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

Installing the Open Asset Import Library (Assimp)


Assimp is an open source library that loads and processes 3D geometric scenes from various 3D model data formats. The library provides a unified interface to load many different data formats, such as Wavefront Object (.obj), 3ds Max 3DS (.3ds), and Stereolithography (.stl). Moreover, this library is written in portable, ISO-compliant C++, and thus, it allows further customization and long-term support. Since the library is cross-platform, we can easily install it in Mac OS X, Linux, as well as Windows with the instructions given in the next section.

How to do it...

To obtain the library source files or binary library for Assimp 3.0, download them directly from Assimp's official website at http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/files/assimp-3.0/. Alternatively, for Linux and Mac OS X users, use the command-line interface to simplify the installation steps described next.

In Mac OS X, install Assimp using the MacPort's command-line interface...