brought online for Rust, Python and C++. This will eventually enable
    new object-centric APIs with a more scalable, consistent, and ergonomic experience.
  • Bringup of C++ support is now underway and will eventually become our third officially supported SDK language.

Known Regressions

• Due to the Blueprint storage migration, blueprint persistence on web is currently broken. Will be resolved in:
  #2579

In Detail

🐍 Python SDK

• Clean up warnings printed when rr.init hasn't been called #2209
• Normalise Python typing syntax to 3.8+ #2361
• Simpler, sturdier stateful time tracking in both SDKs #2506
• Fix not taking np.array for single colors #2569
• Add a basic pyright config #2610
• Improve log_pinhole and support non-RDF pinholes #2614
• Expose batch APIs for linestrips #2822
• Expose batch APIs for oriented bounding boxes #2823

🦀 Rust SDK

• Add example for adding custom Space Views #2328
• Simpler, sturdier stateful time tracking in both SDKs #2506
• Automagic flush when take()ing a MemorySinkStorage #2632
• Logging SDK: Log warnings if user data is dropped #2630
• Add support for RecordingStream::serve #2815

🌁 Viewer Improvements

• Better handle scroll-to-zoom in 3D views #1764
• Add command to screenshot the application #2293
• Show layout in blueprint tree view #2465
• Double-click to select entity #2504
• Add Rerun.io link/text in top bar #2540
• New auto-layout of space views #2558
• Add 'Dump datastore' command to palette #2564
• Support any dtype for depth images #2602
• Change "Save Selection" command to Cmd+Alt+S #2631
• Consistent transform visualization for all entities with transforms #2577
• Improve log_pinhole and support non-RDF pinholes #2614

🚀 Performance Improvements

• Flush the batches every 8ms instead of 50 ms #2220
• Replace image crate jpeg decoder with zune-jpeg #2376
• Stream .rrd files when loading via http #2412

🪳 Bug Fixes

• Fix deadlock when misusing the Caches #2318
• Fix unstable order/flickering of "shown in" space view list on selection #2327
• Fix transforms not applied to connections from transform context #2407
• Fix texture clamping and color gradient selection being displayed incorrectly #2394
• Fix projected ray length #2482
• Tweak the depth bias multiplier for WebGL #2491
• Clip image zoom rectangle #2505
• Fix missing feature flags for benchmarks #2515
• run_all.py script fixes #2519
• Update egui_tiles with fix for drag-and-drop-panic #2555
• Convert objectron proto.py back to using typing.List #2559
• Exclude from objectron/proto/objectron/proto.py from just py-format #2562
• Fix pinhole visualization not working with camera extrinsics & intrinsics on the same path #2568
• Fix: always auto-layout spaceviews until the user interveens #2583
• Fix freeze/crash when logging large times #2588
• Update egui_tiles to fix crash #2598
• Fix clicking object with single instance (of every component) selecting instance instead of entity #2573
• Cleanup internal data-structures when process has been forked #2676
• Fix shutdown race-condition by introducing a flush_timeout before dropping data #2821
• Fix ui-scale based point/line sizes incorrectly scaled when zooming based on horizontal dimension #2805
• Fix visibility toggle for maximized Space Views #2806
• Fix loading file via CLI #2807
• Fix disconnected space APIs in Python SDK #2832
• Avoid unwrap when generating authkey #2804

🧑‍🏫 Examples

• Add example template #2392
• Show hidden url search param in app.rerun.io #2455
• Minimal example of running an intel realsense depth sensor live #2541
• Add a simple example to display Open Photogrammetry Format datasets #2512
• Move examples/api_demo -> tests/test_api #2585

📚 Docs

• Docs: link to rr.save and suggest rerun instead of python -m rerun #2586
• Update docs about transforms #2496
• Fixup remaining usages of log_rigid3 in docs #2831

🎨 Renderer Improvements

• Expose type erased draw data that can be consumed directly #2300
• Use less mut when using RenderContext #2312

🧑‍💻 Dev-experience

• Better error messages in build.rs #2173
• Recommend sccache in CONTRIBUTING.md #2245
• introduce re_tracing #2283
• lint: standardize formatting of let-else-return statements #2297
• Centralized build tools in re_build_tools #2331
• Lint for explicit quotes #2332
• Added example screenshot instructions in just upload --help #2454
• Added support for puling image from an URL to upload_image.py #2462
• setup_dev.sh now installs pngcrush #2470
• Added docs/code-examples to the directories checked by py-lint and py-format #2476
• Link to demo in PR + check checkboxes #2543
• Add script to find external issues we haven't commented on #2532
• Move CI-related scripts to its own folder #2561
• Render PR description as template #2563
• Add basic testing automation against all version of Python using nox #2536
• Run clippy on public API too #2596
• Bump all py-lint-related package versions #2600
• Crates publishing script #2604
• Fix rust docs deploy #2615
• Add support for .gitignore to scripts/lint.py #2666

