datashader

datashader(points::AbstractVector{<: Point})

using Makie.StructArrays
points = StructArray{Point2f}((x, y))
datashader(points)

struct MyAgg{T} <: Makie.AggOp end
MyAgg() = MyAgg{Float64}()
Makie.Aggregation.null(::MyAgg{T}) where {T} = zero(T)
Makie.Aggregation.embed(::MyAgg{T}, x) where {T} = convert(T, x)
Makie.Aggregation.merge(::MyAgg{T}, x::T, y::T) where {T} = x + y
Makie.Aggregation.value(::MyAgg{T}, x::T) where {T} = x

Examples

Airports

using DelimitedFiles, GLMakie
# For saving/showing/inlining into documentation we need to disable async calculation.
Makie.set_theme!(DataShader = (; async=false))
airports = Point2f.(eachrow(readdlm(assetpath("airportlocations.csv"))))
fig, ax, ds = datashader(airports,
    colormap=[:white, :black],
    # use type=Axis, so that Makie doesn't need to infer
    # the axis type, which can be expensive for a large amount of points
    axis = (; type=Axis),
    # for documentation output we shouldn't calculate the image async,
    # since it won't wait for the render to finish and inline a blank image
    async = false,
    figure = (; figurepadding=0, size=(360*2, 160*2))
)
Colorbar(fig[1, 2], ds, label="Number of airports")
hidedecorations!(ax); hidespines!(ax)
fig

Strange Attractors

# Taken from Lazaro Alonso in Beautiful Makie:
# https://beautiful.makie.org/dev/examples/generated/2d/datavis/strange_attractors/?h=cliffo#trajectory
Clifford((x, y), a, b, c, d) = Point2f(sin(a * y) + c * cos(a * x), sin(b * x) + d * cos(b * y))

function trajectory(fn, x0, y0, kargs...; n=1000) #  kargs = a, b, c, d
    xy = zeros(Point2f, n + 1)
    xy[1] = Point2f(x0, y0)
    @inbounds for i in 1:n
        xy[i+1] = fn(xy[i], kargs...)
    end
    return xy
end

cargs = [[0, 0, -1.3, -1.3, -1.8, -1.9],
    [0, 0, -1.4, 1.6, 1.0, 0.7],
    [0, 0, 1.7, 1.7, 0.6, 1.2],
    [0, 0, 1.7, 0.7, 1.4, 2.0],
    [0, 0, -1.7, 1.8, -1.9, -0.4],
    [0, 0, 1.1, -1.32, -1.03, 1.54],
    [0, 0, 0.77, 1.99, -1.31, -1.45],
    [0, 0, -1.9, -1.9, -1.9, -1.0],
    [0, 0, 0.75, 1.34, -1.93, 1.0],
    [0, 0, -1.32, -1.65, 0.74, 1.81],
    [0, 0, -1.6, 1.6, 0.7, -1.0],
    [0, 0, -1.7, 1.5, -0.5, 0.7]
]

fig = Figure(size=(1000, 1000))
fig_grid = CartesianIndices((3, 4))
cmap = to_colormap(:BuPu_9)
cmap[1] = RGBAf(1, 1, 1, 1) # make sure background is white

let
    # locally, one can go pretty high with n_points,
    # e.g. 4*(10^7), but we don't want the docbuild to become too slow.
    n_points = 10^6
    for (i, arg) in enumerate(cargs)
        points = trajectory(Clifford, arg...; n=n_points)
        r, c = Tuple(fig_grid[i])
        ax, plot = datashader(fig[r, c], points;
            colormap=cmap,
            async=false,
            axis=(; type=Axis, title=join(string.(arg), ", ")))
        hidedecorations!(ax)
        hidespines!(ax)
    end
end
rowgap!(fig.layout,5)
colgap!(fig.layout,1)
fig

Bigger examples

Timings in the comments are from running this on a 32gb Ryzen 5800H laptop. Both examples aren't fully optimized yet, and just use raw, unsorted, memory mapped Point2f arrays. In the future, we'll want to add acceleration structures to optimize access to sub-regions.

