What is 3D Data Visualization?
3-D Dimensional data which provides the perception of depth, breadth, and height. Three-dimensional visualizations were developed to provide both qualitative and quantitative information about an object. 3D visualizations are visualized with the three-phase process of scene, geometry, and rendering. Datasets increase in size, and the need for analysis and Data Visualization tools for the data also becomes essential. 3D visualization generation viewed from any angle.
Data Visualization Techniques uses charts and graphs to visualize large amounts of complex data. Click to explore about, Advanced Data Visualization Techniques
How to Adopt 3D Visualization?
The following are elements that make up a 3D object Visualization -- Renderer
- Scene
- Camera
- Mesh
- Lighting
- Animating
Renderer
The renderer is the place to put the result of the scene and set some fundamental properties of the scene. In 3D, multiple and different objects are available. Set the background color, the size of the renderer, and the pixel aspect ratio for higher-density displays. Create WebGLRenderer. We pass it the size of the window as a parameter and then append it to the DOM.Scene
A scene is the container of all the objects rendered by programs. It contains objects, lights, and some characters and comprises a camera to capture for rendering.Camera
The camera gives the properties which result in the viewport into our scene, position, field of view, and perspective. Field of view, from the bottom to the top of the viewable area in degrees. The aspect ratio is the camera's viewable width divided by the visible height. Near and far to specify the closest and furthest point at which items are clipped, or out of the camera's view. The Perspective Camera takes four arguments. The Field of View, the aspect ratio, the near clip plane, and the far clip plane. Adding objects to the scene -- Create a Geometry
- Create a Material
- Create a Mesh
- Add mesh to the scene
Geometry
Geometry is the mathematical formula of an object. A Geometry gives us the vertices of the objects that we want to add to the scene. Different types of geometry types are -Material
A Material is defined as the properties of an object and its behavior with the light sources of the scene. Different types of materials -Lights
It is common to see lights around the area while watching any screen. They aid the visualized direction (animated models) or position and also the model visible. Different Light types -
- AmbientLight
- PointLight
- DirectionalLight
- SpotLight
- HemisphereLight
Animating
For applying animation inside the render loop, change the properties. Mesh created access to a group of features useful to apply animation effects. Three-Dimensional visualizations represent visualizations from all angles by just turning off the camera in the scene. While considering the two-dimensional formats, there is a limit on how much information to take and use visualization for making decisions, planning, and targeting customers. Three-Dimensional allows drawing which character if the scene changes. It easily communicates with internal features.Some of the applications include GIS (Geographic Information Systems), geographic visualizations in a three-dimensional view, and providing more interaction which is essential for understanding. It gives a sense of immersion in the environment where the user appreciates the scale of change and visualizes the impact of building design on the external environment and the inhabitants.
How 3D Visualization Works?
Steps to make the three.js program - Add the HTML file, and load the three.js file.
<html>
<head>
<title>three.js example</title>
</head>
<body>
<script src="three.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
/* var scene = new THREE.Scene(); */
/* var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(75, window.innerWidth/window.innerHeight,0.1,1000); */
/* var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight, false);
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement); */
/* var geometry = new THREE.BoxGeometry(1,1,1,1); */
/* var material = new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial({color: 0x00ff00}); */
/* var cube = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material );
scene.add( cube );
camera.position.z = 5; */
*/
var animate = function () {
requestAnimationFrame( animate );
cube.rotation.x += 0.01;
cube.rotation.y += 0.01;
renderer.render( scene, camera ); */
Benefits of 3D Data Visualization
The benefits of 3D Data Visualization are highlighted below:
Effective Communication
3-D visualization gives the user the ability to understand the complexity of the data by seeing the object in a 3-D way from the x, y, and z-axis.
Identify design flaws
3D visualization enables the users to see design flows and perform visualization of objects before building, impacting the time execution of the project.
An open-source Java-based third-party server, which provides a content-based dashboard. Click to explore about, Data Visualization Dashboard
The best Tools for 3D Data Visualization
The best Tools for 3D Data Visualization are defined below:
Chart 3D
Charts 3D allows users to create 3D visualizations of the data without doing any code. After users import datasets, Charts 3D generates an interactive graphic, such as a scatter plot, geospatial plot, or line graph. Users can switch between 3D and 2D and can filter the data.
Charts 3D leverages the power of 3D to create engaging and insightful visualizations.
Features -
Data Import – Import CSV or XLSX files.
Create Visualization – Select the chart type to be used for visualizing data among Scatter, Bar, and Geospatial plots.
Chart Interaction – Allows to Rotate, Zoom, and Pan the graph to view it from different perspectives.
3D View – Can switch between a 2D and 3D view of the graph when presenting insights.
Export – Easily export and share visualizations
Three.js
Three.js provides 3D visualizations; it comes with canvas and SVG renderers to render whatever we want to put on the screen; it also includes access to WebGL, no need to write too much code.
Three.js provides built-in lights for applying to materials MeshLambertMaterial and MeshPhongMaterial. These lights affect the elements in different ways depending on the type of light and their properties, as well as the features of the materials themselves.
To render 3D graphics on a webpage requires WebGL (Web Graphics Library), a Javascript API for rendering interactive 3D with any compatible web browser without the use of plugins. It accesses a computer’s specialized graphics hardware using JavaScript and renders the output to a webpage in the HTML canvas element. Three.js works with WebGL, as it has many useful functions pre-written, which would otherwise require a lot of effort.
Conclusion
Analysis operations, like visualization operations, may be either scene-based or object-based and deal with methods of quantifying object information. Some examples of 3D shapes are prisms, pyramids, spheres, cones, cubes, etc. GIS examples will include city planning, build information planning, coastal analysis, modeling, and wind farm assessment.
- Read how to Create Data Visualization using GraphQL
- Discover more about Data Quality Management and its Best Practices
- Click to explore about Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI
