Skip to main content

plotting - How to turn off depth sorting of 3D curves for Manipulate?



Is there a way to turn off the default depth sorting of curves in a 3D output of several complicated curves ? Currently, I suspect that depth sorting has a very strong impact on performances on my Manipulate box, and would like to turn it off, to see if there's an improvement (I'm sure it will !).



Here's a cheap MWE to work with :


curve1[t_] := ParametricPlot3D[
{Sin[3 Pi s], Cos[5 Pi s^2], Cos[3 Pi s] Sin[3 Pi s]},
{s, 0.001, t},PlotStyle -> Directive[Thickness[0.02], Red]]

curve2[t_] := ParametricPlot3D[
{1.3 Sin[7 Pi s], 0.5 Cos[2 Pi s], 0.4 Sin[6 Pi s^2]},
{s, 0.001, t},PlotStyle -> Directive[Thickness[0.02], Blue]]

Manipulate[Show[

{curve1[t], curve2[t]},
PlotRange -> {{-1.5, 1.5}, {-1.5, 1.5}, {-1.5, 1.5}},
Boxed -> True, Axes -> True, AxesOrigin -> {0, 0, 0},
SphericalRegion -> True,
Method -> {"RotationControl" -> "Globe"},
ImageSize -> 600
], {{t, 1, "t"}, 0, 12, 1}]

EDIT 1 : Depth sorting is the ordering of elements in 3D space. One in front of the other, as seen by the observer. This is a standard concept in 3D modeling, games, etc... Mathematica clearly do it too (by default), if you watch closely its 3D output of thick curves. Depth sorting is necessary when there are surfaces.


In my special case, I have no surfaces, just a single complicated thin curve. I don't need depth sorting in its case. Turning off depth sorting of that curve elements should improve a lot performances.





EDIT 2 : Here's an example of apparent no depth sorting in Mathematica, from Silvia :


Plot3D[x+y,{x,-1,1},{y,-1,1},AxesOrigin->{0,0,0},Mesh->None,Boxed->False]

While moving around that plane, you'll notice that the axis, ticks and labels are always shown "on front". They don't display any "depth sorting" of their elements. This is what I would like to achieve for curves.


There's also a strong advantage in getting no depth sorting of curves : when exporting a Mathematica 3D curve to a PDF file, and open the file with another vectorial application, you'll get the curve made of lots of small bits. The whole curve is then very hard to edit in a proper way. Without depth sorting of the curve, the curve would be of a single piece. This is highly desirable for exportation to another vectorial app.




EDIT 3 : Compare the output from the code above, with the output from the same code with the default thickness of curves (code below). The depth sorting is still there, but it is useless since it is not visible from this output :


curve1[t_] := ParametricPlot3D[
{Sin[3 Pi s], Cos[5 Pi s^2], Cos[3 Pi s] Sin[3 Pi s]},

{s, 0.001, t},PlotStyle -> Red]

curve2[t_] := ParametricPlot3D[
{1.3 Sin[7 Pi s], 0.5 Cos[2 Pi s], 0.4 Sin[6 Pi s^2]},
{s, 0.001, t},PlotStyle -> Blue]

Manipulate[
Show[
{curve1[t], curve2[t]},
PlotRange -> {{-1.5, 1.5}, {-1.5, 1.5}, {-1.5, 1.5}},

Boxed -> True, Axes -> True, AxesOrigin -> {0, 0, 0},
SphericalRegion -> True,
Method -> {"RotationControl" -> "Globe"},
ImageSize -> 600
], {{t, 1, "t"}, 0, 12, 1}]

Just to emphasize it : Depth sorting is not visible on thin curves and is thus useless. If a curve is very complicated, depth sorting may have a significant impact on some hardware, and it is desirable to turn it off.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

front end - keyboard shortcut to invoke Insert new matrix

I frequently need to type in some matrices, and the menu command Insert > Table/Matrix > New... allows matrices with lines drawn between columns and rows, which is very helpful. I would like to make a keyboard shortcut for it, but cannot find the relevant frontend token command (4209405) for it. Since the FullForm[] and InputForm[] of matrices with lines drawn between rows and columns is the same as those without lines, it's hard to do this via 3rd party system-wide text expanders (e.g. autohotkey or atext on mac). How does one assign a keyboard shortcut for the menu item Insert > Table/Matrix > New... , preferably using only mathematica? Thanks! Answer In the MenuSetup.tr (for linux located in the $InstallationDirectory/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/TextResources/X/ directory), I changed the line MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog"] to read MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog", MenuKey["m", Modifiers-...

How to thread a list

I have data in format data = {{a1, a2}, {b1, b2}, {c1, c2}, {d1, d2}} Tableform: I want to thread it to : tdata = {{{a1, b1}, {a2, b2}}, {{a1, c1}, {a2, c2}}, {{a1, d1}, {a2, d2}}} Tableform: And I would like to do better then pseudofunction[n_] := Transpose[{data2[[1]], data2[[n]]}]; SetAttributes[pseudofunction, Listable]; Range[2, 4] // pseudofunction Here is my benchmark data, where data3 is normal sample of real data. data3 = Drop[ExcelWorkBook[[Column1 ;; Column4]], None, 1]; data2 = {a #, b #, c #, d #} & /@ Range[1, 10^5]; data = RandomReal[{0, 1}, {10^6, 4}]; Here is my benchmark code kptnw[list_] := Transpose[{Table[First@#, {Length@# - 1}], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list kptnw2[list_] := Transpose[{ConstantArray[First@#, Length@# - 1], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list OleksandrR[list_] := Flatten[Outer[List, List@First[list], Rest[list], 1], {{2}, {1, 4}}] paradox2[list_] := Partition[Riffle[list[[1]], #], 2] & /@ Drop[list, 1] RM[list_] := FoldList[Transpose[{First@li...

dynamic - How can I make a clickable ArrayPlot that returns input?

I would like to create a dynamic ArrayPlot so that the rectangles, when clicked, provide the input. Can I use ArrayPlot for this? Or is there something else I should have to use? Answer ArrayPlot is much more than just a simple array like Grid : it represents a ranged 2D dataset, and its visualization can be finetuned by options like DataReversed and DataRange . These features make it quite complicated to reproduce the same layout and order with Grid . Here I offer AnnotatedArrayPlot which comes in handy when your dataset is more than just a flat 2D array. The dynamic interface allows highlighting individual cells and possibly interacting with them. AnnotatedArrayPlot works the same way as ArrayPlot and accepts the same options plus Enabled , HighlightCoordinates , HighlightStyle and HighlightElementFunction . data = {{Missing["HasSomeMoreData"], GrayLevel[ 1], {RGBColor[0, 1, 1], RGBColor[0, 0, 1], GrayLevel[1]}, RGBColor[0, 1, 0]}, {GrayLevel[0], GrayLevel...