zhangxuelei86 / VisAssets-Grads-visualization

Visualization Assets for Unity

VisAssets

VisAssets is a visualization framework for Unity.
It enable us to construct visualization application by connecting visualization modules on the hierarchy window of Unity.

How to use?

The First step is to import VisAssets and RuntimeFileBrowser into your Unity project.
Then, you can find the sample modules in Assets/VisAssets/Prefabs.
From there, drag and drop the modules you need into the hierarchy window.

Connection rules of each modules

• Reading modules can be the parent of filtering modules or mapping modules.
• Filtering modules can be the parent of filtering modules or mapping modules.
• Mapping modules cannot be the parent of either module.

Module will be deactivated at runtime, if it is not properly connected.

How to develop new modules?

You can develop new modules by implementing visualization routines to overriding functions in C# script that inherits from the template class. Currently, VisAssets has three types of template classes which are ReadModuleTemplate, FilterModuleTemplate and MapperModuleTemplate. These are placed in Assets/VisAssets/Scripts/ModuleTemplates.

1. Create your own C# script that inherits from the template class.

2. Create an Empty GameObject.

3. Attach following scripts and components to the GameObject.

   	Activation.cs	DataField.cs	{YourOwnScript}.cs	MeshFilter	MeshRenderer	Material
   ReadModule	o	o	o
   FilterModule	o	o	o
   MapperModule	o		o	o	o	o

   Activation.cs and DataField.cs will be automatically attached to the GameObject by the template class, if they are not attach.
   MeshFilter and MeshRenderer must attach to the MapperModule for rendering visualization results on the scene. Material and shader also must set appropriately.

4. Set Tag of GameObject to "VisModule".

5. Prefabricate the GameObject.

Sample modules

Module name	Function	Base Class
ReadField	Read ASCII file	ReadModuleTemplate
ReadV5	Read VFIVE data	ReadModuleTemplate
ReadGrADS	Read GrADS data	ReadModuleTemplate
ExtractScalar	Extract an element from the input data	FilterModuleTemplate
ExtractVector	Extract 1-3 elements from the input data	FilterModuleTemplate
Interpolator	Downsize the input data	FilterModuleTemplate
Bounds	Draw a boundingbox of target data	MapperModuleTemplate
Slicer	Draw a colorslice	MapperModuleTemplate
Isosurface	Draw an isosurface	MapperModuleTemplate
Arrows	Draw vector arrows	MapperModuleTemplate
UIManager	User Interface
Animator	Control of time evolution data

Sample dataset for the sample modules

• for ReadField: include in unitypackage (Assets/StreamingAssets/Sample3D3.txt)

• for ReadVFIVE: from here (sample_little.tar.gz, sample_big2.tar.gz)
  module settings for sample_little.tar.gz (dynamo): Precesion: DOUBLE, Byteswap: off, Header: on
  module settings for sample_big2.tar.gz (ABC flow): Precesion: DOUBLE, Byteswap: on, Header: on

• for ReadGrADS: from here (example.tar.gz)

Sample Scenes

There are three sample scenes in Assets/VisAssets/Scenes.
Open them and play on Unity Editor.

• ReadFieldSample.scene
• ReadV5Sample.scene
• ReadGrADSSample.scene

Citation

Hideo Miyachi and Shintaro Kawahara, "Development of VR Visualization Framework with Game Engine", Transaction of the Japan Society for Simulation Technology, Vol.12, No.2, pp59-67 (2020), doi:10.11308/tjsst.12.59 (written in Japanese)