Hi everybody!

I finally took the time to package the game I presented at JavaOne (TS-3073). You can find the game and the source code at http://jsolutions.se/DukeBeanEm. This is a VERY preliminary release of what I hope will be a complete game in the future. Anyway, some of you might find it interresting. Expect many bugs and feel free to contact me if you have any feedback or suggestions. I intend to setup a complete project page somewhere in the future, but this will do for now.

Enjoy.

Ok, I got this last issue with my Collada-loader before I can release all my source code for the "Duke Bean'Em" game I showed at JavaOne.

I used glDrawElements for drawing my models, but I've discovered that it doesn't work very well when it comes to loading models where I have indices also for normals and texture coordinates (as is the case in my collada file, see attachment). I'm guessing glMultiDrawElements would do the trick, but I can't find any good examples on how it works in JOGL.

...or am I way of track and is there another, better way of doing this?

Thanks!

Just got home from the very long trip back to Sweden (~22 hours) and my jetlag is present like a thick fog in my head. 

I was supposed to publish the Duke Bean'Em game (including source code) yesterday, but it will have to wait until I've fixed a couple of other more important things. It was really great giving the session on thursday (TS-3073, "Write a 3-D computer game using Java Programming Language in less than 50 minutes"). Most people attending seemed to enjoy it and I hope that the game will continue to evolve it to something more serious in the future. I hope I can have it all available online by the end of the week. Any suggestions for future improvements are very welcome.

I will be at JavaOne and am looking forward for all 3D and gaming related sessions. I will also give a session on thursday (TS-3073) with the title "Write a 3-D Game in the Java Programming Language in Less Than 50 Minutes". 

See you all there!

I'm actually willing to pay someone for doing the small changes on the models I'm after. Anyone know someone or somewhere you can get that service?

I completely agree with you. My artistic talents are quite limited. I usually need a ruler in order to draw a stick figure.

Thanks for the links anyway. I didn't know about "armatures" in Blender, but I guess I could use that for skeleton animations. Expect a really cool animated Duke sometime in 2050..

As a developer with only very basic skills in 3D modeling I'm having some difficulties working with the models. Implementing loaders and adding loaded 3D models to my JOGL-application is no problem, but changing the model so that it fits my needs tends to be very difficult. Anything that has to do with game content (models, textures etc.) seems to be the most difficult thing to do. My question to all of you is basically; How do you work with 3D Models?

Since I lack any skills in 3D modeling I would appreciate any tools, sites, hints etc., that would ease the adaption of existing models for my own needs. Do you have a favorite 3D modeler that is very easy to use for simple editing? Did you you find a set of good tutorials for creating game content? Do you have a friend who is very good at 3D modeling and that would like to help out?

I've been using Blender for exporting models to Collada-format, but that is about it. Currently, I'm trying to adapt the Duke model (https://duke.dev.java.net/models/index.html) to fit into my game. Basically, I want to lower the arms and add a very simple cannon/gun in its hands (a simple tube would do it).

I want to display a background image for my game which will slowly scroll when I rotate. Imagine an arena which the players run around in and the background image could be of the spectators.

I assume this has been done before (since I've seen games having such background images). The most obvious solution would be to use glRasterPos to draw the image at the correct location, but what I'm looking for is a good example showing how to calculate this. I guess I could do it myself, but if someone has done it before I could just as well learn from that example.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Yep, got the programming guide v2 on delivery. It's the reference manual I can't find. Check for ISBN 0321335716 at www.amazon.co.uk (couldn't find it listed at amazon.com).

I though I should buy the official OpenGL reference manual and had a look at Amazon. Apparently OpenGL 1.4 reference manual is available, but version 2.0 isn't. Does anyone know where one can get a copy of the latest version?

I have to agree on the JAXB issues. Tried that approach and noticed how slow it was and the huge amount of memory it ate. Haven't tried XStream, might have a look at that later. For now, I'm building a X3D loader using StAX instead (XMLStreamReader).

This might not be the correct forum, but I'm unsure if there is any better.

I'm about to write a loader for X3D-files (http://www.web3d.org/) that would be independent from JOGL and any scene graph API. Since Java 6 has included JAXB 2 in Java SE, I intend to use that to build the Java objects representing a model. Basically, what I'm doing is:

• Generate the classes using the xjc-tool in Java 6: xjc -d src -p <package for generated classes> http://www.web3d.org/specifications/x3d-3.0.xsd
• Unmarshall an .x3d file using the JAXB 2 API (see below and javax.xml.bind)
• Read the data from the unmarshalled objects and put it into your favourite Scene Graph API (or however you wish to use it)

The code for unmarshalling an XML document looks like this:



I have some problems getting it to work properly, but overall it seems to be a pretty easy method for loading a .x3d file. I generate the .x3d using Blenders X3D export function and the file seems to validate properly.

Does this sound like a good approach for creating a standalone loader? You still have to parse the values (e.g., vertices) since they are represented as attributes in the XML-document, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Ok, my gfx-card sucks big time. My computer also sucks since I can't upgrade the drivers (company laptop with "you ass is owned by IT support"-extensions installed). However, when increasing the rotation with a lower value and time the entire thing using System.nanoTime() I solved the problem.

I'm going to experiment a little more with this tearing-effect and see if I can find out when and why it really happens.

Ok, now I'm getting somewhere. Testing it on a computer with a CRT (with a 75Hz refresh rate) I've eliminated the effect. However, on my computers with LCD-displays (60 Hz refresh rate) I still get the problem regardless which animator I use. Tried using the plain Animator and the FPSAnimator with a framerate of a multiple of 60 (30, 60, 90, 120 etc). Printing the choosen GLCapabilities shows that I use both hardware acceleration and doublebuffering. The tearing effect is still there.

The effect also occurs in the Gears-demo but not in the Grand Canyon Demo or moving around in the Infinite Shadow Volumes demo. I guess I need to force the application maintain the v-sync, but is that possible in Java?

I'm writing a few very simple demos for a presentation I'm about to do. I have a single quad which I animate by rotating around all its axis. The problem is that I get a very annoying flickering at the edges of the quad when animating the scene. I've tried several variations on this with the same result. I use a GLCanvas in an AWT Frame (with the background color set to the same as in the one I use in glGlearColor)  and the recommended VM-parameters (-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Dsun.awt.noerasebackground=true). I guess I'm missing something here but I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I've attached the code so that you can see what I'm doing. Very simple demo, pressing space will start/stop the rotation and escape will quit. Any suggestions for avoiding the flickering at the edges would be appreciated.