Well they say they have fixed the mixed-immediate mode bug which messed up
the textures. If so then a particle system could be built to stream the
(basically raw opengl) commands in the post render of canvas3d. Given the
fast changing nature of particles, thats not a horrid way to do them anyway.
But last time I tried to set an appearance in the post render, it set every
visible item in the world to that appearance.
Dave Yazel
----- Original Message -----
From: Shawn Kendall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 1:06 PM
Subject: Re: [JAVA3D] Java3d issues
Justin Couch wrote:
> Shawn Kendall, As you lead a set of students, would this be an
> interesting project for them to work on? I'm thinking here that there
> are a *heap* of great teaching points about how to build a scenegraph
> and then how that effects an optimised low level coding, sort routines,
> that sort of thing. As none of us can afford to pay for the JCK it would
> remain unofficial, but then look at what Mesa has done to OpenGL.
Our focus at Full Sail is somewhat less academic and more job/work oriented.
If my students had extra time to do some projects, they would be game
centered. The main problem is that even if we try, Java3D is still not up
to
the task.
We are using Java3D apps across all three of our Digital Arts programs -
Computer Animation, Digital Media, and Game Design.
For Game Design, which I teach for, we use a game engine that is core Java
and
Java3D but is accessed through a custom JNI C++ interface. The core
curriculum
is C++, so we stick with that in my class as well. This class is just the
first in a string of 3D related classes and our focus is content creation
issues and 3D graphics math and motion.
It has worked out fairly well for this class once we got some working
collision
code. That was my first major beef with Java3D, when there was no
geometry-to-line based collision - only bounds based. We waited for that
and
were very excited when the utils added the PickTool. Unfortunately, it was
too
buggy to use, and even in the current release would not work correctly with
TriStripped geometry. Fortunately, I managed to get a working version from
the
Java3D team later.
Now, some student groups are using our engine to do there final projects
here.
That means they are trying to do complete running games as part of there
resume
material upon graduating. The students are doing a great job with what they
have but unfortunately major problems are constantly disappointing those
involved including myself.
- Specifically, apps crash. Some times it crashes NT!.
- The view jitters as soon as a decent sized behavior is working.
- It is increasing difficult to create excuses for why my students can NOT
do
basic game overlays. This is a project killer in most cases.
- Alpha blending is so bad it is unusable. I made a quick smoke special F/X
system and then scrapped it for now because even if I sort out my smoke's
polys, anything else alpha in the scene "touching" the smoke gets hosed.
- Content importing is nonexistent. This is the reason we wrote our OpenFLT
loader. When I started that project, I figured "Since .flt isn't the most
popular format, we'll just have to write it". I accept that and it was a
good
exercise! But management as well as other course directors are really
trying
to move to 3d Studio Max because so many companies are requesting that from
graduates. That leaves our Java3D apps in the dark, because there is no
serious Max loader. If I have to write it, I may have to reconsider our use
of
Java3D...
- In our Computer Animation program, we use Maya. Same problem as Max.
Currently we convert everything to OpenFLT, because we know that loader gets
the geometry right, and if it fails, we can fix it in time.
--
___________________________________________________________
Shawn Kendall Full Sail Real World Education
Course Director 3300 University BLVD
Real Time 3D for Gaming Winter Park FL 32792
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fullsail.com
___________________________________________________________
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