Add particles in the link

[SailinZh]

Thank you for the fantastic library.

I'm looking to add moving particle systems within the links like the photon animation in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsEm-CDj4qM. Would it be possible?

[vasturiano]

That looks beautiful @SailinZh, thanks for sharing.

To add the additional elements, I'd recommend you use the lower level three-forcegraph Three component instead. That will allow you to combine the new photon particles with the nodes/links generated by the force-directed engine.

You can access the current coordinates of the nodes as x, y, and z attributes of the objects.

You'd also need to take care of the render/scene/camera scaffolding, but there's an example here to guide you, if you need:
https://github.com/vasturiano/three-forcegraph/blob/master/example/basic/index.html

[vasturiano]

@SailinZh I add a shot at this and added the feature to have moving particles indicate the directionality of links, since it was a needed feature of the library anyway.

Working example here:
https://vasturiano.github.io/3d-force-graph/example/directional-links/

This is achieved via the new component methods: linkDirectionalParticles, linkDirectionalParticleSpeed, linkDirectionalParticleWidth and linkDirectionalParticleResolution.

Let me know if this works for you. And thanks again for suggesting it.