3d (game) engine?

Java on Mobile Devices Android
#1

Hi,

Is there a professional Java 3D engine for Android?

Say you would like to have large, bones/skeleton animated 3d characters with skins, and some static models.
The 3d model and its many animations is already there and has to be imported from a professional 3d package (Maya, Blender, or such).

Currently I “just” see Ardor3d for Android which is in Alpha state (I didn’t see it in action yet).
jMonkeyEngine announced an Android version but I don’t see much talk about it…
jPCT surely is nice, but I absolutely need 3d model import and bones animation.

Is Ardor and jMonkeyEngine comparable to C/C++ engines like Ogre, for example?

–

Well, I think this means Ardor… I saw its PC demos including the bones animated Collada import, which is nice, but no textures. However, the docu is minimal and the question is: will Ardor for Android have got all Ardor’s PC version features or just a very cut down feature list?

In case Java 3d engines for Android are not up to the task (yet?), which professional “native” 3d engine would you recommend which works nicely together with Java @ Dalvik?

Thanks.

#2

Problem with Android is that doing skinning for bone animated models is very expensive. This is really an issue with the Delvik VM and since they introduced a JIT in Android 2.2 it might be less of an issue now. Still it stands for all devices with Android versions 2.1 and below.
If you really want to have bone animated models, you will have to do it natively (e.g manually in C++), or animate a single model at 10 fps.
Really the best solution is to just use vertex/mesh animation instead of bone animation.

#3

If looking for Android engines, Shiva ( not java though ) may be your best bet so far as i know.
Uses Lua scripting but can be extended with c++ code at least, not sure about java extending, may be possible?
Apparently you can make a project and add more cpp code to the existing lua framework.
Sounds interesting, am going to test the free version this winter after a friend made a couple of projects with it and had positive reports.

#4

jPCT-AE can do skeletal animation if paired with raft’s Bones framework: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDlNMdXJETk

Compared to keyframe animations, this is much slower of course. But even my lowly Android 1.5 based i7500 can handle 18fps with one model (the one shown in the video) without any native code.

#5

If speak about not free engines…use the Airplay SDK / Unity 3d/ Shiva but you should know c++

The license for airplay for indie is about 99$

#6

Ardor3D is mature enough to be used in pre-production, its Android version works fine, it’s free of charge and open source. In my humble opinion, the only drawback is that it requires at least Android 2.1 as far as I know.

#7

I’ve put together a list of Commercial Android Game Engines that might have what you’re after http://mobilegameengines.com/android/commercial_game_engines

#8

My AllBinary Platform supports one 3D engine, but I still have not released that optional component yet:

Once I figure out how I want maven to download optional libraries I will put it out.