>-Is it possible to avoid having the user download the JRE 1.2 plug-in,
>or is there simply no other way for browsers that support only JDK 1.1
>to show Java that uses JDK 1.2?
No. See http://tintoy.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~srp/java3d/running.html at the very bottom.
>-How is the end-user supposed to know how they need to configure the
>Java Plug-in Control Panel? It's asking too much to expect users to
>point to the path of their JRE environment.
My understanding is that the control panel is just for developers. I sure hope
there's no reason users have to fiddle with it.
>-How can an end-user view J3D without downloading the J3D installed from
>Sun's web site, or using some other installation program, to install the
>required files:
>
> <installdir>\jre\bin\J3D.dll
> <installdir>\jre\bin\j3daudio.dll
> <installdir>\jre\lib\ext\vecmath.jar
> <installdir>\jre\lib\ext\j3dcore.jar
> <installdir>\jre\lib\ext\j3daudio.jar
> <installdir>\jre\lib\ext\j3dutils.jar
>
>Is it possible to download them via the archive tag in the html file?
>Two of them, however, are dll's. As far as the other jars, maybe they
>could be combined into a single jar, but I'm not at all certain about
>them being in the correct relative paths.
>
>Thank-you for your replies!
You could mimic the j3d installation I suppose.
<begin rant>
Obviously there are some serious deployment issues that need to be solved for Windows.
A robust net installer type utility is an
important part of the fabric of the Internet, and it should be totally free. This is
something the world needs.... something like
Marimba...or even RPMs.
I've just completed an extensive search of installation tools and I haven't found
anything that is truly adequate.
Installation issues alone can prevent wider adoption of newer technologies like Java3D.
I believe there is a magic threshold where users begin to balk. If an app is not less
than 600k (or so) then that vendor start
losing
audience. When you move into the 10 megabytes or higher range you're starting to ask
a lot from your user. Multiple clicks, change
in focus away from the browser, or god forbid, rebooting, are all death blows to the
casual observer who is just passing through.
These kind of impedences are curiosity killers.
Obviously vendors can't get below the 600k limit if users have to still fetch Java3D.
This requires that Java3D have wide
saturation, and saturation comes from compelling reasons for people to have it. It's
the law of utility in action. In a sense the
Java3D authors have a tremendous responsibility to the community that is trying to
build on top of their foundation.
I've also looked extensively at all of the other webspace 3D rasterization solutions
today - Cult3D, Shout! etcetera. One aspect
which they are much more aggressive about is making their entire application
completely painless to download. They manage to fit
the entire experience within the 600k limit and they make reaching that experience a
single click. ( Yet at the same time they have
their own issues. The solutions these people provide have dollar costs associated
with them - they are great for products which buy
into the commerical revenue model, but not suitable for upstream revenue projects or
projects which are loosely decoupled from
revenue in some way. And also with low barriers to entry I certainly would not want
to be a competitor here.)
It seems ( naively speaking ) to me that there is an opportunity cost here. While
vendors are busy in a kind of nuclear arms race
hacking 3D engines or cloistered away in their SOMA lofts scrabbling for pennies with
new installers they are missing out on much
larger opportunities that might exist if these kinds of things were public efforts. I
can only imagine the kinds of experiences I
would make if all I had to do was deliver the payload and not the gantry.
Anyway, I'm dealing with similar problems right now on an installation process I am
building at
http://www.openmediagroup.com/installation.html and so this is very much something I
am becoming too aware of.
</end rant>
- Anselm Hook
http://www.openmediagroup.com
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