3D OpenGL Charting

Since the release of DXperience v2006 vol 2, the XtraCharts Suite includes a 3D chart rendering engine. Based on this engine, we have built the following 3D view types:

	Area Chart		Line Chart		Spline Area Chart
	Doughnut Chart		Manhattan Bar Chart		Spline Chart
	Full-Stacked Area Chart		Pie Chart		Stacked Area Chart
	Full-Stacked Bar Chart		Side-by-Side Bar Chart		Stacked Bar Chart
	Full-Stacked Spline Area Chart		Side-by-Side Full-Stacked Bar Chart		Stacked Spline Area Chart
	Funnel Chart		Side-by-Side Stacked Bar Chart		Step Line Chart

Our charting engine offers you the following benefits:

• True OpenGL rendering. Since OpenGL has proven its stability and power over time, you can be certain to deliver more stable solutions and generate applications with life-like pictures with real light sources, real shadows and flares.
• End-user chart rotation. With a simple property setting, you can allow end-users to rotate a chart in any direction via straightforward click and drag operations. In so doing, you don't have to guess which rotation angle to specify in order to make the chart's entire content visible. You simply generate the chart and end-users will be able to view it from any perspective.
• End-user scrolling and zooming operations.
• Full anti-aliasing support. We have implemented an advanced multi-stage smoothing algorithm so that lines are always clean and sharp without rough edges.
• Perspective projection support. You can change the viewing angle to control how big front objects appear relatively to background objects. This can enhance your chart's readability in certain cases.
• Transparency support. With the introduction of 3D Area View, we have also implemented the ability to create transparent 3D series. This not only provides a cool visual effect, but also delivers important usability features for your end-users.
• Gradient fill and texture support.

Existing XtraCharts users will be glad to know that they don't have to redo a thing to replace existing 2D charts with their 3D equivalents. There is no difference in chart customization interface and data management when you do 2D or 3D charting using the XtraCharts Suite. All you need to do is to change the chart view type which is a matter of a single property.

There is one more thing to say about new 3D charts. Like with 2D charting we have made every effort to ensure that charts look outstanding without out-of-the-box. You don't need to tune colors or lights or anything else. Simply supply data and get a stunning visualization.