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wxGUI 3D View Mode

KEYWORDS

       display, GUI, visualization, graphics, raster, vector, raster3d

DESCRIPTION

       Note:  wxNviz  is  currently  under  development. Not all planned functionality is already
       implemented.

       wxNviz is a wxGUI 3D view  mode  which  allows  users  to  realistically  render  multiple
       surfaces  (2D  raster  maps) in a 3D space, optionally using thematic coloring, draping 2D
       vector data or different 2D raster data over the surfaces, displaying 3D  vector  data  in
       the space, and visualization of 3D rasters.

       To  start  the  wxGUI  3D view mode, choose ’3D view’ from the map toolbar. You can switch
       between 2D and 3D view. The region in 3D view is updated according to displayed region  in
       2D view.

       wxNviz  is emphasized on the ease and speed of viewer positioning and provided flexibility
       for using a wide range of data. A low resolution surface or wire grid (optional)  provides
       real-time  viewer  positioning capabilities. Coarse and fine resolution controls allow the
       user to further refine drawing speed and detail as needed. Continuous scaling of elevation
       provides the ability to use various data types for the vertical dimension.

       For  each  session of wxNviz, you might want the same set of 2D/3D raster and vector data,
       view parameters, or other attributes. For consistency between sessions, you can store this
       information  in  the GRASS workspace file (gxw). Workspace contains information to restore
       "state" of the system in 2D and if wxNviz is enabled also in the 3D display mode.

3D View Toolbar

             Generate command for m.nviz.image
           Generate command for m.nviz.image based on current state.

             Show 3D view mode settings
           Show dialog with settings for wxGUI 3D view mode. The user settings can be  stored  in
           wxGUI settings file.

             Show help
           Show this help.

3D View Layer Manager Toolbox

       The 3D view toolbox is integrated in the Layer Manager. The toolbox has several tabs:

           •   View for view controlling,

           •   Data for data properties,

           •   Appearance for appearance settings (lighting, fringes, ...).

           •   Analysis for various data analyses (only cutting planes so far).

           •   Animation for creating simple animations.

   View
       You  can  use  this panel to set the position, direction, and perspective of the view. The
       position box shows a puck with a direction line pointing to the center. The direction line
       indicates  the look direction (azimuth). You click and drag the puck to change the current
       eye position. Another way to change eye position  is  to  press  the  buttons  around  the
       position box representing cardinal and ordinal directions.

       There are four other buttons for view control in the bottom of this panel (following label
       Look:):

           •   here requires you to click on Map Display Window to determine the  point  to  look
               at.

           •   center changes the point you are looking at to the center.

           •   top moves the current eye position above the map center.

           •   reset returns all current view settings to their default values.
       You  can adjust the viewer’s height above the scene, perspective and twist value to rotate
       the scene about the horizontal axis. An angle of 0 is flat. The scene rotates between  -90
       and 90 degrees.

       You  can  also  adjusts  the  vertical  exaggeration of the surface. As an example, if the
       easting and northing are in meters and the elevation in feet, a vertical  exaggeration  of
       0.305 would produce a true (unexaggerated) surface.

       View  parameters  can be controlled by sliders or edited directly in the text boxes. It is
       possible to enter values which are out of slider’s range (and it will then adjust  to  the
       new range).

   Fly-through mode
       View  can  be changed in fly-through mode (can be activated in Map Display toolbar), which
       enables to change the view smoothly and therefore it is suitable  for  creating  animation
       (see below). To start flying, press left mouse button and hold it down to continue flying.
       Flight direction is controlled by mouse cursor position on screen.  Flight  speed  can  be
       increased/decreased stepwise by keys PageUp/PageDown, Home/End or Up/Down arrows. Speed is
       increased multiple times while Shift key is held down.  Holding  down  Ctrl  key  switches
       flight mode in the way that position of viewpoint is changed (not the direction).

   Data properties
       This  tab  controls  the parameters related to map layers. It consists of four collapsible
       panels - Surface, Constant surface, Vector and 3D raster.

   Surface
       Each active raster map layer from the current layer tree is displayed as surface in the 3D
       space.  This  panel  controls  how  loaded  surfaces  are drawn. To change parameters of a
       surface, it must be selected in the very top part of the panel.

       The top half of the panel has drawing style options.  Surface can be drawn as a wire  mesh
       or  using  filled polygons (most realistic). You can set draw mode to coarse (fast display
       mode), fine (draws surface as  filled  polygons  with  fine  resolution)  or  both  (which
       combines  coarse and fine mode). Additionally set coarse style to wire to draw the surface
       as wire mesh (you can also choose color of the wire) or surface to draw the surface  using
       coarse resolution filled polygons. This is a low resolution version of the polygon surface
       style.  E.g. surface is drawn as a wire mesh if you set mode to coarse and style to  wire.
       Note that it differs from the mesh drawn in fast display mode because hidden lines are not
       drawn. To draw the surface using filled polygons, but  with  wire  mesh  draped  over  it,
       choose  mode  both  and  style  wire.   Beside mode and style you can also choose style of
       shading used for the surface. Gouraud style draws the surfaces with a  smooth  shading  to
       blend  individual cell colors together, flat draws the surfaces with flat shading with one
       color for every two cells. The surface appears faceted.

