Hi all,

       Though it's not like any major game you'll see, I am now happy to be able to show you the game project we developped using Java3D.

       If you want to skip the speech and just try the game then check this link: Cassos! and get guided.

       The idea of the project/game was to make a complete (or at least almost) game using java3d and several libraries. At the time I started the project I was only able to find one playable game accomplished with java3d: Flyingguns. So I was pretty much surprised and decided to try to do mine just to see what could be done. Since then, I've found other games like Out of Space, Glymp3d and Cosm but even though, these games are not very much up to date or not even playable (I wished I could've seen Cosm for example).

       So the project uses the NWNLoader for 3DObjects loading,  javalayer library for reading mp3 sound and music and several hints/pieces of code from the j3d code repository (for intersections for example, since Java3d collision system had a memory leak). I hope it will encourage people to try java3d for their next game and hopefully Sun will also do some efforts in that direction.

       The project is open-source and the related project in source-forge is available  Here. I should warn you that we are not all java experts and even less in 3D so don't blame us for the quality of the code.

       About the feedback of the project, my biggest deception is that it appeares that many testers have reported that the game ran slowly even thought they had a 2Ghz PC and a very good graphic card. I strongly feel that this is due to the graphic card drivers but it's hard to defend yourself against these bugs when other classic 3D games work on the same machines with the same configurations. I would also have liked to be able to use a loader that allowed me not only to make my character and animations but also that would allow me to use morph animation (which the NWNLoader doesn't do). The MD3 loader seems to be promising on this point but I did not have yet the time to test it fully.

       The last point I regret is that the basic users have a lot trouble installing java, java3d and webstart for the game. There are many reasons for this but the fact is that I felt I had to include a .zip with a bundled jre inside to make the installation clear and simple enough.

       Well, it's about all for the speech. I'll be glad to here your comments here or on the sourceforge forum. The last question is who will get first on the scores .

Alec Lombra

After installing (.bat file), I expected it to work via your webstart link, but it didn't.

The second time I started it, the bat file seemed to install it again (decrunching music,...)




game play:
- you can change direction whilst jumping, don't know if there is any use to decellerate
- can't handle mouse+q+arrow keys with my two hands
- what is the dragon for? I ignored him completely

Now I am in the hiscore  
but won't play it again

Well, what can I say?

I have the highest specification Apple laptop yet I get a game which gives me 5 frames per second if that = unplayable.  

enjoyed the music though.

Lets hope the Java3D 1.4 gets rid of these speed problems!

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying you *only* had one zip file.



Hey, maybe when you started, Xith wasn't viable anyway . In case you don't know about it, it's basically a migration path for java3d users - it happens to be open-source, and maintained and developed by java games devs who needed something to replace j3d when sun cancelled it - but adheres closely to j3d's architecture and names. I found it easy to adjust to (although it's worth noting that I'd not used j3d much, because it kept killing my PC ).

Quite nice game!

No problems at all with speed, nice and smooth on my machine (winXP). I would personally like to see a motorcycle or car version of this one, where the turning would be more gradual, instead of the max turn/straight ahead type control. Also maybe wider road and something to compete with would give it more of a purpose. As it is right now, I thought it was quite nice looking game, but after I had completed one race, I feel I have seen all there is to see. Competitors is probably a lot of extra work, but something more would be nice to keep the gamer coming back.

Very solid feel to the game engine though.

Keep it coming!

Only if you have already installed stuff like Java3D yourself, manually!

The webstart link is still broken, in that it won't install j3d for you, and just crashes with an unhandled error