Hello!
I am going to develop network graph tool for VR based on UE.
This tool is something like Gephi + Maltego – it should give good visualizations also allowing selecting nodes/edges and performing through context menu some operations on them like collapsing/expanding nodes.
So, the problem is that I don’t know how to implement graphs in UE efficiently. First of all, I suppose Blueprints aren’t enough for this, C++ is needed with some properties and etc for editor.
As far as I know, the best way is to create mesh model: solid lines for edges and spheres or turned to camera sprites for vertices. After operations like collapsing nodes I should “hide” part of graph and remove it physically from the models. Is this performant enough? What are good ways to implement this in UE?
Also, how should I organize UI? Should I place some Unreal UI elements between camera and node? Or can I somehow detect that mouse/VR pointer is pointing to some node? How can it be done in UE?
Example of 3d graph
Screenshot from 2d tool Maltego
Example of context menu