🗣 Refactors

• Refactor space-view dependencies:
  • Move spatial space view to its own crate #2286
  • Separate crate for bar chart space view #2322
  • Separate crate for time series space view #2324
  • Separate crate for tensor space view #2334
  • Separate viewport related files out to a new re_viewport crate #2251
  • Remove timepanel dependency from viewport #2256
• New trait system for SpaceViews:
  • Initial Space View trait & port of text space views to the new Space View trait system #2281
  • Extend/iterate on SpaceViewClass framework with SceneContext & port SpatialSpaceView scene parts #2304
  • Finalize move of SpatialSpaceView to SpaceViewClass trait framework #2311
  • Typename cleanup in SpaceViewClass framework #2321
  • Automatic fallback for unrecognized Space View Class, start removing old ViewCategory #2357
  • Rename ScenePart -> ViewPartSystem + related renamings #2674
  • Dynamically registered space view (part/context) systems #2688
• Viewer's command queue is now a channel, allowing to queue commands without mutable access #2339
• Break up app.rs into parts #2303
• Break out re_log_types::component_types as re_components #2258
• Introduce StoreHub and rename Recording->Store #2301
• Move StoreHub out of the Viewer during Update #2330
• Expand CommandSender to support SystemCommand #2344
• Use camino crate for UTF8 paths in re_types_builder #2637
• Separate 2d & 3d spaceview classes, removal of ViewCategory, SpaceViewClass driven spawn heuristics #2716
• Move object property heuristics to heuristics.rs #2764

📦 Dependencies

• Version rand & friends at workspace level #2508
• Update to PyO3 0.19 #2350
• Pin half to 2.2.1 #2587

📘 Blueprint Changes

• Drive blueprints off of a DataStore #2010
• Split SpaceView -> SpaceViewState + SpaceViewBlueprint #2188
• Split the Blueprint into AppBlueprint and ViewportBlueprint #2358
• Swap the naming of Viewport and ViewportBlueprint #2595
• Basic persistence for blueprints #2578

🏭 New Codegen Framework

• Codegen/IDL 1: add more build tools #2362
• Codegen/IDL 2: introduce re_types_builder #2363
• Codegen/IDL 3: introduce re_types #2369
• Codegen/IDL 4: definitions for a Points2D archetype #2370
• Codegen/IDL 5: auto-generated Python code for Points2D #2374
• Codegen/IDL 7: handwritten Python tests and extensions for Points2D #2410
• Codegen/IDL 6: auto-generated Rust code for Points2D #2375
• Codegen/IDL 8: handwritten Rust tests and extensions for Points2D #2432
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 1: upgrading to actual TokenStreams #2484
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 2: matching legacy definitions #2485
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 3: misc fixes & improvements #2487
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 4: out-of-sync definitions CI detection #2545
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 5: doc, definitions and regression tests for combinatorial affixes #2546
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 6: serialization #2549
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 7: deserialization #2554
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 8: carry extension metadata across transparency layers #2570
• Codegen'd Rust/Arrow 9: Rust backport! #2571
• End-to-end cross-language roundtrip tests for our archetypes #2601
• Automatically derive Debug and Clone in Rust backend #2613
• Generating (de)serialization code for dense unions in Rust backend #2626
• Fix FixedSizeList deserialization edge-case + trivial optimizations #2673
• Make Datatype & Component both inherit from Loggable #2677
• Roundtrip-able Transform3Ds #2669
• Don't inline recursive datatypes in Rust backend #2760
• Automatically derive tuple_struct attr and trivial From impls where possible #2772
• Introduce roundtrip-able Points3D archetype (py + rs) #2774
• Add fmt::Debug implementations to various types. #2784 (thanks @kpreid!)
• Isolate testing types in Rust backend #2810
• Fix out-of-sync codegen hash #2567
• Python backport: add log_any() #2581
• Integrate unit examples into codegen stack #2590
• Disable codegen on windows #2592
• Python codegen: big cleaning and paving the way towards transforms #2603
• Automatically assume arrow transparency for components #2608
• Fix wrong path being rerun_if_changed() in compute_dir_hash #2612
• Support transparency at the semantic layer #2611
• Don't use builtin required anymore, introduce nullable instead #2619
• Rust codegen: generate proper docstrings #2668
• Support nullable Arrow unions using virtual union arms #2708
• Introduce support for querying Archetypes #2743
• Introduce legacy shims and migrate DataCell to re_types::Component #2752

🌊 Starting work on C++

• Seed of C and C++ SDKs #2594
• Move C++ SDK to own folder #2624
• C++ codegen #2678
• C++ codegen for reporting arrow data type for structs #2756
• Don't inline recursive datatypes in C++ backend #2765
• C++ codegen to_arrow_data_type for unions #2766
• C++ codegen arrow serialize non-union components/datatypes without nested rerun types #2820
• C++ codegen of structs and unions #2707
• Fix cpp formatter differences #2773

🤷‍♂️ Other

• test_api: set different app_id based on what test is run #2599
• Introduce rerun compare to check whether 2 rrd files are functionally equivalent #2597
• Remove files.exclude in vscode settings #2621
• Support feature-gated rust attributes #2813

Checklist

• I have read and agree to Contributor Guide and the Code of Conduct
• I've included a screenshot or gif (if applicable)
• I have tested demo.rerun.io (if applicable)

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