SharpPlot sample ResponsePlot4

Altitude Shading

This chart is almost always used to illustrate a computed mathematical surface, and could often be combined with a Cloudchart to show a theoretical model overlayed with raw data values.

In the simplest case it takes a rectangular array of arrays of Z-values (effectively a matrix) and treats these as a uniform mesh to be plotted vertically with equally spaced x and y values. An option is to provide either or both of the x and x values as arrays of the correct length, to draw the mesh on a non-uniform scale.

If the mesh genuinely represents ‘altitude’ it can be shaded to represent the range of the Z-axis. This works very well with this style of generated fractal landscape.

SharpPlot sp = new SharpPlot();
sp.SetMargins(48,12,24,0);
sp.Heading = "Altitude-shaded Terrain";

sp.ResponsePlotStyle = ResponsePlotStyles.WallShading|ResponsePlotStyles.TiledSurface|
  ResponsePlotStyles.AltitudeShading;

sp.XAxisStyle = XAxisStyles.PlainAxis;
sp.YAxisStyle = YAxisStyles.PlainAxis;

sp.SetFillStyles(FillStyle.Opacity66);
sp.SetColors(Color.ForestGreen);

sp.DrawResponsePlot(terrainData);

Altitude Shading

See also