Book Image

OpenGL Data Visualization Cookbook

Book Image

OpenGL Data Visualization Cookbook

Overview of this book

OpenGL is a great multi-platform, cross-language, and hardware-accelerated graphics interface for visualizing large 2D and 3D datasets. Data visualization has become increasingly challenging using conventional approaches as datasets become larger and larger, especially with the Big Data evolution. From a mobile device to a sophisticated high-performance computing cluster, OpenGL libraries provide developers with an easy-to-use interface to create stunning visuals in 3D in real time for a wide range of interactive applications. This book provides a series of easy-to-follow, hands-on tutorials to create appealing OpenGL-based visualization tools with minimal development time. We will first illustrate how to quickly set up the development environment in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Next, we will demonstrate how to visualize data for a wide range of applications using OpenGL, starting from simple 2D datasets to increasingly complex 3D datasets with more advanced techniques. Each chapter addresses different visualization problems encountered in real life and introduces the relevant OpenGL features and libraries in a modular fashion. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the essential skills to develop a wide range of impressive OpenGL-based applications for your unique data visualization needs, on platforms ranging from conventional computers to the latest mobile/wearable devices.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
OpenGL Data Visualization Cookbook
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Introduction


OpenGL is a very attractive platform for creating dynamic, highly interactive tools for visualizing data in 3D. In this chapter, we will build upon the fundamental concepts discussed in the previous chapter and extend our demos to incorporate more sophisticated OpenGL features for 3D rendering. To enable 3D visualization, we will first introduce the basic steps of setting up a virtual camera in OpenGL. In addition, to create more interactive demos, we will introduce the use of GLFW callback functions for handling user inputs. Using these concepts, we will illustrate how to create an interactive 3D plot with perspective rendering using OpenGL. Finally, we will demonstrate how to render a 3D volumetric dataset generated from a Monte Carlo simulation of light transport in biological tissue. By the end of this chapter, readers will be able to visualize data in 3D with perspective rendering and interact with the environment dynamically through user inputs for a wide range of applications...