14 million point NYC taxi dataset

using GLMakie, Downloads, Parquet2
bucket = "https://ursa-labs-taxi-data.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com"
year = 2009
month = "01"
filename = join([year, month, "data.parquet"], "/")
out = joinpath("$year-$month-data.parquet")
url = bucket * "/" * filename
Downloads.download(url, out)
# Loading ~1.5s
@time begin
    ds = Parquet2.Dataset(out)
    dlat = Parquet2.load(ds, "dropoff_latitude")
    dlon = Parquet2.load(ds, "dropoff_longitude")
    # One could use struct array here, but dlon/dlat are
    # a custom array type from Parquet2 supporting missing and some other things, which slows the whole thing down.
    # points = StructArray{Point2f}((dlon, dlat))
    points = Point2f.(dlon, dlat)
    groups = Parquet2.load(ds, "vendor_id")
end

# ~0.06s
@time begin
    f, ax, dsplot = datashader(points;
        colormap=:fire,
        axis=(; type=Axis, autolimitaspect = 1),
        figure=(;figure_padding=0, size=(1200, 600))
    )
    # make image fill the whole screen
    hidedecorations!(ax)
    hidespines!(ax)
    display(f)
end

2.7 billion OSM GPS points

Download the data from OSM GPS points and use the updated script from drawing-2-7-billion-points-in-10s to convert the CSV to a binary blob that we can memory map.

using GLMakie, Mmap
path = "gpspoints.bin"

points = Mmap.mmap(open(path, "r"), Vector{Point2f});
# ~ 26s
@time begin
    f, ax, pl = datashader(
        points;
        # For a big dataset its interesting to see how long each aggregation takes
        show_timings = true,
        # Use a local operation which is faster to calculate and looks good!
        local_post=x-> log10(x + 1),
        #=
            in the code we used to save the binary, we had the points in the wrong order.
            A good chance to demonstrate the `point_transform` argument,
            Which gets applied to every point before aggregating it
        =#
        point_transform=reverse,
        axis=(; type=Axis, autolimitaspect = 1),
        figure=(;figure_padding=0, size=(1200, 600))
    )
    hidedecorations!(ax)
    hidespines!(ax)
    display(f)
end

aggregation took 1.395s
aggregation took 1.176s
aggregation took 0.81s
aggregation took 0.791s
aggregation took 0.729s
aggregation took 1.272s
aggregation took 1.117s
aggregation took 0.866s
aggregation took 0.724s

Categorical Data

There are two ways to plot categorical data right now:

datashader(one_category_per_point, points)
datashader(Dict(:category_a => all_points_a, :category_b => all_points_b))

The type of the category doesn't matter, but will get converted to strings internally, to be displayed nicely in the legend. Categories are currently aggregated in one Canvas per category, and then overlayed with alpha blending.

normaldist = randn(Point2f, 1_000_000)
ds1 = normaldist .+ (Point2f(-1, 0),)
ds2 = normaldist .+ (Point2f(1, 0),)
fig, ax, pl = datashader(Dict("a" => ds1, "b" => ds2))
hidedecorations!(ax)
fig

We can also re-use the previous NYC example for a categorical plot:

@time begin
    f = Figure(figure_padding=0, size=(1200, 600))
    ax = Axis(
        f[1, 1],
        autolimitaspect=1,
        limits=(-74.022, -73.827, 40.696, 40.793),
        backgroundcolor=:black
    )
    datashader!(ax, groups, points)
    hidedecorations!(ax)
    hidespines!(ax)
    # Create a styled legend
    axislegend("Vendor ID"; titlecolor=:white, framecolor=:grey, polystrokewidth=2, polystrokecolor=(:white, 0.5), rowgap=10, backgroundcolor=:black, labelcolor=:white)
    display(f)
end

Advanced API

The datashader recipe makes it very simple to get started, and is also efficiently implemented so that most changes like f, ax, pl = datashader(...); pl.colorrange=new_range; pl.operation=log10 won't redo the aggregation. But if you still need more manual control, one can also use the underlying Canvas API directly for more manual control:

Canvas(bounds::Rect2; resolution::Tuple{Int,Int}=(800, 800), op=AggCount())
Canvas(xmin::Number, xmax::Number, ymin::Number, ymax::Number; args...)

using Makie
canvas = Canvas(-1, 1, -1, 1; op=AggCount(), resolution=(800, 800))
aggregate!(canvas, points; point_transform=reverse, method=AggThreads())
aggregated_values = get_aggregation(canvas; operation=equalize_histogram, local_operation=identiy)
# Recipes are defined for canvas as well and incorperate the `get_aggregation`, but `aggregate!` must be called manually.
image!(canvas; operation=equalize_histogram, local_operation=identiy, colormap=:viridis, colorrange=(0, 20))
surface!(canvas; operation=equalize_histogram, local_operation=identiy)

aggregate!(c::Canvas, points; point_transform=identity, method::AggMethod=AggSerial())