Kamaelia: 3DTopologyVisualiser

What is it?

This is a Google Summer of Code project. The project is to parse relationships defined in database, a file or console inputs and then show them in 3D graph. Current Kamaelia topology visualiser is implemented by PyGame which is limited to 2D graph. This project is to extend topology visualiser by OpenGL to be able to show relationships in 3D domain which is potentially clearer and can carry more information.

First, an OpenGL version of topology visualiser, having the same functions with 2D topology visualiser, is developed. Then it is extended to make particles customizable, to make topology visualiser able to show hierarchical structures and able to show 3D special behaviours (e.g. rotate and move nearer or farther from the viewer). Finally, the visualiser is used to implement two applications, i.e. FOAFViewer to draw the relations of friends and CollabViewer to draw the collaboration relations of organizations.

Where do I get it & install it?

• svn checkout https://kamaelia.googlecode.com/svn/branches/private_CL_Topology3D
  
• cd private_CL_Topology3D/Axon
• sudo python setup.py install
• cd private_CL_Topology3D/Kamaelia
• sudo python setup.py install

Planned Schedule:

• Complete TODO list and optimise code in terms of design and running speed
  

Progress (dates related to the weekly meeting - these are the "DONE" lines)

• 12/5 - Parsed simple relations and shew them in TopologyView
• 20/5 - Made particle's colour customizable
  
• 1/6 - Added picture support for particles, (reviewed private_MPS_JL_IRCSupport/)
• 9/6 - Solved some problems with the picture support, and extended particles to make more properties customizable
• 16/6 - Extended the viewer to be able to update the figure dynamically; added link arrow and text; cleaned up cod and finished up the PyGame version extention; prepared for OpenGL version coding
• 23/6 - Started OpenGL extention of TopologyView and base coding, experimented on different particles (sphere and cube) and TopologyViewer3D. First, let SimpleTopologyViewer3D subclass OpenGLComponent, draw particles from OpenGL display list. It works, but it's not ideal because TopologyViewer3D is not a typical OpenGLComponent (it only create an PyGame OpenGL display, has no position, rotation and other attributes) and OpenGLComponent cannot provide a loop for receiving instructions from inbox. Then, change SimpleTopologyViewer3D's parent from OpenGLComponent to component, and use OpenGLComponent Button as particle, MatchedTranslationInteractor as dragHandler just for demonstration because they have all attributes particle needs (OpenGL project and event handling), though their component properties are reductant and are not easy to update. It also works.
• 30/6 - Started TopologyViewer3D and Particles3D coding from stratch (inherit component rather than OpenGLComponent). Particles3D: OpenGL cuboid with label, position, size, rotation customizable and updatable; TopologyViewer3D: add particles, random position generation and event handling (click and drag).
  
• 7/7 - Added vewer position change, rotation and  selection functions to TopologyViewer3D; extended ParticleSystem to be able to make selected particles not subject to physics laws, otherwise selected particles are hard to be rotated
  
• 14/7 -  Added multiple nodes selection, selected nodes rotation, mouse motion rotation, key holding handling functions; changed rotation behaviour to rotate around common centre from rotate around local axises; fixed several rotation bugs; filled out the mid-term survey
  
• 21/7 - Cleaned code and improved design (e.g. abstract Particles3D and concrete rendering classes subclass it, such as CuboidParticle3D, SphereParticle3D and TeapotParticle3D), wrote simple documentations, posted the work of TopologyViewer3D and Particles3D to the list and asked for feedbacks; coded simple hierarchy structure
  
• 28/7 - Improved, extended and finished up hierarchy structure; started FOAF app coding which shows the connections between friends and experimented on SPARQL, rdflib and librdf to find foaf data from an uri and fetch N layers' FOAF data from a uri as a preparation
  
• 4/8 - Finished RDFParser to parse FOAF data  and linked it to TopologyViewer3D to draw FOAF data; extended TopologyViewer3D and Particles3D to accept more parameters; fixed several bugs of TopologyViewer3D; created my branch private_CL_Topology3D for this project; posted the work of FOAF viewer to the list and asked for feedbacks
• 11/8 - Coded a new app of TopologyViewer3D (collaboration viewer) which shows the collaboration relations of organizations; created Kamaelia.Codec.JSON JSONEncoder and JSONDecoder to serialise data; extended SimpleFileWriter in Writing.py to output the file name written; created Kamaelia.Util.DictChooser DictChooser to choose different view of CollabViewer (e.g. orgView, staffView); cleaned code and added documentation.
• 18/8 - Added more documentation and comments; further cleaned up code; improved code with respect to Joe's suggestion; reviewed Dave's code
  

Log/Discussion

I've removed the installation section above since it bore no resemblance to reality
-- Michael, June 2008