Date accepted: 2022-05-01
Submitting Author Name: Mike Mahoney
Submitting Author Github Handle: @mikemahoney218
Repository: https://github.com/mikemahoney218/unifir
Version submitted: 0.1.0
Submission type: Standard
Editor: @melvidoni
Reviewers: @vinhtantran, @wjones127
Due date for @vinhtantran: 2022-04-20
Due date for @wjones127: 2022-04-29
Archive: TBD
Version accepted: TBD
Type: Package
Package: unifir
Title: A Unifying API for Calling 'Unity' from R
Version: 0.1.0
Authors@R:
person("Michael", "Mahoney", , "mike.mahoney.218@gmail.com", role = c("aut", "cre"),
comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0003-2402-304X"))
Description: Functions for the creation and manipulation of scenes and objects
within the 'Unity' '3D' video game engine (<https://unity.com/>). Specific
focuses include the creation and import of terrain data and 'GameObjects' as
well as scene management.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Depends:
R (>= 3.5.0)
Imports:
glue,
methods,
proceduralnames,
R6,
utils
Suggests:
terrainr,
covr,
knitr,
lintr,
pkgdown,
rmarkdown,
styler,
testthat (>= 3.0.0),
terra,
sf
Encoding: UTF-8
LazyData: true
RoxygenNote: 7.1.2
Config/testthat/edition: 3
Config/testthat/parallel: true
URL: https://mikemahoney218.github.io/unifir/, https://github.com/mikemahoney218/unifir
BugReports: https://github.com/mikemahoney218/unifir/issues
VignetteBuilder: knitr
Scope
Please indicate which category or categories from our package fit policies this package falls under: (Please check an appropriate box below. If you are unsure, we suggest you make a pre-submission inquiry.):
Explain how and why the package falls under these categories (briefly, 1-2 sentences):
Following discussion in Pre-submission Inquiry: unifir, A Unifying API for Working with Unity in R #508, I believe this package is within scope for the following reason:
This package provides bindings to the Unity video game engine API from R, for the production of 3D/VR "environments" entirely from R code. It enables producing a new type of visualization in an efficient and reproducible manner, and provides specific methods for visualizing spatial data stored in standard spatial formats. However, I could understand if the package itself is too general for rOpenSci in particular; while we are designing it for research applications, Unity is not explicitly scientific software.
The target audience is anyone looking to produce data-driven immersive virtual environments in Unity, with a primary focus on visualizing natural environments. I work directly with ecologists and landscape architects, and so the initial feature set is oriented towards making the package useful for that audience.
Immersive virtual environments are an active area of research (see for instance https://www.mm218.dev/papers/vrs_2021.pdf, https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.04060, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42489-020-00069-6 ). At the moment, the current standard for the field is producing hand-designed "artistic" environments tailored for each purpose, which makes assessing this visualization method difficult. Our aim with this project is to produce a standard set of tooling for creating immersive virtual environments, making it both easier to produce visualization "bases" for applications and giving us a way to produce reproducible visualizations as a baseline for assessing visualization effectiveness directly.
I'm not aware of any. The closest is likely the rayverse (rayshader/rayrender), which makes fantastic 3D visualizations in R directly, without incorporating Unity; the incorporation of Unity makes adding player controllers (for interactive exploration of the environment) much easier.
N/A
pkgcheck
items which your package is unable to pass.x These functions do not have examples: [check_debug, create_if_not].
These functions are not exported, which given my past experiences with CRAN implies that they should not have examples (as apparently examples are run for non-exported functions on test machines).
Technical checksConfirm each of the following by checking the box.
This package:
Do you intend for this package to go on CRAN?
Do you intend for this package to go on Bioconductor?
Do you wish to submit an Applications Article about your package to Methods in Ecology and Evolution? If so:
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