Data visualization in 3D on a wall-sized screen

beginners
#1

Hey guys! I am recently working on a 3D data visualization project. But I got some problems in the current developing status and would like to ask for your suggestions.

  1. I have programmed a Processing sketch as the prototype (drawing 100+ spheres and manipulating them by parsing a JSON data, with OpenGL and peasycam libraries imported). It works well on my desktop. But it shows significant delay when I run it on the project platform, which is a 5760 px X 3240 px screen. Will the delay issue be gone if I switch to Openframeworks?

  2. I learned ofSketch last fall and found it’s pretty useful. But does ofEasyCam work well in it?

Thank you.

#2

Try this in ofSketch

ofEasyCam cam;

std::vector<ofSpherePrimitive> spheres;

void setup() {
	ofSetWindowShape(800, 800);
	
	for (std::size_t i = 0; i < 500; ++i)
	{
	    ofSpherePrimitive sphere;
	    sphere.setPosition(ofVec3f(ofRandom(-500,500),
	                               ofRandom(-500,500),
	                               ofRandom(-500,500)));
	       
	    sphere.setRadius(ofRandom(5, 10));
	    
	    spheres.push_back(sphere);
	    
	}
}

void draw() {
 	ofBackground(0);
  	
 	cam.begin();

	for (std::size_t i = 0; i < spheres.size(); ++i)
	{
	    spheres[i].draw();  
    }
    
 	cam.end();
}
#3

Then try this:

ofEasyCam cam;

// Create collections of spheres, their velocities and colors.
// You could also create a sphere class that holds all of this stuff (see the ofSketch HelloWorld example).
std::vector<ofSpherePrimitive> spheres;
std::vector<ofVec3f> velocities;
std::vector<ofColor> colors;

void setup() {
	ofSetWindowShape(1024, 1024);
	
	// Initialize the spheres, velocities and colors.
	for (std::size_t i = 0; i < 500; ++i)
	{
	    ofSpherePrimitive sphere;
	    sphere.setPosition(ofVec3f(ofRandom(-500,500),
	                               ofRandom(-500,500),
	                               ofRandom(-500,500)));
	       
	    sphere.setRadius(ofRandom(5, 10));
	    
	    spheres.push_back(sphere);
	    
	    velocities.push_back(ofVec3f(ofRandom(-10,10),
	                               ofRandom(-10,10),
	                               ofRandom(-10,10)));
	    
	    colors.push_back(ofColor(ofRandom(255),
	                               ofRandom(255),
	                               ofRandom(255)));

	}
}


void update() {
    
    // Update everything.
    for (std::size_t i = 0; i < spheres.size(); ++i)
	{
	    // Add the velocity to the position of each sphere.
	    ofVec3f newPosition = spheres[i].getPosition() + velocities[i];
	    
	    // Make the sphere bounce off the edge of the bounding cube by switching its velocity.
	    if (newPosition.x > 500 || newPosition.x < -500) velocities[i].x *= -1.0;
	    if (newPosition.y > 500 || newPosition.y < -500) velocities[i].y *= -1.0;
	    if (newPosition.z > 500 || newPosition.z < -500) velocities[i].z *= -1.0;
    
        // Update its position with the new value.
        spheres[i].setPosition(newPosition);
        
    }
}


void draw() {
 	ofBackground(0);
  	
  	// Start the camera!
 	cam.begin();

    // Draw each sphere with its color.
	for (std::size_t i = 0; i < spheres.size(); ++i)
	{
	    ofSetColor(colors[i]);
	    spheres[i].draw();  
    }
    
    // End the camera!
 	cam.end();
}

You can zoom in and out, rotate, etc by holding ctrl, drag, etc.

#4

P.S. I just added comments to the above code.