Manning - Java 3D Programming

Manning - Java 3D Programming, Manning

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About this book
Java 3D is a client−side Java application programming interface (API) developed at Sun Microsystems for
rendering interactive 3D graphics using Java. Using Java 3D you will be able to develop richly interactive 3D
applications, ranging from immersive games to scientific visualization applications.
Who should read it?
Java 3D Programming
is aimed at intermediate to experienced Java developers. Previous experience in
graphics programming (OpenGL and Swing, for example) will be very useful, but it's not a prerequisite. No
book stands alone and you should make good use of the many online resources and books listed in appendix B
and the bibliography. Readers new to Java 3D should definitely download Sun's excellent (free) Java 3D
tutorial. This book is intended to serve as a companion to the Sun API documentation and the Java 3D
tutorial.
How is it organized?
The book has 18 chapters, plus three appendices and a bibliography. Each chapter is fairly self−contained or
explicitly references related chapters, allowing you to focus quickly on relevant material for your problem at
hand. I have ordered the material so that, if you were starting a project from scratch, progressing in the book
would mirror the design questions you would face as you worked through your design study and development
efforts. More commonly used material is, in general, closer to the beginning of the book.
Chapter 1 focuses on getting started with Java 3D, system requirements, running the examples in the book,
plus a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Java 3D.
Chapter 2 introduces some of the fundamentals of 3D graphics programming, such as projection of points
from 3D to 2D coordinates, lighting, and hidden surface removal.
Chapter 3 gets you started with Java 3D programming, from setting up your development environment and
resources to running your first application.
Chapter 4 explains the fundamental data structure in Java 3D, the scenegraph. Aspects of good scenegraph
design are described using an example application for discussion.
Chapter 5 is a reference to Java 3D's scenegraph nodes, along with usage instructions and examples.
Chapter 6 explains the elements of the Java 3D scenegraph rendering model and guides you in your choice of
VirtualUniverse
configuration.
Chapter 7 takes a step back and examines data models for 3D applications. Choosing a suitable data model
involves understanding your interaction and performance requirements.
Chapter 8 is a reference to creating geometry to be rendered by Java 3D.
Chapter 9 covers the elements of the Java 3D
Appearance
class, used to control the rendered appearance of
the geometric primitives in your scene.
Chapter 10 illuminates the Java 3D lighting model and shows you how to create powerful lighting for your
scene.
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Chapter 11 introduces the Java 3D behavior model, which allows you to attach code to the objects in your
scene. Examples illustrate both keyboard and mouse behaviors for graphical user interfaces.
Chapter 12 expands upon the discussion of behaviors, covering the
Interpolator
behaviors, used to
control geometry attributes using the
Alpha
class.
Chapter 13 describes how to write your own custom behaviors and register them with Java 3D for invocation.
Example behaviors for debugging and complex physical animation as well as others are presented.
Chapter 14 explains how to increase the realism of your scenes by applying bitmaps to your geometry using
the process of texture mapping.
Chapter 15 highlights some of the utility classes provided with Java 3D for operations such as triangulation
and loading of input data.
Chapter 16 delves into more techniques valuable for interacting with 3D scenes, object interaction using the
mouse for selection of 3D objects, and performing collision detection between 3D objects.
Chapter 17 shows, through example, how to build Java 3D applications that use the Swing packages for 2D
user interface elements, and can be distributed as Java applets for use from a web browser.
Chapter 18 goes low−level to explain some of the implementation details of the Java 3D API. The aim is to
give you a greater appreciation for what is going on behind the scenes and help you optimize your
applications.
Appendix A cross−references all the examples by chapter and includes instructions for downloading,
installing, and running the example code from the publisher's web site.
Appendix B includes a comprehensive listing of programming and graphics resources online. Print references
are provided in the bibliography.
Appendix C explains the
Primitive
utility class, its geometry cache, and the
GeomBuffer
class, along
with tips and caveats.
