Day 4: 30-days to learn rgl, plotly, and gganimate - Installing rgl and Creating Basic 3D Plots

Step 1: Install and Load rgl

1.     Install the rgl package (if you haven’t already):

install.packages("rgl")

2.     Load the rgl library:

library(rgl)

Step 2: Create a Basic 3D Scatter Plot using plot3d

1.     Generate sample data for plotting:

set.seed(123)

x <- rnorm(100)

y <- rnorm(100)

z <- rnorm(100)

2.     Create a 3D scatter plot using plot3d:

plot3d(x, y, z, col = "blue", size = 5, type = "s")

• col: Set the color of the points.
• size: Control the point size.
• type: "s" represents spheres. You can also try other types, like "p" for points.

The plot should now open in an interactive window, allowing you to view your data in 3D.

Step 3: Create a 3D Scatter Plot using scatter3d

1.     Install and load the car package to access the scatter3d function:

install.packages("car")

library(car)

2.     Use scatter3d for a quick 3D scatter plot:

scatter3d(x, y, z, surface = FALSE, fit = "linear")

• surface: Set to FALSE if you don't want a regression surface (3D plane).
• fit: Set to "linear" for a linear fit (you can also use other fits if you like).

Step 4: Exploring Basic Camera Rotations and Zoom Functions

rgl provides several functions to interactively control the camera's view, allowing you to rotate, zoom, and pan.

1.     Rotate the Camera:

• The rgl.viewpoint() function allows you to set the camera angle. Try the following command:

rgl.viewpoint(theta = 45, phi = 30)

• theta: Controls rotation around the z-axis.
• phi: Controls the vertical rotation.

2.     Zoom In and Out:

• Adjust the zoom level using the zoom parameter in rgl.viewpoint:

rgl.viewpoint(theta = 45, phi = 30, zoom = 0.7)

• A zoom value less than 1 will zoom out, while a value greater than 1 will zoom in.

3.     Play Around with Different Viewpoints:

• Experiment with theta, phi, and zoom to see how they change your perspective. Here are a few examples:

# Top-down view

rgl.viewpoint(theta = 90, phi = 90, zoom = 0.5)

# Side view

rgl.viewpoint(theta = 0, phi = 0, zoom = 0.8)

# Rotate incrementally

for (angle in seq(0, 360, by = 10)) {

  rgl.viewpoint(theta = angle, phi = 30)

  Sys.sleep(0.1)

}

Step 5: Practice and Experiment

Explore rgl further by experimenting with different colors, sizes, and types of points in plot3d, or by adjusting the viewpoint using theta and phi in rgl.viewpoint.