Native Cross-Platform Visualization: A Proof of Concept Based on the Unity3D Game Engine

Today many different devices and operating systems can be used for InfoVis systems. On the one hand, web-based visualizations can be used to be compatible with several systems, but the performance depends on optimized browser engines. On the other hand, it is possible to build a native system which supports all the benefits for just one device. However, transferring the code to another system means parts of the code or the programming language have to be adapted. To close this gap, we present a proof of concept based on the Unity3D game engine. We implemented a prototype following the InfoVis reference model and basic interactions for interactive data exploration. A major advantage is that we have now the ability to deploy native code to over 20 different devices. Additionally, this proof of concept opens new possibilities for a future InfoVis framework which benefits from Unity3D.