Oh hackernews, i knew if i came here I'd find people bitching about some inconsequential detail.
Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
11–20 of 23 posts
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#12Regarding the use of three dimensions for visualization, see Tamara Munzner's forthcoming book, "Visualization Design and Analysis: Abstractions, Principles, and Methods." [1] Although still in draft form, the section "No Unjustified 3D" is relevant: > Many people have the intuition that if two dimensions are good, three dimensions must be better – after all, we live in a three-dimensional world. However, there are m…
I'm well aware of the complications, however, I've found a lot of it comes down to priming your audience. I used subtle orbiting motions, slow transitions and reference grids to let the audience see where the depth was at all times. I haven't tried adding real shadows or SSAO, but it would only enhance this. There's also 3d displays to consider.
I think part of the problem is that we haven't had good tools to do this with. My mental sketchpad is in 3d, mathbox is what it looks like.
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#13Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#14Oh hackernews, i knew if i came here I'd find people bitching about some inconsequential detail.
It looks absolutely amazing, and I loved the visualizations. If I had this in early calculus, or even before that, in middle school when I was first learning to program but hated maths, it would have been amazing.
I see a ton of potential down this route, thank you for sharing.
I do worry that it requires a sharp mind to be able to design visualizations clearly, but that's likely a problem all education faces - and fails at - regularly, but it goes unmentioned because of the nature of textbooks and isolated schools.
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#15I'm sure this is a nice library, but it really needs a fallback better than "please get WebGL" for the many users who currently see only that error message.
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#16Regarding the use of three dimensions for visualization, see Tamara Munzner's forthcoming book, "Visualization Design and Analysis: Abstractions, Principles, and Methods." [1] Although still in draft form, the section "No Unjustified 3D" is relevant: > Many people have the intuition that if two dimensions are good, three dimensions must be better – after all, we live in a three-dimensional world. However, there are m…
I'm well aware of the complications, however, I've found a lot of it comes down to priming your audience. I used subtle orbiting motions, slow transitions and reference grids to let the audience see where the depth was at all times. I haven't tried adding real shadows or SSAO, but it would only enhance this. There's also 3d displays to consider. I think part of the problem is that we haven't had good tools to do this…
If you are trying to understand three-dimensional functions, it makes sense to view them in 3D. I was just pointing out that in the domain of information visualization (separate from math and scientific visualization), 2D is generally preferred for perceptual reasons.
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm well aware of the complications, however, I've found a lot of it comes down to priming your audience. I used subtle orbiting motions, slow transitions and reference grids to let the audience see where the depth was at all times. I haven't tried adding real shadows or SSAO, but it would only enhance this. There's also 3d displays to consider. I think part of the problem is that we haven't had good tools to do this…
If you are trying to understand three-dimensional functions, it makes sense to view them in 3D. I was just pointing out that in the domain of information visualization (separate from math and scientific visualization), 2D is generally preferred for perceptual reasons.
... that's kind of why I made it a point to mention d3.js and heap lavish amounts of praise on it in the article. Which you read, right?
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#18While I enjoyed the article, I found its presentation to be very distracting. The rotational-scroll effect, font choice and the breaking of the back button hurts the page's usability.
I agree.
The library and visualizations were great, but the demo page can take some polishing still.
I really didn't understand that anything I did on the page (scrolled down to read more text, clicked the left/right arrows under one of the illustrations) was going to affect my browser history, and was puzzled when I failed to get back here with a single click on Back. Very surprising, and actually quite annoying.
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#19Hey unconed, is it possible to drop mathematical functions into this? Or do you have to code them in?
What I mean is can this partially replace Mathematica? Can we type a mathematical formula and have the software build the animations?
Re: Making MathBox: Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
#20Hey unconed, is it possible to drop mathematical functions into this? Or do you have to code them in? What I mean is can this partially replace Mathematica? Can we type a mathematical formula and have the software build the animations?
You have write a JavaScript function to calculate the data points. There is no editor or UI for it, but the API is pretty simple. There are examples on GitHub, view source on this for example:
http://acko.net/files/mathbox/MathBox.js/examples/ComplexExp...