(setting a new more appropriate subject line)
Excellent point Julian, perhaps Sun should document that Java 3D is
"young" so that newbies don't expect a mature product? (with mature
documentation)
I'm not sure that's fair though to call Java 3D "young". Java 3D has
been around for about two years going on three now, correct? I skipped
Java 3D 1.1.x completely to give it time to mature. The performance and
abilities of Java 3D 1.2.1 don't seem "young" to me.
More accurately I believe Java 3D should be described as "complex".
(Some of) The documentation problems could be blamed on the fact that
Java 3D is not easy to explain.
It seems to me that more effort is needed in documenting fundamental
design decisions and concepts. As an example I'd take "Z-Buffer" -
Front/Back Clipping. Some of the Sun Engineers (Doug) have taken their
time to explain some of how this works (I've posted the detail of one of
these explanations on my website). Shouldn't a discussion of this be in
the tutorial? I'd like to see not just technical explanations of how
this works but also advice on how to work around the issues. A common
situation would be a virtual world in which the viewer should be able to
see objects up to at least 300 meters away, yet the front clipping
shouldn't be such that every time the viewer gets close to something
they see through it. I think several of us are creating such worlds.
And I believe we are goofing around with all kinds of "tricks" to avoid
the problems. Could we have an official list of "tricks" (techniques)
to deal with such issues?
Personally I'm not "complaining" but I'd like to suggest more effort
(time) be spent on documentation rather than features. My priorities
would be:
1) Reliable operation
2) Documentation
3) Performance and new features (very low priority for me)
- John Wright
Starfire Research
Julian Gomez wrote:
>
> on 2/27/01 12:56, John Wright at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > forthright with you. It's not surprising though as Java 3D "feels" just
> > as you described... it's an aquired skill... you either bash your own
> > way through it or pray you have a more experienced person to help show
> > you the ropes.
>
> I would venture that all 3-D APIs, going back to E&S, have been through this
> phase when they were still young.
> --
> Julian E Gomez, Ph.D. ** Java 3D New Technology Development
> Sun Microsystems, Inc. ** +1 650.786.2824
> former Principal Engineer, Apple Computer QuickDraw 3-D
>
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