Hello everyone, I've been lurking here for a while as I've been learning the Cocoa ropes, and I'm at the point where I need to put the (excellent) Hillegass theory into practice. My app is an interactive particle swarm optimization ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_swarm_optimization for the curious) that generates N-dimensional coordinates representing individuals in a very compelling, organic way. For visualization, of course, I'm mainly concerned with two- and three-dimensional instances of these swarms.
My trouble is in deciding which graphics framework to pursue for the visualization. Since all I need are representations of points, the path of least resistance for 2-D visualization seems to be using a simple loop with calls to [NSBezierPath fillrect:]. However, I suspect this pattern would not extend well to rendering a scene with 3-D instances of the swarms. Beyond the use of Bezier paths, my knowledge falls short pretty quickly. I often hear people sing the praises of Core Animation, but the emphasis on layering in the documentation makes me doubt its capability to draw such a 3-D scene. I also see Quartz mentioned as a friendlier wrapper for OpenGL, but again I get the impression that it's more geared toward 2-D rendering than anything else. Is a straight dive into full OpenGL the way to go here? I realize that these frameworks have similarities, and that picking the "wrong" one won't at all be a waste of my time, but I'd be thrilled to hear thoughts on their comparative virtues before I take the plunge either way. Cheers, and a Happy New Year to you all, Adam _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
