+1 for threejs I tried to compare the two: in a single Jupyter notebook, I plotted the same function with both viewers. threejs produced the plot faster, and it was snappier when rotating, zooming, etc. (This is with both Firefox and Safari on OS X.) Same from the command-line: the threejs window in my browser was faster to use than the jmol java app. The jmol app may have more features, but since we aren't talking about eliminating jmol, it will still be available as a possible viewer for people who need those features.
John On Monday, September 23, 2019 at 4:51:23 AM UTC-7, Eric Gourgoulhon wrote: > > Dear Sage-dev, > > This is a poll to make three.js (https://threejs.org/) the default 3d > viewer > in Sage, in replacement of Jmol (https://sourceforge.net/projects/jmol/). > > Indeed, thanks to the work of Paul Masson, the three.js 3d viewer is doing > a > very good job in displaying Sage 3d plots, as you can see in these examples > taken from Sage reference's manual: > > https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/egourgoulhon/SageMathTest/blob/master/Worksheets/sage_reference_threejs.ipynb > > You can rotate/zoom the 3d view with the mouse and, by clicking on the > small black > arrow at the bottom right of the view, you can download a png screenshot. > > Other examples of three.js rendering can be found in this notebook devoted > to > anti de Sitter space: > > https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/sagemanifolds/SageManifolds/blob/master/Notebooks/SM_anti_de_Sitter.ipynb > > For more information about the three.js renderer in Sage, see > https://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/reference/plot3d/threejs.html > > The discussion about having three.js as the default viewer is taking place > in > the ticket > https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/22408 > This ticket also contains the git branch to perform the change if decided. > > Here is a discussion summary: in favor of three.js, we have > > - three.js, which is based on the WebGL API, displays 3d plots faster than > Jmol, and with a better quality > > - 3d plots rendered with three.js can be publicly shared via > nbviewer.jupyter.org, contrary to those rendered with Jmol, which > appear as > blank spaces, cf. this test notebook: > > https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/egourgoulhon/SageMathTest/blob/master/Worksheets/test_3d_view.ipynb > > - three.js enables to label the plot axes (via the option 'axes_labels', > the default > of which is ['x', 'y', 'z']); on the opposite, there are no labels on > Jmol > plots and the option 'axes_labels' is ineffective, which looks like a > serious > drawback for a mathematical software... > > - Jmol causes many troubles to Sage packagers (see #22408 > <https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/22408> for details); > for instance in Sage 8.8 console, Jmol display is broken on recent > Debian-based distros (e.g. Debian Buster and Ubuntu 18.04), due to a JRE > issue; fortunately this is fixed by > https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/25026 > > On the con side, there are > > - the current lack of non-interactive conversion of three.js views to > static > png figures (in interactive mode, the black arrow mentioned above does > the > job). As a result, the png figures in the reference manual will still be > generated with Jmol, as proposed in #22408 > <https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/22408> > > - some minor opacity issues (see #22408 > <https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/22408> for details) > > > Given the above elements, please vote! > > Eric. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sage-devel/7648af8f-71f2-46a7-ad7d-b6deab846d5e%40googlegroups.com.
