What is P3D? P3D is a collection of simple but efficient fortran 77 routines, which can be used with the PGPLOT graphics library to plot three-dimensional particle distributions. The plots can be easily made interactive and allow for manipulation, which could be an efficient tool for examining a distribution and finding the optimal rendering technique. Demo programs, available in the distribution, show how the routines can be used to create 3D plots, manipulate them via keys or with a mouse, and create sequences of frames that can be used to create a movie showing the 3D distribution in motion.

The programs are available for download as gzipped-tarred archive p3d.tar.gz.

An example of output generated using the P3D routines: 3D view of the formation of structures in a simulation of CDM model with cosmological constant. The size of shown box is 30/h Mpc. 10% of the total number of particles (2,097,152) is shown. Particles are color-coded with local density at the position of the particle. Click in the image to get a still view of the final state (z=0.0). An example of a short fly-by movie made using P3D routines is available here (MPEG, 1.7Mb).

If you have access to the OpenGL library, you may be interested in checking out fast interactive program called written by Michael Blanton.