Source code
The book contains over 30,000 lines of example code, including some reusable library code that I hope will
contribute to the collective understanding of the Java 3D community. Code of particular interest is shown in
boldface. Appendix A contains a list of the example Java 3D applications and applets developed for this book,
as well as detailed instructions for running the examples. The code itself is identified in the text by an initial
Typographical conventions
Italic typeface is used to introduce new terms.
Courier
typeface is used to denote code samples as well as elements and attributes, method names, classes,
interfaces, and other identifiers.
Courier bold
typeface is used to denote code of special interest.
Code line continuations are indented.
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How to use the book
I have tried to organize many of the topics in the book in an order appropriate for developers designing and
building a new Java 3D application. I would suggest initially reading or skimming the chapters sequentially to
get an overall feel for the design of your application, and then returning to specific chapters and examples for
reference material as required. Please note that the example source code for the book is provided under the
and distribute the source code in accordance with the spirit of open source and the GPL license.
If you still need help or have questions for the author, please read about the unique Author Online support that
is offered from the publisher's web site.
Author Online
Purchase of
Java 3D Programming
includes free access to a private web forum run by Manning Publications
where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the author and
from other users. To access the forum and subscribe to it, point your web browser to
registered, what kind of help is available, and the rules of conduct on the forum.
Manning's commitment to readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialog between individual readers
and between readers and the author can take place. It is not a commitment to any specific amount of
participation on the part of the author, whose contribution to the AO remains voluntary (and unpaid). We
suggest you try asking the author some challenging questions, lest his interest stray!
The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher's web
site as long as the book is in print.
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CHAPTER 1
What is Java 3D and is it for me?
1.1 Strengths
1.2 Weaknesses
1.3 System requirements (developer and end user)
1.4 Expected performance
1.5 Running the examples
1.6 Summary
Java 3D is an application programming interface (API) developed at Sun Microsystems for rendering
interactive 3D graphics using the Java programming language. Java 3D is a
client−side
Java API. Other
examples of Sun client−side APIs include the Abstract Windows Toolkit (AWT) and Java Foundation Classes
(JFC/Swing), which are both Java class libraries for building applications with a Graphical User Interface
(GUI). The client−side Java APIs are in contrast to Sun’s server−side APIs such as Enterprise Java−Beans
(EJB) and the other components of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
Making 3D graphics interactive is a long−standing problem, as evidenced by its long history of algorithms,
APIs, and vendors. Sun is not a major player in the 3D graphics domain, although its hardware has long
supported interactive 3D rendering. The dominant industry standard for interactive 3D graphics is OpenGL,
created by Silicon Graphics (SGI). OpenGL was designed as a cross−platform rendering architecture and is
supported by a variety of operating systems, graphics card vendors, and applications. The OpenGL API is
written in the C programming language, and hence not directly callable from Java. A number of open source
and independent programming efforts have provided simple Java wrappers over the OpenGL API that allow
Java programmers to call OpenGL functions, which are then executed in native code that interacts with the
rendering hardware. One of the most popular is GL4Java, which you can find at
However, there are few advantages to using a Java wrapper over OpenGL, as opposed to coding in C and
calling OpenGL directly. Although programmers can use the more friendly Java APIs, they must incur the
overhead of repeated calls through the Java Native Interface (JNI) to call the native OpenGL libraries.
Java 3D relies on OpenGL or DirectX to perform native rendering, while the 3D scene description, application
logic, and scene interactions reside in Java code. When Sun set out to design Java 3D, although they did not
have the resources or industry backing to replace OpenGL, they wanted to leverage more of Java’s strengths
as an object−oriented programming (OOP) language instead of merely delegating to a procedural language
such as C. Whereas OpenGL’s level of description for a 3D scene consists of lists of points, lines, and
triangles, Java 3D can describe a scene as collections of objects. By raising the level of description and
abstraction, Sun not only applied OOP principles to the graphics domain, but also introduced scene
optimizations that can compensate for the overhead of calling through JNI.
1.1 Strengths
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