Why not use a PointArray for the stars AND use an LOD for each one? Have
the "far" part of the LOD node be nothing, so then the point from the
PointArray appears if the view platform is far away. Then have the close
part of the LOD be a sphere, or whatever.
By the way, will you make this available to educational insitutions when
you're done? I'm working on an astronomy oriented project myself, and it'd
be nice to start a repository of Java3D for Astronomy & Astrophysics.
---
John Brecht
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Michigan State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Decker, Scott D <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: 'Java3D' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 1999 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: [java3d] re:star maps
> Another word of advice on this, don't use the default values for the
spheres
> because they use a lot of polygons. Either create the spheres with less
> resolution, or use the LOD node to use a simpler shape when you're far
away and
> switch to a sphere as you move closer to it. That should help speed
things up.
>
> srp
>
>
> "Decker, Scott D" wrote:
>
> > If I am understanding your message correctly
> > you have a star map, which each star is a sphere with it's own
transform?
> >
> > and you want to be able to zoom in on a particular star when you click
on it?
> >
> > one note
> > are you moving the view platform? or are you moving the camera via
moving all
> > other stars?
> > if you have a really big scene and you want to move around in it, move
the view
> > platform instead
> > the following examples will only work if you are moving the view
platform
> >
> > one way to do this is to add user data to each star
> > inside this user data you could have a hashmap id value that you then
look up
> > and get a reference to it's transform group
> > then, you can move your camera to a small distance away from that star
> > like this
> >
> > TransformGroup starTG
> > TransformGroup cameraTG
> >
> > get Transform3D from starTG
> > set cameraTG with this transform
> > create new transform3D with translation along Z set back a little
> > multiply cameraTG with this new stepped back transform
> > and whamo you are now sitting back a little from the star
> >
> > so, what if you want to transform along with the star?
> >
> > you could extend the RotationInterpolator class that does the rotation
of the
> > star, but it can also have a method like
> > addTransformExtension(TransformGroup cameraTG, Vector3D
> > distance_to_put_transform_back)
> >
> > this way, when your rotation behavior wakes up, you do the super event
> > then you also apply that transform to your cameraTG and then put it back
in the
> > z direction a bit
> > that way, each time the star moves, you camera moves as well.
> >
> > Scott
> > Scott Decker
> > Research Scientist
> > Pacific Northwest National Labs
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
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