Again, we are on the subject of how valuable documentation would be. As
Justin points out the average (3D graphics) experience of someone trying
Java 3D will be less than someone mucking with OpenGL or DirectX.
I'd like to see the documentation not only exist but be reasonably easy
to find. The Javadocs are very sparse, even if you don't want to put a
full explanation in the Javadoc you could put in a reference to another
source of documentation.
The Javadocs and tutorial need to have a strong emphasis (they are every
bit as important as developing new features... no they are MORE
important), expecting people to learn all the stray tricks from my
website or the j3d.org website or this list isn't practical. (Just look
at how often the same questions come up over and over again).
- John Wright
Starfire Research
Justin Couch wrote:
>
> Doug Twilleager wrote:
> >
> > I agree that our documentation should be more explicit about this.
> > It is a general computer graphics issue.
>
> Ta. In all honesty, I don't know why I've never been bitten by this
> problem before.
> There are still quite a few areas in the spec and API that assume the
> underlying knowledge of OpenGL/Direct3D. Java3D tends to pick up a lot
> of newbie programmers, moreso than the other 3D API's is my feeling and
> so, even though we should be able assume a reasonable level of basic
> graphics knowledge, it's not really the case. Therefore, even these
> basic things should appear somewhere like the Spec, and possibly even
> the GeometryArray Javadoc. Even myself, who's being doing 3D graphics
> programming for close to 6 years now got bitten by it :(
>
> > I just read the VRML spec on this issue, and it is a bit different.
> > It seems to combine vertex normals with face normals, but states that
> > if the normal does not match the winding order, results are undefined.
>
> Yup. Alan is currently having Nightmares over this :)
>
> --
> Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/~justin/
> Freelance Java Consultant http://www.yumetech.com/
> Author, Java 3D FAQ Maintainer http://www.j3d.org/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> "Humanism is dead. Animals think, feel; so do machines now.
> Neither man nor woman is the measure of all things. Every organism
> processes data according to its domain, its environment; you, with
> all your brains, would be useless in a mouse's universe..."
> - Greg Bear, Slant
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