elastix 5.3.0 released!

[Niels_Dekker]

I’m very pleased to announce that we have just released version 5.3.0 of our image registration toolbox elastix, at https://github.com/SuperElastix/elastix/releases

Binaries of elastix executables are provided for Windows, MacOS (ARM) and Ubuntu. But of course, you can also build them yourself, using ITK >= 5.4.1.

A new ITKElastix Python package based on elastix 5.3.0 is intended to be released next week, hopefully.

elastix 5.3.0 includes the following improvements:

• Added a new metric component: IMPACT (Image Metric with Pretrained model-Agnostic Comparison for Transmodality registration), by Valentin Boussot et al.
  • Reference: “IMPACT : A Generic Semantic Loss for Multimodal Image Registration”, Valentin Boussot et al, arXiv:2503.24121
  • In order to use this metric, download LibTorch and enable CMake option USE_ImpactMetric. More information: GitHub - vboussot/ImpactLoss: IMPACT Reg: A Generic Semantic Loss for Multimodal Image Registration
• Supported the TOML format for registration parameter files and transform parameter files
  • As alternative to the “legacy” elastix specific text file format
• Supported fixed width notation for the elastix parameter ResultImagePixelType
  • Supported parameter values: “int8”, “int16”, “int32”, “int64”, “uint8”, “uint16”, “uint32”, “uint64”, “float32”, “float64”
• Supported registering a 3D slice on a 3D volume
  • The default pyramid (“FixedSmoothingImagePyramid”, “MovingSmoothingImagePyramid”) now accepts 3D images that have a thickness of 1 pixel
  • Inspired by forum.image.sc topic Elastix questions related to 2D => 3D registration, started by Christian Tischer
• Improved transformix command-line option “-def” for VTK files
  • When the input file is a binary VTK file, the output file is now also a binary VTK file (rather than an ASCII file)
  • When the input file is a VTK file of 32-bit floating points, the output file is now also a VTK file of 32-bit floating points (rather than 64-bit floating points)
  • Inspired by pull request ENH: Support for binary point file (.bin) reading and writing by ChristophKirst · Pull Request #943 · SuperElastix/elastix · GitHub
• Library enhancements:
  • Added SetFixedPoints and SetMovingPoints member functions to ElastixRegistrationMethod
    • Supported specifying the input points for “CorrespondingPointsEuclideanDistanceMetric”
  • Made random number generation used by samplers deterministic, even when running registrations multithreaded
    • Aims to address Deterministic multithreading usage of itkMersenneTwisterRandomVariate… by michalmeszaroswork · Pull Request #5287 · InsightSoftwareConsortium/ITK · GitHub

For all the details, please check https://github.com/SuperElastix/elastix/releases

[Niels_Dekker]

Last week we released an update: elastix 5.3.1! Again, please check Releases · SuperElastix/elastix · GitHub ! Most important improvements of this elastix 5.3.1:

• For Windows users: With this release, the executables (elastix.exe and transformix.exe) fully support Unicode (utf-8) file path names for registration parameter files and transform parameter files. A big thank you to Bernhard Fröhler (@codeling)!
• The IMPACT metric component that was introduced with elastix 5.3.0 is now loaded as a plugin, by means of “lazy loading”, allowing anyone to use it without having to rebuild elastix. Another big thank you to Valentin Boussot!
• For users of Linux and MacOS: The executables (elastix and transformix) now have a relative path to the directory of the third party library that we are using added to its RPATH. So now it is no longer necessary for users to set their LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The extra versioned “.1” library files were removed.
• A small performance improvement was achieved for the metrics (specifically “DistancePreservingRigidityPenalty” and “TransformRigidityPenalty”) and two transforms (“BSplineTransformWithDiffusion” “MultiBSplineTransformWithNormal”).
• Improved error handling for ParameterObject: it now throws an exception when the specified index or parameter name is not there.

This latest update is also wrapped by ITKElastix version 0.25.2, which was released last week as well, thanks to @matt.mccormick. (Python package itk-elastix).

I think a SimpleITK/Elastix upgrade to elastix 5.3.1 is also underway, maybe @blowekamp can confirm

For Debian, elastix 5.3.1 is made available at Debian -- Details of source package elastix in sid , thanks @SteveRobbins!