Visualizations allow the naked eye to detect patterns and get insights about a network which could be missed by a purely statistical or numerical approach.
The most popular software package use 2-D layouts to map the networks. In the following short video (3 minutes), I show how the extra degree of freedom offered by 3D layouts can make a true difference (turn up the volume for audio commentary).
Nice video Clement! What kind of algorithm does it use to place the nodes in 3D space? Does it use the same principle or metrics as common layout algorithms in 2D?
[...] Clement Levallois from Erasmus University Rotterdam published a very interesting video on the Importance of 3D layouts for network visualizations. In his study, he compared the 2D and 3D visualizations of the global science map network based on [...]
Hi!
Thank you for some inspiration! I guess Gephi was used for the visualization. What plugin was used and where can it be downloaded?
Best Regards!
Hi Peter,
Actually the viz was made with a software called graphinsight, that you can find on http://www.graphinsight.com
Best,
Clement
Good question!
I don’t know exactly, since there is no documentation on the algo available. From what I can see, yes indeed these are the same algos as in 2D (Force-based), but I’d be curious to know how they integrate the 3rd dimension.