All the things you need to do are
possible in Java3d. We are currently doing that and much more. (http://www.magicosm.net) But there is no way
to get to the underlying OpenGL API from Java3d. You will need to do
everything within the Java3d framework.
The trick to doing the
things you want (most needing highly dynamic geometry) is to build a class or
two on top of GeometryUpdater and geometry by-ref. Let's face it, what you want to do is change
vertices, tex coords, colors, normals, etc on each frame. You can do this
pretty easily in Java3d, even though Java3d is still handling the rendering of
that.
For
example for each frame we run through active particles, update their stats, FOV
cull them, and then lay down the view aligned geometry into a geometry array,
which then gets flushed out to the screen.
David Yazel
Ok, I'm in a wee dilemna here.
In Java3D, is there any way to actually get at
the underlying OpenGL, or are you restricted to using the high level API
priovided by Java3D whihc then in turn uses OpenGL. I posted a while ago,
about whether to use GL4Java (www.jausoft.com) or Java3D. I know OpenGL
pretty much, but Java3D is new to me.
If there is any way of programming in actual
OpenGL syntax in Java3D I'm made. GL4Java is pretty ill supported and my
experience of Java3D is that, given this group, and a few others, help is
readily at hand and this greatly enhances the feasability of using it.
Things I need to do, include a particles system,
or particle manager rather that can handle blood, smoke, fire and sparks. All
over the net tutorials are available for this in OpenGL and I have already
made something using OpenGL similar.
I also need a terrain system, that will probably
be fixed (i.e. not randomly generatable) across a few varied landscapes. We
are also loading in Hlaf Life MDL fomat models which we currently have up and
running (minus textures as of yet) in Java3D. And finally, a sky dome sort of
system, effectively a box probably, that will be textured but will change
colour depending on the time of day. Kind of :)
Any advice anyone can give me as to what path to
take.
Cheers, John Hynd. Thanks loads in advance. I am
really not sure what to do.
|
