Specialized 3D Renderers
Learn about the high-performance specialized renderers for complex 3D data.
Introduction
While the core 3D series cover basic scatter and surface plots, many scientific applications require specialized geometry. SciChart Engine provides six specialized renderers optimized for specific data types.
1. Waterfall Renderer
Type: 'waterfall'Use Case: Spectral analysis, Audio signals.
The Waterfall renderer displays 2D slices stacked along the Z-axis. It supports:
- Real-time streaming: Push new slices efficiently.
- Area/Line styles: Choose between filled surfaces or discrete lines.
- Depth fading: Automatically fade older data.
2. Vector Field (Quiver)
Type: 'quiver'Use Case: CFD, Electromagnetics, Wind patterns.
Visualizes 3D vectors as arrows. Each arrow's orientation and length are determined by the direction vector.
- Instanced architecture: Render 10,000+ arrows at 60 FPS.
- Magnitude scaling: Arrows automatically scale by vector length.
3. High-Density Point Cloud
Type: 'pointcloud'Use Case: LIDAR, Particle physics, t-SNE clusters.
Optimized to render millions of points.
- Depth Attenuation: Points get smaller as they recede into the distance.
- Marker Shapes: Choose between high-performance squares or smooth circles.
4. Voxel (Volumetric Heatmap)
Type: 'voxel'Use Case: MRI/CT Scans, 3D Scalar fields.
A voxel (volume-pixel) grid for 3D intensity data.
- GPU Thresholding: Interactively "peel" through layers of volume.
- Built-in Lighting: Surface-based shading for depth perception.
5. Ribbon 3D
Type: 'ribbon'Use Case: Flow trajectories, comparison of signals.
Renders paths as extruded "tapes" or ribbons.
- Calculated Normals: Segments are lit based on their curvature.
- Variable Width: Control the thickness of the ribbon along the path.
6. Surface Bar (3D Histogram)
Type: 'column'Use Case: spatial distributions, 3D bar charts.
Optimized for grid-based vertical columns.
- Base Plane Alignment: All bars start from a shared ground plane.
- High performance: Uses vertex instancing for immediate updates of dense grids.
Choosing the Right Renderer
| Data Structure | Recommended Renderer |
|---|---|
| Disordered points | PointCloud3DRenderer |
| Directional flow | VectorField3DRenderer |
| Time-stacked spectra | Waterfall3DRenderer |
| Volumetric grid | Voxel3DRenderer |
| Continuous paths | Ribbon3DRenderer |
| Grid distribution | SurfaceBar3DRenderer |