Three-Dimensional Computation Visualization

Abstract

Systems supporting the visualization and animation of algorithms, programs, and computations have focused primarily on two-dimensional graphics to date. In this paper we identify the need for three-dimensional graphics in these types of displays, and we describe how 3D imagery best can be used for visualizing computations. We also introduce an animation toolkit that supports simplified development of 3D computation visualizations. A few examples of computation visualizations created with the toolkit are described and included. Our methodology, although specifically applied to computation visualization, is general-purpose and can be used to build a variety of 3D information visualizations and animations.