Mne-python: error when trying to use pyvista to plot stc

[SophieHerbst]

I am trying to use the new pyvista-plotting for stc (through spyder),
on my own data, and this mne-example

When I do not specify a backend, it uses majavi.
I tried: mne.viz.set_3d_backend('pyvista')

Output of stc.plot:

File "/home/sh254795/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/mne/viz/_brain/_brain.py", line 201, in __init__
shape=(n_row, n_col), fig=figure)

File "/home/sh254795/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/mne/viz/backends/_pyvista.py", line 141, in __init__
self.plotter.disable_depth_peeling()

AttributeError: 'Plotter' object has no attribute 'disable_depth_peeling'

Output of python -c "import mne; mne.sys_info()":

mne: 0.20.dev0
numpy: 1.17.2 {blas=mkl_rt, lapack=mkl_rt}
scipy: 1.3.1
matplotlib: 3.1.1 {backend=Qt5Agg}

sklearn: 0.21.3
numba: 0.45.1
nibabel: 2.5.1
cupy: Not found
pandas: 0.25.1
dipy: 1.0.0
mayavi: 4.7.1 {qt_api=pyqt5, PyQt5=5.9.2}
pyvista: 0.22.4
vtk: 8.1.2

[GuillaumeFavelier]

Can you try with the latest version 0.23.0 of PyVista ?

Depth peeling have been added recently.

[SophieHerbst]

Ok thanks!
No more error, but the plot appears in the spyder console and I cannot get it out, i.e. use interactive mode. All the usual setting preferences for ipython console graphics or %matplotlib qtdoes not help. Any ideas?

[GuillaumeFavelier]

This is a false positive from the internal _check_notebook() function. This is unfortunate.

[GuillaumeFavelier]

I'll work on a patch right now :+1: . But basically, the plotter has a simple routine to detect a notebook environment and it seems that it didn't work properly in your case. The plotter should behave properly in a regular ipython console for some reason it's not the case in Spyder, thanks for reporting.

[mmagnuski]

@GuillaumeFavelier Is pysurfer needed for plotting with pyvista? Because the last time I tried using mne-python stc plotting with pyvista backend in an env without pysrufer I got an error (the error said I should have pysurfer, but I'm not sure that should be the case). It works with pysurfer, but I thought it should work without.

[GuillaumeFavelier]

PySurfer is not needed, it should work without but the pyvista backend does not cover every use cases as of now. If you have any issue, don't hesitate to report them.

[larsoner]

We have some check for PySurfer still implemented that we should only use if Mayavi is the selected backend:

$ pip uninstall mayavi
$ python -c stc.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/larsoner/Desktop/stc.py", line 11, in <module>
    brain = stc.plot(subjects_dir=subjects_dir, initial_time=initial_time,
  File "/home/larsoner/python/mne-python/mne/source_estimate.py", line 1467, in plot
    brain = plot_source_estimates(
  File "</home/larsoner/python/mne-python/mne/externals/decorator.py:decorator-gen-128>", line 2, in plot_source_estimates
  File "/home/larsoner/python/mne-python/mne/utils/_logging.py", line 90, in wrapper
    return function(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/larsoner/python/mne-python/mne/viz/_3d.py", line 1687, in plot_source_estimates
    raise RuntimeError('This function requires pysurfer version '
RuntimeError: This function requires pysurfer version >= 0.9

@GuillaumeFavelier can you fix this so that it only checks in the case that mayavi is the selected backend?