       To set given draw settings for all loaded surfaces press button "Set to all".

       The bottom half of the panel has options to set, unset or modify attributes of the current
       surface.  Separate  raster  data  or  constants  can be used for various attributes of the
       surface:

           •   color - raster map or constant color to  drape  over  the  current  surface.  This
               option is useful for draping imagery such as aerial photography over a DEM.

           •   mask - raster map that controls the areas displayed from the current surface.

           •   transparency  - raster map or constant value that controls the transparency of the
               current surface. The default is completely opaque. Range from 0  (opaque)  to  100
               (transparent).

           •   shininess   -   raster   map   or  constant  value  that  controls  the  shininess
               (reflectivity) of the current surface. Range from 0 to 100.

       In the very bottom part of the panel position of surface can be set.  To move the  surface
       right  (looking  from  the  south) choose X axis and set some positive value. To reset the
       surface position press Reset button.

   Constant surface
       It is possible to add constant surface and set its properties like fine resolution,  value
       (height), color and transparency. It behaves similarly to surface but it has less options.

   Vector
       2D  vector  data  can be draped on the selected surfaces with various markers to represent
       point data; you can use attribute of vector features to determine size,  color,  shape  of
       glyph.  3D vector data including volumes (closed group of faces with one kernel inside) is
       also supported.  This panel controls how loaded 2D or 3D vector data are drawn.

       You can define the width (in pixels) of the line features, the color  used  for  lines  or
       point markers.

       If  vector  map  is 2D you can display vector features as flat at a specified elevation or
       drape it over a surface(s) at a specified height. Use the height control to set  the  flat
       elevation  or  the  drape  height above the surface(s). In case of multiple surfaces it is
       possible to specify which surfaces is the vector map draped over.

       For display purposes, it is better to set the height slightly above the  surface.  If  the
       height is set at zero, portions of the vector may disappear into the surface(s).

       For  2D/3D  vector  points  you  can  also  set  the  size  of the markers.  Currently are
       implemented these markers:

           •   x sets the current points markers to a 2D "X",

           •   sphere - solid 3D sphere,

           •   diamond - solid 3D diamond,

           •   cube - solid 3D cube,

           •   box - hollow 3D cube,

           •   gyroscope - hollow 3D sphere,

           •   asterisk - 3D line-star.

       Thematic mapping can be used to determine marker  color  and  size  (and  line  color  and
       width).

   3D rasters
       3D  raster  maps (volumes, voxel models) can be displayed either as isosurfaces or slices.
       Similarly to surface panel you can define draw shading - gouraud  (draws  the  3D  rasters
       with  a  smooth  shading  to blend individual cell colors together) and flat (draws the 3D
       rasters with flat shading with one color for  every  two  cells.  The  3D  raster  appears
       faceted). As mentioned above currently are supported two visualization modes:

           •   isosurface - the levels of values for drawing the 3D raster(s) as isosurfaces,

           •   and slice -  drawing the 3D raster as cross-sections.

       The  middle  part  of  the  panel  has  controls  to  add,  delete,  move up/down selected
       isosurface or slice. The bottom part differs for isosurface and slice.  When  choosing  an
       isosurface,  this  part the of panel has options to set, unset or modify attributes of the
       current isosurface.  Various attributes of the isosurface can  be  defined,  similarly  to
       surface attributes:

           •   isosurface value - reference isosurface value (height in map units).

           •   color - raster map or constant color to drape over the current 3D raster.

           •   mask - raster map that controls the areas displayed from the current 3D raster.

           •   transparency  - raster map or constant value that controls the transparency of the
               current 3D raster. The default is completely opaque. Range from 0 (opaque) to  100
               (transparent).

           •   shininess   -   raster   map   or  constant  value  that  controls  the  shininess
               (reflectivity) of the current 3D raster. Range from 0 to 100.
       In case of 3D raster slice the bottom part of the  panel  controls  the  slice  attributes
       (which  axis  is  slice  parallel to, position of slice edges, transparency). Press button
       Reset to reset slice position attributes.

       3D rasters can be moved the same way like surfaces do.

   Analysis
       Analysis tab contains Cutting planes panel.

