FATuM - Fast Animated Transitions Using Multi-buffers

The rise of Big Data and powerful mobile devices calls for libraries able to render a large number of visual elements and make fast animations without loss of frame rate. We introduce the FATuM library as a middleware for visualization. With a single abstraction for visual elements based on the work of Bertin and adaptation of the double buffering technique, we enable animated visualization of large datasets in native applications and in the browser using the same codebase. Our system does not differentiate animated from static rendering, thus reducing code complexity and guaranteeing smooth animation. We show that our system maintains 60fps for up to 200.000 visual elements in a native application and 30fps for 100.000 visual elements in a web browser.