The first thing that comes to mind as a possibly useful 3D graph visualization is to lay the graph on a (non-planar) surface, rather than just in free space. Ie, over some sort of topography.
The topography could represent a geographical landscape of mountains, hills, canyons, and valleys... perhaps most relevant when the graph represents some sort of geographical data set where terrain is significant. Or it could represent some other sort of underlying multivariate data. (Temperature?) The force algorithm might be adapted to include a Z dimension "gravity", pulling nodes downhill into valleys. This sort of 3D graph might remain intuitive, and add value to the data. I agree though, simply scattering nodes hither and thither in free space seems like it would be disorienting to those of us who evolved on a surface. > Kei, you mean the answer (...point, ...insight) is mostly 'no'? > > I hope that it depends on the type of data you want to show. Although > it is an issue to create layouts in a 3D space that adds some visual > value (we are only used to use 2D presentations). Maybe the > possibility to rotate, fly through and live highlight (by changing > colors etc.) of nodes and assocs can bring this value. > > Christopher > > On Tuesday, October 12, 2010, Keiichiro Ono <kei...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi. >> Except small and sparse graph, 3D force-directed/spring model >> automatic layouts creates big hairball and it is very hard to browse. >> I've tried igraph and it creates nice 3D visualizations, but in many >> cases, our users (mostly scientists) say, "it's cool...but what's the >> point? Does it give us new insights by extra dimension?" >> >> Are there any people working on this fundamental problem? >> >> Thanks, >> Kei >> >> 2010/10/12 Alex Averbuch <alex.averb...@gmail.com>: >>> Hey, >>> igraph already supports 3D layouts and makes the vertex coordinates >>> programmatically accessible. Maybe Jung or something similar (and Java >>> based) would offer the same functionality? >>> >>> igraph is written in Python so not the idea solution, but for a proof >>> of >>> concept you could hardcode the coodinates that igraph gives you. Then >>> once >>> the actual visualizations are working, work on your own (or integrate >>> with >>> another library) layout algorithms. >>> >>> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Christopher Schmidt < >>> fakod...@googlemail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> I think that the most tricky thing will be the algorithm, that places >>>> the >>>> nodes and associations in a 3D space. >>>> >>>> Christopher >>>> >>>> Am 2010 10 12 11:08 schrieb "Andreas Kollegger" < >>>> andreas.kolleg...@neotechnology.com>: >>>> That would be super cool. 3D could be beautiful, and possibly allow >>>> more >>>> interesting visualizations of a graph. In addition to an overview of >>>> the >>>> "scene", it would be fun to play with 1st person and 3rd person views >>>> of >>>> the >>>> current node. >>>> >>>> What would be an easy proof-of-concept? >>>> >>>> /Andreas >>>> >>>> >>>> On Oct 12, 2010, at 1:19 AM, Andrew Andkjar wrote: >>>> >>>> > I have not seen one in my Internet travels, h... >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Neo4j mailing list >>>> User@lists.neo4j.org >>>> https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Neo4j mailing list >>> User@lists.neo4j.org >>> https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Keiichiro Ono http://www.keiono.net/ >> _______________________________________________ >> Neo4j mailing list >> User@lists.neo4j.org >> https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user >> > > -- > Christopher > twitter: @fakod > blog: http://blog.fakod.eu > _______________________________________________ > Neo4j mailing list > User@lists.neo4j.org > https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user > -- Rick Otten rot...@windfish.net O=='=+ _______________________________________________ Neo4j mailing list User@lists.neo4j.org https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user
