Gource-like visualisation in babylon

[Nikos123]

If any of you have use http://gource.io/ you will know of the pretty graphs you can draw. How can I do the same in babylon? I would like to have real time interaction as much as is possible. Ie if I move a node then the rest of the graph will move too.

The data is non github stuff.

The reason I want it in 3d is that I will have a z axis props on the nodes

 

[Wingnut]

Hiya Nikos123!  I see admin pulled your post into one of the 4 sub-forums (Q&A).  Welcome!  heh.  Was it cold out there in top-level land?  (Wingnut - trying to be funny)

Umm... let's start simple.  @jerome has a "thing"... here.  Some kind of network map thing... and it is "tree-like".

Regarding the gource picture...  when you drag a node to another location, and re-connect... does the whole "tree" sort-of wobble and re-shape itself... based upon some kind of physics-like branch-forces?  (cool)

And there's buds, and "clusters" (flowers).  It sure is pretty.  BJS can do those post-processing-effect glows, too.

But ohhhhh... those darned branch-forking force-separated fuzzy-logic "growTree/updateTree" algorithms... ERF!   (My dog ran under the fridge when I said that.) 

What a cool project.  It's surely a 5-brain-tumor rating... on this one. 

[Nikos123]

Thanks mate, I will check it out! Sorry this site doesn't send me email notificationa

[Nikos123]

@jerome any ideas how many nodes you could draw before things start to die? Usage on a mabbook 2017 with a GPU.

[jerome]

I don't know gource.io

About the number of nodes, depending on what you use (LineSystem, SPS, instances or any techniques reducing the number of draw calls at its lowest), and how you depict them you could probably manage several thousands, maybe dozen of thousands

[Wingnut]

Nikos, ya never answered my "Does it wiggle when nodes are added/changed?" -question.  (it's okay, of course)

So, today, I went lookin' for videos.

Yeah boy, it definitely wiggles and jiggles.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPk1BqK8zzI

Physics engine "springs" are both extension and compression.  They can keep things separated just as easily as they can pull things together.

When I played-with a landing gear demo,  I tested a physics "lockJoint" in line 204.  It is the pink cylinder protruding diagonally.  It has no spring added by me, but it has some springy-ness built-into it.  Use x, y, z, and shifted x, y, z... to apply some impulsing against it.  It has adjustable flexibility to a degree... but it doesn't like to stay locked-into that certain diagonal orientation.  I had to fight pretty hard... to get it to BE at that angle, and repeated Y keypresses will kill its diagonal orientation... and make it protrude from the mesh... at unwanted angles.

These lockJoints COULD be used to make a symmetrical tree... with proper spacing between the root nodes.  But again, funcs like redraw and liveUpdate... could turn complex trees into an entangled mess.  It would be because... we still have no springs that keep nodes/branches... away from each other (intelligent spatial-distribution stuff).

I would think... somebody is already working-on gource 3D.  It might be wise to contact the people who maintain gource, visit their forum, and do some asking about gource 3D.  At least that way, we don't repeat any work that has already been done.  Also, if you are hoping to produce a commercial product, then this might not be so wise.    (beating others to 'the punch', et al.)

I think it is a pretty cool viz-system.  AND, I think it has a big future.  I foresee a time when a real-looking "tree" (and other plants) in a virtual world... is ACTUALLY a database.  Drill-click limbs, branches, twigs, leafs, buds, flowers, etc... and you are touring the DB (probably via pop-open 2D textBlocks, for easy reading).  But the tree branches could fold-open and fold-closed... sprouting and wilting... as the click-drilling continues. 

I think that system has an excellent 3D future.  It's hot hot hot.  (imho)    Databases As Vegetation - 101

Wingnut just rattling-on, as usual.  But this gource thing... is pretty cool, and it makes me do demented thinking.