On Friday 27 June 2003 03:27, Kevin J. Duling wrote: <snip> > As far as using direct OpenGL bindings vs. Java3D go, my own opinion is > that if you're only concerned about speed-speed-speed, then stop using Java > and break out your old ASM books. Years ago it was said that games could > only be written in ASM to get the necessary speed. Later, C programmers > said it was impossible to write games in C++ because it was too slow. Now > those same C++ programmers are saying Java is too slow.
Well said. I have been arguing this point with a colleague of mine for over a year now, the rates that processor speed are increasing will only continue to close the albeit small gap between C++ and Java. Why reinvent the wheel each time you want to do something after all. When that gap does close - I know what language I'd prefer my skills to be in. I have found the Java3D scene graph to be an excellent one, which is why I was alarmed to read on this list that development was "stalled". Good cross-platform scenegraphs are the way forward, and in my eyes Java3D was a shining example of this. It is a just a shame however that it is tied up with licensing issues, and a company which doesn't see much in it's future (well we don't really know what they really think because they are being very shy about it all). Perhaps what is needed is an open source equivalent to Java3D, possibly built on JOGL, an engine that would not be too hard to extend if needed for commercial games - but as David said, we want to write games not the rendering engines and I definitely fall in the latter category. What we really need is for Sun to be very clear on their stance. If their stance is that Java3D is good enough as it is, and they will keep it good in the future, then this is good. If they say that they will improve it now, that is better. But, if like a plane if Java3D is "stalled" for too long, it will crash. If nothing else, this quite clearly indicated how powerless we are to do anything with Java3D in it's current state when the pilots lose interest. Regards, Will. =========================================================================== To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff JAVA3D-INTEREST". For general help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
