Hi Hans,
I installed the new ConTeXt LMTX version in a separate Windows
directory, so as not to interfere with my existing installation:
|C:\Users\adeim\context2026-29-07|
The version used for the test was:
*
ConTeXt LMTX: |2026.07.29 11:46|
*
LuaMetaTeX: |2.11.09|
*
platform: Windows 11, win64
*
processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
*
memory: 32 GB
I then copied |luametafun-threed.tex| to a separate test directory and
compiled it with:
|context luametafun-threed.tex |
The compilation completed successfully and produced a 15-page PDF. The
3D examples that were rendered — including the Menger sponge and the
parametric and postprocessed spheres — look very good.
The final statistics were:
|MetaPost: 3.051 seconds Total ConTeXt runtime: 3.760 seconds 15
processed and shipped pages Lua memory: 169 MB used, 173 MB maximum |
Some individual figures were also quite fast:
|Menger sponge: 2,400 triangles rendering time: 0.612 seconds Parametric
sphere: 20,000 triangles rendering time: about 0.145–0.149 seconds |
The log also reports substantial temporary memory clean-ups, for example
about 160 MB for the Menger sponge and about 412 MB for the parametric
spheres. The more complex implicit/intersection example reaches roughly
1 GB of temporary data, as described in the manual. Nevertheless, the
complete document compiled quickly on this machine.
I noticed three minor issues:
1.
At the beginning of the run, ConTeXt reports:
|modules > '3d' is not found |
and the final statistics mention one missing module, |*-3d|. However,
the internal 3D LuaMetaFun support is loaded correctly through
|mlib-thr.lmt|, and this does not prevent the document from compiling.
2. One internal reference remains unresolved:
|fig:threed:process:3 |
which appears as “Figure ??” in the PDF.
3.
Near the end of the compilation, the log reports:
|luatex warning > mplib: run script: cannot open : Invalid argument |
I had copied only |luametafun-threed.tex| to the test directory, so I
suspect that the final STL example could not find
|luametafun-threed-sphere.stl|. The PDF was still produced, but the last
STL figure was not rendered correctly. I will repeat the test after
copying the accompanying STL file as well.
As a first impression, the rendering performance on this Windows machine
is very good, and the visual quality of the generated bytemaps is excellent.
I am now preparing the same separate installation and test under WSL and
native Ubuntu, so that I can compare the three environments on the same
hardware.
Best wishes,
Jean-Pierre
Le 29/07/2026 à 11:57, Hans Hagen via ntg-context a écrit :
Hi,
I uploaded a new context version. Already for a while we have some
ways to render #D graphics but the manual is pending so we keep a low
profile. However, you can play with it and can find some information
in luametafun-threed.tex (which you can compile).
As usual with graphics, we hook this into MetaPost so that we can mix
with other graphics, although for MetaPost of course it's just some
abstraction.
We focus on parametric, implicit, plane and intersections. The results
are rather high quality bytemaps so they are quite efficient. Of
course there is some runtime involved but one can cache. We are
curious to know how performance is perceived because my 2018 laptop is
not the best one to measure. Stippling is also possible. There are no
dependencies on additional tools.
One of the features is that we can import so called stl files (e.g.
from mapple or mathematica) but we only did limited tests. Again, more
info in the luametafun part of the manual; the more extensive manual
will become available around the meeting, given that we have time.
We're curious if users (if there are any) can test this.
There are some postprocessing capabilities and Keith is exploring
textures and animations, again something for a dedicated manual and
later (but tests look stunning).
A second new feature, a 2D side effect of 3D, is that we support
voronoi rendering as described in luametafun-voronoi.tex and if there
is enough interest we can look into 3D. First we need to know about
applications in documents (there are plenty of examples in nature once
you know about it).
All is of course still somewhat experimental but the interfaces are
okay. To what extend we will speed up matters (for voronoy) depends on
usage. On a modern macine (we suppose) all is fine anyway btu we
simply have no clue about possible user applications.
Hans (with Mikael and Keith)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
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If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the
Wiki!
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