Re: [guppi-list] 3d graphs

[Havoc Pennington <rhpennin midway uchicago edu>]

On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, John M. Wharington wrote:
> 
> I understand 3d graphs is listed as a planned feature, but has anyone
> decided as to how this will be achieved?
>

All up in the air. I have just ripped the 2D functionality to pieces, so
3D isn't on the radar screen yet.
 
> I have been using OpenGL (well, Mesa) for my 3d graphics and I think 
> this would be a quality solution both for rendering to screen and
> printers.
> 

I know zip about OpenGL. There would have to be a reasonably finished Gtk
implementation - I know people are working on this, but I don't know how
close it is to finished. 

> This would also enable a consistent look and feel for 2d and 3d graphs,
> which is desirable if the output is to be used for publications.
> 

I don't know enough about OpenGL to know how it handles printing, 2d vs.
3d, etc.

We are currently planning to use GnomeCanvas, which will give us printing
functionality and makes it easy to write interactively editable graphs, in
the tradition of Excel rather than GNUPlot. i.e. Guppi is not a batch mode
program. So this is one major consideration as well.

My inclination is to keep it simple for now, and just have fake 3d, like
Excel. Nice 3d can come later, when someone who knows OpenGL and all that
decides to implement it.

Havoc