BrainNet Viewer 2.0.0-beta.1

Build date: 1 October 2026. MATLAB public beta for evaluation and feedback before the stable 2.0 version. The build date is not a statement of the actual publication date.

Interface and interaction

- English-language main-window workflow: load files, configure visualization, render in the embedded canvas, interact and export. Collapsible settings, Light/Dark themes, responsive layouts and same-monitor utility windows.
- Independent Rotate, Pan and Zoom for each brain view; wheel zoom affects only the hovered view while Zoom is active. Reset restores the configured layout without resizing the drawing area.
- File, color and tool dialogs restore their owner window's focus. Compatibility handling includes older MATLAB desktop versions and delayed fitting of multi-view layouts.
- Render-in-progress protection prevents concurrent Apply/Render requests. Restore Defaults retains inputs and the current canvas, and prompts for Apply/Render to redraw.

Visualization and data

- Expanded surface, node, edge, volume-mapping and ROI controls, including directed-edge proportions, module-based colors and adjustable visibility/size.
- Independent NIfTI-1/2 and GIfTI readers, supported paired NIfTI and external GIfTI binary arrays, plus surface formats described in the format guide.
- Split views support suitable disconnected hemisphere components with local medial crossings of X=0. FreeSurfer geometry/map guidance is included; direct annotation import is not implied.
- Volume-to-surface mapping, smoothed atlas ROI visualization and uncorrected P-value thresholds from supported statistical metadata, with cluster-size filtering.
- AAL and Brodmann information displayed by Inspect as labels in the main canvas for appropriate MNI-space inputs.
- Viridis, Plasma, Inferno, Magma and Cividis palettes, colormap dropdowns and custom RGB editing. Matplotlib reference-table attribution and license are retained.
- Scene JSON, reusable display presets and reviewed legacy-configuration migration.
- Surface conversion, subdivision, merging and boundary output. Merge Surfaces automatically reviews inputs, permits blank space/units/note without a verification checkbox, and does not perform registration.
- Focused rendering optimizations; measured performance depends on data, hardware and the operation, not universal GPU acceleration.

Export, resources and documentation

- PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PDF and SVG exports with provenance records, plus documented camera-animation export.
- Transparent PNG/TIFF fallback uses matched black/white renders when alpha is flattened, preserving black, white and translucent objects without color-key deletion.
- Original 12-surface library and retained historical templates with resource notices.
- Updated AAL3v2, Glasser360, Power264, Shen278 and Schaefer 100/200/400 node/edge examples, with corresponding atlas volumes/labels. Updated connections derive from resting-state fMRI data from a group of adult healthy participants; module colors and strength-based node sizes are documented. No example Scene JSON is distributed.
- Real-data bilingual tutorials and a 41-page English Word/PDF manual covering the workflow, settings, Inspect, export and utilities. Resource credits accompany the examples.

Compatibility and limitations

- Validation includes Windows MATLAB R2025a Update 1 regression and targeted follow-up, focused Windows R2024b Update 1 checks and macOS R2024a team workflow checks; not every configuration is certified.
- MATLAB must be installed and activated. Standalone executables, MATLAB Runtime-only use, Linux and browser/Docker deployment are not certified; fiber-tract rendering and Python are not included in this MATLAB beta.
- Paired .hdr/.img inputs must be NIfTI, not plain Analyze 7.5. Statistical thresholds require valid metadata and do not provide multiple-comparison correction.
- Inspect and mesh tools do not establish registration. Check coordinates, units, atlas correspondence and scientific interpretation for each dataset.
- Complete legacy feature equivalence, pixel-identical historical output, EPS/EMF, arbitrary Plot Edit and application-integrated printing are not promised. Exact-size vector export has documented limitations on older MATLAB releases.
- Software code is GPL-3.0; third-party resources retain their own notices, terms and citations. See the manual and migration guide for detailed scope.

See CHANGELOG.md and CHANGELOG.zh-CN.md for the bilingual change history.
