3D Surface Lighting in JavaScript

How to customize lighting for 3D surface charts.


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Plotly is a free and open-source graphing library for JavaScript. We recommend you read our Getting Started guide for the latest installation or upgrade instructions, then move on to our Plotly Fundamentals tutorials or dive straight in to some Basic Charts tutorials.

d3.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/michaelbabyn/plot_data/master/sin_saddle.csv', function(err, rows){
function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row) { return row[key]; });
}

var z_data = [ ];
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
{
  z_data.push(unpack(rows,i));
}

var data = [{
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  colorscale: 'Viridis',
  lighting: {ambient: 0.9}
  },
   {
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  scene: 'scene2',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {ambient: 0.2}
  }
];

var layout = {
  title: {
    text: 'Ambient Lighting'
  },
  grid: {
    rows: 1,
    columns: 2,
    pattern: 'independent',
  },
  	scene:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:0}
	},
	scene2:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:1}
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
});
Click to copy
−1−0.500.51−1−0.500.51Ambient Lighting
d3.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/michaelbabyn/plot_data/master/sin_saddle.csv', function(err, rows){
function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row) { return row[key]; });
}

var z_data = [];
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
{
  z_data.push(unpack(rows,i));
}

var data = [{
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {roughness: 0.9}
        },
   {
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  scene: 'scene2',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {roughness: 0.2}
  }
];

var layout = {
  title: {
    text: 'Roughness'
  },
  grid: {
    rows: 1,
    columns: 2,
    pattern: 'independent',
  },
  	scene:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:0}
	},
	scene2:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:1}
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
});
Click to copy
−1−0.500.51−1−0.500.51Roughness
d3.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/michaelbabyn/plot_data/master/sin_saddle.csv', function(err, rows){
function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row) { return row[key]; });
}

var z_data = []
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
{
  z_data.push(unpack(rows,i));
}

var data = [{
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {diffuse: 0.9}
        },
   {
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  scene: 'scene2',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {diffuse: 0.1}
  }
];

var layout = {
  title: {
    text: 'Diffuse Reflection'
  },
  grid: {
    rows: 1,
    columns: 2,
    pattern: 'independent',
  },
  	scene:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:0}
	},
	scene2:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:1}
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
});
Click to copy
−1−0.500.51−1−0.500.51Diffuse Reflection
d3.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/michaelbabyn/plot_data/master/sin_saddle.csv', function(err, rows){
function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row) { return row[key]; });
}

var z_data = [];
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
{
  z_data.push(unpack(rows,i));
}

var data = [{
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {specular: 0.1}
        },
   {
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  scene: 'scene2',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {specular: 2}
  }
];

var layout = {
  title: {
    text: 'Specular Reflection'
  },
  grid: {
    rows: 1,
    columns: 2,
    pattern: 'independent',
  },
  	scene:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:0}
	},
	scene2:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:1}
  },
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
});
Click to copy
−1−0.500.51−1−0.500.51Specular Reflection
d3.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/michaelbabyn/plot_data/master/sin_saddle.csv', function(err, rows){
function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row) { return row[key]; });
}

var z_data = [];
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
{
  z_data.push(unpack(rows,i));
}

var data = [{
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {fresnel: 0.1}
        },
   {
  z: z_data,
  type: 'surface',
  scene: 'scene2',
  colorscale:'Viridis',
  lighting: {fresnel: 5}
  }
];

var layout = {
  title: {
    text: 'Fresnel'
  },
  grid: {
    rows: 1,
    columns: 2,
    pattern: 'independent',
  },
  	scene:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:0}
	},
	scene2:{
		aspectmode:'cube',
		domain:{row:0, column:1}
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
});
Click to copy
−1−0.500.51−1−0.500.51Fresnel