VRML Generator

VRMLGen is a free software package for 3D data visualisation on the web. It supports VRML and LiveGraphics3D formats. The package runs within the R environment for statistical computing and is available for download from CRAN. It is licensed under the terms of GNU GPL version 2 (or later).

VRMLGen can be used to generate 3D line and bar charts, scatter plots with density estimation contour surfaces, visualizations of height maps, parametric functions and 3D object models. See the gallery of examples below.

The 3D visualisation can be viewed directly in a web browser or a standalone viewer (see e.g. Xj3D, Cortona3D or BS Contact) and studied in detail using zoom, pan and rotate controls. In addition VRMLGen can be combined with POV-Ray using vrml2pov to render high-quality images.

Example code

# Visualization of random 3D data points
mat <- matrix(runif(99, 0, 3), ncol=3)

# create random class assignment vector with three classes
y <- round(runif(33, 0, 2))
y <- ifelse(y == 0, "class 1", ifelse(y == 1, "class 2", "class 3"))

# create VRML ouput file
cloud3d(mat, labels = y, col.axis="black", col.lab="blue", col.bg="white")

More examples and a detailed description of all functions can be found in the reference manual.

Installation

  1. Download the package source for your OS:
  2. Install the package in your R environment:
    • in GNU/Linux, type: 
      R CMD INSTALL vrmlgen_1.4.8.tar.gz
    • in Windows, select "Packages -> Install Packages from the local zip file"
  3. Loading the package within R: 
    require('vrmlgen')
  4. Display detail help information: 
    ?vrmlgen

Contact

If you have questions or comments, please don't hesitate to send your feedback by e-mail at . We would also be pleased to hear from you, if you use the software for publications of any kind. If you do, please cite the article below.

Publications