   Cutting planes
       Cutting planes allow cutting surfaces along a plane. You can switch between six planes; to
       disable cutting planes switch to None.  Initially the plane is vertical, you can change it
       to horizontal by setting tilt 90 degrees. The X and Y values specify the  rotation  center
       of plane. You can see better what X and Y do when changing rotation.  The Height parameter
       applies only when changing tilt concurrently.  Press the Reset button to reset the current
       cutting plane.

       In  case  of  multiple surfaces you can visualize the cutting plane by Shading. Shading is
       visible only when more than one surface is loaded and these surfaces must  have  the  same
       fine resolution set.

   Appearance
       Appearance tab consists of three collapsible panels:

           •   Lighting for adjusting light source

           •   Fringe for drawing fringes

           •   Decorations to display north arrow and scale bar

       The lighting panel enables to change the position of light source, light color, brightness
       and ambient. Light position is controlled similarly to eye position. If option Show  light
       model is enabled light model is displayed to visualize the light settings.

       The Fringe panel allows you to draw fringes in different directions (North & East, South &
       East, South & West, North & West). It is possible to set the fringe color  and  height  of
       the bottom edge.

       The Decorations panel enables to display north arrow and simple scale bar. North arrow and
       scale bar length is determined in map units.  You can display more than one scale bar.

   Animation
       Animation panel enables to create a simple  animation  as  a  sequence  of  images.  Press
       ’Record’  button  and start changing the view. Views are recorded in given interval (FPS -
       Frames Per Second). After recording, the animation can be replayed. To save the animation,
       fill  in  the  directory  and file prefix, choose image format (PPM or TIF) and then press
       ’Save’.  Now wait until the  last  image  is  generated.   It  is  recommended  to  record
       animations using fly-through mode to achieve smooth motion.

Settings

       This  panel  has  controls  which allows user to set default surface, vector and 3D raster
       data attributes. You can also modify default view parameters, or  to  set  the  background
       color of the Map Display Window (the default color is white).

To be implemented

           •   Labels, decoration, etc. (Implemented, but not fully functional)

           •   Surface - mask by zero/elevation, more interactive positioning

           •   Vector points - implement display mode flat/surface for 2D points

           •   ...

NOTE

       wxNviz is under active development and distributed as "Experimental Prototype".

       Please  note  that  with  wxGTK  port  of wxPython (Linux systems), a problem might appear
       during wxNviz initialization (nothing is rendered at all) or when rendering  vectors  (bad
       order  of rendering surfaces and vectors). If you encounter such problems, try to change a
       depth buffer number in wxGUI Settings > Preferences > Map Display   >  Advanced  (possible
       numbers  are  0,  16, 24, 32). It is currently not possible to automatically determine the
       right number which is working for your computer.

SEE ALSO

        wxGUI
       wxGUI components

       See also wiki page (especially various video tutorials).
       Command-line module m.nviz.image.

AUTHORS

       The wxNviz GUI

       Martin Landa, Google Summer of Code 2008 (mentor: Michael Barton) and 2010 (mentor: Helena
       Mitasova)
       Anna Kratochvilova, Google Summer of Code 2011 (mentor: Martin Landa)

       The OGSF library and NVIZ engine

       NVIZ  (GRASS’s  n-dimensional visualization suite) was written by Bill Brown, Terry Baker,
       Mark Astley, and David  Gerdes,  U.S.  Army  Corps  of  Engineers  Research  Laboratories,
       Champaign, Illinois and UI GMS Laboratory, Urbana, IL in the early 1990s.

       Original  documentation  was  written  by  Terry  Baker (spring 1995), and updated by Mark
       Astley, based on a document written by Bill Brown.  Additional design help and funding  in
       the  early 1990s by Helena Mitasova (CERL). Tcl/Tk support added by Terry Baker. Ported to
       Linux by Jaro Hofierka and others. Conversion from SGI IRIS GL code to  OpenGL  by  Justin
       Hickey. Further program and documentation (2004) updates by Bob Covill, Tekmap Consulting.
       3D volume support by  Tomas  Paudits  with  supervision  from  Jaro  Hofierka  and  Helena
       Mitasova.   Fly-through mode, thematic site attributes, and picking by Massimo Cuomo (ACS)
       with updates by Michael Barton. GRASS 6 vector support by Radim Blazek. Additional updates
       by Markus Neteler, Martin Landa, Glynn Clements, and Hamish Bowman.

       NVIZ  evolved  from the earlier GRASS program SG3d written for Silicon Graphics IRIS GL by
       Bill Brown and Dave Gerdes at USA CERL, 1990-1995 and from the NVIZ Motif version  written
       by Bill Brown with contributions by Terrance McGhee.

SOURCE CODE

       Available at: wxGUI 3D View Mode source code (history)

       Accessed: unknown

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       © 2003-2022 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.8.7 Reference Manual